The Clinton Planning Commission has decided, informally, to hold the line against apartments since it already has permitted 609 building sites for R-3 development in recent months.
Under city zoning, R-3 allows for construction of single family residences, duplexes, and small multi-family residential units. There have been 979 housing lots permitted in Clinton in the last few years, and the Planning Commission believes that 609 of those being at least eligible to host apartments is enough for right now.
The decision comes not as a vote of the commission Tuesday evening, but in response to 2 developments just starting their approval process.
One is on Hwy 56, adjacent to Countryside and in front of the City Recreation Complex - an already permitted and under-development townhomes area is virtually across the road. Developers asked for annexation and R-3 zoning - to maximize their development options - but the commission said it would agree to the annexation if a plan was submitted for R-1 (single family) or R-2 (single family and duplex) development.
The second is on property that fronts North Adair Street. Here, the problem is access - there are 2 access points, but one is very narrow Mount Moriah Church Road and the other is a literal pathway between two houses. The property is inside the city limits, so the request is to change from the current R-1 zoning to R-3, again to maximize development potential.
Clinton citizens expressed concerns about both sites, at Tuesday’s public hearing before the Planning Commission.
Under a city ordinance, just 1 public hearing is required, although the Planning Commission which makes recommendations and the City Council which makes decisions after 2 readings can call for more public hearings if they feel the need to do so.
The commission approved an annexation request for .6 acre at 100 Trotters Trail and a R-1 zoning designation.
The other 2 - Hwy 56 and North Adair Street - will have to come back before the commission, if developers want them to, with plans that outline R-1 and R-2 zoning.
Nine people expressed concerns - some about the Hwy 56 project, called Dutton Park, and some about the North Adair property which extends around to East Ferguson Street and is governed in part by the Cornwall covenants.
Developer Shawn Wilfong said he has no intention of building apartments on the North Adair Street property.
Likewise, developers for the Hwy 56 property said they are not “apartment developers.”
Wilfong said he is a restauranteur who knows that small businesses and eating places, which are community economic drivers, follow rooftops. “I am optimistic about Clinton,” he said.
Wilfong said if he was not a reputable developer, he would not have been authorized by the City of Clinton to seek developers for property on the left side and the right side of the under-development Recreation Complex property. The City bought these properties in order to control what abuts its multi-million investment in recreational land, which has been through several contractors and under development for a few years.
Wilfong said the North Adair property includes a wetlands which can be a great amenity for a residential community, envisioning bike paths beside a protected stream. “Kids can ride their bikes into town” from this property, he said. “It will give kids a place to play.”
But developing the property, which is a few yards from Clinton Middle School, the red tennis courts, and Wilder Stadium, would increase noise and light pollution, neighbors said, and cause more stormwater runoff into their backyards.
North Adair already is crowded with school traffic, they said, and that would only get worse with cars from 127 houses on 50 acres.
Wilfong said the landscape is a challenge because it is hilly; however, there is an advantage here - all the sewer can be gravity-lined into the Florida Street collection station, which the City of Clinton has spent millions upgrading for other developments.
This is part of the infrastructure development that is going on now between Uptown Clinton and Eastside Elementary School, on East Main Street.
However, on North Adair Street, “traffic is a complete disaster,” Janet Young Baker said. “North Adair is not the place for a high-density neighborhood, and this opens the door.” In 2022, the Planning Commission denied a similar request, and variants also were denied, she said.
“For 80 years, my grand-daddy talked about the Cornwall Promise (restrictive covenants), and in June 2024 there was a petition to terminate” (the covenants, unsuccessfully proposed by the developer).
According to a message sent to The Chronicle, these covenants were put in place in 1957 and extend until 2068.
With regard to the Hwy 56 project - 28 acres to be annexed into the city with the potential for 98-100 mixed-use housing units - Jeff Pitts said, “The ball field took the best farmland in Clinton. People have to go elsewhere to work - housing with no businesses is not good planning. When we had the fire downtown, we ran out of water, for just one fire.”
He was concerned about a housing glut of more than 2,000 houses damaging Clinton’s “hometown feel” without improvements to grocery stores, businesses, and infrastructure.
A sewer line to accommodate a housing development adjacent to the Recreation Complex would have to be run out Hwy 56, out past the Clinton Presbyterian Community and Countryside Apartments.
Developers here said they have 3 options but want to develop the “least dense” neighborhood that would be economically viable, and tie it into a trails system that will link the Recreation Complex with Uptown Clinton and development in the other direction at I-26 (Millers Fork).
The SC Department of Transportation will do a comprehensive traffic study for this property, they said, as there is just one entrance and exit point envisioned right now. Being close to the new city park - which includes 4 baseball fields, 3 multi-purpose fields, a splash pad and playground, and picnic, biking and walking areas, and a pond in back of what could be a caretaker’s house - is definitely an attraction for this kind of mixed-use subdivision, developers said.
Seeing how there already is a townhomes development ready to be built nearby, neighbors are concerned about traffic volume and people walking around what is now a safe, rural environment.
“The police department, the fire department, utilities, schools are not prepared for growth this fast,” Billy Pitts said. “We need more business. We do not need to be a bedroom community.”
The Planning Commission wants these developers to re-submit a plan that would install R-1 and R-2 permitted housing units, only, on this property.
Again, the reasoning is, more than 600 multi-family housing units already are permitted in Clinton proper and on land annexed into the city.
The commission also has the option of designating an area as a “cluster development” - that designation has received City Council approval - but under strict multi-use development guidelines.
Commission members also are concerned about R-3 zoning because once it is granted, land development becomes “out of our control.” The Commission and the City are working on an updated strategic plan, land-use plan, and master plan; and there is some talk of having a housing development moratorium to allow time for those plans to catch up to inquiries about development in the city.
“That would say ‘we are closed for business’,” commission member John Lapomarda said.
“A moratorium would say ‘we don’t want people to move here’,” commission member Heather Hardee Tiller said.
Still, there is sentiment for allowing the currently allowed housing to build out and see if it sells for the prices envisioned by the developers, before permitting more. In sum, the Planning Commission wants “orderly growth that is respectful of residents.”
An assistant principal at Clinton High School, Lapomarda said there is one “slow-growth” myth that needs to be debunked - that Clinton’s schools are “overcrowded”. He said in 1989, CHS had more than 1,000 students and was approaching 1,200 - now the census is below 750.
“Even 6 years ago, we were above 800. We need students,” he said, “and, we have a charter school - I am sure they could accept more students. If we added 200 per year for the next 5 years, we would still have room in the schools.
“We are open for business when it comes to schools.”
