More road work, new homes planned for Arcade Mill area of Rock Hill

More neighborhood improvements are planned for the Arcade Mill area of Rock Hill, where city officials hope to build on $6.5 million worth of recent infrastructure upgrades.

A road repaving project on Hagins Street in the Hagins-Fewell neighborhood finished last week. Past projects included repairing a failing sewer system, demolishing the badly burned Arcade Mill, and conducting an environmental cleanup of the old textile land in the center of the neighborhood.

Next month, crews will begin repaving Arcadia, Blackwell and Wright streets. A new underground water line will go in on Wright Street.

Over the next two years, city officials hope to continue tackling stormwater drainage problems that often leave nearby yards and streets flooded after heavy rains. The neighborhood began as housing for mill workers who were employed at the Arcade Mill, which stood for more than 100 years. At the time, builders did not install water drainage systems.

The lack of adequate utility infrastructure is a major challenge, said Jennifer Wilford, the project management team supervisor who has worked on the city’s master plan for the Hagins-Fewell neighborhood for several years.

On Monday night, Wilford updated the Rock Hill City Council on the plan, the city’s road map to revitalizing the downtown-area neighborhood.

Part of the strategy includes demolishing homes in extreme disrepair and building new, affordable homes to sell. The city’s non-profit housing development corporation manages the residential component of the plan.

Rock Hill’s vision for improving the neighborhood was somewhat stalled a few years ago with the crash of the housing market, Wilford said, but residential building has become feasible again.

To complement the new homes and other neighborhood improvements, the city built a walking and biking trail in 2010. The trail starts at Hagins Street, runs along a small creek and ends at the still-standing Arcade Mill smokestack. Markers along the trail share the history of the neighborhood and the mill.

Progress has been made in the Hagins-Fewell and Arcade Mill neighborhoods, Wilford said, but more investment is needed.

“The real goal here is to set the stage for private developers to come in,” she said.

Residents have seen a reduction in crime and other benefits from the millions of dollars invested in apartments and homes along West Main Street, near Hagins Street, she said. There, Columbia-based builder Kevin Connelly’s company built townhomes and apartments in Cherry Laurel, Innsbrook Commons and the Cotton Mill Village.

The development helps meet the demand for affordable housing in Rock Hill and is a success story in the neighborhood, Wilford said.

Crime rates in Hagins-Fewell historically have been some of the highest in Rock Hill. Now, Wilford said, the apartments and townhomes in the Hagins-Fewell neighborhood often produce lower crime rates than other multi-tenant developments around the city.

City Councilwoman Sandra Oborokumo, whose district includes Hagins-Fewell and the old mill area, said residents might not realize the scope of recent investments and upgrades. She suggested that Wilford and others take their presentation to a neighborhood meeting.

“They should have this picture of what’s been done,” she said, adding that there are still many areas of need in the neighborhood and that often residents only see “what’s in front of their door.”

This story was originally published September 22, 2014 at 8:44 PM with the headline "More road work, new homes planned for Arcade Mill area of Rock Hill ."