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Lexington County gave final approval for the sale of a 200-acre site near Chapin on Tuesday. When or whether anything will be built on it next remains an open question.
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The county council approved the $20 million sale of the undeveloped Chapin Technology and Business Park for the planned construction of a new housing development. But those plans will depend on resolving a dispute with the town of Chapin on whether those new homes can get a utility hookup to the town.
Speaking on a Facebook video stream before Tuesday’s council meeting, Chapin Mayor Bill Mitchell reiterated that the town’s wastewater plant is near capacity and he intends to keep in place a moratorium on new sewer connections outside the town limits.
The mayor said Chapin is moving forward with a planned $42 million upgrade to its wastewater treatment plant, the main utility provider to the area on the north shore of Lake Murray. That expansion will double the plant’s capacity from 2.4 million gallons per day to 4.8 million — but that work could take five to 10 years to complete, Mitchell said.
“I have no intention of negotiating at all under any conditions because we would be breaking the law,” Mitchell said. “If you want to negotiate, come and speak to me in five or 10 years when that plant is up and running,” at which point he said he would like to see the Brighton property annexed into the town limits, so that any construction would have to meet Chapin’s standards and go through the town’s approval process.
The town’s current plant is committed to 97% of its capacity, and approval for the remaining 3% will be issued on a case-by-case basis after review by town personnel.
“It’s now required on the new application for the town engineer to sign off, for the director of utilities to sign off and for the chief executive officer of your town, duly elected, to sign off on it,” Mitchell said.
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Lexington County began work almost a decade ago to develop a technology park near Chapin off of Interstate 26, in hopes of attracting businesses and jobs to the area. But the 200-acre site has sat empty since then despite at least $16 million of public investment in the site.
Developer Andy White has announced plans to turn the property into a 600-home development called Palatin, with homes priced between $600,000 and $1 million and about half age-restricted to people 55 and up. Under White’s plans the site will also include a technology incubator called the Foundry.
But in his video message, Mitchell said the development will be on pause indefinitely until the improvements are made to the wastewater plant. He said the restrictions would apply to Palatin as well as the proposed 400-home Brighton development being built by Mungo Homes on an adjoining piece of property, inside the Chapin town limits.
“No builders can rush in here any longer for their own benefit, disregarding how that affects our schools, our roads, our utilities or our way of life here in Chapin, S.C.,” he said.
Lexington County has contended that a pre-existing contract with the town requires utility services for the site, and the county council previously voted to do “whatever is legally necessary” to enforce that contract.
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