A plan to reshape one part of Fort Mill fell through. Now it’s back and moving forward
Fort Mill Town Council has reversed course on the Crossroads development plan for an area along the Fort Mill Parkway.
The plan will reshape the eastern side of Fort Mill.
The council’s decision comes two months after the board — through a split vote that works the same as a no vote — didn’t approve essentially the same project.
The now-unanimous approval comes at least in part due to concern for what the property might become if the town doesn’t annex, rezone and apply a master plan, working with Crossroads Development Partners.
Council approved several decisions Sept. 13 to make way for the Crossroads senior living and commercial site in the Dobys Bridge, Williams, Legion and Haire roads area. The parkway crosses those four roads.
Home, apartment, retail plan
Features of the 115-acre project remain largely unchanged.
It will have up to 240 new residences (150 homes and 90 townhomes) along with up to 220 independent and assisted living or memory care units. All those new residences will be age-restricted. The plan also allows almost 240,000 square feet of commercial space.
The plan shows a 50,000-square-foot unnamed grocery store about halfway between Fort Mill Parkway and Dobys Bridge Road. Retail and a large senior living site are on the Dobys Bridge side of Fort Mill Parkway. Homes, townhomes and office space sit mostly on the opposite side of the parkway, which was built as a main bypass around the town.
Town planning director Penelope Karagounis said there have been some recent changes to the plan. There now are five full access points off the parkway, rather than one shown earlier as emergency use access only. The number of residences, amount of commercial space and larger details remain the same.
Traffic, safety concerns
One reason the project wasn’t approved months ago is because the parkway splits the development. The town planning commission held a lengthy discussion in June that included talk of a pedestrian tunnel beneath the parkway. The developer told town leaders a tunnel would be too costly, and that crosswalks would be installed. The planning commission offered a variety of conditions before recommending 4-2 in favor of the project.
Traffic concerns came up again when town council saw the project. Safety concerns for senior citizens was a main reason for the 3-3 split vote on July 12 that halted the plan. Council members Lisa Cook, Chris Moody and Trudie Heemsoth voted against the plan.
On Aug. 9, Cook asked that the plan come back before council on Aug. 23. On that later date, decisions to move forward with the plan passed unanimously. Just as they did at the final reading on Monday.
Apartments allowed on the site
Mayor Guynn Savage said council found out after the split vote that Crossroads planned to build 1,100 apartments on the site, which already was allowed under county zoning.
“After much review and discussion, the developer made several changes to address the previous concerns and council believed it was a better plan,” Savage said.
Cook agreed the town came to a better outcome.
“This is a good move for our town to shift out of this planned neighborhood, to be able to make a mixed-use development out of it and minimize the residential impact that we would see,” she said Monday night.
Moody said the town had to weigh what the property would be if the town and developer agreed versus a county project where the town had no say.
“I wasn’t wild about it,” Moody said. “I voted no (initially). But I think it’s going to be really hard for me to look at (Fort Mill school superintendent) Chuck Epps and say ‘Hey, here’s 1,100 apartments. You need to build another elementary school or another middle school.’ Look at the bypass now. It’s schools, a lot of it.”
Benefit vs. threat
Wink Rea and Phil Hayes spoke on behalf of the project Monday ahead of council’s final decision.
“There is a lack of very needed services on this side of Fort Mill,” said Rea, a long-time resident and Fort Mill Economic Council leader. “Commercial development is woefully needed.”
Rea said everyone remains sensitive to traffic concerns, but with age-restricted residences it isn’t likely to be as bad. Plus, commercial properties like those presented in the plan can boost the tax base.
“Residential growth is needed,” Rea said, “but it does not pay the bills.”
Hayes is a Crossroads project leader who said long-considered plans were made with Fort Mill in mind.
“I’ve always had the sense that this side of town lacked an anchor, a gathering place, a center,” Hayes said. “Crossroads will fit that need... This is a town in transition and its needs deserve to be met.”
Glenn House, who lives on Haire Road, said he isn’t yet sure whether he favors the plan. He also said he’s concerned about the way it happened.
House described the apartment plan as a veiled threat that he believes wouldn’t have happened because of higher infrastructure costs.
“I don’t want you guys as a council to have developers, current or future, looking at it and going, ‘Well, all you’ve got to do is threaten them with something and you know, you can flip them,’” House said.
House also shares traffic concerns.
The parkway was sold in Fort Mill more than a decade ago, he said, as a bypass to quickly get around the town. House said he isn’t sold crosswalks will work.
“You’re putting your residential on one side of a major thoroughfare,” he said. “You’re putting your business on one side of a major thoroughfare and saying “Hey, you guys need to cross from one side to the other.’”
Savage, who voted in favor of the plan all along, said the county zoning had been in place for many years, and town officials have been in ongoing discussion with the developer to reach the best possible outcome.
“We’ve been going over this development and all of the parameters surrounding it for months,” Savage said Monday night. “This is not something that occurred yesterday.”
