Gills Creek greenway update: Most input has been positive, official says

After hundreds of people turned out last month for an information and input meeting about a proposed greenway project along Gills Creek, the majority of the feedback Richland County officials have received has been positive.

But the path of the greenway could be altered to accommodate residents in the Hamptons neighborhoods.

The $2 million first phase of the greenway, to be funded by the county’s transportation penny sales tax, would stretch from the southern tip of Lake Katherine south to Bluff Road.

More than half of the 225 comments concerning the proposed greenway are in support it, said David Beaty, program manager for the transportation penny sales tax program development team.

Still, about 40 percent of the commenters are against the project, Beaty said. At February’s public meeting, a number of residents voiced concerns that included, among other things, the security of their homes. Most of the opponents are clustered in the Hamptons neighborhoods along the east side of the creek, behind the Dorn VA Hospital, Beaty said.

Given the concerns from the east side of the creek, project officials will talk to residents on the west side to consider changing the greenway plans, Beaty said. Residents from some of those communities already have reached out to project officials saying they would like to have a greenway on their side of the creek, Beaty said.

If changes are made to the greenway proposal in light of upcoming talks with other residents, project officials might hold another public meeting to present an amended proposal, Beaty said.