With billboards popping up around town questioning it and a Facebook group continuing to push back online and in person at Lexington Town Council meetings, the body continues to discuss next steps for a proposed 93.53-acre lakefront development.

Amid backlash from many following the May Town Council announcement of Smallwood Cove, a resort and multi-use development slated to be built just south of the Lake Murray Dam, council moved at its June 12 workshop session to add to its July agenda a measure calling for a second traffic study to assess how the development could affect the area.

If approved, the study will be conducted by Bowman, an engineering and consulting firm out of Charleston. 

During the workshop, council noted that the scope of the new traffic study remains unknown, mentioning that a meeting with Bowman to figure that out is likely.

A previous traffic study looking at the development was commissioned by the property owners. Included in this traffic study was Andrew Corley Road. which sits past Beekeeper Court, and Pilgrim Church Road, which sits past Andrew Corley Road and turns into Old Cherokee Road. The development is planned to be built off Beekeeper Court and North Lake Drive.

At the June 12 meeting, many residents expressed concern about Corley Mill Road, which connects North Lake Drive to Sunset Boulevard, and the intersection between North Lake Drive and Sunset Boulevard coming into the heart of Lexington not being included in the initial study.

“I think a new traffic study is non-negotiable. I think it absolutely has to be done,” Gavin Smith, who was elected to council the day after Smallwood Cove was announced, told the Chronicle. “We need to focus on particular areas of emphasis such as North Lake Drive at Corley Mill Road and Northlake Drive at [Sunset Boulevard/U.S. Highway 378].”

“We also need to understand how it's impacting Corley Mill Road as a whole,” he added. “So I think that we need to take into consideration, as we are weighing the options before us, to understand how this development could impact traffic and all of the town.”

Randy Edwards, the town’s director of transportation, shared that the original study looked very similar to any other residential commercial development. The potential project currently has two access points, one at Corley Mill Road,  near the Dominion Energy beach access point, and one at Beekeeper Court.

The transportation director explained that the Smallwood Cove would see Beekeeper Court get a signalized intersection with North Lake Drive, with multiple lanes, and Andrew Corley Road would have an additional right terminal added. The study concluded that Pilgrim Church wouldn’t need upgrades.

According to Edwards, the locations were chosen because they are directly adjacent to the development. The director compared it to throwing a pebble into a lake – the ripples are biggest where the pebble hits the water. Edwards explained that it is the same with a development, with the biggest impact being seen right around it.

“You look at your immediate surrounding area to see what kind of impact that would be,” he said. “You generally limit your scope to the area that is immediately affected.”

While a developer for Smallwood Cove has not been selected, Edwards said that they will be responsible for making the necessary traffic adjustments.

He told the Chronicle that Lori Campbell, a member of the state Department of Transportation, reviewed the traffic study. According to Kelly Moore, director of public engagement for the department, DOT is still reviewing the traffic impact study.

Edwards said that based on the study, the level of service at the outermost intersections did not change due to Smallwood Cove. If the development comes to be, he added that the impact will not come all at once, with more traffic being generated as construction progresses.

A point of concern for many residents was the possibility of a 50,000 square-foot conference center, set to be built with $30 million from the town, bringing an influx of traffic. Edwards said the center was excluded from the traffic analysis, adding that the development was analyzed during peak travel periods.

Edwards told the Chronicle that the conference center will most likely not operate during peak travel hours. Multiple hotels – along with a marina, restaurants and living spaces ranging from single-family homes to condos – are also planned for Smallwood Cove, with the director adding that people staying at the hotel and traveling to the conference center is an additional potential factor.

“It's virtually impossible to guess at what every vehicle trip may do,” Edwards said. “Will they go to that martial arts facility? Will they go to this baseball field? Will they go to this mall versus that mall? Or will they go to this place of employment versus some [other] place of employment or work from home?”

When discussing the effects of the conference center, Edwards used the July 4 fireworks on the Lake Murray dam as an example, saying that traffic that day is a nightmare, but traffic studies do not include these events because they are single-event “flashpoints.”

Shortly after the development was announced, the Facebook group Develop Lexington County Responsibly began actively pushing back against the idea, circulating a petition pushing for transparency about how the project came about and the impact it will have on the area.

On June 12, multiple billboards went up along major thoroughfares with the message “Got traffic? STOP NORTH LAKE ANNEX.”

Approvals for Smallwood Cove remain in process, with the town Planning Commission voting to move items relating to the development to a later date at its May 17 meeting and then canceling its monthly meeting on June 28 “due to a lack of agenda items.” The commission is scheduled to meet next on July 19.

In announcing Smallwood Cove on May 1, Mayor Steve MacDougall called it the largest development Lexington will ever see.

Reached by the Chronicle, he said there is nothing to discuss about the development at this time, explaining that the town is waiting for an updated site plan with more information.

“This project has a long way to go before it begins,” he said.