The Red Bank area of Lexington County may become home to a new neighborhood called Serenity Lake.

Plans include 402 single-family homes across 173 acres, according to public documents. A little over 41 of those acres would be open space, while the rest would consist of homes.

A map of the proposed project depicts two lots, separated by an existing pond. One side would have 149 lots, and the other would have 253 lots. Plans also include a walking trail access across the existing pond.

Serenity Lake would be located west of South Lake Drive, north of Briarpatch Road and south of Buck Corley Road. This area is not far from Red Bank Arena on Nazareth Road, containing athletic fields and more. This area is also roughly five to 10 minutes from the section of Platt Springs Road where Publix, Lowes Foods and more are.

This project, according to public documents, was submitted to county officials when concurrency questionnaire policies were still in place, so Lexington County School District One—the district this proposed neighborhood would be zoned for—weighed in.

The district had 20 business days from receipt of the details on the proposed neighborhood to answer a questionnaire, according to public documents.

The Lexington One schools that would serve this area include Red Bank Elementary, Carolina Springs Middle School and White Knoll High School. The questionnaire asked how many additional students each of those schools could serve without adding more portable classrooms. Red Bank Elementary could serve 400 additional students with no additional structures, Carolina Springs Middle School could serve 170 additional students with no additional structures and White Knoll High School could serve 370 additional students with no additional structures, according to the district’s answers.

Lexington County Council voted 7-2 on Serenity Lake’s preliminary approval. Councilwoman Charli Wessinger and Councilman Larry Brigham voted in opposition. The proposed development is in Councilman Clifford Fisher’s Council District Five.

More on concurrency

In a 5-4 motion in late 2025, Lexington County Council approved removing the school concurrency questionnaire sent out to all the Lexington County school districts.

Concurrency is a shorthand expression for a set of land use regulations that local governments adopt to ensure that adequate public services are available to support the new development, according to Lexington County’s website.

Lexington County is the first county in the state to use concurrency requirements for residential use. As stated in the policy, current concurrency standards require prior formal approval of land use activities as it relates to five items. These five items include law enforcement, fire services, EMS, solid waste management and public schools. Other states that use concurrency in some form or fashion include North Carolina, Florida and Maryland.

For the public schools, questionnaires were sent to each school district in the county. The schools also receive data from the county.

Those who voted to remove the school questionnaire include Todd Cullum, Glen Conwell, Clifford Fisher, Michael Bishop and Todd Cockrell. Those who voted against the removal were Darrell Hudson, Beth Carrigg, Charli Wessinger and Larry Brigham.

The concurrency ordinance is still in place; however, the questionnaire from public schools has been removed.

Natalie Szrajer contributed to this report.