Some residents are pushing back as Irmo proceeds with plans that would create a downtown area along what is now a dirt road.

During its regular Dec. 20 meeting, council unanimously voted to purchase 1.82 acres of land near Irmo Community Park to establish the planned town center. Back in October, the Chronicle talked to a local restaurant manager who said he was developing a restaurant concept for the potential “Main Street,” and The Post and Courier Columbia detailed plans for the development ahead of the meeting.

Council also voted to hire an acquisition firm to help with the project. Mayor Barry Walker stood alone in voting no.

After the votes, several residents of the predominantly Black area where the downtown would go voiced their anger, questioning whether the town would use eminent domain to try to force them out or, with the help of the acquisition firm, buy their property for fair market value and then flip it for a better price to potential developers.

“I'm not for selling my property or giving it away or leaving Irmo, I’m for standing on my property until I die,” resident Izehh Hall said during the meeting. “That's what I bought it for and that's where I am, and that's where I intend to stay. If anything different come up I will fight … hard.”

With the project, the town of nearly 12,000 hopes to create a centralized downtown, something it – unlike nearby municipalities like Lexington and Columbia — lacks. 

The development would also sit near the large park and amphitheater that is home to the town’s signature event, the annual Okra Strut festival, and to which Irmo is actively seeking to bring more events.

Walker told the Chronicle that a Q&A session with citizens impacted by the project will take place Jan. 8 at Macedonia Baptist Church, during which they will be able to see the project plans.

The mayor said the citizens who had attended the meeting were unaware of the project and hadn’t seen any preliminary sketches or renderings of the downtown design and only knew what they’d seen in the media.

Council Member Bill Danielson, who was quoted by The Post and Courier Columbia advocating for how the project would help Irmo and speculating that it should be open in two years, declined to respond directly to the residents who spoke out against the project, but he told the Chronicle it wasn't the whole public that has expressed disapproval but mainly those affected who were unaware of the plans.

During the meeting, several residents stated their strong opposition to the project.

“They'll pick a neighborhood where Black folks have been all their lives. It is an insult,” said Irmo resident Marion Boyd. “You have no feelings for Black folks.”

James Mack said the project has the potential to be devastating to some of the affected residents, telling council, “We have folks and senior citizens. We have folks that are retired or barely making it,” and adding that council doesn’t think about those aspects.

William Bowman said his family has been in Irmo since 1802 and that this downtown plan would “immediately eliminate our legacies” and “destroy plans established by most of our families for generational wealth.”

His wife, Sheral Bowman, added, “It was quite insulting to find this piece of information in the paper like we're invisible. We're here. We're not invisible.”