Anderson council takes first step in reinstating The Vineyards subdivision

Anderson’s city council took another step towards reviving The Vineyards at Anderson subdivision Tuesday, June 16, when it unanimously adopted a resolution reinstating a 2006 community facilities district policy.

Such a policy will allow property owners within the subdivison’s 2,442 acres to form a community facilities district, sell bonds and obtain funding to provide backbone projects such as streets, utilities, parks, a fire station and a school site for what could be a 5,530 housing-unit complex sited above and slightly west of the Super Wal-Mart south of Anderson.

The project’s master plan calls for a mixed-use village center that would include approximately 1,474 acres of parks and open space, 240,000 square feet of commercial use, up to two elementary schools – one a kindergarten through fifth-grade campus, the other a kindergarten through eighth-grade campus – and the public services and infrastructure needed to serve the project and its residents, according to developer Roger White.

“This is one of a series of actions that will re-invigorate that project,” City Manager Scott Morgan told the five-member Anderson council.

“As this area grows over the decades, this assures that the area will be able to help us meet our needs in terms of police officers, sewer plant capacity and water delivery systems,” Morgan continued.

A previously-adopted community services district, formed in August of 2006, was dropped before fully formed due to the nation’s declining housing market and credit crunch precipitated in large part by sub-prime lending practices and the resulting defaults of many of those questionable loans, he said.

Most of the first phase of The Vineyards at Anderson subdivision – a 519-acre parcel – lies within Anderson’s city limits while the remaining three or four phases are located adjacent to, but outside city limits.

“It is nice to be back with you,” White said of the project’s nearly three-year hiatus. “I’ve been coming before this city council for three-and-a-half-years now and it is gratifying to see that everyone is working together in embracing and endorsing this package.”

According to White, “this is the right time to do a large project” in a down market that is starting to show signs of recovery.

“If we can get the infrastructure built, we will be ready for the recovery that is yet to come in a year to 18 months from now,” White explained further.

“Water is no longer the issue,” White said of a factor that had previously halted construction of 12 model homes still in various stages of completion on 20 lots sold to builders early on in the project.

“The pieces are starting to come back together again, and the CFD (Community Facilities District) is our first official act to get back together again,” White noted.

The Anderson City Council next will consider a resolution of intention and a resolution of necessity for the subdivision’s specific plan at its July 7 regular meeting. A public hearing on the proposed subdivision has tentatively been set for Aug. 18.