Columbia has 9 acres of space along a future greenway. What should it build?
A festival greenway? Space for a farmers market? An outdoor amphitheater? Apartments?
What should the city of Columbia build on nine acres just below Earlewood Park, along the next phase of the Vista Greenway?
Experts have been gathering feedback from residents all week to determine what kind of project should compliment the city’s existing plans to extend the Vista Greenway from its current end-point at Elmwood Avenue, up to North Main Street and then all the way to Bull Street.
The site in question once had homes on it, but those properties were razed decades ago to make way for a proposed freeway that never came to fruition. It’s been vacant for years. Currently, it hosts the North Main Community Garden, and is also used as an informal practice area for local football clubs. Columbia purchased the property from the state Department of Transportation in 2022 with the goal to develop it.
Among ideas from residents on how to give the mostly empty property new life are building housing, like townhomes or condos, attracting a grocery store, establishing green space for outdoor events and more.
Now, the city will take those ideas, plus research about the area and try to find a vision for something in the middle that could possibly marry the desire for green space with the city’s demand for more housing, explained Columbia Planning Administrator Lucinda Statler. She also added that the community garden is heavily used and the plans will account for that.
Statler pointed to a list of examples of nearby projects the city can draw inspiration from, like Greenville’s Swamp Rabbit Trail that runs through that city’s Unity Park. Firms with experience on projects like Atlanta’s Piedmont Park and Spartanburg’s Hub City Hopper trail are involved in planning the Columbia project.
Planners should have a formal pitch for the city by the end of May. Based on that pitch, the city will craft a request to qualified developers, and then those developers will pitch their own ideas for the property.
The city’s timeline would have a developer hired by the end of this year.
Right now, the Vista Greenway goes through a stretch of downtown from Lady Street to Elmwood Avenue. The city is already working on extending it to North Main Street by running it between the Earlewood and Elmwood Park neighborhoods. That stretch is estimated to cost $3 million.
The next leg of the trail would be about 1.6 miles, going from North Main Street to Page Ellington Park at BullStreet. That leg is estimated to cost $4 million, according to a January city presentation. The city hopes to have the greenway fully complete by 2028.
The work would continue a trend of activity north of Elmwood Avenue, particularly in the corridor around River and Sunset Drives.
Last year, Richland County started work on a $5.2 million pedestrian overhaul of Sunset Drive, upgrading utilities and building a new sidewalk. That work is still underway.
The Department of Transportation also finished adding new bike lanes on River Drive in December. Plus, two new apartment projects are coming online in the area: the recently built Benton Crossing on River Drive and North Main Street, which centers affordable housing; and the soon-to-be-constructed, 300-unit market-rate apartments at the corner of Sunset and River Drives that will see a long-vacant shopping center repurposed.
DOT will also replace a CSX railroad bridge on River Drive this year. That work is expected to take 12 months and will again reroute traffic in the corridor.
River Drive sees far less traffic than Sunset Boulevard, but it is still busier than it used to be. A decade ago, an average of 4,800 people traveled the road each day. In 2023, that number rose to over 6,000 drivers per day, according to SCDOT data. Meanwhile, Sunset Drive has become a major thoroughfare, with an estimated 20,300 cars traveling the stretch between River Drive and Main Street each day. A decade ago that number was 18,300.
During the Sunset Drive pedestrian project, traffic was being rerouted to River Drive, leading to increased traffic enforcement last fall. Residents have said they think the area can take the added activity.
“A lot of people complain about traffic, but we want the development and we know that will come with some more traffic, but the benefits are going to far outweigh any negative impact,” John Wilkinson, president of the Elmwood Park neighborhood association told The State during the Sunset Drive construction last fall, adding the caveat that any new development needs to also consider people walking and biking in the neighborhoods.
This story was originally published May 17, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
