North Augusta neighbors voice concerns about Hive development
NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - Nearly two decades since leaders began talking about it, the first reading of the development plan for The Hive in North Augusta has been approved.
This is expected to ease the development.
The project will bring more housing and businesses to the east side of Martintown Road, but also more traffic.
We spoke with Dennis Briatico, who is running for North Augusta City Council.
He says the growth is happening quickly, and he is concerned about traffic but also worries about something you may not be thinking about.
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“Even without these big projects, the city’s already experienced about 15% growth over the last,” said Briatico. “And we’ve gone from a city of 23,000 to 24,000 people to pushing 30,000 people.”
Nearly 200 acres, 700 homes and new businesses, but some are worried about congestion.
“The people that move to North Augusta didn’t move to North Augusta to sit in traffic,” said Briatico.
Briatico says growth has a price.
“If the cost of the growth is our quality of life and what we’ve become used to here in North Augusta, it’s not worth it,” said Briatico.
Briatico also volunteers at the North Augusta Pound, and he says he’s worried about what this means for them.
“When you think about 700 new homes, and you think 66% of those homes are going to have a dog or a cat. You have to think outside the box and what that’s gonna do to the same city pound we’ve had since the 1960s,” said Briatico. “It’s gonna blow it up, and we’re sounding the alarm. So that we don’t have to euthanize animals in the future.”
He says the growth needs to slow down.
“I think we’re experiencing too much growth at such a quick rate that we don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Briatico.
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Briatico says development needs to be done with the future in mind.
“We have to start thinking about who we want to be when we grow up because if we grow up with no direction, we’re going to end up as a wild child, and nobody wants that,” he said.
Because to him, there’s a lot at stake.
“I think we’re going to get to a point with our critical infrastructure where our streets are gonna be crowded,” said Briatico. “Our shelters gonna be overfull. I think you got to get in there, you got to put your hands on the problem, you got to while its happening and the more you let it go, the more expensive the fix is going to be. And that’s not what we want either.”
The final reading for the project is on March 17, and the groundbreaking for The Hive is set for later this month.
The project is something leaders have been discussing since 2006.
Also Monday, North Augusta City Council announced you can only leave out four bags of yard waste per week, with no loose yard waste, meaning it has to be in a bag.
They say full yard waste collection will not likely return until after Masters Week.
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