A 900-home subdivision will reshape Lancaster. Why the city welcomed the growth
A new 900-home subdivision will change the city of Lancaster, and officials there bank on it being a change for the better.
Lancaster City Council rezoned four properties on Tuesday as part of developer Forestar Group plans to build near Lancaster Golf Club.
“It’s a great opportunity for this city,” said Mayor Alston DeVenny. “It’ll expand us and it’ll change us, but it’s a good thing that’s happening.”
Lancaster had fewer than 8,500 residents at the 2020 Census. If 900 new homes averaged three people living in them, that influx would be nearly a third of the city’s population.
The Forestar plan is part of a larger trend in Lancaster County, where decades of residential growth largely confined to the Indian Land panhandle is now spilling into southern parts of the county. The city of Lancaster already feels that growth from Edgewater, set to bring thousands of homes to the area.
DeVenny takes a similar view to the one that’s led to residential growth for years in places like Fort Mill and Tega Cay. Many of the largest subdivisions there came because mayors and councils knew developers would build, and the only choice was whether to annex the property to get tax revenue from it.
The commercial development along Airport Road, Devenny said Tuesday, is a critical piece to the new subdivision plan.
“It’s kind of been aching to happen, partly because of Edgewater,” he said. “They’re definitely coming this way to get their services and everything else. So it’ll just be up to us to encourage people to keep annexing into the city.”
Council voted Tuesday to set the zoning to allow the project to move forward. Details like design features and traffic improvements are still to come.
“It’s really not the end of the matter,” DeVenny said. “There’s going to be other discussions about what and how and when, going down the road.”
Leroy Springs property becomes subdivision
Council rezoned four properties related to the project that combine for nearly 400 acres.
A small piece to the northeast owned by Iglesia El Siloe came into city limits to connect the main property, offering frontage on Lynwood Drive. On the opposite side to the southwest, a 48-acre property along Airport Road owned by the Elliott White Springs Foundation will be used for commercial development.
Leroy Springs & Co. owns the rest of the property in the middle, where new homes will go.
They touch Airport Road, Great Falls Highway and Hillcrest Avenue. Along with the commercial area, the plan includes a 20-acre donation to the city for recreation or public service uses, said city Planning Director Louis Streater.
The developer still needs to submit a plat, or layout of the development, for city approval. The city will have to approve a subdivision cluster application, followed by a full design for the project. It’ll likely be at least a year before there’s visible progress at the site.
Council members want to take the time to get the project right, but they also don’t want it to linger too long since they’ll have to make significant preparations for the public services it will require.
“We’re going to be stretching our police, fire at this point,” said Councilwoman Jackie Harris. “And I wouldn’t want to see 10 years and it’s still not done, and we still have concerns with how we’re stretching our fire department and police department.”
There’s anticipation among council members that more home will bring more businesses and jobs. Yet they have to balance the scale of the project, particularly with traffic.
“That’s the concern of the individuals that are already living on Airport Road,” Harris said, “with the amount of traffic that is going to increase with that.”
New Lancaster subdivision details
In its application to the city for rezoning, the developer offered some details on the plan.
The project is expected to start in 2027, with a 10-year buildout. Homes, in today’s prices, would likely be in the $300,000 to $410,000 range.
A sketch plan shows two large amenity areas and several smaller parks. There’s also a large open space to the far north of the property. There’s a possible future park site connection to Great Falls Highway, and perhaps a greenway connection to Bear Creek.
The residential portion of the project is expected to generate about $7.3 million in annual tax revenue to the city.
More details are expected once the developer submits its plat application. “We’ll start seeing a more defined look for this development,” Streater said.
