Lexington County weighs plan to make eastern half of county look nicer

Blight prevention controls may be in place soon for a significantly larger share of Lexington County.

County Council is looking at doubling the area in which the standards apply and extending the upkeep requirements to commercial sites as well as homes.

The momentum for expansion comes as a one-year test of the idea on the north side of Lake Murray is nearly finished, with cleanup results popular with neighborhood leaders who pushed for its adoption.

“It’s off to a good start,” said former Councilman Art Guerry, president of the Whitehall Homeowners Association in the St. Andrews area. “It does help.”

Plans taking shape could add more neighborhoods in the eastern half of the county.

Areas under consideration include all of the unincorporated area east of I-26, parts of Red Bank and Dixiana and several neighborhoods between West Columbia and Lexington along I-26 and I-20.

The largely rural western half of the 758-square-mile county would remain exempt.

Residential upkeep requirements – similar to those in half of the county’s 14 cities and towns – are proving effective in policing overgrown lawns, discarded material in yards, home exteriors in poor repair and stagnant swimming pools, officials say.

So far, 110 of 169 complaint locations checked in 10 months have been settled, officials say. A few – the number was not immediately available – have been sent to magistrates to deal with homeowners who have been slow in responding to cleanup requirements.

Most complaints stem from unkempt yards, county zoning administrator Walt McPherson said. Of the 228 complaints at the 169 locations, overgrown landscape amounted to 124 of the complaints, officials said.

Some council members who were reluctant supporters of the initial test of the upkeep plan now favor its expansion.

Councilman Bobby Keisler of Red Bank calls the standards vital to getting rid of “all the debris in yards” in neighborhoods in his steadily growing area.

But others remain skeptical of the crackdown.

The plan invites homeowners to become “the grass police” on neighbors who may not be as fastidious, Councilman Kent Collins of Lexington said.

He is concerned that the upkeep requirements might spark conflict among homeowners. “I just don’t want people to get petty,” he said.

Collins’ concerns mean the area around the town of Lexington is likely to be left out of the expansion.

Overall, the expansion taking shape would extend the requirements to areas home to half of the county’s 280,000 residents.

The standards apply solely to neighborhoods, not scattered rural tracts where landscaping that may seem overgrown elsewhere is common.