Controversial Lake Murray development set to add hundreds of homes is expanding
A controversial development in the town of Irmo is getting bigger.
The developers of the Water Walk development now have 22 acres just across Dreher Shoals Road from the current planned development under contract, Irmo Town Council heard Tuesday.
Material Capital Partners of Charleston have yet to give the town any details about what may ultimately go on those 22 acres, Assistant Town Administrator Doug Polen told council members. But the latest proposal will be reviewed by the Town Planning Commission in October, he said.
The latest proposal comes as the town has already given its approval for Water Walk to build hundreds of homes on the site on Dreher Shoals south of Salem Church Road, adjacent to Lake Murray. Plans reviewed by the council on Tuesday call for 240 homes plus 200 apartments in what’s planned to be a senior living facility. The development was previously announced to include a boutique hotel along with commercial and dining space.
The one sticking point for the town of Irmo is that most of the homes proposed would be duplexes and townhomes rather than single-family “cottages,” which don’t fit with the density requirements Irmo wants for the new neighborhood.
“I spoke with the developer, and I think we can find a change between the number of townhomes and larger lots, but it shouldn’t all be duplexes,” Polen said. “He knows what he needs to do.”
While the developer hasn’t signaled what they want to do with the property on the other side of the road, “If the design is something we’re not happy with, we don’t have to take it,” Polen said. He added that the review process for that property would be the same as that for the existing Water Walk proposal.
Water Walk has drawn opposition from neighbors who fear the new development will add to traffic on narrow, residential roadways and potentially impact the lake. One resident even filed a lawsuit over the town’s approval process for the development, which was ultimately dismissed.
But Polen told the council Tuesday that more development on that stretch of Dreher Shoals Road will be necessary for the S.C. Department of Transportation to consider widening the roadway in the future. According to DOT data, an average of 16,000 vehicles travel down Dreher Shoals near where Water Walk is looking to build.
“If nothing gets built there, it will never get widened,” he said.
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