Neighbors fear additional flooding and traffic with new homes near Fort Jackson
Concerns over flooding, traffic, and school crowding dominated a Columbia Planning Commission meeting Thursday, as residents raised fears over plans for 79 new single-family homes in a currently-wooded area southwest of Fort Jackson, and north of Leesburg Road.
The debate came as planning officials gave an initial OK to annex about 17 acres into the city of Columbia, clearing the way for the new subdivision. The large site begins at 6701 Windwan Dr. Columbia City Council must still give final approval to the annexation.
Developer Phillip Loughridge with The Wilson Company told planning officials Thursday that despite neighborhood concerns, the planned 79 homes wouldn’t be “anything different” from what is currently allowed at the site if it remained in unincorporated Richland County.
Without the annexation, the property could hold up to 277 apartment units, though putting the property inside city limits does allow developers to build an additional 10 homes. Without the annexation, the project would only be allowed to have 69 single-family homes, Loughridge said.
“We are intentionally taking the unit number all the way down to 79,” from the possible 277, Loughridge said.
Residents who spoke during the meeting said they weren’t convinced that the plan would prevent serious impacts on surrounding neighborhoods.
“We as a neighborhood are not complacent with the proposed rezoning of our neighborhood for high density development,” said Wingard Street resident Andy Love, adding that the area already deals with flooding issues and he worried another 79 homes would only increase those problems.
The area also already sees high traffic during commuter hours, and ongoing construction on Leesburg Road to the south of the planned houses has exacerbated the problem, residents have said. That stretch of road sees an average of 26,400 drivers per day.
Another resident, Robert Wright, said he is fearful that the rise in new housing in the surrounding area will create capacity issues at area schools. He brought his children to the meeting to emphasize his point.
“I do not want to see anybody from out of state coming and buying these houses and kicking my children out of these good schools,” Wright said.
Neighbors also told planning officials they felt they did not have adequate notice about the annexation request, and felt that the developer hadn’t been transparent with residents.
“Why am I rushing to find out what’s going on in my area?” asked Rebecca Talley, who said she had only learned about the plans two days prior.
Planning officials told residents they appreciated the concerns, but that it was too early in the process to truly consider them because the Thursday meeting was only to determine whether the site could be annexed into the city and under what zoning rules.
“All your concerns are great concerns, and it’s really good to have community engagement and interest in that,” said Planning Commission chair Harris Cohn, adding that the developers will need to submit a site plan to the city, and at that point the board would be in a better position to address the points raised by residents Thursday.
