COLUMBIA, S.C. — Since 2012, Lexington County residents have been promised that the Chapin Business & Technology Park would bring businesses, jobs, and positive growth to Chapin.
But 12 years later, the property sits empty except for a few roads, streetlamps, and a $615,000 fountain that former Lexington County Councilwoman Erin Bergeson once called a "sad example of wasting taxpayer dollars."
While Lexington County continues to try and attract businesses to the technology park, a proposed development would see up to 43 acres of the site used for new homes.
The Town of Chapin Planning Commission held a special meeting Tuesday to continue discussion around the proposed development along Brighton boulevard that would add up to 400 new homes to the area.
The development could also bring additional business, shopping and dining options to Chapin if eventually approved.
Members of the public were welcome at the meeting as the commission worked their way through a list of concerns that included everything from home orientation & design style to boat storage and how many curves each road in the development should have. Other items that spurred discussion included lot sizes, minimum home sizes and fence styles.
Commission member Erin Wessinger was particularly concerned about how the development would impact an already crowded Chapin High School.
"Not knowing what’s going on with the schools, is a huge issue for me,” Wessinger told her fellow commission members.
During the discussion, members brought forward positives and negatives from existing developments around Lexington County, when considering what design recommendations they would suggest to the project’s developer.
The commission will return their recommendations to the property developer to incorporate in the next revision of the development’s design. That design will undergo another review by the same committee.
The back and forth will continue until both parties have a design they feel good recommending to the Chapin Town Council.
There is no word on when that council vote could happen. Developers have only said thus far that once the project is approved, it could take up to two years for construction to begin.