More than 100 new homes to go by Lake Murray park that raised traffic concerns
More than 100 new homes are coming to the shores of Lake Murray, close to where the state is about to open its newest public park.
The development, called Waterside at Pine Island, will build on 70 acres between River Road, Cove View Court and the inlet separating the new neighborhood from Pine Island State Park.
The previously wooded space will soon house 139 new houses on single family lots plus an amenity center. Land has already been cleared for the new subdivision, fitted between other lakeside homes on a Lexington County peninsula that juts out into the lake north of the Saluda River dam.
A sales director for the North Charleston-based Pulte Group, which is developing the site, said homes should be available for sale by late summer or early fall of next year.
The new development will go in right across the water from South Carolina’s newest state park. Pine Island is slated to open to the public on Oct. 1, years after the island was given to the state by Dominion Energy. Pine Island had previously been a recreation spot limited to employees of SCANA, the power company that once owned the lake and its hydropower dam.
Pine Island was closed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the struggling utility — which was absorbed by Dominion Energy in 2019 — offered the island to the state as a potential future park to meet its tax liabilities after the failed V.C. Summer nuclear project.
Residents around the park were already concerned about the possible impact on traffic the new park will have for a largely residential area. Pine Island is only accessible on River Road, a two-lane roadway running two miles from North Lake Drive to the end of the peninsula. The entrance to Waterside is slated to open at the intersection of River Road and Regatta Road, the last right turn before drivers reach the state park.
Earlier this year, the Legislature included a proviso in the state budget that would require the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism to schedule visitors to the park ahead of time to ensure enough parking spaces are available. Gov. Henry McMaster vetoed that budget item, arguing it was premature before the park has even opened to the public.
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