IRMO, S.C. — Residents in Irmo are gearing up to discuss again, the rezoning of Palmetto Park.
It's a neighborhood a local developer wants to expand.
Developers and the town are co-hosting a community meeting to hear concerns and revisit new plans Thursday.
"They don't have to do that, but I feel like that's an important step and probably a good suggestion for developers going forward, is to talk to the community and hear what their concerns are," Erik Sickinger, Irmo councilman said.
If the rezoning goes through, there could be 40 homes built next to the existing Palmetto Park neighborhood.
Concerns from neighbors include traffic congestion and wanting similar style homes.
"We are still trying to keep an open mind and are willing to listen to what they have to say and our skepticism comes from the fact that, how all of this first started with a rezoning hearing notice that went up on the property back in January and nothing was sent out prior to that. Nobody had any idea anything was going on," said Cindy Sullivan, HOA president and Palmetto Park resident.
At the end of January the town's planning commission recommended a single family zoning to council.
They've since unanimously approved that recommendation in the first reading and now they need a second reading approval of the zoning before pursuing next steps.
"We look at actual design plans, site plans and they go through review processes. Those review processes, we do some of them here through the town. We have another entity that helps with the permitting side," Courtney Dennis, town administrator said.
"This is a community where a lot of people have a lot of vested interest in their home, in what they understand and what they know and developers should absolutely understand the community that they are planning on expanding," Sickinger said.
The community meeting is at the town's municipal building Thursday March 3, 2022 at 6 p.m.