South Carolina Concerned Over Big Retail Development in City

COLUMBIA, S.C.—An old ballpark owned by the city in downtown Columbia, was almost sold to Bright-Meyers, a development company best known for selling retail space to Wal-Mart. Once word got out of big retail space with a Wal-Mart opening in Olympia, residents came forward.

Over 300 people attended a meeting held by the city to discuss the shopping center. The meeting lasted hours and the next night city council held its regular monthly meeting. On its agenda: the ballpark. Mayor Steve Benjamin said the comments from people have been “very valuable.”

The ballpark is a flood plain, next to an important creek, and floods during heavy rains. The creek, Rocky Branch, also contains pollutants.

Concerns over building in the flood plain affect people everywhere the creek runs. Rocky Branch starts at Martin Luther King Park, flows under the Five-Points area, and into Maxcy Gregg Park. It then runs for a mile through the campus at University of South Carolina (USC), continues through the Olympia neighborhood, and finally flows into the Congaree River.

In 2002, the River Alliance partnered with the county, the city, and USC, building a conceptual plan to protect and restore the creek and land, adding a greenway with a bicycle path: it was widely favored, but the plan needed more funding to move forward. The plan was dropped, until now.

City councilors are remembering those plans once again.

Matt Sasser, partner with Bright-Meyers, said at the City Council meeting they plan to build an “urbanized” shopping center, with a parking lot under the shopping center, a grassy area, a retention pond, and a water filter. They possibly may “relocate the creek,” and add a 20-foot wall in response to flooding. Sasser also said that Bright-Meyers commissioned a flood study, which will be available soon.

If the city does sell the land to Bright-Meyers, it intends to make a contract that holds the developer legally accountable and requires it to “build as it says.”

The original local economy developed in the early 1900s based on railroads and industrialization. Olympia has made some progress over the years restoring old industrial buildings to something new and useful.

City councilors and residents are concerned that Bright-Meyers might abandon the shopping space in the future. Public comments at the council meeting expressed a desire to stop the proposed development, for various reasons: A local business owner said that there are already four Wal-Mart shopping centers nearby. Another resident said there are plenty of grocery stores already and the town does not need another shopping center.

At a time of global economic crisis and with giant retailers dominating the market, many said they want to take back control of their economy and keep it local. Wal-Mart is based in Arkansas. Another local business owner said the Walton family is worth billions already and she thinks they will be fine without a Wal-Mart in Olympia.

The city has postponed its final decision to January 2012.