Cramped and congested. DNR wants to leave Columbia headquarters, move to the country
South Carolina’s wildlife agency wants to move its headquarters out of downtown Columbia, where officials say traffic congestion and a lack of parking makes it difficult for people doing business at the Assembly Street building.
The agency announced April 17 it will move the division that issues hunting licenses, boat registrations and other permits from Assembly Street to the exhibition building on the State Farmers Market grounds near Cayce in May.
But the agency has bigger plans. It eventually wants to move the entire headquarters from a building on the Capitol grounds to a place outside of town, possibly at the State Farmers Market.
Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers and DNR director Alvin Taylor said the market is just one site being considered, and talks are preliminary.
DNR officials recently huddled with their counterparts from the S.C. Department of Administration about the plan. The S.C. Attorney General’s office, which already uses part of the DNR’s headquarters building, would take over the rest of the Rembert Dennis building when the wildlife agency moves out, according to plans.
The DNR says it has fewer than 100 employees working in its Rembert Dennis headquarters building who would be moving.
Taylor, the department’s director, said the agency has made no decision about whether to construct a headquarters building at the Farmers Market, or move some place else. But Taylor said the agency headquarters needs to leave the downtown eventually as Columbia grows.
“People are parking five blocks away and having to walk, and that is going to be even more difficult in the future,’’ Taylor said.
The department asked the Legislature for more than $900,000 in next year’s budget to study the move, but so far lawmakers haven’t funded the request. The idea of moving the headquarters wasn’t popular this week with boosters of the city’s burgeoning downtown or with several state senators who deal regularly with wildlife department issues.
Downtown boosters say losing the DNR staff would take scores of people out of Columbia restaurants at lunch time and after work, while several lawmakers who aren’t from Columbia said their own access to DNR staff would be more difficult if the agency moves out of Columbia.
“They need to be able to come over and talk to us on the drop of a hat, and being on the State House grounds provides for a lot of that easy access,’’ state Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, R-Georgetown, said. “We need to have open cooperation with DNR.’’
Sens. Chip Campsen, R-Charleston, and Thomas McElveen, D-Sumter, said they’d like to know more because keeping the DNR on the Capitol grounds has plenty of upside. Goldfinch, a frequent critic of the DNR, also questioned the need to move the licensing offices because he said all of the licensing should be done online.
Taylor said the agency’s plan for its headquarters won’t “happen overnight,’’ but the department will be moving licensing functions to the Farmers Market by mid-May.
Matt Kennell, president and CEO of City Center Partnership, which encourages and guides investment in the Main Street District, said he doesn’t like the proposed move of the headquarters.
“My first reaction was for the convenience of the employees and the people who use the facility,” he said. “The current location is more convenient than the State Farmers Market.”
There was an opposite reaction in Lexington County. Cayce Mayor Elise Partin said a move to the Farmers Market would be exciting news for her growing city. The Farmers Market is only about a quarter mile south of Cayce’s city limits on Charleston Highway.
“That means more people will be getting familiar with our city and our restaurants, brewery, distillery, gallery and coffee shops.”
The DNR has had a presence at the market’s Corbett Building at 326 Little Brooke Lane for about three years with limited licensing services. But next week the Columbia office for boat titling, registration and license sales will also move in.
“And there are discussions with us to increase their use of that area,” Weathers said of the exhibition building.
The last day services will be handled at the Rembert C. Dennis Building is May 9.
Robert McCullough, a spokesman for the DNR, said the agency simply needs more room. As it stands now, the department has no parking lot of its own for the public downtown, and finding a space on Assembly Street isn’t always easy, he said.
Long-term plans for Assembly Street, which also runs past the bustling University of South Carolina, indicate that some parking will be removed to beautify the area, he said.
One wildlife agency board that is studying river basins in South Carolina recently started its meeting late because members could not find parking that day. Parking officials had made many metered spaces off limits to the public so that those attending a rally at the State House would have places to park.
“That’s not the first time,’’ McCullough said. “It is hard sometimes to find a space, depending on what is going on down here. Parking is at a premium. It’s just one of those ongoing things. It’s not our parking.’’
McCullough also said it’s not unusual to see people pulling bass boats down busy Assembly Street so they can get a license from the agency. Some people bring the boats down because they don’t know where the identification number is located and they need help finding the number from DNR officials, McCullough said.
The DNR has operated out of the Rembert Dennis building for more than four decades. The building formerly housed the state highway department, but that agency moved to Park Street when a new building was constructed.
State agencies like the DNR must work through the Department of Administration to lease or purchase space, administration department spokeswoman Kelly Coakley said in an email. For a lease over $200,000 per year, state agencies need a review from the state Joint Bond Review Committee. The State Fiscal Accountability Authority (SFAA) must give final approval. For purchases that are one-million dollars or more, the bond committee must review and the Fiscal Accountability Authority would have to give final approval.v
This story was originally published May 1, 2019 at 5:30 AM.
