27 homes coming to neighborhood near downtown Columbia. Could they spike prices?
Twenty-seven new homes that will fill mostly vacant space in one of West Columbia’s core neighborhoods are in line for final approval, with developers and city leaders saying they will enhance an already desirable area close by to downtown Columbia. But some are concerned the addition of the new homes could push up housing prices.
The development proposed by The Wilson Company, which has been given an initial OK by West Columbia City Council, would bring 27 single-family homes and would replace an overgrown, undeveloped strip along the block of Cromwell Street between Center Street and Augusta Street. The project would add to the Guignard neighborhood, which extends back from State Street and the city’s increasingly bustling River District near the Gervais Street Bridge.
The homes, which would sit a block off Meeting Street/U.S. 1, would additionally take a parcel currently occupied by a dilapidated house.
The roughly 2-acre plan submitted to the city also includes commercial space across the street on land that also has a house, promising to “emphasize creating a compact community with a commercial component” and “allow for small business ownership opportunities.”
Developers were hit with concerns in May during a public hearing held jointly by the West Columbia Planning Commission and City Council about cars being parked along the very narrow block of Cromwell Street and preserving the area’s uncommon walkability.
“The biggest thing was we tried to eliminate a lot of the driveways and entrances onto Cromwell Street,” Wilson Company General Manager James Kizer told The State last week. “That’s a narrow street, so we’ve tweaked our plans with the stormwater management and added a rear entry to most of the houses that face Cromwell Street, trying to limit the amount of driveways that come out there.”
Developers are also looking at putting in sidewalks around the development in response to “feedback from the neighborhood wanting it,” Kizer said.
“It helps tie everything together. You’ve got all the things that you can go to really close that’s very easy to walk to. So just just tying into that.”
The city is set to soon enhance the area’s walkability further with a $3.5 million project, paid for with federal American Rescue Plan funds, that will add stamped crosswalks and mast arm traffic signals along with landscaped medians in an effort to make Meeting Street more attractive and easier to navigate.
West Columbia elected leaders who spoke with The State all praised the developers for adjusting after receiving feedback.
City Councilman and real estate broker David Moye said it’s important that the density of the project matches that of the neighborhood around it, which is packed tighter with houses than others farther back from the River District.
“A neighborhood like this is designed to grow and evolve, to improve as it grows and evolves and as more people move to it,” Moye said, “but we have to make sure that we meet our goals for walkability, aesthetics and attracting retail as we grow.”
During the public hearing in May, Moye pushed back on concern that the cost of the houses, which developers said is likely to land somewhere between $325,000 and $375,000, will be too high, citing an older home in the in the neighborhood that recently sold for above $300,000.
And while Moye noted in a later interview that there’s a lot of multi-tenant rentals in the neighborhood that would be impacted by rising home values, he said that an uptick in prices is coming regardless because the location is so desirable. It’s walkable, with a variety of shops and eating and drinking establishments located close by.
The new homes will sit about five blocks from State Street and a couple blocks from recently added local hangouts WECO Bottle and Biergarten and Brickhouse Gourmet Coffee & Tea Co. along Meeting Street.
“It’s not because we’re building nice new things, that’s not causing prices to go up,” he said. “What causes prices to go up is supply and demand.”
The Wilson Company’s Kizer echoed this sentiment, saying that the opportunity to put in a dense development near downtown in an area with a high walkability score made the property attractive.
Joseph Dickey, the city councilman who represents the neighborhood, and Mayor Tem Miles said they’re not concerned with the addition of these new homes forcing any change to the makeup of the neighborhood. Both pointed to the St. Ann’s Alley development, which went in a few years ago and added 34 similar homes closer to the River District, sitting a couple blocks off State Street.
“St. Ann’s Alley came, and those houses aren’t priced where you would look at it as more affordable housing, but they’re priced in a good way,” Dickey said. “And I know this development, I think the price range is a little bit higher. But in (my district), you have all manner of just different little neighborhoods as far as the whole collective community that have a wide range of home prices and housing for all the people in our community. Regardless of that, we’re all part of the same community and all interact and take care of each other as neighbors.”
The mayor said replacing a vacant lot with attractive homes that will draw more people to the area is a positive, adding that he thinks some people expressing frustrations might not be keeping up with prices in the area.
“There’s some neighbors who made comments about the price points of these houses being grossly above the existing houses that are in that neighborhood,” Miles said. “I just think those are folks who haven’t looked at what things in that area are selling for. That’s the area that I live in, and it surprises me how expensive homes are in that area. And I moved there in ‘05. The values of the homes have just increased to such a point that I don’t think they’re going to be grossly disproportionate to the surrounding values.”
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