USC, Harpootlian slashed Campus Village parking plans by 700 spaces. Upset neighbors wonder why
On Whaley and Pickens streets, as construction of the University of South Carolina’s Campus Village trudges on, many neighbors are unhappy that initial plans for a parking garage have been scrapped.
They fear a parking nightmare next fall as the 1,800 students who will live in the village search for places to leave their cars.
“We feel like we’ve been screwed over,” said Frank Adams, president of the Wales Garden Neighborhood Association.
At one time, plans for the $210 million project included a parking garage with nearly 950 parking spaces. Now, a 237-space “transportation hub” is nearing completion where the garage was supposed to be built.
How did parking for the massive development get slashed by nearly 80%? It goes back to when the university went before the state Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means committee to get funding and approval for the Campus Village project.
State Sen. Dick Harpootlian, a Richland County Democrat who lives in the Wales Garden neighborhood directly adjacent to the Campus Village site, said a parking garage would cause more problems that it would solve.
So it was nixed.
“The university accommodated me as the senator for that area,” Harpootlian said. “(It) went with a different approach, which is offsite parking, which I believe in.”
But neighborhood residents weren’t told about the change to the parking plan, Adams said. At least not until USC had already begun construction. They’re pleading with the city to explain what happened and do something about it.
USC has grown “exponentially” since Harpootlian made his home in Columbia in 1975, the senator said, and the city has been gridlocked ever since its growth took off. Harpootlian said he believes fewer parking garages and fewer cars are the solution to congested neighborhood streets, though he said he knows there are those who disagree.
“Students’ first choice for going from point A to point B should not be jumping in a car,” Harpootlian said.
Harpootlian said students should be walking or taking shuttles. He said if USC students do park in nearby residential areas “there are ways to deal with it,” like university sanctions and towing.
“I will make sure the university is aggressive,” Harpootlian said.
University spokesman Jeff Stensland said there will be “sufficient” parking for student residents in other designated areas on campus.
But nearby residents are of a different opinion.
“We know they’re going to spill over,” Adams said. “It’s gonna be a major train wreck.”
Adams said that it’s “imaginative” to believe students are willing to park elsewhere and walk to their residences when they have cars. Parking tickets and fines, Adams said, will be disregarded and paid by parents.
Campus Village residents will have access to the shuttles that will take them to the heart of campus and other parking areas, Stensland said. USC also expects that most Campus Village residents will be freshmen and won’t be bringing cars on campus.
Adams said he supports the use of shuttles, but wants to take it a step further. He wants USC to prevent students from having cars on campus altogether.
The Wheeler Hill, Wales Garden and Hollywood-Rose Hill neighborhood associations wrote a letter in September to city zoning administrator Hope Hasty.
According to the letter, the Board of Zoning Appeals granted a Special Exception to USC for the construction of Campus Village in 2017.
Nearby neighborhoods supported the exception on the contingency that conditions set by the zoning board for USC were met – namely that the planned parking garage be built.
A private dormitory, per Columbia’s city development ordinance, must have off-street parking of 0.5 spaces per bedroom, but this requirement was waived in favor of the parking garage.
It was considered a “win-win.”
The city Planning Commission authorized the current plans for parking in 2019. At that time, former zoning administrator Rachel Bailey recommended approval because parking for Campus Village could be located on other land owned by USC. It is unclear if these plans were put before the zoning board.
The letter says that the city Planning Commission went beyond its “statutory authority” outlined in state law section 6-29-340 to make such an approval. Hasty could not be reached for comment.
Neighborhood residents are asking for an appearance before the city Board of Zoning Appeals, and a meeting with USC and the city.
The university would be more than happy to have another update meeting, Stensland said. The Board of Zoning Appeals could not be reached for comment.
The residents claim that the university has violated its Special Exception because the zoning board requires that proposed developments operate in “substantial” conformance with their applications.
“A reduction in parking of 75% is a substantial change,” the letter read.
The neighborhoods spent a year negotiating the scope of Campus Village, according to the letter, and the commission allegedly overrode them and the conditions to the zoning board’s Special Exception.
“We believe that these discrepancies can be negotiated in the best interest of all parties without resorting to legal action,” the letter read.
Harpootlian, a lawyer by trade, said the commission probably did slip up. But the group is “doomed to failure.” They would’ve had to file an objection long ago, Harpootlian said.
“If they want to hire a lawyer to litigate, they can do that,” he said. “I would think that’s a waste of money and a waste of time.”
The city Planning Commission could not be reached for comment.
Adams said it’s hard to place blame on any one party — university and city staff transitions have made the situation convoluted. The residents are asking for clarity on how the decision was made to kill the parking garage, and under what authority, Adams said. It seems as though there is one set of rules for some, and another set for others.
“We’re not getting a satisfactory answer from the city and we’re not getting a satisfactory answer from the university,” Adams said.
This story was originally published November 15, 2022 at 1:10 PM.
