Commission rejects Six Points development proposal

Plans for a proposed new residential development in the Six Points area are now in doubt after the Aiken Planning Commission rejected the second compromise offered by the Florida-based developers.

Fox Grove Farms Inc. of Palm City, Fla., asked the Planning Commission at its Tuesday meeting to approve annexation of a 30.76-acre site east of Lloydtown Road and north of Redd Street with single-family RS-10 residential zoning.

Originally, the developers wanted RS-6 zoning, which would have allowed lot sizes of 6,000 square feet and more than 120 home sites. However, when local residents and members of the Commission began to speak against the RS-6 zoning, the developers offered to change their annexation request to larger lot sizes allowed under RS-10.

Still, the compromise wasn't enough for the Commission, which voted 2-5 not to recommend annexation to City Council.

"I don't think it's beyond the ability of these gentlemen who have come here to develop this property to employ the creativity and ingenuity and imagination to produce something out of this property that will be something out of the ordinary," said Commission member Ed Giobbe. "I don't think I would be in favor of, and I'm not sure that the residents of this neighborhood would want, 100 identical homes placed on this property."

Instead, Giobbe proposed a second recommendation to City Council that the property be annexed with Planned Residential zoning, which requires a concept plan of the lot layout and sample elevations of proposed homes. That measure passed.

Richard Evans, president and CEO of the Community Greenhouse Foundation and one of the partners in the venture, refused to comment on the Commission's decision as he walked out of the Municipal Building following the vote.

However, another partner, Myron McCant of the American Minority Construction Corporation, said after the meeting, "We're not sure what we're going to do at this time."

Last month, the same partnership brought a proposal for the same land to build 130 townhouses and a cluster of 126 apartments on the land. The Planning Commission also rejected that idea.

Edward Dudley, who identified himself as a former engineer and public works director for the City, said he was involved in surveying and engineering for the proposed Six Points development and believes it would have been just the beginning of a large-scale investment in that largely neglected section of Aiken.

"These gentlemen are interested in not only working with this piece of land but they're also very interested in seeing the general Six Points area be revitalized into a community," he said, "and they have deep enough pockets to see that happen."

In other action, the Planning Commission:

• approved revisions to the concept plan for a 45.5-acre development off Silver Bluff Road that would include about 100 single-family home sites and a maximum of 16 attached units;
• recommended annexation of two lots totaling 3 acres at the corner of Cherry Hill Drive and Ridgemoor Road with RS-15 single-family zoning where a maximum of four new homes could be built;
• approved rezoning of a 2.09-acre parcel at Richland Avenue and Orangeburg Street from light industrial to a combination of general business and single-family zoning;
• recommended annexation of a 6.27-acre site, formerly a S.C. Department of Transportation detention pond, inside Deodar Plantation; and
• recommended annexation of three properties in the Gem Lakes subdivision with RS-15 zoning.