By Laura Lance
February 2, 2024

Is it Groundhog Day again already? Seems like only yesterday we were reeling from the shock of the Williamsburg Street-Farmers Market fiasco. Before that, it was Project Pascalis. And before that, it was the Powderhouse Connector, which, unlike the other two, at least provided public hearings, even as the end product leaves us to do little more than fasten our seatbelts and gape at the destruction and chaos that will unfold from this 400-acre plot over the next several years. Perhaps the Powderhouse Connector can serve as a cautionary tale on the importance of paying closer attention.

So here we go again, this time with the City prepared to rush headlong with a plan to improve one of Aiken’s gems, the lovely, historic Smith Hazel Park, by destroying 68 trees and bulldozing the land to comply with an idea drawn from wish lists collected buffet-style by the City. Why wasn’t a public hearing held to both inform the public of these plans and to provide a forum for public input — input that would then become part of the public record, available for all to see?

As-is, citizens have been forced this week to file FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests to see the contents of those wish lists that the City collected over the past year from citizens who weren’t given the benefit of the facts; forced to file FOIA requests to see the records of a public hearing that never happened.

What comments might City leadership have heard from the public, had they divulged the facts about the 68 trees, the bulldozers, and the unintended consequences of this plan — erosion, stormwater runoff, pollution, noise, and the loss of summer shade, aesthetics, and quality of life?

In the absence of communication from the City, we’re left to wonder. Why not plan a walking track over at the 25-acre Perry Memorial Park located across the street from Smith Hazel? Why are there no basketball courts, tennis courts, pickleball courts and soccer fields at the 100-acre Northside park property over on Hwy One? Why the impetus to shoehorn all of the northside amenities into the 5-acre Smith Hazel park? 

The way out of this time loop, which has City leadership creating plans in a vacuum, (the citizens for whom they work too far removed from their purview to be seen or heard), is through public hearings. A public hearing should be the standard for any project that proposes to improve a place by destroying it.