A request to rezone a tract on West Five Notch Road to allow for construction of apartments triggered a discussion about growth during the Sept. 12 North Augusta Council study session.
The property at 322 W. Five Notch Rd., near the intersection with Pisgah Road, is currently occupied by a car wash. The roughly half acre of land is owned by Hardy Land, LLC, which wants to build five apartment units. The North Augusta Planning Commission approved the request and sent it to council.
The adjacent property, owned by the same company, had previously been approved for construction of townhomes. Planning and Development director Tommy Paradise said the plan was to have one entrance used by both the townhomes and apartments. The traffic study said that would generate 50 uses during peak hours every day.
Both Mayor Briton Williams and Councilman Eric Presnell said it was unusual to plan side-by-side developments, one with townhomes and the other with apartments.
“I’m just going to throw this out there. I’m still not liking the ideas of apartments,” said Presnell, adding, “Is this is something we’ve got to discuss at some point down the road? Every development that has come through here, the last two we’ve gone through, they all have apartments. You know, we don’t want to have just apartments. I’d like to see more home ownership.”
Presnell was referring to 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. It includes up to 1,000 apartments. 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.
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The second project, Bluegrass Place, is proposed on just under 52 acres at East Martintown Road and East Buena Vista Avenue. Part of the development will be single family homes, but they would be rentals, similar to Augusta Commons near Edgefield Road at exit five. However, the developer wants to build the approximately 96 units on six acres as multi-tiered separate units. At the Aug. 15 meeting, Administrator Jim Clifford said the design is what the city code considers to be apartments. The project is on hold until that is resolved.
Councilwoman Pat Carpenter said they have to consider everybody needs a place to live.
“Everybody cannot afford a house. Do we want apartments everywhere? No. But we also got to remember we’re here to serve every citizen no matter what your income is,” she said.
Williams said construction of single-family homes, townhouses and apartments will be one of the topics they can discuss during a joint meeting being scheduled with the members of the planning commission.
Councilmembers are expected to vote on the rezoning request at the Sept. 19 regular meeting.
Also at that meeting, they will vote on a resolution authorizing a contract to building a new Regional Materials Recovery Processing building. The original facility was destroyed in a Nov. 25, 2021 fire.
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a general assignment reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com
