Downtown Columbia neighbors hoping for changes to USC’s ‘Campus Village’ student housing plans

Downtown neighborhood leaders concerned with plans for an up to 3,800-bed student housing village on the south side of USC’s campus are hoping university officials will return to them with revisions.

Residents near the proposed “Campus Village” in the Wheeler Hill neighborhood want the University of South Carolina to reduce the expected number of students there. They also want USC to direct car and foot traffic away from nearby neighborhoods, said Kit Smith, one of several neighborhood representatives in talks with USC officials.

The proposed 18-acre development would be bordered by Pickens, Heyward and Sumter streets, near the school’s soccer stadium. Plans call for tearing down four 1970s-era residence halls with 1,200 beds – Bates House, Bates West, Cliff Apartments and Carolina Gardens – and replacing them with three- to six-story towers and a parking garage.

Nearby residents worry that students living at the proposed village will cut through their neighborhoods, by car or on foot, walking to and from Five Points.

USC officials at a Dec. 2 meeting at city hall seemed receptive to residents’ concerns and suggestions, Smith said. But residents haven’t yet seen any possible changes to the plans, and they are awaiting the results of a traffic study USC commissioned for the development, Smith said.

The university in November withdrew its request to Columbia’s zoning board for a special exception to establish the development, saying it wanted more time to discuss the plans with concerned neighbors. USC spokesman Wes Hickman said then that those conversations would dictate USC’s timetable for reapplying to the Columbia Board of Zoning Appeals.

Hickman said last week that USC still is “diligently working to accommodate the impact on the local neighborhoods.”

“We recognize this project is transformational, and we are committed to getting it right for all,” Hickman said. “Fortunately, we can see a pathway where USC student needs can be met and the impact of USC traffic and student residences in the neighborhoods can be improved over the current situation.”

Solutions USC presented to neighborhood leaders in a Nov. 6 email included limiting on-site parking to Campus Village residents, providing garage parking and shuttles to discourage students in the village from driving, and exploring options for steering students in cars away from Pickens Street, the area’s busiest street.

The village also will be designed to provide a variety of services so students do not feel the need to leave regularly, the email said. Hickman said then the village would serve students with “modern housing, meeting facilities, academic space, restaurant facilities” and other amenities.

Smith said she expects another meeting with USC officials within a month. Residents for now are thinking over their possible suggestions for the development, she said.

“We’re not urban planners,” Smith said. “So we don’t have a menu of strategies at our fingertips. But we’re trying to do our homework.”

This story was originally published February 29, 2016 at 9:08 PM with the headline "Downtown Columbia neighbors hoping for changes to USC’s ‘Campus Village’ student housing plans."