Main Street student apartment tower plans still on hold

Plans for a controversial 15-story student apartment tower near the University of South Carolina Horseshoe are on hold at least another month.

The Columbia Design/Development Review Commission was scheduled to take up the developer’s site design plan next Thursday, after three months of deferring a vote of approval or denial while the developers battle with criticism from the university over the project’s proposed height and density.

But a vote on the site plan has been deferred yet again. Meanwhile, the commission will hold a closed-door executive session to receive legal advice “relating to a potential claim” regarding the site.

The Memphis-based developer, EdR, has been fighting a shadow war, so to speak, with USC since announcing plans for a 15-story, 704-bed private student dormitory at the current site of Sandy’s Famous Hot Dogs and the Baptist Collegiate Ministry on Main Street.

USC has said the building would be too tall, too densely populated and, based on a study disputed by the developer, would cast a shadow on the university’s historic Horseshoe.

EdR has said decreasing the height and density of the building would not be economically feasible.

The project already has received approval from the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals and positive recommendations from city planning staff.

The DDRC meets Thursday at 4 p.m. at City Hall.

This story was originally published August 7, 2015 at 11:44 AM with the headline "Main Street student apartment tower plans still on hold."