Category Archives: Development Issues

Development Issues, Planning, September 2025, Traffic & Safety

The Parker’s Kitchen Variance Request

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This Thursday, September 11th, the Aiken County Board of Appeals will hold a public hearing regarding an application for an exemption, or variance, to the legal requirement that driveways be 300 feet apart on a major thoroughfare—in this case Whiskey Road.

The applicant is the Drayton-Parker Company, from Savannah, Georgia, who plans to build a Parker’s Kitchen convenience store and gas station at the junction of Chukker Creek Road and Whiskey Road. In doing so, the company is proposing to build a driveway that is only 170 feet from the existing driveway at the South on Whiskey Event and Entertainment Venue and JC’s Seafood. It also proposes a deceleration lane on Whiskey Road that will begin only 30 feet from South on Whiskey’s driveway, creating a new safety concern on an already hazardous road.

by Don Moniak
September 10, 2025

Three months ago, the Drayton-Parker Company, owner of the Parker’s Kitchen convenience store and gas station chain, bought a pair of properties totaling 3.67 acres at the junction of Whiskey and Chukker Creek Roads. The company did so with the intention of building its fourth establishment in Aiken County. The plan is for an eight-pump (16 filling stations) gas station and a 5,700 square foot convenience store similar to its existing locations in northwest Aiken and North Augusta.

This is the second location on Whiskey Road sought by Parker’s. The first was at the junction of Stratford Drive and Whiskey Road. That plan did not move forward following Aiken City Council’s decision in June 2023 to let the proposal die by not voting on the matter. After that, the company moved a half a mile south to its newly planned location.

The latest rendition of a Parker’s Kitchen on Whiskey Road appears to be a done deal. The appropriate zoning, Urban Development (UD), is already in place; meaning that the planned use does not have to endure a public hearing before the Planning Commission. Aiken City Council approved sewer and water services at its September 23, 2024 meeting. (Pages 171-185) At that meeting, there was some discussion of traffic concerns and close proximity to nearby residences, but the concerns paled compared to the failed effort to build at Whiskey and Stratford.

There is one stumbling block for this Parker’s on Whiskey Road, and that is access from Whiskey Road. At issue is Section 24-2.12.9.(1) of Aiken County Code, which states:

“No more than one driveway shall be allowed for every 300 feet of street frontage on major thoroughfares.”

Parker’s plan is for a driveway on Whiskey Road that will only be 170 feet from the nearest existing driveway.

That nearest existing driveway is owned by the South on Whiskey Event and Entertainment Venue at 3197 Whiskey Road, an activity center that has operated since 1998 and includes a miniature golf course, an event center, JC’s Seafood restaurant, and The Classic Cone ice cream stand.

Parker’s Kitchen proposes a deceleration lane that begins only 30 feet south of the JC Seafood’s driveway. While the deceleration lane is planned for the right of way and does not encroach directly upon South on Whiskey’s property, the move is nonetheless an infringement upon the businesses—it greatly reduces the buffer between the roadway and the miniature golf course, and it negatively impacts the ability of customers to safely turn either way onto Whiskey Road. (see Figures 1-3)

Figure 1: “X” is approximate location of the start of the deceleration lane. South on Whiskey is outlined in red, Drayton-Parker’s property is outlined in blue.

Figure 2: Approximate location of the deceleration lane. South on Whiskey’s driveway is in the foreground. Chukker Creek intersection is in the far background.

Figure 3: Parker’s Kitchen site plan. South on Whiskey is to the north/left. The deceleration lane is in the far upper left. On the upper right is a right hand turn lane that Drayton-Parker also proposes. The right-in, right-out driveway in the upper left is 300 feet from the Chukker Creek Road intersection, and 170 feet from the South on Whiskey driveway, which is not shown in the drawing.



The deceleration lane will lead to a right turn access into Parker’s Kitchen. The reason for that proposed access point is to keep a sufficient distance (300 feet) from the intersection of Chukker Creek Road. But in the process, Parker’s proposes its driveway be only 170 feet from the South on Whiskey entrance—-nearly half the required 300 feet between driveways required by the County regulations; and thus the need for a variance from the regulation.

The criteria for a variance, as defined by Section 24-9.3.4 of the County Code, are four-fold:

1. “There must be extraordinary and exceptional conditions pertaining to the particular piece of property.”

Drayton-Parker argued, in their application, only that “sub-standard spacing exists,” a known condition when it applied for utilities services and when it bought the property. The circumstances are only exceptional because Parkers anticipates traffic levels that would dwarf another use; i.e. a medical office or a Dollar Store.

