Game On in Tega Cay. A townhome plan clears the way for the sports and more site. | Rock Hill Herald

One of the transformative projects in Tega Cay hit a milestone Monday, with another only maybe a month away.

Game On got its conditional approval Monday night for 167 townhomes. It's the first residential piece to the project that will bring a mega sports complex, commercial and other uses to Tega Cay. Grading for Game On could start in August.

In the summer of 2016, Tega Cay City Council annexed 78 acres between Stonecrest Boulevard and Dam Road. The plan included a sports complex with basketball courts, multipurpose fields, tennis courts, a fitness center, aquatic center and bowling. It also included a 14-screen theater, an urgent care rehab center, hotel, parking deck, restaurant and spa. The plan was to have Game On built by 2025.

The developer now has all the property either purchased or under contract. The new townhome phase involves 22 acres. A development agreement between Game On and the city caps the number of residences at 410. It could be a couple of years before the next phase of residential.

The townhome phase got conditional approval because the city's planning commission has ongoing concerns with parking at new neighborhoods. With Cadence, Windhaven, Cameron Creek, River Falls and other residential projects either ongoing or close to it, the city is seeing or preparing for situations where more parking may be needed than city code requires.

Planning commission member Thomas Fogerty said he wouldn't want to see at Game On what has happened elsewhere, with parking on or near sidewalks or the road because there isn't enough in garages and driveways. Though Game On townhomes will have a two-car garage each, people tend not to park in their garages. Many families have more than two cars, too.

Even at two cars, parking could be an issue.

"That's quite a lot of steel sitting out there, let alone if they have guests," Fogerty said.

Brad Ceraolo, developer of Game On, said his group could look at additional parking in some places, but doesn't want to have to lose open space — about half the property is open space or for stormwater retention — for it. At this point, significant changes to the townhome plan could mean changes elsewhere within Game On.

"It's part of a master planned community," Ceraolo said. "The clientele being more of a millennial base, more of an upscale user. The whole premise is accessibility to the rest of the project."

Brad Ceraolo