Monday, Oct. 12, 2009

Hot pockets: Irmo North beginning 'a boom'

Explosive growth just waiting on economy

John Crosby and John Reynolds think their restaurants in the Irmo area are in perfect places.

The eateries are three miles apart on Broad River Road near I-26, an area some developers say is in the nascent stage of becoming a commercial corridor some nickname Irmo North.

Crosby and and his wife, Jo Crosby, are renovating and expanding the grill and bar across from a new shopping center anchored by Wal-Mart, renaming it the Blue Coyote.

"It's in the right spot because of what is coming out here," John Crosby said.

"It is the beginning of a boom."

Indeed, the arrival of the nation's largest retailer and local outlets of other major merchants is helping spur growth in the area, both from businesses that want to be positioned near growth to residents who want easy access to shopping.

"Those stores just didn't locate here without knowing anything," said Reynolds, who opened Little Pigs Too Barbeque near where Broad River crosses I-26. "They did their homework and know a market is out here."

More is on the way.

Signs touting tracts south of I-26 as ideal for development are sprouting along the tree-lined thoroughfare.

A half dozen neighborhoods are rising as Lexington-Richland District 5 prepares to build three schools near Broad River and Freshly Mill roads by 2012.

Developers predict growth in Irmo North will be piecemeal, not dramatic.

"It's going to be incremental," said Tony Hanna, a commercial broker with CB Richard Ellis.

The retail hub on Harbison Boulevard is a 15-minute drive that "covers that area quite well" yet, he said.

Some of the three dozen stores surrounding the new Wal-Mart are empty, vacancies Irmo officials say reflects a sputtering economy.

But the stage for continued growth is set, planners say.

HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

About 80,000 people live in 29,000 homes within five miles of Broad River and Dutch Fork roads, according to the Central Midlands Council of Governments.

Population in that area is expected to increase to 83,000 with another 800 homes built by 2014, planners forecast.

Irmo officials say scouts for national chains are studying the area, but few deals are imminent.

Growth will be slow but steady over the next decade, town Councilman Hardy King said.

"We're not going to mushroom," he said, "but it will come."

That optimism led Irmo to reach out with a two-mile shoestring along rail tracks to take in the shopping center with Wal-Mart in 2006.

Irmo's northern tip now totals more than 400 acres on Broad River, effectively giving the town control over the bulk of development on the road between Dutch Fork Road and I-26.

The town's aggressive annexation sparked protests from nearby homeowners, who felt it was intrusive. That led to an unsuccessful effort to incorporate Ballentine.

Resentment lingers, but residents are learning to live with the wave of development, said Ken Tallman, president of the Ballentine-Dutch Fork Civic Association,

Irmo North's new stores are convenient for shopping, but road congestion and the loss of forests are troubling, he said.

With Irmo in charge, homeowners nearby have no influence over the pace, the type and the appearance of what's coming, he said. "Our concern is to have a say in it," Tallman said.

Sara Bonner, who moved to the area a year ago, likes having shops nearby but hopes growth doesn't overwhelm neighborhoods there.

"Some retail is good, but a whole lot could create more problems and less convenience," she said.

The question is how much growth will extend above I-26, an area under the control of Richland County.

Scattered neighborhoods sit amid mini-farms and rural estates there.

Reynolds appreciates the rural nature of the area locals call Spring Hill.

"I moved up here 10 years ago like a lot of people who want five acres and peace and quiet," he said.

Central Midlands planner Wayne Shuler expects the development taking shape in Irmo "won't leap up across" I-26 soon.

But area planners are taking a new look at the area to reassess that outlook.

SUBURBS VS. RURAL AREAS

New schools are a wild card.

District 5 plans to open a high school for 1,700 students, middle school for 1,200 and elementary school for 900, all by 2012.

That's similar to what it did when Dutch Fork High opened in an undeveloped area in 1992, with a middle school added next door in 1998.

Today the schools are surrounded by neighborhoods, with little retail development nearby.

Some Spring Hill residents are upset, saying new schools invite too much growth that will disturb the area's pastoral nature.

Among those skeptics is Richland County Councilman Bill Malinowksi, who lives in the northwest tip of the county.

The new schools will be "in the middle of nowhere," he said.

Malinowski sees I-26 as a dividing line between suburbia and rural areas.

Roads and water and sewer service north of I-26 aren't ready to handle demands that growth brings, he said.

But Irmo North is ripe for development, with what's been built there so far a good fit, he said.

LaRose Johnson regularly visits the shopping center adjoining District 5 school headquarters where she is a secretary.

She buys groceries, clothes and other items on her lunch break instead of doing that after work.

"It's been more convenient than I expected," she said. "On pay day, I don't plan to spend my check there but I find myself over there often."

For Paul Koon, the development promises to change his life.

Koon, 50, believes the days are numbered for the plant nursery and greenhouses he's operated for 15 years on a site owned by his family since the mid-1700s.

"When the magic number (to buy his site) is punched, it will go," he said. "Until then, you mosey on along."

Meanwhile, Koon enjoys shopping and dining near home. "With gas prices, the closer the convenience, the better," he said.

His father Furman Koon, 80, is amazed at the changes in what he remembers was once a remote country area where all roads were dirt.

"I never would have thought of anything like this happening," he said.

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