2. “These conditions do not generally apply to other property in the vicinity.”

Drayton-Parker has argued that “‘There are properties to the northwest that do not meet the 300’ driveway space.”

This is true for much of Whiskey Road, but not necessarily true for businesses that were established after the 2006-2007 time frame when the Highway Corridor Overlay (HCO) Ordinance was put into effect. The establishments that had to follow the driveway rules include Dollar General, Circle K, Mi Rancho, Lowe’s Foods, Fortress Storage, and Holiday Inn Express. In fact, Parker’s was prepared to adhere to this safety rule at its failed Stratford Drive location, and has adhered to the rule at every one of its other locations in Aiken County.

The driveway rule exists because too many driveways in close proximity were a contributing cause, if not a root cause, for the unsafe and congested conditions that characterized Whiskey Road twenty years ago. The safety regulation was put into place to avoid exacerbating that aspect of the problem.

3. Because of these conditions, the application of the rule in question “would effectively prohibit or unreasonably restrict the utilization of the property.”

Drayton-Parker argued that “The application of the ordinance to this property would prohibit access on S.C. Hwy 19 (Whiskey Road).” This appears to be the only criteria that the application meets in a clearcut manner.

4. The authorization of a variance will not be of substantial detriment to adjacent property or to the public good, and the character of the district will not be harmed by the granting of the variance.

Drayton-Parker claimed that a Traffic Impact Analysis showed that the project will “not have a negative impact on the adjacent properties.”

John Hyder, the owner of South on Whiskey and JC’s, disagrees, and is challenging the variance. He believes the deceleration lane is both dangerously located too close to his driveway, and that the increased difficulty of right hand turns from his driveway will deter business.

As he puts it:

“I am not against growth and development. I feel the codes and regulations were put in place to guide development in a safe and consistent manner. I just want developers to follow these rules.”

It appears that Drayton-Parker Company bought its property with the knowledge that it had to obtain an exemption to a traffic safety regulation in order to have access from Whiskey Road.

There is little question that its plans will have a detrimental impact on the adjacent business, South on Whiskey’s operations; the question is whether that detriment will be “substantial” and whether Drayton-Parker is deserving of an exemption that has not been granted to other entities on the Whiskey Road Highway Overlay.

(The Board of Appeals meeting is at 6:30 p.m. in the Sandlapper Room on the first floor of the County Administration Building at 1930 University Parkway. The application for the variance can be found on pages 38 to 46 in the agenda documents. )


Development Issues, Editorials, Nature News, September 2025

The Pond

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By Laura Lance
September 7, 2025

For anyone who might have traveled within a mile of USCA in late August on either Trolley Line Road or the Robert M. Bell Parkway and was hit with an unbearable, foul odor of something rotten, that was the smell of a pond and wetland habitat behind the Convocation Center. The pond and nearby vegetation had recently been plowed under and covered over by massive earth-moving equipment.  The myriad frogs, toads, turtles, snakes and wetland plants that called the pond home were smothered into an anaerobic stew of death, creating a stench so powerful that it could be smelled a mile away. 

So what kind of pond was this? Why was it there? How long had it been there?

Long enough to draw a diverse community of flora and fauna. My granddaughter spent many hours this summer visiting the pond and the nearby longleaf forest, whose paths she’s been exploring since she was eight.

ABOVE: A familiar path through the nearby longleaf forest in 2017.
BELOW: A patch of woods destroyed above the pond earlier this summer.

Over the summer, she watched as the cattails emerged from the boggy margin on the north end of the pond. She watched as the tadpoles grew into toads and into the large frogs who poked their heads above the water and watched her as she explored along the shore. She observed the day-to-day economies of the numerous birds, reptiles, amphibians, wetland plants, spiders and insects that relied on this serendipitous little ecosystem — an incidental pond formed, perhaps, during an earlier phase of development on this landscape.

My granddaughter’s primary interest was in studying the harvester ants who have likely always occupied this land, and have occupied her interest since the age of four. She already understood their days were numbered. She’d already witnessed acre after acre of longleaf forest and its native inhabitants destroyed along the Trolleyline corridor in recent years. All the more urgency to study them and appreciate these native communities before the developer’s maw rolled in to consume them.

ABOVE: The harvester ants carrying a few of the seeds (millet, sunflower and staghorn sumac) that were brought to them to learn more about their preferences.

