With no lake view, what happens to home values?

Living on Lake Elizabeth in northeast Richland County for the past 15 years, Karen Jones said she felt like she was on vacation everyday as residents fished and rode in paddle boats.

But the lake’s 115-year-old dam failed during the historic rain storm on Oct. 4, draining more than 8 million gallons of water.

Jones’ home now looks over 32 acres of muddy ground.

“I don’t know when we're going to get the lake back,” Jones said. “I’m sure property values will go down tremendously. People are worried about that.”

Jones and hundreds of S.C. homeowners living around lakes where dams failed last month face uncertain futures over getting back the water that they say created mountain-like experiences in the Midlands.

Rebuilding dams will be costly, with estimates well into six figures, and owners will need to get state approval before work can begin. Timetables remain up in the air.

Lakefront property owners have much at stake.

Land typically accounts for 20 to 25 percent of a home’s total value, said John Cloyd, who retired as the Richland County assessor this year. On a lakefront, the land could be worth 30 to 40 percent of a home’s total value, he said.

A homeowner in a Columbia-area neighborhood that had to drain its lake three years ago estimated his property value dropped by half.

As neighborhood associations start work on plans to rebuild dams, owners whose homes might have lost value in the October storm can get short-term help by filing appeals with the county assessor to lower next year’s property taxes. Appeal requests are due by Jan. 15 in Richland County.

How much of a break they will receive is uncertain.

“This is all new for all of us,” Jones said.

Rough waters ahead

The storm last month was powerful, dumping more than a foot of rain in a day in what some have called a once-in-thousand-year event.

The rains swelled creeks and knocked out 36 dams statewide, including 16 in Richland County.

In the aftermath, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control asked dam owners for assessments of the damage and action plans. The agency also pledged to work with dam owners to plan the repair and restoration of the structures.

The agency also began negotiations on what to do next about dams that were breached or heavily damaged.

Charlie Cook teases that he pretends Cary Lake is at low tide.

But the 68-acre lake north of Columbia is gone, leaving behind stumps dotting sandy and muddy ground.

Cook, the town of Arcadia Lakes treasurer, does not know how residents will pay to rebuild the dam. He said help could come from creating a special tax district around the Richland County lakes. Some proposals are under consideration.

“We have a lot of broken dams, and it’s going to cost a lot of money,” Cook said. “We’re a car on the side of the road that needs a good tow truck.”

Not just lakefront homeowners were affected by the rushing water that surged through and over dams last month.

Walda Wildman had several neighbors in the Gregg Park neighborhood off Forest Drive whose homes were damaged by Gills Creek floodwaters just downstream from Forest Lake.

The Forest Lake dam did not fail, but several dams upstream were breached. To be sure, no one knows for certain how much, if any, affect that dam failures had on creek flooding.

Even though she has no lake view, Wildman, an accountant, said she would be willing to pay an extra tax to help with dam maintenance — perhaps the same tax rate used to help cover costs at the Riverbanks Zoo. That would cost her an extra $40 a year.

“I still benefit when I drive by the lakes,” Wildman said. “It enhances the whole tone of our community.”

But if public money is used to help rebuild and maintain dams, then people like Martin Kneece want access to the private lakes.

“The lake should be open to the whole neighborhood,” said Kneece, whose second-row home overlooks Upper Rocky Ford Lake, which had a dam that failed. “There are ‘No Trespassing’ signs.”

Lack of water in lakes is just one issue those neighborhoods face.

Several roads atop failed and damaged dams, including one over the Upper and Lower Rocky Ford lakes, have been closed with no announced reopening dates.

Kneece said he could enjoy the water with walks across the dam roads — a reason he bought a home on Overcreek Drive a year ago.

“It was pretty because of all the lakes,” he said.

After the storm, he said: “If the neighborhood looked like this, I would not have bought this house.”

‘It will come back’

Missy Lawhorne wonders how much of her lakefront home value is lost without water in Upper Rocky Ford Lake. But she wants to proceed with caution.

Lawhorne wants to make sure that if she appeals her property tax next year that the change to the value of her home of 11 years will not become permanent. Appeals can be made any year, county officials said.

“It’s still home,” Lawhorne said. “I don’t want that to change.”

How Richland County plans to handle property-tax appeal requests is unclear. Efforts to reach county Deputy Assessor Liz McDonald were unsuccessful last week.

Still, Lawhorne acknowledges the challenges ahead as the homeowners association works to rebuild the dam.

“We’re all wary,” Lawhorne said. “This is uncharted territory. No one on the lake can turn around and get this all done.”

Residents on Arcadia Woods Lake off Trenholm Road said they know the impact of losing a lake.

State regulators ordered the pond drained three years ago when residents could not afford to make repairs, said Bernie Gaudi, who lives along Arcadia Woods Lake.

Gaudi said he has struggled to sell his lakefront home on Arcadia Lake Drive after the lake was emptied. Gaudi said he expected to sell the home for $300,000, the going rate for waterfront property before the state order. Now, Gaudi said he doubts the property would bring $150,000.

“I’m 76 and my wife has cancer, and I would love to sell this place,’’ Gaudi said. “She and I wanted to sell it and move to something smaller. But we could not. So we are stuck.’’

As for lakeside residents questioning what happens next after the massive storm last month, they need to be patient, said Jay Graham, whose Columbia real estate firm has a listing on Upper Rocky Ford Lake.

“This is a four-act play and we’re in the first act,” he said.

Graham said he could understand the hesitation of potential homebuyers so soon after the flooding.

“Who would want to buy after this?” he said.

But Graham said that less than two years after Hurricane Hugo struck in 1989, real estate started selling well along portions of the S.C. coast.

“It will come back,” Graham said.

Staff reporter Sammy Fretwell contributed

This story was originally published November 14, 2015 at 6:07 PM with the headline "With no lake view, what happens to home values?."