A majority of Clinton City Council has ignored the concerns of 5 people who live or own property just outside the city limits asking that their quiet, rural road not be considered for increased traffic from a proposed subdivision.
Council agreed Monday night to rezone a vast tract of 667 acres (it’s listed as 446 acres on the council’s agenda) from Agriculture and Residential to a Planned Development. That rezoning allows planning to proceed on a travel baseball complex and a subdivision - previous comments to council indicate it will be constructed by Mungo Homes - along with hotel and retail spaces on former Whitten Center property.
To get in and out of the property, traffic is proposed to use Hwy 72 at Corporate Center Drive, beside Starbucks and across from QT, near the I-26 interchange. But the Clinton Planning Commission has urged the developer, John Suter, to have a southern-end access point. The only viable option right now is Old Colony Road, across Springdale Drive from Eastside Elementary School.
While the rezoning ordinance approved by the Planning Commission on one reading with an advertised public hearing, and now approved by the City Council on two readings, says nothing about Old Colony Road. Suter acknowledged before the Planning Commission last month that what he is proposing could “ruffle some feathers” on Old Colony Road.
He was right.
“We do not want to be connected to this project,” Rob Clapper, an Old Colony Road resident told the Clinton City Council at its Dec. 1 meeting.
Six of the 7 council members voted for the rezoning anyway. Council Member Anita Williams voted “no” because, she said, she has experience living on a narrow street inside the city limits that accesses a commercial business, Bush River Building Supplies.
The City cannot authorize Suter to use Old Colony Road; it is outside the city limits and is a state-maintained road.
One resident said the only reason it is state-maintained is because, at one time, is accessed the rear property of Whitten Center, which is a state-owned facility for people with the most severe disabilities.
The State deeded most of the facility’s property to the City of Clinton because it considered the tract “surplus” property.
Clinton City Council voted to sell the property to Suter - that sale-ordinance was done without a public hearing - and now the Old Colony Road residents says they are being denied a true public hearing on the use of their road, also.
The majority of council members who voted for the rezoning deny that. Council Member Danny Smith said, "The developer said he would make every attempt not to use Old Colony, he is doing that to this point. I feel he is doing what he said he would do.”
Suter has said he is attempting - so far unsuccessfully - to acquire land that would feasibly allow construction of another road into and out of the proposed subdivision. The property has not yet closed to sale - Council was told that likely will happen in March. The City gets half the property sale-proceeds, and the State gets the other half.
“Our only request is simply, please don’t include Old Colony Road in the footprint of your big, beautiful development,” Clapper said. “We are simply asking the city to reflect that reality by ensuring that Old Colony Road be removed from all planning and acknowledge it is under state jurisdiction and control.”
Clapper said, so far, Suter has submitted no plans for the upgrading and use of Old Colony Road. City Manager Joey Meadors said a SC Department of Transportation traffic study of the area is underway.
“We understand the change is from Agriculture to Planned Development, but those actions apply only to property in the city limits. Old Colony Road is not in the city. It is not city property. It is a state- owned, SC DOT road and neither the city nor the developer can designate it as an access road without SC DOT review and approval. That is not possible because no traffic study has been done … We do not want to be connected to this project. As county residents living on a quiet, state- maintained road, we chose this neighborhood for its safety, privacy, and peaceful character. We want our road and our quality of life to remain exactly as they are.”
Dr. Kristen Derrick said, “We love our road, we love our neighbors, and we are proud of the quiet, safe environment that exists there today. That is why so many of us are here tonight, not to oppose growth but to ensure that any growth ensures the character of what already exists.”
She said the road cannot handle traffic and it should not be altered into something it was never meant to be. “It is a matter of physical safety,” she said. “Laurens County cannot intervene. It falls to us. We take that responsibility seriously. It is not about personal preference; it is about proper planning, safety standards and jurisdiction, and respecting the established residential nature of Old Colony Road.”
Kayla Haupfear called Old Colony Road “a quiet, peaceful place off the beaten path.” There are 17 homes and 10 generations who live there, including a neighbor who uses his wheelchair to travel with his caregiver. "This is a slow-paced haven for all us with deep roots to people who have built this community. Turning our street into a commuter cut-through would immediately and permanently create a public safety hazard — noise, traffic, and heightened danger — with no benefit to the residents who clearly asked from the beginning not to be included in this plan. We are not opposed to progress. We are opposed to destroying the safety and long established character and quality of life of the existing residents for the convenience of redirecting traffic.”
Haupfear asked for a Public Hearing that addresses Old Colony Road with county officials and the impacted residents - 124 people have signed her change.org petition titled, “Save Old Colony Road from becoming an access road.”
“The development very fascinating, but I don’t see why it should be allowed to destroy the character of a road that has been rural in nature and very peaceful,” Steven Lawrence said. “It is a state highway only because of Whitten Center, formerly Whitten Village, as I know it. I ask that you give this serious consideration.”
He said there also are potential annexation issues that may be “something we will have to study.”
Going slightly over her 2-minute time limit, Sylvia Clayton said he family has farmed land on Old Colony Road for over 100 years, as have the Haupfears and Pete Copeland’s family. “We received a letter about the plan and it said nothing about using Old Colony Road as an access road to the complex. We were told over and over that it is not in their plans to use Old Colony Road as an access. We are agricultural land, we have livestock and more than 1,500 Christmas trees, we have children and grandchildren, and farm machinery. The elementary school at the head of the road already is dangerous at pick-up time.”