From a legal standpoint, there were probably no laws broken — or, at least, no laws that anyone would be inclined to enforce. It is illegal, for instance, to kill snakes on public property in South Carolina without a permit. Perhaps the killing was permitted, but even if it weren’t, it’d take a team of lawyers and activists to produce the evidence and enforce the $200 fine for breaking that law.

It would have been likewise illegal for the driver of the earth-moving machinery to hop into a car and transport one of those frogs across the state line for sale in Augusta — but not against the law to plow under and bury alive an entire community of snakes, turtles, frogs, toads, lizards, ants, catails and numerous other wetland plants.

A sampling of the daily animal tracks left in the sandy path near the pond.

My point here is not about laws, but about the ethics. My granddaughter well understands the pragmatics of land use; she understands how most of Aiken County’s “undeveloped” lands are but a breath away from becoming “developed” lands, their trees and sometimes extraordinary understory habitats destroyed by one fell swoop after another. She was well aware that the clock was ticking for this pond and its inhabitants. What she wasn’t prepared for was the violent end they’d meet. 

From an ethical standpoint, this was wrong. It was just as wrong as it would be to toss gunny sacks full of puppies or box turtles into a pond. I am not here to say how the situation at the pond off Trolleyline should have been handled; only to state that it was grossly wrong and to hope that —- since there are apparently no laws against displacing and sometimes killing wildlife in the course of development — by putting these words to paper, it might foster a greater consciousness toward the ethics of our relationships with the natural world.

The pond, before and after.

Correction: The last paragraph has been edited to say “displacing and sometimes killing wildlife in the course of development.”

August 2025, Editorials, Over-development, Trees and Deforestation

Reflections on a Walk in the Woods

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By Christopher Hall
August 31, 2025

Buck was little more than a year old in 2007 and only in his forever home for about 3 months when he and I went exploring in Hitchcock Woods. I had been to the woods on several occasions, mostly taking that familiar path from the main entrance at South Boundary, Devil’s Backbone, to the Horse Show Ring. We walked and walked, one path leading to another.

After a while, I noticed the sun was starting to set. I decided it was time to head back. It was then that I also discovered that we were lost. Did I bring a map? No! Why would I need a map?! After all, this was ‘just’ Hitchcock Woods! I tried to retrace our steps and was moving along quickly when we crossed paths with someone. Directions were shared, and the fellow admirer of the woods went his way, while Buck and I went ours, trying to find our way out. It didn’t take long before I  realized that those well-intended directions just didn’t make sense.

All the while, the sun was slowly sinking off in the distance. I stopped. I felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere fast. Well, I was moving fast but no closer to where the hike started. The sky around me in those woods grew darker, and I made a decision: the woods aren’t that big, and if I headed in one direction long enough, I’d find my way out. With that in mind, I looked up towards the westward-setting sun, then set my course and started making tracks towards the south.

I found myself at the Palmetto Golf Course. Considering the day of the week and time of day, I felt the odds were slim of running across anyone, so I took the shortcut across the course. Getting to the other side, I reached a chainlink fence. I lifted Buck on my shoulder, climbed to the top of the fence, dropped him over on the other side and hurled myself over too. There on Whiskey Road, we walked along the sidewalk until arriving back at dirt lot at South Boundary. The sun had set, the stars were starting to shine, and Buck and I had our first of many adventures together.

_________

Recently, I started feeling my levels of stress rising and rising. It had been a while since I’d paddled or gone hiking anywhere, and there’s no better cure for stress than time spent outdoors. With that in mind, after work one day, I made a quick stop by the store, then headed to Hitchcock Woods at the Stable on the Woods entrance, which is located off of Dibble Road. With a quick change of clothes, I pulled on my boots and started down Cathedral Aisle. As I neared Black Gum Pond, I heard a Barred Owl in the distance. it wasn’t long before I felt that shift inside. I slowly started to unwind. Walking along, I cut off on the trail right before Black Gum Pond and started the slow climb uphill, continuing on until I reached High Point Line. In the back of my mind, I wanted to put in an hour’s hike, and I didn’t care what trails I took.

I’ve spent a lot of time in the woods over the years since that early adventure with Buck. Section by section, I learned the main routes that ran through the woods, north to south, and east to west. My general mode when I start another walk is to jump right in and follow whatever path seems to pull me in. I intend to get lost. The key, though, is that now I take a map — an important tool, since not every trail connecting the named trails has a name. I might head out on Coker Springs Road, but after heading down the main trail, I’ll take a left or a right, going deeper into areas with which I’m unfamiliar. Those unnamed, connector trails have the potential to make the day interesting.

