NORTH AUGUSTA --- Opponents of a proposed riverfront development in North Augusta pitched their case Monday to the mayor and city council.
Residents of River North subdivision told the council they feared the proposed Kingery Landing development would increase traffic congestion and lower their property values. Residents, such as J.J. Ford, asked the council to protect their investments.
"I was raised that the government was for the people and by the people," he said. "What do we have now?"
L.H. Simkins Jr. is seeking approval of Kingery Landing, a 30-acre neighborhood near the Fifth Street Bridge, with as many as 256 luxury apartments and about 40 single-family homes.
The Kingery Landing proposal is tied to a rezoning request by the developer of the adjacent River North community, who wants to develop 10 acres that would become part of that neighborhood.
Those plans also call for about 15 additional single-family houses and some commercial uses in River North.
The new neighborhood is on a landlocked parcel that would have to connect to U.S. Highway 1 by way of River North Drive.
River North residents said their neighborhood's entrance, which ties into the on ramp from the Fifth Street Bridge to U.S. 1 North, can't handle increased traffic demands.
A traffic study commissioned by the developers said the road could accommodate the increased traffic.
G.M. "Skip" Grkovic, the city's director of Economic and Community Development, said that state funding has been approved for interchange improvements at U.S. 1 and River North Drive.
He said there is about a 50 percent change the state will accept a bid for the project in March.
The Kingery Landing proposal will go before the city council for action Feb. 4.
Reach J. Scott Trubey at (706) 823-3424 or scott.trubey@augustachronicle.com.
IN OTHER BUSINESS
North Augusta officials will enter into talks with Augusta to potentially bring a portion of the race course into South Carolina during the 2008 Tour de Georgia.
Augusta City Administrator Fred Russell wrote North Augusta officials asking if they would be willing to allow riders to venture across the 13th Street bridge on April 22 for a four-mile circuit through the city. Augusta is the finishing point for the 122-mile second stage that will begin in Statesboro, Ga.
City leaders said timing and traffic concerns would dictate if they would allow the race to enter the city. A similar course has taken the race into South Carolina in past years.
Comments
As this area expands and develops, as it will, the traffic situation is going to change. Now is the time for disgruntled owners to start trying to sell if they feel they're not going to be happy. Deciding between convenient location and privacy is simple enough. Either one will stop the whining.
you forget the housing market is rather slow right now and they would not get a good deal for their homes, some with higher mortgages.
Rezoning for apartments never happens or doesn't happen without a fight.
The area is wetlands and should never have been developed in the first place. Now the original developers are complaining about the new developers who will complain about the next developers who will.........
Apartments, no matter how you price them eventually fall into disrepair and will reduce property values as less desirable tenants move in. I can't blame them for not wanting them there.
If you were worried about traffic why did you move into a developement on the river with a entrance off thr fifth street bridge. Get a life.
How many times have we heard the following whine? "Residents of River North subdivision told the council they feared the proposed Kingery Landing development would increase traffic congestion and lower their property values." You can insert any subdivision name for River North. OF COURSE development increases traffic! It cannot do otherwise! And where did the residents of River North find in their covenants a clause that their property values were guaranteed to rise, rise, rise? People are so selfish!
Can anyone here help the residents of River North come up with a more creative argument?
Now you're talking, Ranger. Those ideas are better than NIMBY.
Apartment complexes don't cause property values to go down. There are several apartment complexes in the Walton Way Wheeler Rd area and that area has some of the highest property values in the area.
The riverfront is prime development..did they really think it wouldn't get developed?? They should have moved to the country if they were so worried about traffic...I mean come on, you move right next two downtown Augusta and you are worried about traffic??
Choking on the pollution,going deaf from the traffic noise and offering excuses why your clothes smell so bad, why do they want to live there?
Get real. There is virtually NO traffic to speak of at the River North entrance. Can you say NIMBY?
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