Shift from forests to suburbs sparks tension in Blythewood area

Joe Johnson is upset that homes and stores are replacing forests in the Blythewood area that’s been his home and hunting grounds for 40 years.

“It’s my getaway,” he said. “Now stuff keeps growing up around the trees and keeps expanding.”

Johnson is among longtime residents who are unhappy as the countryside they enjoy is transformed into neighborhoods and shopping centers around the town on the northern edge of Richland County.

Development in the Blythewood area is booming thanks to a pastoral setting dotted with horse farms and and a few golf courses, top-rated Richland 2 schools and handy access to I-77 for commutes to jobs and activities in downtown Columbia.

Blythewood has been slower to develop than other bedroom communities in the Columbia area. Larger, upscale homes on a few acres have been more common than subdivisions.

Now it’s on the radar for developers.

With more new neighborhoods and a burst of shops and restaurants, the area is undergoing dramatic change, Johnson’s wife, Kathy, said.

“I don’t want the city coming out here,” she said. “I want to be off to the side.”

The change can be seen in two snapshots from the Central Midlands Council of Governments:

▪ The population in Blythewood itself and the area 3 miles around the town increased from 3,219 in 2000 to 6,346 in 2010 and to an estimated 7,485 today. It’s projected to reach 8,429 in 2021.

▪ Homes in the town and surrounding area increased from 1,168 in 2000 to 2,297 in 2010 and to an estimated 2,707 today. That total is expected to be 3,037 in 2021.

Jerry Rega measures the transition in the longer commute to the print shop he operates.

The 3-mile trip now takes up to 15 minutes instead of five because of traffic signals and stop signs added to handle traffic coming from neighborhoods mostly established during the past decade, he said.

Residents warn county leaders that the area’s sense of a suburban retreat offering a quasi-resort lifestyle is threatened.

“It comes down to balance,” Rega said. “Somehow, we’ve got to come up with a reasonable approach. If we don’t, the things that draw people out here are going to disappear.”

But finding a solution that accomplishes that won’t be easy, he said.

Many area residents make sure local leaders know that anything that doesn’t seem a good fit will meet resistance.

“They will stand up strong for their quality of life,” said state Rep. Joe McEachern, a Democrat who represents the area.

Town tempers growth push

Blythewood town leaders are familiar with the tension that the influx is bringing.

The community is home to an estimated 2,600 residents in a 10-square-mile area, significantly larger than when it was a town of less than 200 per square mile in 2000, according to census reports.

Town Hall’s focus has shifted to consolidation of gains as efforts are underway to set standards guiding what’s built and its appearance, Mayor Michael Ross said.

“We’ve got to catch up,” he said. “We can’t keep growing like we have.”

Blythewood’s goal is to avoid being known as a pit stop on I-77. “We don’t want traffic to move through too fast,” Ross said. “We don’t want to be a thoroughfare.”

Town leaders are skeptical of pell-mell development, such as the pending rejection of a proposed 300-home subdivision judged to add too much traffic and too many students in nearby schools. And recent size limits that have been set for commercial projects discourage big-box retailers.

Blythewood aspires to be a place when neighbors gather in a scenic setting emphasizing preservation and culture, its master plan says.

Town residents have a strong sense of local history, with a museum dedicated to showcasing area life past and present. But the museum sometimes goes beyond that focus, currently hosting a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution on how Americans work.

Blythewood was called Doko – believed to be a Native American or African word for a watering place – when it was established in the 1850s as a rail stop between Charlotte and Columbia.

That name seemed appropriate for a depot surrounded by plantations and farms, according to records kept by the town Garden Club.

The community was rechristened Blythewood – a reference to the beauty of surrounding pine forests – when a private school for girls with that name was established in the 1870s, records say.

But the 25-acre park in the center of town reflects the past with its name of Doko Meadows and a meeting facility called Doko Manor.

Blythewood also is known for horses and golf.

The area is home to the University of South Carolina’s equestrian center and has been used for training Olympic horse-riding teams.

Its golf courses are popular with executives and USC athletes.

Meanwhile, the southern edge of the area is trying to fend off overtures to join Columbia.

The city is seeking to expand north to reach commercial areas along Wilson Boulevard and Killian Road, a few miles south of Blythewood.

Neighborhood groups are gathering signatures on petitions urging Columbia to give up.

“There aren’t any amenities we need from the city,” said Barbara Roach, president of the Meadowlake Homeowner Association, representing 610 homes. “We are comfortable with the way we are.”

Blythewood has no plans to annex that area, Ross said.

‘Keep our character’

USC environmental health science professor Joe Jones understands the tension the changes are creating.

A transformation that was slowly unfolding is now happening much faster, at a pace disconcerting for many, he said.

“There’s a lot of concern about who we are, what we look like and what we will become,” Jones said.

With his wife, Amanda, Jones operates Doko Farm, which specializes in organically raised meat on 43 acres that have been in his family since 1839.

For years, the farm was so remote that it was closer to drive to USC than to any store except for one grocery in town, he said.

But that changed when the Village at Sandhill shopping center opened in the early 1990s on agricultural land once owned by Clemson University, spurring the arrival of more homes and stores along the I-77 corridor.

“That was a real eye-opener,” Jones said.

Trips to Sandhill for shopping and recreation now are a family habit, he said.

Jones’ farm is far enough from sprouting subdivisions that he has no complaints about noise and odor from livestock disturbing neighbors. But that conflict is coming someday, he said.

Meanwhile, Kathy Johnson is happy to see stars at night despite the blare of vehicles on I-77 and nearby roads.

She isn’t opposed to sharing what she enjoys with newcomers, but is on guard against any incursion she and neighbors regard as inappropriate.

“When it comes to putting in neighborhoods too compact and too many trees getting bulldozed, that creates concern,” she said. “It’s getting to be a real challenge to keep our character.”

This story was originally published April 14, 2017 at 11:25 PM with the headline "Shift from forests to suburbs sparks tension in Blythewood area."