Plan envisions 3,550 new homes

Updated: Browse the entire 146-page PUD application below

An early look at development plans for downtown Columbia’s huge new neighborhood shows that it could have up to 3,550 residences, a new through-street, 13 entrances and, yes, a spot perhaps for a baseball park.

The Hughes Development Corp. on Wednesday submitted its request that the 181-acre site be rezoned for a mix of homes, retail and offices and be designated a planned community. But the 146-page document provides little insight into what the Bull Street property might look like.

That might become clearer in the next few months, when he hopes to submit development details to the city, Greenville developer Bob Hughes told The State newspaper.

“Before we can get a (development) deal, we have to see what we can get from the city of Columbia,” Hughes said of the city’s response to the zoning request for the community that will replace what had been a mental health treatment campus.

Hughes also said he still hopes to construct a baseball park behind the signature Babcock Building, which faces Elmwood Avenue. The zoning plan “preserves the right, but doesn’t promise, a baseball stadium,” he said. “But the project wouldn’t be as appealing without baseball.”

Hughes also would like to preserve a swath of trees along a new half-mile-long through-street that would run north-south through the property, parallel to Bull and Harden streets. The street would be an extension of Gregg Street to a private road on the north side of the tract, near the offices of the Lexington Richland Alcohol & Drug Abuse Council.

The documents do not contain a request from Hughes for funding from the city for streets, water, sewer and lighting, or a means of raising the public dollars that will be required for those things.

“That’s to be decided,” said Hughes spokesman Bob McAlister. “But we anticipate the city will provide the infrastructure.”

Some city officials are expecting a request in the neighborhood of $20 million to $25 million over a 15-year build-out.

Mayor Steve Benjamin described the plans for Bull Street as “the single largest neighborhood project in our city’s history.”

Demetri Baches, a Beaufort consultant who specializes in city planning and urban design, helped craft the document that was submitted to Columbia’s planning and development office.

The request for a “planned unit development” designation codifies what Hughes has been discussing with city officials, city council members and neighbors in the vicinity, Baches said Wednesday.

“It doesn’t get into the nitty-gritty stuff because that’s unknown,” he said, referring to the lingering impact of the recession. “You can’t say what will be on the ground. But you can say what you want on the ground.”

Hughes also is seeking a zoning ban on a list of businesses including funeral parlors, bingo halls, flea markets, dry-cleaning plants and tattoo parlors.

His plan remains based on the design drawn six years ago by Miami-based urban planner Andres Duany, Baches said. That design called for a walkable, urban neighborhood of offices, stores and homes.

City zoning staff will analyze Hughes’ request, then the planning commission could consider it at its Feb. 6 meeting, said Krista Hampton, the city’s planning and development director. The project then would go to City Council, which must schedule a public hearing and vote twice before the plans are final. The earliest the Bull Street plan is likely to be approved is April 3, she said.

City officials say Hughes will soon present his proposal spelling out where he wants to place retail shops, offices, residential properties, green space as well as what he is committing to do in terms of historic preservation.

Then, political leaders will craft a way to pay for the infrastructure.

As for paying for the infrastructure, Councilwoman Tameika Isaac Devine said Tuesday she has been talking to Hughes about creating several tax-increment financing districts as the property is developed. Such financial devices allow property taxes paid on new development in an area to be pumped back into area infrastructure improvements.

Staff writer Jeff Wilkinson contributed to this article.

Hughes Development Corp.'s PUD application for Bull Street:

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