Vista growth needs better planning to continue

Columbia’s Vista will grow to 5,000 residents when three new student housing complexes open in August, spurring even more growth and increasing the need for city and business leaders to develop a more comprehensive plan to deal with it.

Those were the sentiments of a panel of Vista boosters hosted by Columbia Opportunity Resource and EngenuitySC.

The number of people living in the Vista has grown from just 800 four years ago. The vast majority of the new residents are University of South Carolina students.

“It’s incredible how many residents we have now,” Meredith Atkinson, executive director of the Vista Guild, said during the discussion at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. “And some areas of the Vista don’t even have sidewalks. That’s completely unacceptable.”

The panel included architect Scott Garvin, Music Farm co-owner Traecq Judy and Sammy Hendrix, vice chairman of the Midlands Authority for Conventions, Sports and Tourism. They noted that while the city and other entities have produced development plans for years, most end up “under a pile of dust” because of a lack of funding, Garvin said.

Panel members noted that to spur further growth, prepare for growth, and make the city more inviting for residents, visitors and businesses, the city and developers should:

▪  Find ways to connect the thriving arts and entertainment district to the Congaree River and to Main Street.

“Main Street is a shanked sand wedge away from us,” Judy said of his music venue near the intersection of Assembly and Senate streets. “But we have to find a way to get (pedestrians) across Assembly and Gervais streets.”

▪  Develop more full service hotels to draw more visitors to downtown and the Vista, and to make Columbia more attractive to conventions.

“Our people work hard,” Hendrix said. “But we lose 90 percent of the conventions that contact us” because of a lack of hotels and exhibition space.

▪  Find a way to both develop more parking and motivate people to use existing parking garages.

“You just can’t park at the front door of where you are going anymore,” Atkinson said.

The panel discussion was the third in a series presented by the COR group, which is made up predominately of young business professionals. Previous talks featured the Bull Street renovation project and riverfront development.

“We want to showcase the really awesome things that are happening here and keep the momentum going,” spokeswoman Abigail Zeiler said.

This story was originally published July 19, 2016 at 8:57 PM with the headline "Vista growth needs better planning to continue."