Aiken City Council will have its first reading of an ordinance to approve a concept plan for a property at Neilson Street off Dougherty Road during its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday, August 14.
The owner of the property is Wellers Ridge SC, LLC. According to the first page of the memorandum, (found on page 40 of the 565-page agenda package for Monday night’s Aiken City Council meeting), the property is currently undeveloped with extensive tree coverage. The developer is proposing 60 multi-family rental units and a club house on this 5.91-acre parcel.
Concerns have been raised among area residents regarding overdevelopment, traffic congestion, and the potential effects of this development on existing issues of stormwater drainage and flooding. Citizens are organizing in opposition to more development in this area. Petitions are being drawn, signs being made, the media is engaged, and a large turnout is expected for Monday night’s meeting. Below are two letters received this morning from local citizens.
Letter from Mary Camlet-Agresta:
There is a continuance of aggressive building with no sign of relief. This one is an accident waiting to happen. As I sadly watched the concept plan progress to the City Council, I reached out to the people who were having issues, one being major flooding.
I spoke with the owner of University Medical Association first. I explained how I watched her at the meeting. I told her that I and Takin Aiken will stand with her. She passed my information on to the mother, Ann, whose property is on Dougherty Road. The storm in July had left her land (no structure on the property) submerged in water. I and other members of Takin Aiken met with Ann and her 2 children.
We looked at the property, the very old and neglected pipes, and the never-maintained retention pond. The property is County, but the retention pond is City. So, the failure to maintain the retention pond by the City, caused an overflow of water to block Dougherty Road and proceed onto the County property, which was under contract, but was canceled after the flooding. All of this excessive water now is a result of the under construction new build on Neilson Street.
There were many trees removed that helped, in the past, absorb a large portion of the rain water. Now the developer wants to add another 60 units with a club house on 5.91 acres, plus sandwich one neighbors property with two roads, one on each side. Never mind the additional traffic flow on Dougherty Road this will cause. The infrastructure MUST be addressed first before additional building of any kind takes place.
We will be at the City Council meeting on Monday, August 14, 2023 to oppose the concept plan of the 60 units and club house. How many more trees will be removed? How many more properties will be flooded? How long will Dougherty Road be closed? How much more traffic?
I hope everyone that reads this, and has had the opportunity to drive on Dougherty Road, understands that safety come first for the citizens of Aiken.
Mary Camlet-Agresta
Takin Aiken
Aiken, SC
____________________________
Letter from Diane Salsitz:
More construction and the lack of planning appear to be in the plans again —without concern for citizen’s safety or their well being. Businesses on Dougherty could be affected as well. Traffic on Dougherty is horrible now. Ask anyone who uses it, they’ll say the same. And yet, there are plans for two more streets to turn onto this crowded, narrow road. Can’t help but wonder if anyone on planning/zoning committee has traveled it.
Diane Salsitz
Aiken, SC
I doubt you can get it stopped. But, hope you can.
The last thing the City needs is residential development. Residential development is a tax drain. Commercial development is what provides a positive tax base. Commercial development on this site would result in much less traffic than adding 60-120 vehicles. Development of the site will happen. The lesser of two evils is for that road and location is commercial development.
Also, any development should not be allowed to do what the adjacent apartment project did and that is just clear it all of the trees (ok, one or two remained). If they approve apartments, they should require something like 5 existing mature trees for every unit developed be kept. Some other ratio is needed for commercial development. But, the point is to keep so many trees as to not see the development. This is happening with the shopping center at Woodside – all of the trees along Silver Bluff Road are being kept…at least it looks like that is the case. And the shopping center on Whiskey Road has kept the trees along Whiskey – albeit they removed most of the trees along Powderhouse.
Regardless of what is developed, there should be no access points along Dougherty. Those are small parcels. The main parcel and frontage is along Neilson Street. Access should be limited to one curb cut along Neilson Street.
My two cents.