Hiking along High Point Line, I cut across on another path and after a while, I noticed someone walking towards me. About that time, a light rain started to fall. We exchanged greetings and both agreed that the rain was a welcome event on this hot humid evening. She continued on her way and I on mine. The rain started falling harder, and I continued on my way, veering to the right on a path that seemed to offer some tree cover. As the rain came down, I looked over my shoulder and could see the pine trees on a slight incline with the sun shining through. The rain coming down made it a magical scene.

Walking along, I pulled out the map, but the rain made it difficult to read. I knew where I wanted to land so that I could connect back to Cathedral Aisle, and I had a sense of how long it would take to circle around to the start. I pulled out my phone to look at the time and noticed a missed call. Standing under some trees, with the rain falling down on me and all around, my friend and I talked about our days. I mentioned I was hiking in the woods with the intention of diverting from weights and gym workouts to connect with the outdoors for a while. My spirit needed it. They agreed. We said goodbye and I continued on. It wasn’t long before the trail I was on connected with another, and I recognized where I was – the Barton’s Pond Bridge, just as I planned.

The rain had stopped, and I started down Cathedral Aisle towards the parking lot and my car. In between the tall trees, the sun shone down, lighting everything it touched with a muted glow. Looking off into the trees, I stopped. Looking back between the trees, a doe was standing there frozen in motion. We stared at each other for a couple minutes, before she decided two’s a crowd. Off, deeper into the woods she went. I continued on, passing by Black Gum Pond. It wasn’t long before I was back in the parking lot. Drenched with both rain and sweat, I peeled out of my shirt and boots, then slipped on a t-shirt and Chacos. It’s handy to have some things in the car, just in case.

What strikes me and, yet, is not all surprising is how those things that were weighing on my mind as I went into the woods, somehow lifted out of my head and dissipated along those trails. While it may seem like some kind of mystery, science has confirmed what many of us knew for many years: time spent in nature is good for our physical and mental health. 

Photographs by Wren Dexter..

Reflecting on this, I am taken back to the early days of the pandemic. I was an essential worker. When everyone was told to stay home, I found myself driving along roads where no other cars were seen. All along these roads, I would see acre after acre of clear cutting of trees. On these same roads I saw deer, raccoons, dogs and other animals, whose lives had been lost by the thud of a bumper. It was 2020 and I knew our area was going to explode in growth. During this time, I thought about our county commissioners. I thought about what we might talk about if we were to drive around the county. Maybe we’d talk about favorite foods or restaurants in the area. Or maybe we’d talk about music. Food and music may not save the world, but in a time when people can’t seem to agree on much, maybe we could find common grounds on these simple things.

I might also ask about their favorite places in Aiken County, and maybe we’d drive by there. After a while, I’d talk about what the natural world means to me; what I’ve learned from it over the years, and how it’s given me solace at times of grief. I’d talk about the damage to our communities when our natural world is only viewed as a commodity to be used up. Some of the bedrock environmental policies, supported and passed by Republicans and Democrats alike, have been weakened over the years through industry-supported attacks, and what we lose now can’t be undone. 

What makes a place a great place to live? Hands down, it’s the trees, the rivers and lakes, and access to these special places that pulls people in. It’s about quality of life and recognizing that if we don’t protect these places, given all the ways they benefit us, who would we be?

Epilogue

It’s a little after 5 PM on Friday and I’m at a stop light on Powderhouse Road. As I look to the left and to the right on Whiskey Road, there’s a line of cars as far as I can see. Traffic is also lined up behind me on Powderhouse. It’s not unusual. And what these long lines of cars have to do with the clearcutting of trees is everything. It’s called sprawl.

When a developer proposes a project, they are supposed to submit a traffic study that looks at trips per day. Any development on or near Whiskey Road (or other high-volume roads) would automatically trigger a study. Next, the city engineer would review the study with a lens on current traffic levels and make recommendations. The review would then go to the planning commission and city council, who would then make a decision based on the study and recommendations from the city engineer. On a daily basis, I see evidence that whatever traffic studies were completed, and whatever recommendations were made by the city engineer, must have been ignored. How else could our roads be so far beyond capacity?  There are solutions to this, and it’s called citizen involvement.

With the onset of explosive growth in the Central Savannah River Area, why are there few opportunities for citizens to weigh in on impacts to the places we call home? The City of Aiken has an Energy & Environment committee with two openings that have gone unfilled for a long time. There’s also a Citizen’s Advisory Committee that’s part of the Augusta Regional Transportation Study Metropolitan Planning Organization (ARTS MPO). The last I knew, there was no chair for the committee and no non-elected official on that committee. The whole purpose of the citizen’s advisory committee, which services Richmond and Aiken Counties, as well as part of Columbia and Edgefield Counties, is to advise on transportation planning across the CSRA. And how transportation planning takes place has everything to do with the land. 

