Home Care In Cayce, SC

After trees started being cleared behind her neighborhood, Alice Rose joined a handful of others in Cayce’s Churchill Heights to speak up against the planned three-story hotel.

The Fairfield hotel — allowed under the city’s current zoning and set to go in along Airport Boulevard, near Interstate 26 and right next to the neighborhood — has become a point of contention between the city and residents. Rose, a mom of two and former restaurant manager who is new to politics, took matters into her own hands.

“I felt like [the neighborhood] deserved better,” Rose told The State. “We decided to go to the city council meeting on Aug. 5, I was getting ready and I looked over at my husband and I said, ‘I think I’m going to have to run for city council.’”

She’s running this year for city council — advocating for thoughtful growth and running against a councilman who’s pushed for Cayce to expand its commercial and residential offerings in recent years.

Her challenge of Hunter Sox, who is seeking is second term, and the issue that inspired it, point to continued tensions in Cayce between those who want to see a looser approach to allowing development in the area and those who want to see the city continue with the measured approach that has limited new projects.

“We can’t let three or four rogue residents dictate how we develop our corridors and neighborhoods. Yes, we need to have their input, but I think that we have enough in our policy right now to make sure that the developments fit the neighborhoods in zoning use ... and by our design standards,” Sox said.

Rose is one of three new faces vying for a spot on Cayce’s city council. Tiffany Aull and Ron Wright are running against each other to fill the District 1 council seat after Mayor Pro-Tem Rose will go up against incumbent Sox for the District 3 seat, to which he was elected in 2021.

“I want to be a bridge for people to their government. I love Cayce, I grew up in Churchill Heights, my parents still live there. … I think that we’re heading in a very good direction, but I think that the people need to be remembered,” Rose said.

The election comes amid a tumultuous period in the city of Cayce. Since July of last year, the city has cycled through and Tensions between the city’s longtime mayor Elise Partin and the other four council members have escalated in recent weeks following

After former city manager , and subsequent new job with the town of Irmo, from Cayce’s top administrative position less than a year into the role, a letter from Crosland to council, , laid out issues he and other staff members had had with Partin.

“I was shocked by how deep the letter really goes and how deep this was affecting staff morale,” Councilman Hunter Sox told The State at the time. “Honestly it’s kind of ironic that the person on council that vocally claims how much she supports staff, is the reason behind the letter.”

When asked about potentially being elected into a tense season in Cayce’s city government, Rose said that she planned to “rise above the fray and focus on meeting the needs of constituents.”

This year’s election also comes at a crossroads for the city. As Lexington County, the county in which Cayce sits, continues to grow and approve new housing developments, . In the name of maintaining its small-town character, the city has seen less infill development or new housing built compared to neighboring municipalities.

The fight over the Fairfield by Marriott hotel coming to the Churchill Heights neighborhood is the latest manifestation of that tension — some neighbors fear growth. Some city leaders contend that if Cayce doesn’t grow, the burden of paying for necessary upgrades to the city’s infrastructure could increasingly fall on the small pool of taxpayers.

Sox, who represents District 3 and helped organize the meeting with neighbors about the planned hotel, said the new hotel is a win for the city, pointing to other hotels that generate thousands in tax revenue each year. The Courtyard hotel just off 12th Street Extension in Cayce brings in more than $400,000 in taxes and business license fees, Sox told The State.

Like many municipalities in the Midlands, Cayce has decades-old water and sewer infrastructure that has struggled to keep up with increasing demands. A portion of the city’s riverwalk has been caused significant damage. But upgrading the system is expensive and tedious.

As some municipalities have been quick to give residential and commercial developers the green light on new projects, Rose wants to see Cayce be smart about growth.

“It’s important to keep the character of the area,” Rose said. She wants to draw in more local businesses, as opposed to large, national chains, to Airport Boulevard. The corridor, , is plagued by derelict buildings, used car lots and fading hotels.

“The last new thing that we got on Airport Boulevard was a Sonic. And, don’t get me wrong, I love a strawberry limeade slush or tater tots, but I’d like to bring things that have character and that really represent who we are,” Rose said.

“Smart growth” has become a buzzword among elected officials and neighborhood advocates, alike, in Lexington County. Most leaders contend growth is inevitable, as South Carolina was one of the fastest growing states in the nation last year, but want to be deliberate about it.

