City of Newberry issued the following announcement on February 24.
Newberry City Council held a discussion at a special meeting Wednesday related to Newberry County’s proposed sale of property for a warehouse site. Located on S.C. Highway 34 and identified as TMS# 297-26, Mayor Foster Senn gave background on the property, called the Cavanaugh property, saying that the tract of land had been obtained by the county about 15 years ago and it had recently been auctioned.
The winner of the auction, Senn said indicated a plan to place a warehousing operation on a portion of the tract.
“This land is not in the city limits, but it borders the city limits,” Senn said. “It borders the largest retail business district for Newberry County.”
Senn said that if council was in agreement after discussion, he would like the city to communicate to the county that they didn’t think this plan presented the best use of the property.
Wayne Redfern, the city’s director of planning and development services spoke his opinion to council that the property’s proximity to the business district made it best suited for residential development.
“When you’re planning for this type of business district you need people to help feed and develop and become part of the district,” Redfern said. “A warehouse is a big building with few people in it that doesn’t really generate revenue.”
Using the property for residential, Redfern said would build on to what was already started in that particular area.
Redfern said a developer had recently approached the city’s Planning Commission about a residential development on the site containing approximately 230 homes in the $250,000-$295,000 range.
“It would be similar to the Newberry Landing property in terms of sizes of homes and quality,” he said.
Heavy traffic to a warehouse, Redfern said may be expected and stated his opinion that the proposed facility may be better suited closer to the interstate. The area around the proposed warehouse site is zoned R2-Rural, meaning the owner or future owner would have a variety of options as to how to develop that portion. Some options mentioned include low density residential, a shooting range, large animal processing or manufactured housing.
Senn said that Newberry currently had a low availability of housing, with approximately 10 homes currently on the market. A new development, he said would add housing stock and estimates from the Newberry County Auditor Donna Lominack indicate nearly $900,000 in tax revenue, with most going to Newberry County.
Councilman David Force said much of the property in that area was underdeveloped and stressed that this could set the standard for future development in the area.
Senn said he thought it was a credit to County Council that national builders were interested in Newberry County.
Councilman Lemont Glasgow made a motion, seconded by Councilwoman Jackie Holmes to communicate with County Council that the city disagreed with the proposed plan, and would like for them to reconsider and request that they look at housing options for the property.
Original source can be found here.
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