‘Walkable, livable, playable.’ How Cayce river district makeover could look

Rumbling trucks, the occasional vacant building and dust from the nearby Lexington Quarry line much of the State Street and Frink Sreet corridors in Cayce’s downtown. But residents and business owners are making their voices heard as the city plans to reimagine the area.

More than 25 people attended a meeting to review the proposed plans, which will be presented to city council in August. Members of the public placed brightly-colored sticky notes on maps and figures with their thoughts.

Joan Hoffman, a resident of Cayce for 25 years, sees the potential in the area to become a gathering place for residents and visitors alike, and hopes the area becomes less dependent on cars.

“I would like, especially the area that they’re looking at, to be one that is, you know, walkable, bike-able, one that brings the community out and together, invites people to come and visit us,” Hoffman said. “A place where, if my family were to visit, I want to bring them to walk along the trails, for example, or go have dinner in a nice area, have some green space to go out.”

However, Hoffman and other residents said that development should fit the small city’s quaint character and that they didn’t want “another Knox Abott,” a stretch of road in Cayce that is known for its strip malls and fast food restaurants.

There was also an air of skepticism from some attendees on whether the city could attract developers who would carry out the vision created by the city’s economic development arm.

“Sometimes developers may come in and develop it in a way that we had not overall envisioned,” Hoffman said. “I don’t know how much leverage truly that we have in asking a developer to develop it one way or the other.”

Director of Development Services Luke Godbold said he and the development team hope to give Cayce a “walkable, livable and playable downtown area,” by working with property owners and leveraging the benefits of Cayce’s location near I-26 and the airport.

“We can make it happen as soon as now,” Godbold said. “It’s just a matter of developer appetite. We’re trying to get businesses in here 24/7. I mean, my office is constantly open.”

Some of the proposed re-development includes an outdoor plaza on the corner of Foreman Street and Frink Street, extended walking trails and plans for a hotel and small business growth.

The city and partnering engineering firm, Stantec, are targeting the area for a makeover as many so-called “brownfields,” or areas with real or perceived environmental contamination, are located in the corridors.

Cayce received a brownfields grant from the Environmental Protection Agency in 2022 which covers $500,000 worth of redevelopment planning, community input events and environmental evaluations in the city. The grant includes the River Arts District and is set to expire in September.

Godbold remains concerned about debris from the nearby quarry deterring pedestrians from the downtown area, but says the city is brainstorming “to at least mitigate” the dust and rocks that fall off of passing trucks.

Renea Eshleman, president of the Cayce Arts Guild, said that renewed traffic would be great for local artists, who lost a big venue for showing their art when Henry’s, a popular restaurant and hang-out, closed in 2024.

“People who see art buy art, which is kind of the bottom line,” Eshleman said. “The hard part is carrying forward that (vision), actually getting things in place to make it happen. So we’ll see. I think that there are a lot of people who have been committed and willing to put resources behind it.”

Some business owners were concerned about the scope of the redevelopment, feeling it was either including only a narrow type of business or leaving out other areas of the city who may need attention.

Baker Rogers — owner of Queer Haven Books, which closed its brick-and-mortar store in Columbia’s downtown Arcade Mall in June — attacked the proposal for a lack of diversity and potential gentrification of surrounding Black communities, which the city identified as a concern if development was not “managed carefully.” Nearly 28% of Cayce’s more than 13,000 residents are Black, according to 2024 census data.

“How are you going to get them to put actual diverse businesses in the arts district?” Rogers said about the property owners of downtown Cayce. “Displacement of Black people is not a potential threat. That’s a real threat. That’s happening.”

Godbold said that the city did not have direct control over private lease agreements, but would direct any business owners to available properties. He also emphasized the importance of listening to public input from marginalized communities.

“The main thing we can do as a city is having open ears, allowing for input of trends that certain communities that face disparities are seeing,” Godbold said.

Cayce auto shop owner and former resident of the Broad Acres neighborhood Andrew Finch emphasized the importance of improved safety in all of Cayce to allow the downtown to flourish, including adding more sidewalks and streetlights.

He says part of the reason he and his wife moved out of the area was to raise their family in a safer area, relocating from the Broad Acres neighborhood near Frink Street but outside the proposed re-development area.

“Cayce isn’t a bad area, but it does need some attention,” Finch said. “I think for that area (Broad Acres), they’re forgetting about the people that live in that area.”

Both Stantec development planners and Godbold emphasized that the plans are an idea for what could be accomplished in the city with enough investment, an effort that may be aided by ongoing updates to the city’s zoning ordinance.

Proposed changes to the zoning map can be viewed here. The city will present their plan to town council at their Aug. 19 meeting, which will begin at 5 p.m.