Through , and , cities and towns in and around Lexington have tried their best to control the growth.

The city of Cayce elections, , will take place November 4.

One of the few infill developments in recent years to gain approval from the city of Cayce, a 12-home housing project in the Avenues, is nearly complete.

Construction on Hattie’s Crossing, a 12-home development of single family houses in the heart of one of Cayce’s most popular neighborhoods, is aimed to be complete this fall, developers announced in a press release Monday.

The three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath homes will occupy the roughly 2-acre plot of land that once held the Cayce Grammar School before it closed in 1976. The development is named after Hattie Derrenbacher who opened the first school in Cayce, out of her home, in 1918.

The homes are set to range in price from $379,000 to $399,000, according to the release. Bounded by Lexington Avenue, Eighth, Poplar and Third Streets, the development fills in long-vacant land in the Avenues, a charming, historic neighborhood not far from Cayce’s riverwalk and River Arts District.

“I’m truly grateful to see Hattie’s Crossing taking shape, bringing 12 new homes to the highly sought-after Cayce Avenues,” City Councilman Byron Thomas said in a statement. “These homes will help strengthen our city’s tax base and support continued investment in public services, infrastructure, and overall quality of life for all Cayce residents.”

Cayce, which has in an attempt to maintain the city’s small-town charm and feel, until it made sure the project was right for the city. The city had purchased a fourth of the land in 2017 and the other portion was bought by local developer Cypress Commercial & Investment Real Estate the next year.

It took developers nearly six years to get the project to a place where the city would agree to its construction. Its long journey from ideation to work beginning points to the broader story of how Cayce has developed, holding fast to the idea of keeping the town’s character, often at the expense of growth.

“Arriving at the right development plan for this property took careful thought and consideration,” Mark James, one of the developers for the project, said in the release. “We considered the desires of the local residents and worked with the City of Cayce to make sure the project is consistent with the City’s vision.”

Each home will have its own yard. On roughly 6,000 square foot lots, the homes will range in size from 1,400 to 1,600 square feet, the release said.

Churchill Heights residents are concerned about noise and privacy as hotel construction begins near their homes.

CAYCE, S.C. — Some residents in the Churchill Heights neighborhood are raising concerns after construction began this week on a new Fairfield Inn hotel along Airport Boulevard, just steps from their homes.

Developers recently began clearing trees at the site, which is zoned for commercial use. Since the land was already zoned, the project did not require a public approval process, leaving some neighbors feeling caught off guard.

“Part of the reason my wife and I purchased this home in the first place was because it was quiet, it was peaceful,” said Paul Gregory, who bought his home less than a year ago. “Now at all hours of the day, you can hear the construction noises, and that's taking away a lot of peace.”

The three-story hotel is likely to bring 'transients,' said resident Alice Rose. It sits within eyesight of Columbia Metropolitan Airport. Rose and neighbor Kasey Lawson say they’re concerned about privacy, safety and traffic.

“We don't need people wandering down our street, jiggling door handles and checking our windows and to see if they're locked and things like that,” Rose said. “Which is immediately what comes to mind when I think of hotels on Airport Boulevard.”

“Our privacy is going to be a three story hotel,” Lawson said. “So there's definite privacy concerns. There [are] noise levels, traffic congestion.”

Cayce City Manager Michael Conley said the developer still has to meet the city’s planning and permitting requirements.

“They go through a stormwater process. They have to meet with [the Department of Transportation] to get encroachments to get on and off of the property,” Conley said. “It’s setbacks from the property line, it’s landscape buffers.”

City leaders say they expect the hotel to bring benefits to the area, including new revenue. Cayce City Councilman Hunter Sox said the area surrounding the hotel is set for additional upgrades.

“The corridor is also about to receive $1.5 million worth of landscaping upgrades from the airport expressway to [Interstate] 26,” Sox said. “And then next year, we'll receive a resurfacing of Airport Boulevard from the airport all the way around to Knox Abbott. So I think that all those things combined are going to bring a nice facelift to the area.”

Sox said he hopes to conduct a traffic study to assess how the development could impact peak traffic hours. Construction on the hotel is expected to take about a year, according to Conley.

The city is planning a community meeting on Aug. 14 to allow neighbors to share their concerns. Officials say the developer, airport representatives and other city staff will also be in attendance. A location and time for the meeting have not been set.