Midlands city approves two-story triplex after initially denying plans
After initially denying a developer’s plans to build a two-story triplex on a small plot of land in a West Columbia neighborhood, the planning commission voted Monday night to let the project move forward.
The city’s planning commission voted 6-1, with Commissioner Jason Speake the sole opposing vote, to recommend approval to establish an infill overlay where a triplex is proposed for the corner of South Witt and Spring Streets. The move to squeeze even more housing in the neighborhood just off one of the city’s busiest roads will have to be given approval by the city council.
The three dwellings, 1,500-square-feet each, which will sit on 0.13 acres against the Spa MD on Center Street, which had previously drawn opposition from the neighborhood. The planning commission had twice denied plans for the townhomes in both May and July of this year.
“I’m not here to speak against it. I think it’s lovely. I have concerns about being right up to the spa,” Marci Delaney, the owner of Spa MD, told the planning commission Monday night. “Our business is based on quiet, calm, peace, so I have concerns with the construction and I also have concerns with it being right up to my building, how construction is going to take place being built right up against the edge of my property.”
Another neighbor, Tracey Kornemann, who rents out the property that sits right next door to where the triplex would go, also expressed hesitance about how construction of the triplex would impact her tenant’s parking space.
Howard Hunt, the developer who proposed the new housing units, said of Kornemann during the Monday planning commission meeting that he saw “no need to go onto her property or onto the spa property.”
“We have 26 feet on Spring Street and a huge parking lot on South Witt for all material to be dropped off, brought in and built,” Hunt said. The triplex will include eight 10-foot by 20-foot parking spaces, according to markups submitted to the city.
The homes will add to a number of recent additions to the neighborhood just south of Meeting Street, one of West Columbia’s busiest thoroughfares that saw an average of 12,300 cars each day in 2024. Earlier this year, developers wrapped construction on a cluster of townhomes directly in front of the spa, replacing ones that had been there previously.
