A consultant has been hired to help the city of North Augusta with a traffic calming study for Georgia Avenue.
The U.S. Department of Transportation defines traffic calming as “Physical design and other measures put in place on existing roads to reduce vehicle speeds and improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists. Traffic calming measures can be implemented at an intersection, street, neighborhood, or area-wide level.”
The study will focus on the roughly 1.5 mile stretch from the Savannah River to Martintown Road. Included in the project will be improving on-street parking and consider opportunities for landscaped medians.
During the July 18 meeting, councilmembers approved hiring Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. of Raleigh, N.C. for $50,000. That will be covered by $40,000 in reimbursable matching funds from the Augusta Regional Transportation Study planning fund and $10,000 provided by the city.
“I know there’s been some discussion about how to make pedestrian crossings more safe there by Sheila’s. This will also help in that regard, to be able to move forward at some point in time to be able to put better traffic control devices at that specific intersection,” said City Administrator Jim Clifford. “Although the study is much broader and will allow for really a whole look from Georgia Avenue from here at the municipal complex all the way up to the churches.”
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In other action, the Highland Springs development, a 1,368-acre property bounded by S.C. Highway 25/Edgefield Road, Ascauga Lake Road, Belvedere-Clearwater Road, Blanchard Road and S.C. Interstate-520/Palmetto Parkway, is a step closer to final approval.
Councilmembers voted unanimously to approve first reading of the ordinance allowing the mixed-use project to proceed. The ordinance still requires a second reading.
James Dean of Cranston Engineering, representing the developer, provided councilmembers more information about the apartments that will be part of the project.
“The 1,000-unit apartments are still part of the plan. We do not know exactly where they’re going to go. I will tell you that the southern portion, there’s 1,000 acres of what is planned to be residential. And those apartments are going to be part of that,” he said, adding, “I don’t think they’re all going to be in one pod. I mean, I think there may be two or three scattered throughout in that acreage.”
That is also the area where construction is underway on the Aiken School District’s new Highland Springs Elementary and Middle Schools, which were included in the $90 million dollar bond referendum voters approved in 2018.
The mixed-use development will also have about 3.2 million square feet of industrial area, a village square covering about 555,000 square feet and that same amount of space allocated for commercial development.
Dean said that will be on the 300 acres at the northern tip of the development.
“We’re still in the early stages of trying to plan some of that out, but there are some neighborhood commercial areas associated with it, which, in my opinion, and we’re forecasting out, is that it would have a Hammond’s Ferry style, commercial element to it. But as you grow out from that, the proximity to the interstate, right there, there may be a chance for a hotel or some big box, but it’s not going to be, in my opinion, totally overrun in that direction,” he said.
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Council was also expected to vote on the first reading of an ordinance for Bluegrass Place, formerly known as the Mealing tract. The project, just under 52 acres, is at East Martintown Road and East Buena Vista Avenue.
“The developer requested to pull that item from the agenda with the intention of doing some more prep work on the presentation,” said Clifford. He believes it will be presented to council during a meeting in August.
During the July 11 study session, Planning Director Tommy Paradise explained part of the development will be single family homes, but they would be rentals, similar to Sweetwater Commons near Edgefield Road at exit five. However, the developer wants to build the homes on a single lot rather than individual lots. Paradise said he told the developer that is not what had been approved by the planning commission and some councilmembers said they would not support that plan.
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a general assignment reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com
