Fort Mill residents involved over Nims Lake Road development

John Yanchik moved from New Jersey to Fort Mill two dozen years ago, leaving what he figured was one of the most congested places in the country for a small, quiet town. Now he’s watching the road to one of old Fort Mill’s most iconic natural spots come up for development.

“It seems like they don’t want to stop growing,” Yanchik told Fort Mill Town Council last week. “There are developments going up all over the place here.”

The latest development proposal to stir up neighbors is a more than 80-acre mixed-use plan off Nims Lake Road. That paved road becomes gravel as it leads to Nims Lake, once a locally famous swimming hole, camp and dance hall site for decades.

Even closer to the proposed development, a slightly larger pond backs up to the Spring Branch Glen neighborhood.

Fort Mill neighbors worry about traffic, environmental impact

Residents poured in to ask the town to slow down or stop the new development. One vote they won’t get when a decision comes due in June is from Mayor Guynn Savage. She’s a neighbor to the proposed development, too.

“I would not be able to vote,” Savage said. “I will have to recuse myself because that is my property (near the proposal), and I need to do that because it’s what’s ethically correct.”

Neighbors worry about increased traffic, loss of trees and environmental impact — all common concerns when developments come into the area. But on Nims Lake Road, new growth also pits a well-known piece of old Fort Mill against a bustling community that’s changing all around it.

“It’ll leave a permanent scar on our beautiful town that no amount of landscaping can ever heal,” said Spring Branch Road resident Geoffrey Wagner.

What could come off Nims Lake Road?

Last year, Tri Pointe Homes applied to build 108 homes off Nims Lake Road.

The company would annex or rezone about 80 acres for the project, plus 13 acres that property sellers would keep. The builder asked for the town to hold off on a decision, but Fort Mill Town Council still held a public hearing last week.

The proposal is expected back in front of Council in mid-June. Another public hearing will accompany that decision.

The biggest request is for the town to annex most of the property. If the town does, Council gets a say on zoning and what ultimately gets built. If the town denies the request, the property keeps its county zoning.

Nims Lake and the undeveloped acreage around it are zoned for rural development. The county could decide how many lots to allow, but it typically would be about a home per acre for that zoning.

If the project develops outside town limits, the town could get similar traffic and public use impacts without getting the tax revenue that would come with annexation.

The land up for development doesn’t touch Nims Lake, which is private property that’s closed to the public. It does touch the Spring Branch Glen pond that has a small park for neighborhood residents.

Fort Mill birds, wildlife and fresh water

Hazel Frick taught fifth grade for many of the 42 years she’s lived in Fort Mill. And for more than three decades, she’s lived off Fairway Drive where she can look off her back deck toward trees and wildlife.

Some of that scenery was uprooted when Spring Branch Glen was developed, but she can still take her grandchildren down to its pond to look for animal tracks.

“I have totally enjoyed living there,” Frick said. “I get to hear the owls hoot, and I get to see these big hawks. When you develop land like that, you’re really disturbing nature as well as the environment.”

Residents say bald eagles, hawks, ducks, blue heron and osprey are common sites. So are deer, beaver, otters, foxes and snakes.

Nims Lake Road is nearly a tunnel of tree canopy in places, and the site up for development contrasts with many other parts of town that already have been cleared for homes and businesses.

The Nims Lake area is at a ”breaking point” now with the 1,300-home Elizabeth neighborhood, hundreds of homes off Williams Road, hundreds more apartments at Elizabeth Commons and the large Catawba Ridge Market shopping center all in development near Nims Lake Road, Wagner said.

Fort Mill won’t be the same town neighbors grew to enjoy if all the trees are taken down for development, he said. “Clear-cutting them replaces a resilient ecosystem with an impenetrable surface of asphalt and rooftops,” Wagner said.

School and cut-through traffic in Fort Mill

Recent and ongoing development, including several schools, brought traffic to Fort Mill Parkway and Dobys Bridge Road. Residents worry the new development will create a cut-through problem between them.

“School kids are going to cut through there,” said David White, who moved to Fort Mill in 2001 and to Spring Branch road nine years ago. “People are going to try to avoid Dobys Bridge on the outside of the bypass, Fort Mill Parkway. That will be a racetrack.”

The impact will be worse, neighbors fear, at peak times like when schools let out at nearby Catawba Ridge High.

“Traffic patterns will shift from Dobys Bridge Road and Fort Mill Parkway onto Nims Lake Road,” said 21-year Spring Branch Road resident Frank Pope.

The new development will put hundreds more cars in an area where left turns already have bad visibility, said Jack Windell. He’s been on Nims Lake Road since 1989, after marrying a Fort Mill native. Construction will add large and pickup trucks, potholes and trash on the side of the road for neighbors to clean up, he said.

“We’ve been through the building of White Grove,” Windell said. “We’ve been through the building of Spring Branch Glen.”

Fort Mill residents await final decision

Some neighbors hope to stop the Nims Lake Road development. Some expect it, but hope the town will alleviate traffic and environmental concerns.

Still others want details, like who will be financially responsible if an old lake dam fails and floods homes.

Neighbors agree, though, on something that’s become common in Fort Mill as it’s grown from a rural mill town to a fast-paced suburb the past several decades. They want the town to plan for impacts before they happen.

Once something is built, the environmental and traffic changes become all but permanent.

“It’s just very difficult to restore the environment that we have back there,” White said.