USC seeks city's help to expand Innovista

University wants 141 acres it does not own rezoned for research

By JIM HAMMOND (jhammond@thestate.com) and JEFF WILKINSON (jwilkinson@thestate.com)

TIM DOMINICK

Shown here are the new City Club town houses near the Gervais Street bridge on Gist Street.

USC wants the city of Columbia to rezone more than 100 acres in the Vista -- land the school doesn't own -- to speed up the growth of its downtown research campus and spawn surrounding shops, restaurants and housing.

Sasaki Associates, USC's planning consultants, said it would like City Council to enact a single zoning change for 141 acres of the 500-acre Innovista research campus by the end of the year.

Backers of USC's plans say a single zoning change would save time and money. Rezoning the land parcel by parcel could take years and years -- and cost plenty in legal fees, they say.

The rezoning would remove one of the largest obstacles for owners seeking to transform old industrial sites into a new urban landscape -- a place where residents can live and play in the same neighborhood where they work.

But the type of rezoning that USC wants also is a move rarely used in Columbia.

City Council has the power to enact what's called "blanket" rezoning. And council can change a property's zoning without the owner's consent. But enacting such a sweeping landuse change over the objections of multiple property owners would be out of character for City Council, Mayor Bob Coble said.

"That's not the way we do business," Coble said. "You can rezone without property owners' permission, but I don't want to get ahead of ourselves and cause controversy.

"We would really have to understand (the ramifications of the blanket rezoning), and the property owners would have to be supportive."

At stake is how quickly USC and others can build a "city within a city" for researchers and support personnel who would work at the campus, as well as others from around the Midlands who want to live downtown.

Lee Bussell, chief executive of the Chernoff Newman public relations firm and a member of USC's Waterfront Steering Committee, which is guiding the project, said City Council ultimately will have to make a "political decision" on whether to proceed.

Bussell said the USC/Sasaki proposal does not call for any "government taking" -- the forced sale of private property or a perceived diminishing of its value.

"The group that is pushing this is all private business people," said Bussell, who is representing USC on Innovista matters. "We don't like the concept of taking. We want to see (the campus) be successful, but we don't want to do it through takings. That's not a philosophy we ascribe to."

Sixteen months ago, USC president Andrew Sorensen and representatives of the Guignard family unveiled Sasaki's plans for the 500- acre zone stretching from Assembly Street west to the Congaree River, and from Gervais Street south to Blossom Street. The zone -- west of the school's main campus -- later was expanded to include the tract south of Blossom where USC is building a baseball stadium.

USC and the Guignards are the largest landowners in the area. But they own only about 40 percent of the property. The university's plan also would require buy-in from about 250 other property owners who control 60 percent of the land.

Last week, Sasaki planners met with about 50 property owners to brief them on USC's plans and the exchange of ideas already under way with city planners.

Richard Galehouse, Sasaki's principal planner for Innovista, said many property owners were initially skeptical of the change.

But those who have spoken up since "see the advantage" of a onetime zoning change, Galehouse said,

USC PLANNERS URGE BLANKET REZONING IN INNOVISTA

About 141 acres, mostly owned by private investors, would be rezoned from industrial use to mixed use, allowing residences, offices and stores under a proposal from Sasaki Associates, the planning consultants hired by USC to design its new campus west of Assembly Street. USC and the city own most of the land around the Colonial Center,

now used for parking. Columbia's Guignard family owns most of the land west of Huger Street.

and think USC's plans will make the area more attractive to developers.

The steel fabrication yards that dotted the Vista landscape a decade ago are gone. Only a few light industrial, distribution and manufacturing businesses remain.

USC wants to encourage the spread of the Vista's new condos and shops. And it thinks blanket zoning would speed the process.

Existing businesses would be protected under the change. Businesses that are considered "industrial" or "light industrial" could continue to operate, even under new ownership, as long as operations continue uninterrupted. But no new industrial uses could move in.

Ben Arnold, who owns 10 acres in Innovista, thinks a blanket rezoning would save him the time and money involved in getting the city to rezone land a parcel at a time. And more flexible zoning for the area would benefit everyone, Arnold said.

"In this process, you don't always get what you want," he said, but he believes the planning process will increase property values and re-enforce market forces already at play.

"It's about time," he said. "If this is done right, it could really open this town to more development."

No property owners have objected yet to the idea of a blanket zoning. But not everyone is pleased.

Developer Don Tomlin said when USC announced its master plan, land prices soared, putting Innovista land out of reach for some developers. Tomlin said a block he wanted to buy doubled in price -- from $2.7 million to $6.5 million -- causing him to put his plans on hold.

And, he said, requiring property owners to go before city boards and conform to the Sasaki plan also would make development more expensive and therefore slower, rather than faster.

"It gives false hope to landowners that they will receive windfall prices," Tomlin said. "It may take a decade or two for that land to be absorbed by developers at those prices."

But Bussell said the rezoning would protect current landowners. Their investments could be at risk under the current hodgepodge of industrial and commercial zoning if a neighboring property owner built something out of character with the emerging neighborhood, he said. "Someone could come in there right now and build an incinerator."

City staff are uncertain how the blanket zoning could be best enacted -- whether through a zoning overlay, design guidelines or a plannedunit development designation.

"We're wrestling with it," said city planning director Chip Land. "There needs to be a process to work with the property owners to determine the best way to implement the master plan."

The USC/Sasaki zoning proposal affects 141 acres between the river and the Colonial Center. Most of the 500-acre Innovista between the Colonial Center and Assembly Street already has zoning compatible with the master plan. Most of the affected land east of the Vista's railroad track is owned by the city or the university. Most of the affected private property owners are west of the tracks, close to Huger Street.