LEXINGTON, S.C. — Lexington County residents all agree, life on the lake is nice.
But for people looking to move to Lake Murray, new development ordinances started on Wednesday, December 1.
This includes the entire north shore of the lake, Lexington County properties lakefront to the county lines of Newberry and Richland. The southside of the lake ranges from Lake Murray dam to Shull Island and it moves southward to US-1.
"As that density-per-acre goes up, the open space also increases," said Todd Cullum, Lexington County Council Chair.
Residents say the boom of people moving here is overpowering the current zoning rules.
"It disturbs me that we have so much traffic and it was the result of so many housing complexes being built in a small area. It's obvious that no one planned that area," Cassandra Fralix, Lexington resident said. "We have to be more concerned about how we grow."
Council members have been noticing and working on these revisions to the ordinance since May 2021.
Open space is not based on homes per acre, but lot size. It is a sliding scale with larger lots having less open space requirements within the overlay.
"All of us, we need that. If you've ever gone across the dam, there's always numbers of people walking that dam," Fralix said.
The open space can include things like a water feature, common area space, pool, clubhouse, cabana or athletic field.
The road corridor buffer varies and is county-wide. 50 feet is for designated scenic corridors and 30 feet are for roads not designated as scenic corridors for regulated subdivisions, which can be included in that open space requirement.
And now, instead of large scale properties not being able to exceed 25 acres at a time when clearing a site for construction, it's 20 acres. This rule's approval is pending within the Land Development Manual.
This is making more breathing room for an already highly populated town.
The Lexington County Council says that there are already more than 7,000 dwelling units, including apartment units with plotted lots throughout the county that have been accepted for review through the old ordinance. These include units in the past year's pipeline.
However, starting on December 10, 2021 the moratorium expires and beginning December 13, 2021 construction companies that want to build commercial or residential must follow the new rules.