Richland County bans building in Olympia. How much is the neighborhood changing?
Residents complaining about 100-year-old homes being razed and replaced in the Columbia-area neighborhood of Olympia are getting some relief: Richland County Council on Tuesday passed a 180-day ban on new construction and demolitions in the area.
The temporary ban gives the county time to craft new rules for Olympia that residents hope will stop indiscriminate demolitions of old mill village homes, and create guard rails that require historic preservation be among developers’ considerations in the future.
The county passed the building moratorium 8-3, with council members Jason Branham, Paul Livingston and Chakisse Newton voting against.
Residents have wanted this intervention for years. Sherry Jaco, who is a lifelong Olympia resident, thanked the county Tuesday for taking up the issue, saying that Richland County is sending a “powerful message,” adding that it “shows the steadfast efforts to preserve residential communities and their historic importance.”
Olympia, along with nearby Granby and Whaley, are historic mill villages that trace back to the tail end of the 19th century, when the Congaree River drew textile magnates to Columbia and led to a series of mills being built. But over the decades, the neighborhoods have seen major shifts toward student rentals. Now, all of that movement will be put on hold.
So how much construction was happening in Olympia?
Since January 2024, there have been five new construction permits issued for properties in Olympia. There have been three demolitions approved in that time, according to data provided by the county.
Of the five construction permits, three were for single-family homes and two were for duplexes.
“I think that the numbers are probably accurate,” said Olympia community advocate Viola Hendley. “However, if they are applying for single-family housing, most likely that’s inaccurate.”
Hendley and other Olympia residents say it is not uncommon to see single-family homes and duplexes in the area be rented by the room, similar to how dorms operate.
For example, a recently built duplex on Olympia Avenue is advertising four bedrooms and four bathrooms per level, and asking $1,100 per room for rent, according to a flyer advertising the rental provided by Hendley.
“The bottom line is that they are renting to students,” Hendley said. She noted that the cycle of home building and razing has been going on for years.
There have also been times when Hendley said she feels old homes have been demolished without being checked to see if their historic elements could be restored, rather than being torn down.
Student rentals have been a mainstay of the Olympia community for decades at this point. The transition was already well underway by the time the corridor’s last textile mills closed in the late 1990s.
But a neighborhood overlay would help protect what remains, residents say. Developers would have more hoops to jump through before demolishing or dramatically renovating the remaining mill houses built for textile workers, and other historic structures.
The county is still working through the details of what rules to enact for the overlay, but a draft document includes provisions such as requiring that new buildings align with the size and look of what already exists in Olympia, and establishing a review board to rule on demolition requests and other work requiring approval.
The Granby and Whaley neighborhoods adjacent to Olympia both already have historic preservation overlays. The difference is that Granby and Whaley are within Columbia city limits, but most of Olympia falls just outside of those bounds in unincorporated Richland County. The county hasn’t had the framework to help until recently.
“In the meantime, we’ve lost a good number of historic homes,” Hendley previously said.
But in 2024, the county passed a new land development code that carved out a way to protect historic elements in districts like Olympia. This is the county’s first attempt at establishing such protections.
This story was originally published May 7, 2025 at 8:58 AM.