Clayton described how her family already has experienced potential danger. “We had a mess when the city was logging that road, when the big trucks were coming up and down the road. One of the big trucks with machinery didn’t clear the power lines in front of our house. It wrapped the power lines around the truck and broke two power poles in half bringing the transformer crashing into the road. That spilled chemicals into our yard and killed our grass. It endangered the driver and my grandchildren, the power lines pulled our basketball goal down, and ruined our pear crop. This road is not feasible for a main thoroughfare.”
She advocated for a different point of ingress and egress. “A single land owner on (Highway) 72 refuses to allow them to come across his land, but there is other land that the CEDC* owns. Why can’t they do a trade deal or something to come across (Springdale Drive) there?”
(*CEDC = the Clinton Economic Development Corporation)
This was not a public hearing; the 5 residents were allowed to speak because the rezoning was an item within the agenda.
The Clinton City Council’s agenda item says what they were voting on was “amending the zoning designation” for property, designated by tax map numbers, on East Corporate Center Drive, Post Drive, SC Highway 72 East and Old Colony Road. The agenda item does not say what the zoning is now, nor what the zoning would become with a 2nd and final reading positive vote.
The gated, northern end of Old Colony Road is what is referenced in the agenda item. The residents opposed to the access designation live on the middle section, where the road intersects the Hwy 72/Springdale Drive intersection. That is across the road from Eastside Elementary School, and on the road’s southern end is the School District 56 office - at that point, Old Colony Road intersects with Clinton’s East Main Street. There are 3 other subdivisions building or in development in this general area.
City Manager Meadors said, “We as a city cannot give access to Old Colony Road. A portion is in the city limits, but as far as folks who have spoken tonight, the developer and DOT have to work that out. It is his hope that he can workout another route, he is pursuing other routes.”
Meadors said all the City Council was doing was changing the zoning AR to PD (that’s agriculture-residential to planned development, a detailed plan for the development will have to come back before the city’s planning commission).
Williams said, “I still have concerns. Rezoning will turn it commercial?”
Meadors said, “Yes, commercial and residential will be on a portion of the property we are rezoning.”
Williams said, “I personally know having to deal with living next door to a commercial property how it affects me. Initially, it was said that Old Colony would not be affected at all, when we first did this plan. I am really concerned once we change the zoning, the next thing we know we will be using Old Colony Road.”
Mayor Pro-tem Danny Cook said all the council can deal with is land inside the city limits within the Whitten Center property - “that is all we are doing; the access is a whole other can that can be kicked down the road. We need to do this for the whole complex, for the whole area to be zoned correctly.”
Meadors said that is accurate - the new zoning designation would go into effect once Suter completes the due diligence process ending in March.
“The Planning Commission, they brought up Old Colony Road,” Smith said. “How did that come about?”
City Planner Phil Linder said it was discussed by the planning commission that the total development needs a second way in and out. “The entrance is at Corporate Center Drive and Hwy 72,” Lindler said, “but the planning commission said they need one on southern end. They are looking at other options (but) the only access now is Old Colony. They are looking at other options available to them.”
Lindler said the developer can access that right-of-way based on what the SC DOT requires, working within a traffic study.
On Nov. 11, Suter told the Clinton Planning Commission, “We’re going to have those fields in and we’re going to be calling balls and strikes by 2027, God willing, and the weather holds up for us.” About accessing the proposed subdivision portion with Old Colony Road, Suter said, “Obviously, I can’t use Whitten Center, they’re not going to let that happen. I looked into going behind the high school, there is a 30 ft gorge back there. That ain’t going to happen. I tried talking to Chip Cooper, tried to buy that property to come in over there. He didn’t want to sell it. I ran out of access points - unless I use a helicopter. I will improve that road. I will do whatever I have to do to make that road useable and try not to use it as much as possible.”
Parents taking their kids to school or residents going into the city to eat dinner are those expected to use Old Colony Road. All the other traffic — to and from the Elite Diamond Dawgs baseball fields and the hotels and restaurants envisioned to cater to thousands of baseball fans and visitors each year - is expected to enter and empty out onto Hwy 72, at I-26. “It’s just a matter of time and work. I may ruffle a few feathers on Old Colony Road; but if I make the road as good as possible and limit the traffic over there, I think we will be fine,” Suter said.
The developer said he has a letter of intent from Mungo Homes to construct $450,000 - $500,000 houses on the subdivision site. He said teams will be coming from all over the country to play in Clinton and that has attracted so much interest from hotel firms that “companies are calling everybody to find me - restaurants, the same thing. It’s going to come together quickly. In my contract with the city I have a time limit - I will well-exceed that (in bringing the project in ahead of schedule). I have already started work that I wouldn’t normally do. The vision is Clinton is going to become the biggest baseball hub of the Southeast. National baseball leagues we are talking to are willing to put in millions — Indianapolis, Florida, I’m flying all over country talking to these people,” Suter said.
Asked if he has enough cash-flow to carry this project through to its ultimate completion, Suter said, “Cash is flowing in it right now.”
“My investors have more than enough money. I am putting millions and millions of dollars into this and it can’t sit there (not making a profit).” Suter was told, “You’re gambling with your money, not mine,” and then the Clinton Planning Commission voted 7-0 to allow the rezoning to PD (Planned Development). Site plan documents have been presented to city staff, which imposed some recommendations which the commission added in to the motion.
That vote moved the matter to the full Clinton City Council, which had given 1st reading approval to it at its November meeting (Nov. 3). Again, nothing in the agenda item listing for that meeting would have indicated an active look at Old Colony Road, in the area where people live now, as a secondary access point to this massive development.
