Lancaster County could get a new charter school in Indian Land as well as hundreds more homes.
Several applications are in for new construction. They’ve each been part of a county planning commission workshop, a process that typically puts development proposals on the next full planning commission agenda. There’s no agenda yet for that meeting on April 15.
Final decisions on the charter school and a subdivision with 100 homes could come then. Another project, with more than 300 homes, would still require approval by Lancaster County Council.
Here’s a look at the proposals:
? Florida-based Alliance Education Services applied with Lancaster County to allow a new charter school in Indian Land. The kindergarten through eighth grade Harrisburg Global Academy would go on more than 26 acres at 11774 Harrisburg Road.
The two-parcel site is on the east side of Harrisburg Road, north of the PCI Group communications company and the Islamic Community Center of South Charlotte. The undeveloped property sits between homes in the Almond Glen and Farrington subdivisions.
A site plan submitted with the application to allow a school shows an entrance-only driveway on the southern part of the property, off Harrisburg Road.
The drive would pass an area marked as a future athletic field, shown on the site plan as a football field. The school would go on the far northern side of the property. The driveway would wrap around the school and exit in both directions onto Harrisburg Road.
The plan indicates Harrisburg Global Academy would be 61,000 square feet and have space for 800 students, plus 55 staff members.
The new school site needs approval from the county planning commission, not Lancaster County Council, to allow a school. The South Carolina Department of Education has to approve charter schools, and doesn’t yet list Harrisburg Global Academy among its 104 charter schools statewide.
A Facebook page for the school states the planned opening will come in August of next year.
? Property owner Old Hickory Hill and G3 Engineering applied to rezone 160 acres off the west side of Old Hickory Road to allow for a 310-home subdivision. The property is southwest of Van Wyck, about halfway between the Charlotte Highway entrance to the more than 1,800-home Roselyn neighborhood and Landsford Canal State Park in Chester County.
Old Hickory Hill, or the family behind the company, has owned the property since at least the mid 1950s, according to county land records. The property sold last fall for $950,000. The owner’s address is a nearly 2-acre home on Old Hickory Road, surrounded on all but the road frontage side by the new subdivision property.
A site plan submitted to the county shows a 2-acre amenity area beside that existing home.
There are two entrances off Old Hickory, just north of Roselyn Avenue. The central part of the property shows homes in a grid pattern. There are three cul-de-sacs on the western portion, with a connector road accessing them.
That road crosses a large wetland area. The map also shows four ponds scattered across the property. There are more wetlands at the far north end of the site.
The planning commission makes recommendations on rezoning requests, but Lancaster County Council will make the final decision. No agenda has been set, but it could appear as soon as April 28.
? Shadow Moss is a 100-home subdivision plan on Hilldale Drive. Prestige Development & Site Works applied to develop the property. The 52-acre property is just north of Flat Creek Road, east of Lancaster.
Two entrances off Hilldale Drive lead to 26 homes south of Hannah’s Creek. Both roads cross the creek to the remainder of the homes. Three large ponds are shown.
One of the two entrances cuts through the middle of 14 already developed properties on Hilldale Drive. In February, the South Carolina Department of Transportation noted the two access drives were too close together.
The project would need to reduce the home count to where only one access was required by the county, according to the transportation department, or have one access gated for emergency use only.
The property owner asked to defer a county decision in March. Because it’s a subdivision approval request, the county planning commission will make a final decision rather than Lancaster County Council.
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John Marks graduated from Furman University in 2004 and joined the Herald in 2005. He covers community growth, municipalities, transportation and education mainly in York County and Lancaster County. The Fort Mill native earned dozens of South Carolina Press Association awards and multiple McClatchy President’s Awards for news coverage in Fort Mill and Lake Wylie. Support my work with a digital subscription