Growth takes off west of Lexington

New homes and stores are replacing the forests and farms that surrounded Harold Jumper’s residence near Lexington when he settled there 43 years ago.

“When you moved out here, you very seldom heard traffic,” he said. “Now you hear it 24 hours a day – you can’t get away from it.”

Jumper’s home west of Lexington is located in an unofficial boom town emerging in the center of steadily growing Lexington County.

The area centered two miles around Lexington High School is one of the hottest spots for new development in the Columbia area.

It’s bounded by Lake Murray on the north ,I-20 on the south and loosely by Barr Road on the east and Calks Ferry Road on the west.

Three factors are driving the development boom there, planners and developers say:

▪ A road network providing an easier commute to the rest of the Midlands.

▪ Top-rated Lexington 1 schools.

▪ Nearby Lake Murray for recreation.

Population in the area doubled in the past 15 years to nearly 25,000 people, a report by the Central Midlands Council of Government says.

About 1 in every 11 county residents lives there. The area’s population slightly surpasses that in Lexington a mile east, a shopping and entertainment hub for many residents around it.

“We’re close to schools and town but it has a country feel in a suburban area,” said Genie Goudie, whose family came from Virginia on a job transfer in 2012 to settle in a neighborhood near Pleasant Hill Elementary. “It’s definitely a family environment.”

More than 3,200 new homes and 130 businesses have sprouted in the area in the past decade, the Central Midlands report said.

The area’s popularity is no surprise to county leaders.

Planners expected the area would follow the Red Bank area to the south as the next spot for growth once water and sewer lines were extended into it.

Available utility service made the area “very robust” for development, home builder Wade McGuinn said.

But the recession in 2007 delayed the boom until now.

“It’s the poster child for recovery from the recession,” County Planning Director Charlie Compton said.

Schools race to keep up

One of the biggest drivers for growth in the area is schools, ranked among the best in the state.

Enrollment in Lexington 1 increased an average of 514 students yearly since 2004. Its current total of 24,000 students in 30 schools makes it the second-largest district in the Columbia area.

The area west of Lexington includes three elementary schools and one middle school, all opened since 2006. Pleasant Hill Elementary and Pleasant Hill Middle already are overcrowded, with 37 portable classrooms at both to handle the overflow.

With more growth on the way, there’s already talk about adding schools, a step that probably would require asking voters to approve a tax hike to pay for the expansion.

“As fast as we are growing, it is never not part of the discussion,” Lexington 1 spokeswoman Mary Beth Hill said of new classrooms.

The area around around Lexington High School will be home to a significant share of the expected countywide population growth of 90,000 residents during the next 15 years, some community leaders predict.

“What we see now is just the start,” said Randy Halfacre, president of the Greater Lexington Chamber of Commerce.

County officials already are dealing with growing pains in trying to add deputies, firefighters and paramedics to keep pace with growth across the 758-square-mile county.

But keeping up with growth is more difficult with a cap on local tax increases and declining state aid, some county leaders say.

“Soon we’re going to run out of rabbits to pull out of the hat – we’re getting close,” Councilman Jim Kinard said. “Harder choices are coming.”

Can roads handle it?

The area’s growth is starting to congest roads at times, particularly during rush hours for commuters.

Subdivisions and strip malls are popping up along U.S. 1 and U.S. 378 as well as main side roads such as Barr, Charter Oak and Pisgah Church.

That network of roads allows faster access to I-20 for commuters headed to work in downtown Columbia and elsewhere compared to travel on congested routes through the nearby town of Lexington.

The area’s popularity already has county officials looking at widening that corridor both for commuters and cargo from industries such as the Michelin Tire plant along the route.

County leaders are lukewarm about going back to voters soon to seek a penny-on-the-dollar sales tax to pay solely for road improvements. An increase to pay for a package that blended roads with other projects lost at the polls Nov. 4.

Jumper, 78, expected growth eventually would sprout around the country home he’s lived in since 1972. But he never foresaw the influx under way.

He’s accepts that the extra traffic means a longer drive to church and shopping.

What he’s more concerned about is that road conditions aren’t keeping pace with the newcomers.

“You used to pretty much have these roads out here to yourself,” he said. “Now it’s so crowded, you have to be extra careful.”