Neighborhood near USC sues city, developer over eight-story student housing project
The prominent University Hill Neighborhood Association is suing the city over its approval of a controversial eight-story student housing tower planned for the corner of Gervais and Pickens streets.
The suit is that latest round in an ongoing fight between the neighborhood and Indiana developers Trinitas Ventures over the tower, which would have 276 apartments and 540 residents.
Residents say the buildng, which abuts two historic structures — the former First Church of Christ, Scientist and the University of South Carolina’s McMaster College of Art — would overwhelm those two buildings architecturally. They also say the building does not conform with the neighborhood of mostly two-story homes.
“This building does not fit (in terms) of height and mass and scale,” attorney and association president Tom Gottshall said.
The neighborhood is challenging a July 10 unanimous ruling by the city’s Design/Development Review Commission that the project can go forward.
The design board’s vote was a reversal of its unanimous decision earlier this year against the project. At the time, board members said the plan “pushed the boundaries” of the city’s guidelines for zoning and design. However, the design board quickly walked back its denial and agreed to reconsider approving the site plan and building design after the developer made a few design changes.
The project meets all of the city’s zoning requirements, including height and density. City planning staff noted that the height and scale of the proposed building are in line with the nearby University of South Carolina law school building and Hilton Garden Inn hotel.
However, the neighbors contend that the design board had the authority, under the city’s design guidelines — a separate set of guidelines from zoning laws — to set aside those zoning laws if it deemed the project didn’t conform with the surrounding neighborhood.
The apartments will be built across the street from the law school and diagonally from the hotel. Each of those buildings stand at a comparable height.
In addition to a variety of studio, two- and three-bedroom apartment units, the development is expected to feature a parking garage, swimming pool, fitness center, study rooms and other amenities, according to plans previously submitted to the city.
Historic Columbia and USC joined the neighbors in opposing the project from the beginning, however they are not a part of this suit.
Design board chairman Tom Savory said he was not aware of the suit, and so could not comment.
Pete Balthazor, an attorney retained by the city to represent the design board, said he has not yet reviewed the case and couldn’t comment.
The State has reached out to Trinitas Ventures.
The neighbors are represented by state Sen. Dick Harpootlian, who has also represented them in opposing the liquor licenses of several Five Points bars.
The neighbors claim that late-night partying in Five Points by USC students and others spills into their yards and streets and results in littering, vandalism, violence and general mayhem.
The neighborhood sits between the entertainment district and the proposed tower. Residents walking to and from Five Points would exacerbate the ongoing problems, neighbors have argued, although that is not part of the lawsuit.
The challenge in circuit court is the first step in a three-level appeals process of the design board’s ruling, the final step being the S.C. Supreme Court, Gottshall said.
“This monolith doesn’t fit or merge with adjacent buildings, which the guidelines say it must,” he said. “And the (design board) has the role to implement those guidelines.”