Augusta Heights project under way

By Charles Sowell  

APRIL 30, 2010 9:52 a.m. (1)

Prestwick Development closed on the 2.5 acre plot that will be home to a 37-unit low-income apartment complex on April 15, eight days after a circuit court judge refused to grant an injunction on work at the site on April 7.

The sale price was $570,000 according to Greenville County records.

Work began last week on the site of the old Augusta Heights Baptist Church parsonage. The controversial housing project has brought out sharp divisions between Augusta Road residents and the City of Greenville.

On April 16 attorneys for the Preserve August Road Gateway Inc., filed a notice of appeal of Circuit Judge Edward Miller’s denial.

Attorney Lee Plumblee, who represents Prestwick, said the situation is complex but the bottom line is Prestwick is legally entitled to do the work while the lawsuit proceeds and while the court of appeals hears the injunction appeal.

Jean Pool, planning and development manager for the city, said Prestwick Development has a building permit for the site.

“Any work that’s going on there is perfectly legal so far as the city is concerned,” she said.

Nathan Galbreath, an attorney for Preserve Augusta Road Gateway, Inc., a private group of Augusta Road residents and business owners, said, “We intend to fight this case all the way through.”

The gateway group maintains the city has not lived up to the standards outlined in the master plan for the Augusta Road area, said Angela Lockman, a spokesperson for the group.

“Unfortunately we are having a hard time seeing how the City is living up to the motto of ‘Neighborhoods First.’  It's hard to see that being little more than lip service to voters,” Lockman said.

She said the master plan calls for limits on the total square footage of the affordable housing project, which is almost five times what is outlined in the plan.

The master plan recommends a 10,000-square-foot limit on single use developments. The Prestwick building would have 46,000 square feet in one structure.

City officials have said they are under no obligation to consider the master plan in issues like the Prestwick development.

“Why do we (the taxpayers) pay for these master plans and then the city doesn’t use them?” Lockman asked. “One of the things that has most concerned our group is the lack of avenues of appeal for residents. We, literally, had to go to court to contest this decision on the part of zoning officials.”

The gateway group’s suit contesting the development is ongoing, she said.

“We are encouraged that the judge didn’t just throw us out when he refused to extend the injunction against Prestwick,” Lockman said.

She said the roughly 800 members of her group have paid out tens of thousands of dollars to fight the development and, at the same time, have financed the city’s campaign for the project through their tax dollars.

“There’s something fundamentally wrong in that,” she said.

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B. Mitchell  - Employment Specialist   |2011-01-07 16:52:20 I rode by the apartments tonight and I have to say that they are beautiful. I strongly believe that if these apartments are managed correctly and if respectful people are tenents, the property will stay beautiful. I myself would love to be one of the lucky one to live there. Thank you, Reply

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