Plans for Lake Murray resort project are off the table

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Plans for Smallwood Cove, a 93.5-acre resort community along the shores of Lake Murray in Lexington County, have been scrapped.

Late on July 19, the owner of the property where the resort was to be located announced that the project would not be moving forward.

“The landowner has enjoyed Lake Murray for more than 80 years and only wants the best for the community,” said the landowner’s attorney, George Bullwinkel, in a statement. “Regrettably, the annexation and zoning process has overshadowed the thoughtful plans that would have opened up community access to this beautiful location. My client has elected to withdraw annexation and rezoning efforts at this time.”

Detailed plans for the community released in May said it would feature 1,100 residential units including townhomes, condominiums and single-family homes, two hotels, retail space, restaurants, a marina and a conference center. Local officials estimated the buildout of the development would take 15 years and involve developers spending more than $733 million for the project.

After the project was announced, many members of the community said they were excited about it, but many others voiced concerns about increased traffic on the area’s deteriorating roads, strained area resources such as schools, health care and first responders, environmental impact to the lake and access to the property for local residents. Those concerns and more were addressed at a packed July 12 joint meeting between the town of Lexington and county officials.

The town of Lexington had asked for traffic and environmental impact studies to be done to better determine the proposed resort’s impact.

Lexington County officials also raised questions over whether the town of Lexington had the legal rights to annex the property.

“We respect the landowner’s decision to withdraw the petitions and we will continue to ensure that Lexington remains a great place to live, work, play and raise a family for generations to come,” said Lexington Mayor Steve MacDougall.

Lexington Town Council member Todd Lyle said the decision was unfortunate because he anticipated having more opportunities to discuss the proposed resort with the landowners and come up with a workable plan. He said the residential density of the plan revealed in May was “significantly more dense” than he had originally been led to believe.

“The decision to pull the project is unfortunate and an extreme measure in my opinion,” Lyle said. “I would still love to see that property developed. There were just things in the existing proposal that I didn’t like and a lot of people in the community didn’t like. We would have loved the opportunity to go back and chat and come up with a plan that worked for everyone.”