Lexington County gives initial OK for 400-home subdivision set for Red Bank
A proposed 400-home subdivision planned for a growing suburb in Lexington County got initial approval from county council last night. It will likely be a while before nearby residents start seeing land cleared.
Serenity Lake, a housing development that could bring 402 single family homes to 173 acres, would sit west of South Lake Drive and south of Buck Corley Road in Red Bank. The area, a long rural part of the county, has seen explosive growth in recent years.
Lexington County Council gave the project initial approval to move forward in the permitting process, an early step in the process.
“By the time you start [the process] to the actual time that there actually is a construction period, on average, is about three years,” County Council Chairman Todd Cullum told The State. If the project receives permitting approvals, it’d take around six years after construction begins for the multiphase project to be completed, Community Development Director Robbie Derrick told the council Tuesday afternoon.
The land, a vast swath of trees separated by a pond, is set to be developed by Mungo Homes, a prominent home builder based in Irmo. The planned homes would be built on 9,000-square foot lots and the neighborhood would be split in half by the existing pond. A proposed walking trail over the pond would connect the sections.
The county council voted 7-2 to give the project preliminary approval, with Councilwoman Charli Wessinger and Councilman Larry Brigham in opposition, after the county planning commission recommended approval.
At the Tuesday committee meeting, Brigham took issue with how the number of homes per acre had been calculated. The project is set to have a little over 40 acres of open space, which is factored in when calculating the number of homes that would sit on one acre. With the open space, the project will have a little over three homes per acre, but without including the open space, it’s over 4.5 homes per acre.
“You still have 4.595 per acre which I have trouble with, that’s over four per acre and I understand the calculation of how you get that ... I get it, but that’s more than four per acre,” Brigham said before voting against approving the project.
The subdivision sits in the Lexington One school district and would serve Red Bank Elementary, Carolina Springs Middle and White Knoll High. One planning commissioner voted to recommend denying the project over concerns about how the development could impact school capacity.
When the council formally adopted concurrency review, a process that requires certain agencies to submit paperwork about how a proposed development would impact them, it included school districts in that process. But in late October, the council dropped that requirement. This project was submitted before that requirement was dropped, Derrick said at the Tuesday meeting.
