Residents push Lexington County for new subdivision, Lake Murray building restrictions
At the first chance to weigh in on plans to limit growth and development in Lexington County, scores of residents overwhelmingly spoke out in favor of the changes being considered by Lexington County Council.
Dozens of speakers at Tuesday’s council meeting urged the county to adopt a trio of new restrictions that would set limits on the construction of new housing subdivisions and create special regulations for the space around Lake Murray and for agricultural areas.
Those comments came on top of almost 200 others submitted ahead of Tuesday’s hearing that back the changes, Council Chairman Todd Cullum said. Only a handful of comments opposed the measures, he said.
The county has stopped issuing new building permits for subdivisions while working through the changes, and the county intends to get the new rules in place before the temporary moratorium expires in December.
Speakers on Tuesday worried new development is increasing traffic, crowding schools and demolishing wooded areas to make way for rows of new houses.
The new restrictions will create requirements for subdivisions, including limiting the number of houses in a development, requiring a traffic study from developers and better road access. In the Lake Murray area, new developments would be limited to no more than four houses per acre — less in some areas — and large subdivisions would be required to maintain up to 50% of open space.
In the an agricultural overlay covering the southern part of Lexington County — including the towns of Gaston, Pelion and Swansea — similar restrictions would apply to new development, along with required buffer areas around working farms and protections for certain species of trees.
But not everyone is in favor of the changes. Allen Hutto, CEO of the Building Industry Association of Central South Carolina, told council members the changes would produce the opposite of protection for the rural parts of the county.
“The way you’ve structured decreased density will push construction out,” Hutto said. “It will cause sprawl. And all those folks will still drive through Lexington.”
He reiterated the argument that limiting new housing will also drive up housing prices, hurting medium-income home buyers in the process. Hutto’s group sued to try to stop the subdivision freeze earlier this year, but ultimately only succeeded in slowing the move down.
Some opponents pointed out that those at Tuesday’s hearing calling for restrictions on growth are themselves newcomers to the county living in newer developments. “People move onto the lake, and then don’t want anybody moving in next to them,” one speaker said.
The county Planning Commission reviewed the proposal last week, and some commissioners suggested the lake overlay, which would cover 15% to 20% of the whole county, is too large. One suggested moving the southern boundary from U.S. 1 to U.S. 378, which runs closer to the shores of Lake Murray. Another suggested lowering the open space requirements for new subdivisions depending on the distance from the shoreline.
The commission will review the measure again at its Oct. 7 meeting and send recommendations to the council.
This story was originally published September 29, 2021 at 2:30 PM.
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