50 town homes could replace apartments in Lexington. Here’s what we know
Apartments in the town of Lexington may soon be replaced with town homes.
On the corner of Old Chapin Road and Snelgrove Road, a largely mixed-use neighborhood features single-family homes, small commercial strips and several dozen apartments. It is about a block north of several commercial developments at the intersection of Columbia Avenue and West Main Street.
Connelly Development, a locally-owned construction company, plans to build 50 town homes on the property.
Lexington town council unanimously approved a first reading of the project Monday, as well as proposals to rezone a portion of a parcel from a limited commercial area to a high density residential area.
The proposed development would replace the existing properties on the site, including the 30-unit Lakeland Apartments and the former Jaycee Hut building, which is now vacant. Some of wooded land would be cleared, project plans show.
The development, Woodland Townes, would include 33 two-bedroom units and 17 three-bedroom units over nearly 9.5 acres, according to planning documents. The town homes would have adequate parking, though it would include surface parking, rather than parking structures. Woodland Townes would also include less than an acre of “neighborhood-scale” commercial space, with a 3,000 square-foot commercial building and 10 accompanying parking spaces.
Residents would access Woodland Townes from Old Chapin Road, and internal streets within the development would be privately owned and maintained.
Woodland Townes is significantly smaller than earlier proposals for the property, which would have resulted in over 50 percent higher neighborhood density.
Lexington town council had previously approved a development of more than 100 residential units for the site, along with 16 garage structures. It was never built.
Instead of 11 homes per acre, there will instead be about five homes per acre.
Connelly Development told the town council Monday that the project will require some traffic revisions, particularly Old Chapin Road. Old Chapin Road, which is managed by the South Carolina Department of Transportation, would have an extended center turn lane down to the end of the property.
“There’s gonna be a lot of curiosity about how that traffic flows right there, because it doesn’t flow great right now and we do have two developments building on top of each other,” Mayor Pro Tem Todd Carnes said at Monday’s meeting. “This is our one chance to get it right.”
Plans for Woodland Townes has garnered some concerns online.
About half the site is currently a wooded area that backs up to several homes on Rama Lane and some neighbors have received notices of planned future work adjoining their properties.
But Lexington’s zoning ordinance would still require a 100-foot buffer and 150-foot setback from the neighborhood.
