The Ant Hill Syndrome Is Coming To Aiken

Aiken, and its charming and unique 100-years old historic district, the backdrop for carriage driving, horses under saddle, people strolling and/or walking dogs, and quiet sleepy streets, is on the verge of becoming forever transformed into clusters of high rise buildings resembling the activity and architecture of giant ant hills. The comfortable mixture of stately homes and cozy cottages behind thick mature shrubs and ambling brick fences is about to give way to streets heavily laden with automobiles and leading into paved and stripped parking lots belonging to pods of 35-foot erections that bear no resemblance to the spirit of the Old Aiken Master Plan.

The city of Aiken Planning Commission, in a vote of four to two, approved an application on March 14 to rezone the 1.59 acres at 254 Williamsburg (bounded by Colleton on the south and Orangeburg on the east) from Light Industry to RS-6 (low density residential). The property, owned by Richard Verenes, will be sold for almost a million dollars to Douglas Jones, who plans to build 8 detached homes on the site.

The motion to approve the application was made by Kay Bowles. With the exception of Wilkins Byrd and Ed Giobbe, the Planning Commission supported the petition of Mr. Jones. In a March 8 memorandum to the Planning Commission, the Planning Director, Ed Evans, suggested that rezoning the property to RS-6 would be consistent with the Future Land Use Map of the Old Aiken Master Plan, which calls for increasing low-density detached single-family residential use in the area. Mr. Evans also indicated that the application conforms with the preservation and “uses of nearby property and character of the surrounding area”. Additionally, the memorandum suggests that the application is an improvement over the substandard warehouse that has stood on the property for years. The run down warehouse had been the subject of complaints to city officials on numerous occasions.

Bill Reynolds of the Planning Commission argued that if the property remained zoned Light Industry, it could be turned into a parking garage, taxi barn or other such business.

Inquiries from attending citizens revealed that no drawings or illustrations were available for the 8 homes which Mr. Jones plans to erect on the property. There would be an architectural committee which consists of only Mr. Jones and his partner. Members of the commission could not tell the audience what the spatial requirements of building/property size are for RS-6. The only restrictions for the buildings are that the height be no more than 35 feet. When asked why he did not request to have the property rezoned to RS-10 or RS-15, which would have resulted in fewer houses on the site, Mr. Jones said it was not in his economic plan. It is worthy of note that “the RS-6 zone does not provide for approval of the design of a project”.

Further, RS-6 zoning allows City Public Projects and Minor Utilities. With special exception, RS-6 zoning also allows pleasure stables, community services, colleges, schools, religious institutions, golf courses, bed and breakfasts, and Type 2 Home Occupations. The solution to this problem may be that the city should become the new owner, paying fair market value for the property.

Comments from attending citizens included criticisms of the claim that the proposal would support the Old Aiken Master Plan and that 8 houses on such a small area was in keeping with the character of the surrounding neighborhoods. One attendee said that the application involved, at best, Cluster Zoning. Another attendee stated that it is highly unlikely someone would pay nearly a million dollars for the site and then put a parking garage or taxi barn on it, as Bill Reynolds suggested might be the case unless the application was approved. Others asked the commission to consider that rezoning the property as RS-10 or 15 would eliminate the possibility of an inappropriate Light Industry, as Mr. Reynolds warned of, and have the added benefit of providing for a lower number of houses on the site. That would be compatible with the character of the surrounding neighborhood.

This action by the Planning Commission raises alarm among many of us who live in Aiken. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. If Mr. Jones can successfully apply to rezone property in order to crunch 8 homes of unrestricted size and design on 1 ½ acres, so can everyone else – in or out of the Historic district. Many homes in the historic district, the look of which the Master Plan purports to perpetuate, consist of several tax IDs. Potentially, each of them could follow Mr. Jones’ example and subdivide their property into piecemeal units in order to build clusters of tall variegated structures on what was once the beautiful gardens that formerly composed an important element of the area’s character. Enterprising individuals could go down Colleton Avenue buying up the smaller older cottages, knock them down (like the Verenes warehouse) and put multiple 35 foot high units on the property. In fact, anyone in the city or county of Aiken having a lot size 80x100 feet (less than ¼ acre, the average size of a subdivision lot) could apply to knock down their existing home, build a 35-foot high, over-priced monstrosity in its place, stuff their pockets with the money from their “economic plan”, and leave the scarred and expiring town behind.

Residents of the city and county of Aiken need to encourage city officials to see that this does not happen. Please plan to attend the 1st reading of Mr. Jones’ petition before the City Council on March 27 and the 2nd reading, scheduled for April 10.