“Town of Lexington Residents” are sending a message to the Town Mayor and Town Council: they say “No” to the no longer “secret” proposed 93 acre dam project. Photo Michael Reed.
A citizens group calling themselves “Town of Lexington Residents” are trying to get someone’s attention. Certainly they have caught the eye of thousands of Lexington residents and visitors since they first went up this past Monday.
The billboards have been displayed for purposes of drawing attention to a 93 acre “secret” deal as defined by Lexington Mayor Steve MacDougall at a mid-May meeting at Pilgrim Lutheran Church on Highway 6.
This writer caught up with David Cunniffe representing the Lexington residents. The residents first caught our attention when they placed billboards around Lexington calling for action against the foreword movement of a 93 acre land development pushed forward in a “secret deal” as stated by Lexington Mayor Steve MacDougall in May.
Cunniffe said in a statement that the residents are not happy with the development plan.
“The residents are a a local group drawn together because of the “93” (Smallwood) project. It currently represents any and all residents who oppose the project, which seems to be most people who know about it and those who we make aware of the project.”
Cunniffe said the group put up several billboards in town “to educate residents about the project and highlight some of the issues with it.” He emphasized that the billboards include a phone number and social media sights for people to contact them for more information.
He said the issues the residents have with the project are transparency and personal interest versus that of the residents. Cunniffe noted that “the development appears to have been initiated by the mayor and the town manager in secret (12yrs planning), without the knowledge of Lexington residents or approval of the council.” He added that “it appears that the council wanted to pass the plan under the radar of the residents of Lexington.”
He points out that major points of contension with the project also include the “major detriment to local traffic and to the ecological health of Lake Murray”. He also pointed out that “the only traffic study done was pathetically inadequate and no environmental impact study has been done.”
He said his understanding is that the council plan is to “annex the property to share in the future tax revenue and side step the current zoning regulations of the county, local lake development regulations and restrictions.”
Cunniffe said the annexation doesn’t appear to comply with State annexation requirements of having contiguous property. He also noted that the residents are not against the landowner selling his own property. He made clear that they “simply want the Mayor and Council to comply with existing zoning requirements in place for properties in close proximity to the lake.”
He said the residents believe the Council should focus on current issues like “upgrade and maintenance of current infrastructure before launching new initiatives.” He thinks the residents would like to “maintain the image and reality of a small bedroom community and not become a tourist destination like Myrtle Beach or become the next Harbison.”
“We expect and demand transparency, good management and financial planning from the people elected by the community,” he added.
“I believe that the Mayor’s and Council member’s future seats will be determined by the outcome of their actions associated with this project.” He commented that “intelligent spending and fiscal planning, to avoid projects such as $6 million wasted on a stop light system that failed to improve traffic, and the proper maintenance of existing infrastructure” is what residents of Lexington desire.
Michael Reed is Publisher of The Standard newspaper, print and online. You may find our videos available on Rumble. The bulk of TheStandardSC video media channel has been censored by dominant social media groups like YouTube. YouTube, owed by Alphabet (Google), removed and destroyed all of our video work without permission or remuneration. That has stopped all potential donations from our many supporters on that venue. If you want to continue to see independent thought and reports please “like”, comment, share with a friend, and donate to support The Standard on this page to assure the continued availability of news that is ignored too often by the dominant media.
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