With the total population of over half-a-million people in Aiken, Richmond, and Columbia Counties, there are no other citizen committees to advocate for our natural resources in this area. This has to change.

_________________

ABOVE: Whiskey Road gridlock on the southside. BELOW: Another longleaf pine forest clear-cut in 2024 on hillside acreage above Bridge Creek to expand the area subdivisions over to Trollelline Road, a road with already-existing issues of stormwater runoff, erosion and hazardous traffic conditions in the wake of growth and new developments over the past decade.

City Government, Elections, Planning

Update to Local Politics and Planning 2025

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(An update on City Elections and the rewrite of the City of Aiken’s Zoning Ordinance; reported in Local Politics and Planning: 2025.)

by Don Moniak
July 25, 2025

Aiken City Council Election Campaigns Begin

Aiken City Council will have a different look in 2026.

Municipal elections are scheduled for November 4, 2025. Four City Council seats are open this year: Districts 2, 4, 5, and 6.

Aiken2025, a newly formed, nonpartisan group whose goal is to raise awareness of the elections, promote a set of values for candidates, and create a forum for candidates, has published this map of the electoral districts.

Councilman Ed Girardeau (District 4), Councilwoman Andrea Gregory, (District 5) and Councilman Ed Woltz (District 6) all opted not to seek reelection. Councilwoman Lessie Price (District 2) will be the only incumbent on the ballot in November. Unless a strong challenger emerges via petition or write-in ballot, she will be reelected.

The Primary

Only the District 6 race will feature a primary; between Republican candidates Barbara Morgan and Clayton Clarkson.

Ms. Morgan served as the Solicitor (equivalent to a District Attorney) for the Second Circuit– Aiken, Barnwell, and Bamberg Counties– from 1990 to 2009; having been elected four times in total. Most recently she has served on the City’s Design Review Board after being appointed by Councilwoman Andrea Gregory in February 2024. For more information, visit her Facebook page and website.

Clayton Clarkson has served as Councilwoman Kay Brohl’s appointee on the City’s Planning Commission since February 2020. For more information, visit his Facebook page and profile on Aiken2025.com.

Candidates in the General Election

Five candidates will only appear on the general election ballot.

Jacob Ellis is running as the Democrat for the District 4 seat. He has been a regular participating attendee at Council meetings, and ran as a write-in candidate in 2021. For more information see his Facebook page and website.

Peter Messina is running as the Republican for the District 4 seat; He has served as Councilwoman Andrea Gregory’s appointee to the Planning Commission since February of 2021. For more information see his profile at Aiken2025.com.

Braylen Waldo is running as the Democrat for the District 5 seat. He is a newcomer to city politics. For more information see his Facebook page.

Kent Cubbage is running as the Republican for the District 5 seat. He served on the City’s Planning Commission from 2013 to 2017. For more information, see his profile at Aiken2025.com.

Lisa Smith is running for the District 6 seat as a Democrat. In 2022, she was a leader in the Do It Right Alliance movement that defeated Project Pascalis; and has continued in an activist role in city politics. She will face the winner of the August 12th primary between Clarkson and Morgan.

The remaining schedule of the elections is as follows:

July 28 to August 8: Early voting for primary
August 12: District 6 Primary.
August 21: Closing of entries for nomination by petition. 
November 4: Election Day.

Status of the Rewrite of the City of Aiken’s Zoning Ordinance

The next City Council will be responsible for helping to craft and ultimately approve a rewrite of the Zoning Ordinance, which has been retitled as the “Unified Development Ordinance” (UDO). The UDO will govern all future development for the foreseeable future; it will help determine what Aiken will look like in the coming decades.

In January 2024, the City of Aiken issued a Request for Qualifications for a consultant to facilitate a rewriting of the Zoning Ordinance. In July 2024, the Chicago-based firm of Houseal and Lavigne was chosen by a committee of four city employees–City Manager Stuart Bedenbaugh, Assistant City Manager Mary Tilton, Planning Department Director Marya Moultrie, and Planner Richard Cowick. City Council had no input on the selection process; it only validated the final choice.

Information on the bids was recently obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request.

Three firms submitted bids: Chicago-based Houseal and Lavigne, Charleston and Kansas City-based White Smith Cousino, and Charlotte-based Freese and Nichols.

