Notes from city council meeting, Tuesday night, April 29
May 3, 2014
By Temple Ligon
April 30, 2014
Sanitary sewer lines
William H. Davis, wastewater engineer for the Department of Utilities and Engineering, reported on the city’s recent sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) in the Saluda River basin where in fiscal year 2013-2014 – down to March 31 – there was a 64% reduction over the past four years. All told the city has about 1,100 miles of sewer pipe, and the city has to upgrade the entire system to meet federal approval. Expected cost of the upgrade is $750 million. But the trend is promising. For fiscal year 2008-2009 the city had 450 SSOs, while for the past year there were less than 150. To isolate the grease-related SSOs, there were 188 in FY 2008-09 and 30 in FY 2013-14. For the month of March 2013, the city had 10 grease-related SSOs, and the following year for the month of March 2014 there were only 5 grease-related SSOs. Grease is the second greatest cause of SSOs and roots are the third greatest; the greatest cause of SSOs is wet weather.
Kroger at the old ballpark on Assembly
Matt Sasser of Bright-Meyers, the development firm trying to put a Kroger Grocery and collateral construction on the site of the ballpark on Assembly Street, fielded questions from council. His company and the city had agreed on a May 8 deadline to put the sale of the 5.97 acres under contract for $1 million. The total area of the project is 23 acres. The Kroger Grocery is proposed at 113,531 square feet, while the earlier (and rejected) Walmart was to be 90,000 square feet. Still part of the deal, though, is the $1 million Bright-Meyers said it would put into flood control. There are three choke points along Rocky Branch Creek between the site and the Congaree River.
The proposed parking lot has been called a rain garden, an attempt to control the rainwater runoff.
On the same site Bright-Meyers plans on student apartments and other retail to generate an aggregation of activity. The company has not disclosed who or how many.
Council thought it needed another week to hear from all its neighborhood advisors, so the first reading was delayed until May 6, leaving just enough time for a second and final reading before May 8, the deadline. Among its advisors council is listening to Sustainable Midlands, headed by Ryan Nevius, who apparently is one of council’s arbiters of architectural taste. The titled environmentalists are calling for something of a textile mill design, even to the degree they are recommending certain brick facing and large windows and a tower, a salute to Whaley’s nearby work in Olympia, no doubt.
So Columbia can expect a grocery store that exhibits a textile mill look.
While Bright-Meyers waits on council, the firm appears to be moving ahead with Rosewood Crossing, a 98,000 square feet retail center in the old K-Mart facing Cross Hill Market across Ft. Jackson Boulevard. Maybe Sustainable Midlands can offer architectural design guidelines here, too. A huge dog kennels operation used to face the intersection of Jackson Boulevard and Garners Ferry Road and Devine Street. And don’t forget the wood-sided barracks on Tank Hill – historical context and all.
