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City wrestles with growth
August 8, 2007
Columbia, SC- A group of neighborhood leaders is asking city of Columbia leaders to ban for six months the subdividing of lots and the demolition/moving of structures more than 50 years old.The group, headed by Columbia City Council candidate Belinda Gergel, say Columbia's neighborhoods are under attack by developers who are demolishing older homes that could be renovated, subdividing single lots, then building multiple homes on them and building "McMansions" - large or tall homes that don't fit in with nearby homes.
City Council already has voted to review its development-related rules and explore new ways to address these issues.
But neighborhood leaders say a moratorium is needed while the city is working out the details.
"It is critical to take action now before profit overtakes preservation, before we look back and regret what we lost," said Rebecca Munnerlyn, a Rosewood resident worried about homes being squeezed in between existing ones.
Developers and others say they're satisfying potential homeowners' attraction to in-town neighborhoods like Shandon, Wheeler Hill and Rosewood, growing the city's property tax base, and engaging in "smart growth" that limits sprawl.
Ron Anderson, a member of the city's planning commission, says denser development makes sense in city neighborhoods.
"From a planning perspective, the most logical place to put new housing is in town where we have existing infrastructure, where we already have police, we have fire, we have schools," Anderson said. "If we don’t build in the city, we’ll never solve the sprawl issue."
WHAT IS GERGEL PROPOSING?
The proposal, which already has received Mayor Bob Coble's backing, includes:
-Enacting a six-month moratorium in neighborhoods that have applied for historic designations, as well as neighborhoods eligible for the designations. They add a layer of city review before homes can be built or old ones can be demolished or altered.
-Banning "McMansions," requiring Planning Commission approval for the subdivision of lots, and posting publicly applications to move/demolish older homes
-Adding city staff to help neighborhoods seeking historic designation. The city has a three-year backlog of designation requests.
"These wouldn't mean that homes couldn't be demolished or that in-fill (housing) could not happen," said Gergel, who will face developer Brian Boyer in April’s election. "But it would give residents an opportunity to have more say."
WHAT DEVELOPERS SAY
In-town developers have their own checklist of changes they want the city to make:
-The city gives little guidance on what is considered historical and worthy of preservation versus what’s just old and run down.
That issue popped up when developer Ben Arnold recently purchased and demolished an old farmhouse in Kilbourne Road. Some residents said the house was a historic treasure worthy of restoration while others said it was in bad shape and didn't fit in with surrounding homes.
-The cost of restoring homes and other structures can be expensive. Also, the rising cost of lots in the city means building "McMansions" is the only way to make a builder's investment worthwhile, builders say.
David Bryant, a developer with Metropolitan Development, tells a story of a 1905 building on Gervais Street he bought in hopes of preserving it, including its unique hand-stamped tin ceiling tiles.
But code required new plumbing, wiring, insulation and more.
"To do everything to bring it up to code meant losing much of that natural beauty of the building," Bryant said. "Somewhere there has to be a happy medium between preservation and meeting code. We don’t have that right now."
Coble said it's a tricky situation - encouraging residents to move to the city while ensuring development meets community standards.
City staff will make recommendations on what should be done at council's Aug. 15 meeting.
The State
By GINA SMITH - gnsmith@thestate.com
Reach Smith at (803) 771-8462.