The latter only submitted a four-page skeletal bid and received the lowest collective grade of 311 out of 400 points. Their monetary bid was $179,000.

According to the FOIA response, White Smith Cousino worked as consultants during preparation of the City’s 2017-2027 Comprehensive Plan. The firm’s bid and their website indicates widespread experience with communities across the Southeast.

Their 38-page submittal contained a detailed schedule and breakdown of tasks for completing the job; including a commitment of 160 hours of “stakeholder and public engagement.” They also made reference to the importance of historic preservation.

Houseal and Lavigne has more limited experience in the Southeast, and had no previous experience with Aiken. Their 26-page submittal contained no details of the tasks at hand; it was predominantly a review of the firm’s background. No reference was made to historic preservation issues.

The City awarded the job to Houseal and Lavigne for $208,000. Planning Director Moultrie and Planner Cowick both gave the firm’s proposal a perfect grade of 100.

Overall, White Smith Cousino scored a collective numeric grade of 339 out of 400; whereas Houseal and Lavigne scored a 379. (see review files in FOIA response).

The monetary bid by White Smith Cousino is unknown because City officials claim it cannot be found and thus was not part of the FOIA response.

A Rocky Start

To date, Houseal and Lavigne has experienced a rocky start, largely due to the minimal amount of public involvement prior to their first presentations on initial recommendations.

The firm and the Planning Department hosted a single, two-hour long, informational public drop-in session at the City Municipal Building on a cold rainy evening this past February. It only attracted 26 people. No similar session was held on the Southside of Aiken.

A survey was also posted online. As of June 2nd, after four months, only 125 people had completed the survey.

In early May, Houseal and Lavigne and the Planning Department began to present initial recommendations through the use of powerpoint presentations; whereas the final recommendation documents remained (and continue to remain) in undisclosed drafts.

The firm’s first stop was a Design Review Board (DRB) work session on May 8th; where Board members expressed concerns over a proposal to shift more power to the Planning Department and redraw historic overlay boundaries. Another issue raised was the development of recommendations without any initial consultation with the Board. (A video of the two-hour presentation and discussion is available here.)

According to the sanitized minutes of the sometimes chaotic meeting, Board members also expressed concern about the lack of preparation time and failure to provide an entire report before the meeting. Two months later, the final recommendation report on the historic districts remains unavailable on the Planning Department’s UDO webpage.

The next stop was a June 2nd joint work session with City Council and the Planning Commission; which was attended by approximately 30 citizens. (An audio of that meeting can be found here and the meeting minutes can be found here).

City Manager Stuart Bedenbaugh began the meeting by acknowledging that reception to the process had not been positive; stating that:

“We have received comments from all sectors, and they have been largely negative.”

The issue of the lack of meaningful citizen involvement was summarized by the first speaker, Aiken resident Linda Johnson:

She stated she thought the presentation had some good work and a lot of great ideas. However, she does have some issues with the process that has happened so far. The process so
far did not include interviewing the Design Review Board, the Board of Zoning Appeals or other appointees to other commissions, and stakeholders. She was baffled how they could come up with all the strengths and weaknesses without having talked to those people. (From meeting minutes, pages 6-7)

Johnson also asked for a show of hands from Council and Commission members who had taken the online UDO survey. Only one of the twelve officials, Councilwoman Kay Brohl, acknowledged taking the survey.

The citizen involvement issue was reiterated by Councilwoman Lessie Price, who admonished the consultant and the Planning Department that “it is not always about asking folks to come to us, we have to go to them.”

As a result of this myriad of concerns regarding involvement of both appointed boards and commissions, Planning Department Director Marya Moultrie announced an extension of the public input period at Council’s July 14th meeting.

The survey remains on the UDO website, the drop in boards are now stationed in the Municipal Building, and there are plans to replicate or move them to the Odell Weeks Center.

The next steps for Houseal and Lavigne are to meet with “focus groups,” of which only the Planning Commission is identified by name; and to complete its recommendations, which are now a few months late.

Overall, the process is approximately six to eight months behind schedule and will not be completed in 2026; meaning that the next City Council is likely to have the final say.









City Government, Development Issues, June 2025

Developing the Powderhouse Connector

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(An update to Development Road, which reviewed the various agreements between the City of Aiken and large landowners in the area between Powderhouse Road and Whiskey Road, and the associated potential for growth. This update focuses on the more definitive plans that have emerged since that time).


by Don Moniak
June 11, 2025
(Updated July 7, 2025, based on June 2025 City of Aiken Engineering and Utilities Development Report, pages 433-434 of City Council agenda packet.

