An up-and-down Fort Mill project is back again — with more than 400 new residences
Part of a controversial development in the Dobys Bridge Road and Fort Mill Parkway area in Fort Mill is back and looking to add more than 400 new residences.
Crossroads Development Partners and Pulte Homes submitted a sketch plan this month for a retirement facility, homes and townhomes on three large parcels between Williams and Haire roads. Those properties are more than 78 acres combined.
The sketch plan doesn’t show commercial construction that was part of a much larger Crossroads plan. Traffic concerns and delays in acquiring property the past three years led to a back-and-forth approvals and denials by town council.
The new proposal also asks for approval from the town planning commission rather than a town council that’s been mixed in its support for Crossroads.
Town planners still have concerns.
How the Crossroads project evolved
Crossroads Development Partners submitted plans in early 2021 to put new homes and businesses on about 115 acres at North Dobys Bridge and Williams roads. The project near Fort Mill Parkway also included a new 50,000-square-foot grocery store and up to 240,000 square feet of commercial space. It also would bring 220 senior residences, some of them for memory care, with up to 150 homes and 90 townhomes.
The Fort Mill Town Council’s initial split vote prevented the project from proceeding. Two months and several changes from the developer later passed. The council, satisfied with safety improvements on how traffic would cross Fort Mill Parkway and Williams Road, unanimously approved annexation and rezoning steps to allow the Crossroads project three years ago.
But more than a year passed without noticeable progress, and the council approved multiple extensions for developers to acquire all the property to complete their plans.
New property and the time lapse meant a new traffic study and other changes last fall, including decreased commercial space and senior units as well as more townhomes.
But the town voted in November not to further extend the timeline for Crossroads.
Latest Crossroads plan for Fort Mill
Developers have now submitted plans describing a “whole-life planned community” where homes would appeal to younger families and the retirement facility to seniors. There could be up to 180 age-restricted senior housing units, 110 homes and townhomes each and 40 assisted living senior apartments. Plans cap the project at up to 408 residences.
Part of the property was annexed into the town in 2008. Part remains in unincorporated York County. A process of getting sketch plan, preliminary plan, civil construction plan and final plat approval is done by the town planning commission, bypassing the need for a town council decision.
The county property is needed for access to Williams Road. If it has to be annexed, then town council would come back into the decision mix.
Town planning staff recommends the planning commission, which is set to meet Tuesday, defer a decision because of concerns similar to the proposal to have county staff approve the design of a Williams Road connector right before it’s annexed into Fort Mill.
Sidewalks, parking spaces, rear garages, amenity areas, buffers and other town rules still have to be addressed with the project.
Submitted plans show homes on a western parcel bounded by Fort Mill Parkway, North Dobys and Williams roads.
It’s the same for the eastern parcel on off Williams Road, east of the Sandy Pointe neighborhood. Senior living and townhomes would go on the central piece, on the southeast corner of the Fort Mill Parkway and Williams Road intersection.
