Within the next 4 to 6 months, the City of Clinton’s Planning Commission could see comprehensive site plans for a 490-home Cambridge Farms subdivision, proposed for an area on Hwy 56 between Ingles and Westminster Presbyterian Church. Come before it for approval.
The full City Council voted Monday night on an annexation that will allow that planning process to begin.
A contentious project for more than 2 years before the City of Clinton and Laurens County planners, Cambridge Farms is opposed by people in 5 neighborhoods outside the city limits that adjoin what could become the neighborhood.
The 2nd (final) reading annexation ordinance approval was passed with Mayor Randy Randall and members Danny Cook, Danny Smith, and Megan Walsh voting “yes”.
Council members Anita Williams, Natalie Cogsdill, and Gary Kuykendall voted “no”.
Council addressed concerns about a proposed retail portion of the development, possibly hurting plans to re-energize the Uptown Clinton business district. The developer, Veranda Homes, and the City have modified their development agreement to put off that retail plan for 7 years.
Developer Patrick McNair said, in his view, filling up 490 homes with families actually could give Uptown Clinton a boost. He said he wants to be a vital part of Clinton’s continued growth and progress.
“I think Clinton is a nice town. I think if we bring rooftops to Clinton the downtown problem, it starts to help with that. Jobs are coming with the industrial park. We saw that with the ballpark. There are jobs coming up 385,” McNair said.
Council Members Danny Cook, a retired banker, and Danny Smith, a Realtor, addressed alleged ethics concerns raised by speaker Lance Freeman during public comments.
“Mr. Freeman needs to catch up with my bio,” Cook said. “In 2023, I retired from the (Arthur State) bank. I’m not on the board. I don’t have a 401K. … This is a question of integrity and that bothers me. I am at arms length with this transaction.”
Cook said he is the person who approached McNair about not building more, potentially competitive with downtown retail space, “because we need time to get our downtown built and revitalized and we are doing something right. I did not want us to develop commercial on the outskirts of the city, (yet) inside the city limits, before we have the chance to do something here. We are moving forward with some things will happen next week.”
Council Member Williams stressed the need, in Clinton, for a moratorium on development. She said the City is in danger of having “undeveloped developments.” She said she rode through the Shell Creek development, across from Whitten Center, and became alarmed.
“We are allowing these developers to build with no specifications,” she said. “I walked into one of those houses, and they couldn’t give me one of those houses; they are poorly built; we are going to have numerous undeveloped developments. That is going to turn into people breaking into them (the new houses) taking out appliances and squatters. Some of the developers have already stopped building.
“We are short as far as employees in the City of Clinton, (and) we are taking on 400 more houses. What is that going to do for another side of town? Police, fire, sanitation, more students in the elementary schools? The elementary schools are packed. We are putting the cart before the horse (approving a large development without first hiring a full-time, professional planner).
“We are allowing more developers to come in because Simpsonville, Fountain Inn, and Greenville have put moratoriums on developers, saying ‘we cannot take any more.’ Our infrastructure needs to be taken into consideration, storm drainage; downtown has become a ghost town. We are ignoring the concerns of citizens who are supporting Clinton. We allow the city manager and the finance manager to decide on development issues and they live outside the City of Clinton. We need to take some serious thoughts and consideration about this — our citizens do not want this - we need to take them into consideration. Would you allow this in your neighborhood? … decisions have been made on other things and we’re not seeing any progress. We need to step back and really consider, are we making the right decision? What are we putting our next generation into?”
For his part, Council Member Smith - in addition to having City Attorney Allen Wham re-affirm that it is not an ethics violation for a Realtor to vote on a development to which he/she has no direct connection - asked Wham if Williams’ remarks could open the City Council, and/or its members individually, to a civil lawsuit.
Smith said her remarks about house-construction may have been concerned “fact” when actually the remarks are opinion — “what we are stating up here is ‘these homes are poorly built’ it was stated as fact” - but Williams said, “That is my opinion.”
Wham said, likely not on the legal liability, since the statement clearly is opinion.
“General commentary would not expose the city to liability,” Wham said.
Regarding the ethics violation charge, Smith said, “Anybody is welcome to look into that as deeply as you want to; but you don’t know me, I don’t know you, and so I hope I’m stating that clearly - I don’t stand to benefit in any way from this development.”
Clearly affirming her opposition to this project, Council Member Cogsdill said, “We have other places where this could go. I don’t have a problem with your project. I have a problem with your project at where it’s at.”
Cogsdill said when she was at a recent retirement party, an engineer who worked on the new physicians’ offices on Jacobs Highway said they didn’t have enough water pressure to turn on their eye wash machine.
“They did not have enough pressure. They had to buy a pump to turn their machine on. Are you going to buy a water pump for each one of these houses (so they will have pressure?),” she asked.
“Those things are handled by the provider (the City of Clinton’s water department, in this case) as to what they can handle at what capacity,” McNair said, “so when these site plans get approved, that’s another thing that has to be approved by the provider - it’s a ‘will serve’ letter - or they might say we need to upgrade a pipe to push that capacity even farther. We certainly want good water pressure in the neighborhood.”
City staff has confirmed repeatedly to the City Council that Clinton has enough water, sewer, and electrical capacity (as well as police, fire, and sanitation staff) to handle another 490 houses. The City also has said 1,200 home-sites already have been authorized for construction in Clinton. But, McNair said, not all of these will be “going vertical” at the same time, so he is not concerned that the three-pricing-points development that Veranda Homes has envisioned for Cambridge Farms can be competitive with current construction and sales.
He has promised that Cambridge Farms, with full amenities and an 11-acre public access park, is going to be a “destination” location for people interested in buying a house in Laurens County.