Update, August 22, 2025: According to meeting minutes of City Council’s August 11, 2025 work session, the proposed subdivision adjacent to Thoroughbred Run (Summerall-Ware tract, #9 on the map) has been withdrawn by the developer due to “stormwater matters.” )

A groundbreaking ceremony for the long-planned Whiskey Road to Powderhouse Road Connector Project (Figure 1) was held in late February 2025. Phase 1, a new 1.0 mile road connecting Whiskey Road to Corporate Parkway and Centennial Avenue, will be completed first; there remain some right of ways to procure for the 1.7 mile Phase II. (1)

In addition to the long-stated goal of traffic congestion relief, the Connector roads will also facilitate the development of approximately 1,500 to 1,700 new housing units (2) across ~325 acres, and 24 acres of commercial development; including a 160-room, four-story hotel. All of these parcels either have been, or will be, annexed into the City of Aiken (Figure 2).

(For a point of comparison, Trolley Run Station northwest of Aiken presently has about 1,100 residences.)

Figure 1. Proposed routes of Whiskey Road-Powderhouse Road Connector project.
Figure 2: Areas to be developed along Whiskey Road-Powderhouse Road Connector(s). 1. New 160-room, 4-story Hampton Inn, approved and under construction. 2. City of Aiken right of ways obtained to date;with black arrows indicating general location of right of ways that remain necessary to obtain. 3. Fry/McClean property. No plans presented to date but the City has promised sewer capacity for up to 600 homes. According to the June 2025 Development Report, a 461 “mixed” housing unit development is in the “concept stage” of approval; and a complex of a 90-unit Senior Living and 35-unit Memory Care development is in the “pre-concept stage.” 4. Clifton Place, annexed in 2024, with no concept plan submitted to date but a 161-townhomes development is in the “review stage.” (To the right (east) is The Sanctuary, a nearly completed subdivision of 125 single-family homes.) 5. Future City of Aiken regional detention pond and park. 6. Summerall (former Watson property). Concept plan approved for 124 single-family homes (eastern half). Up to 350 apartments are planned in western half. 7. Summerall (Watson property) commercial district. 8. Summerall (Watson property), where 130 townhome units are in the planning stages. 9. Summerall (Ware property) . Annexation request and Concept Plan for 330 housing units–167 single-family homes 163 townhomes) submitted this past month and approved by the Planning Commission. This proposal has since been withdrawn, but the property remains available for development. (click to enlarge)


Approved, Proposed, and Pending Developments to Date

The Hampton Inn

The 160-room, four-story Hampton Inn hotel is currently under construction on what will be the far west end of the Connector Road.

The 8.0-acre parcel, of which three acres is dedicated to the hotel, was annexed in October 2022. City Council then approved a concept plan for the hotel in April 2023 (pages 105-125). Although accessible from Whiskey Road, one driveway for the Hotel will be via the Connector Road; whose future presence substantially influenced the location.

Summerall Place: The Watson Tract

Annexation of 125.35 acres of forested land formerly known as the Watson Tract and soon to be known as Summerall Place was approved by Aiken City Council in February 2024. This was divided into 16 acres for commercial use and 109 acres for residential use.

At the same time, Council approved the Planned Commercial Concept Plan for the 16 acres of commercial space, and the Planned Residential Concept Plan for Phase One of the residential portion—which is perhaps the most thorough, thoughtful, and extensive housing plans to be submitted in recent years (pages 70-216). For example, the developer expressed its intention to leave any lands with slopes greater than 15% untouched, stating that these conditions are too costly, in both financial and environmental terms, to develop.

Phase One is for 124 single family homes, while the subsequent phases involve 350 apartment units and 103 townhomes, producing a total of 577 new housing units.

Summerall Place: The Ware Tract

In January 2025, a proposal known as Thoroughbred Landing, located on what is now referred to as the Ware tract and involving 480 housing units (221 townhomes 259 single-family homes), was brought before the Planning Commission. The Commission voted unanimously to recommend that City Council deny approving the development . The developer then opted out of the project.(3)

This month, the Summerall Place developer, CSRA Development Company, had an application (pages 58-134) before the Planning Commission to extend its planned residential community from the Watson tract onto the Ware tract. Instead of 480 housing units, CSRA proposes 330. The Commission unanimously approved the annexation and concept plan on June 10th. City Council gave its first round of approval on June 23rd.

