Irmo downtown development on pause, need for new Town Hall persists

Posted 1/25/23

The Town of Irmo is proceeding with plans for a new town hall, while a prospective development to build a downtown area has hit a pause after public pushback.

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Irmo downtown development on pause, need for new Town Hall persists

Posted

The Town of Irmo is proceeding with plans for a new town hall, while a prospective development to build a downtown area has hit a pause after public pushback.

During its regular meeting Jan. 17, Town Council approved the purchase of one acre of land for a potential future town hall, while a motion to suspend the land acquisition activities on or around Moseley Avenue, the predominantly Black area where Irmo has been looking at turning what is now a dirt road into a walkable town center, failed.

The latter project is meant to address the lack of a downtown or “Main Street” district that other municipalities around the area have. The effort to bring such an area to town, announced and initially voted on by council in December, has received major pushback from the citizens who live in the area where the town would be looking to acquire land.

According to Town Administrator Courtney Dennis, the project has hit a pause.

“We've hit a pause button at the moment as the feedback is as shown that the majority of the property owners in that area do not currently have an interest in selling those properties,” Dennis said. “So that would make that project a lot more challenging to move forward with at the moment.”

Since its initial votes on the project and at a public meeting held about the effort held earlier this month after the initial public outcry began, council has received consistent pushback from residents, with many saying they’re unwilling to move to make way for the development and complaining that they weren’t included in the planning before the project was announced.

Dennis said the project itself is still alive and that council is very interested to see if a downtown district is a viable option for the town.

So far, the town has purchased one of 12 parcels it had targeted for the project. In December, council approved the purchase of 1.82 acres of land for the effort and voted to hire an acquisition firm that could potentially help it acquire more land.

According to Mayor Barry Walker, the next steps regarding the project are to suspend all activity on Moseley Street and look at other potential areas. Walker mentioned a strategic plan from 2016 where a proposed downtown would use College Street, Columbia Avenue and Lexington Avenue, a location that many residents mentioned to council, including during the public meeting held earlier this month.

One possible component of the new downtown development is a new Town Hall. Dennis said it’s a need the town is exploring multiple ways to solve.

In a Jan. 10 council workshop, he said that the current Town Hall, located on Woodrow St., is “busting at the seams” and a new building will help address that issue. 

“It has served us very well. We get a lot of positive comments when people come in here about how beautiful the home is,” Dennis told the Chronicle, “but look, we're … operating our town government out of it, and over the past 30 years, we're just starting to outgrow it.”

The administrator said the town wants to create a facility that will allow it to sustain itself for more than 30 years without having to consider further expansion. At the workshop, Dennis mentioned that neighboring municipalities like West Columbia, Chapin and Lexington have town and city halls structured to allow for ongoing growth.

No location for the potential Town Hall has been selected, but according to Dennis, the town is negotiating with a few locations in close proximity to the current facilities. One prospective location is near the Irmo Police Station, which is located within Town Park.

The fate of the house currently housing Town Hall is undetermined, but Dennis said the town wants to keep the facility under their “umbrella,” with a few potential uses being a museum, an art center, rentable office space for startups or non-profits, or a welcome center.

Dennis said many employees are working in dual roles, adding that one person serves as the point man for payroll, human resources, and bank conciliation. As Irmo grows, there will need to be a separation of duties, the administrator said. Funding for these employees would partially come from the growth of the town.

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