Across the Watson and Ware tracts, CSRA Development is proposing to leave 81 of its total 220 acres in various renditions of open space—including small parks, amenity areas, and greenspace on steeper slopes. The development will also benefit from the City’s investment in a park surrounding its new detention pond.

Clifton Place

Clifton Place will be situated on 37 acres of forest and farmland southeast of the Summerall Place development. The property was annexed in October 2024, but no concept plan has been submitted. The annexation request included a reference to 300 new residents, indicating 75-100 new home units. However, the June 2025 Engineering and Utilities Development report (4) shows a 161-unit townhomes development in the review process at the Planning Department. It has yet to be submitted to the Planning Commission.

The Fry/McLean Property

The Fry/McLean Parcel, located on 72 acres of farmland, has yet to be annexed and no concept plans have been made public. The owners’ sewer access agreement with the City of Aiken allows for up to 600 housing units.

According to the June 2025 Engineering and Utilities Development Report (4), a 461-unit “mixed” development is in the “concept” stage and a medical/residential center of 90 Senior Living units and 35 Memory Care units is in the “pre-concept stage.”

Totals

The collective, tentative total for the area is now estimated at 1500-1700 housing units. The mix of housing types will be unknown until the 451 housing unit types in the Fry/McLean property plans are revealed. Outside of those 451 units, 291 single-family homes, 327 townhomes, and 475 apartments (including 125 senior living and memory care units) are in various stages of planning and review.

Congestion Relief or More Customers for Whiskey Road Businesses?

While Powderhouse Connector will provide some congestion relief for the Whiskey Road corridor, developing subdivisions for upwards of 1,500 to 1,700 new housing units will, quite obviously, simultaneously increase traffic and congestion on the busiest section of the Whiskey Road commercial strip. This section is expected to grow busier as the new Aiken Towne Center gradually is finalized on the former Aiken Mall site.

An April 2023 email (Figure 3) between former Economic Development Director Tim O’Briant and National Retail Strategies representative Matt Jaeger illustrates this reality. In it, O’Briant asked for data regarding the attraction of the redeveloping former Aiken Mall area to future renters and home owners occupying the probable Powderhouse Connector residential developments.

The question made good sense, as the only nearby grocery option north of the Connector on East Pine Log Road are dollar stores. As for other retail and dining options, Whiskey Road will remain a center of commerce for the foreseeable future. The developments along the Connector are, quite simply, viewed as an economic stimulus for the Whiskey Road area.

Figure 3: April 2023 email exchange regarding the economic potential of future Powderhouse Connector developments. (click to enlarge)


Footnotes:

(1) According to a memorandum from the Augusta Regional Transportation Study’s (ARTS) South Carolina Policy Subcommittee, the current project costs are $38 million. The memo states the intent of the project is to “provide relief to the congested Whiskey Road corridor by opening additional routes to East Pine Log Road and Centennial Parkway.” 

A City of Aiken memorandum released in September 2023 states that funding for purchasing road right of ways is derived from Capital Project Sales Tax revenues which are allocated for “Whiskey Road Corridor improvements and congestions relief.” (Aiken City Council Agenda Packet for September 11, 2023, page 412). 

The tens of millions of dollars to be spent on Whiskey Road congestion relief will also provide access through nearly 400 acres of undeveloped farm and forest land in unincorporated Aiken County; where upwards of and to those eventual, multiple residential developments. Any developments in unincorporated areas which utilize city water and sewer services will eventually be annexed into the City of Aiken. 

In addition, the City of Aiken intends to subsidize development by constructing and maintaining two major stormwater retention or detention reservoirs, and installing essential sewer and water infrastructure to insure adequate capacity for planned residential neighborhoods. 

(2) These figures do not include the nearly completed 125-home subdivision known as “The Sanctuary” along Powderhouse Road, across from and east of the future “Clifton Place.”

(3) The Thoroughbred Landing development faced an uphill battle, with the City’s Planning Commission taking the unusual step at its January 14, 2024 meeting of unanimously recommending that City Council deny the application (2:37 to 3:30 of meeting).

During the contentious meeting, Chairman Ryan Reynolds informed the developer that “there is more work to be done here.” That was before area residents came forward to raise concerns about the original plan to build 259 single family homes and 221 townhomes, raising concerns about heavy traffic impacts, stormwater runoff, and effects on the quality of life of nearby residents.

The developer withdrew from the project rather than submit it to City Council. As a result of the Planning Commission’s actions, a less dense and less intrusive proposal to extend the Summerall development was forthcoming.

(4) The June 2025 Engineering and Utilities Development Report (click to enlarge)