A road widening plan has led to two decades of debates because there’s a pond in the way. And now county leaders seem to have taken a stand.

The most recent months of debate led to a decision Monday night by York County Council to endorse its previous plan for S.C. 557 in Lake Wylie. Council passed a proclamation in favor of the planned road design. The proclamation is needed to satisfy South Carolina Department of Transportation concerns so permits can be issued on the state road.

The two-mile Pennies for Progress project at, and heading west from, the Three Points intersection of S.C. 557, 274 and 49 will widen S.C. 557 to five lanes.

At the center of the discussion is whether the county should stick with the planned road design, which would cut through a publicly-owned pond.

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“There simply is no other viable alternative that doesn’t present a host of downsides that we can’t predict,” said Council Chairwoman Christi Cox, who voted to keep the initial design.

Christy Hall, state transportation secretary with SCDOT, outlined work with county officials since early 2021 on options for the road, which Hall said included an offer to evaluate alternatives at no cost to the county.

“We’re not saying don’t build the project,” Hall said. “We do support the widening of 557. The question is, what is the defined details? How are you going to do it? Not should you do it.

“We feel like we’ve been trying to be good partners with you, but we’ve also been stuck in the middle between the warring factions on this particular issue.”

What led to the proclamation

In 2003, York County voters passed the second Pennies for Progress sales tax referendum to improve York County roads.

The plan then was to widen S.C. 557 near Three Points to three lanes. Plans changed by the next Pennies vote in 2011, when voters approved a widening to five lanes.

York County residents vote to renew Pennies for Progress funding every seven years.

The 2011 referendum budgeted about $4.3 for the widening from S.C. 49 to Kingsburry Road. The current project estimate is $25 million. The full five-lane stretch was fully funded as of the Pennies vote in 2017. It took almost three years to buy right-of-way.

In 2019 the county spent about $550,000 to buy 11 acres of a property, which included payment for damages since the road would mean the loss of a pond and relocation of a gate. Two years later a tax board in Lake Wylie set up for land preservation bought the larger site, which is now Woodend Farm. That land has been preserved as a public park.

Hall said she was contacted about the widening work in early 2021 and has had varied correspondence with county officials. Alternative routes, or the process to identify potential ones, have been discussed.

SCDOT issued construction permits last September but rescinded them in April. Reinstatement of those permits this summer came on condition the county would approve the proclamation that went forward Monday night.

David Hudspeth, county manager, said Monday night the county remains confident the earlier design is the best option.

“We feel like the alignment has been fully vetted over the years,” Hudspeth said. “Further study will result in unnecessary delays and additional cost for the project.”

Council members have differing views

Councilwoman Allison Love represents the Lake Wylie area where the road will go. Love wants to look at options to reroute the road and keep the pond.

“Road plans have changed for less,” Love said.

Love says it might take $500,000 or more to move the pond to another area on Woodend, and she doubts the county would pay for that. Love said a $1 million from a conservation bank was awarded to the Woodend project based on environmental factors, to go with the more than $4 million tax district purchase.

However, other council members point to the roughly $5 million already spent on the S.C. 557 widening and the two decades of public clamoring for work there.

“This project has been sitting for 20 years,” said Councilman William “Bump” Roddey. “Kind of shameful it’s taken this long to get there, but we’re following through on our commitment to do it.”

Roddey said he sees a greater cost in delaying road work.

“I don’t think we lose anything if we move the pond,” Roddey said. “We actually save time. We save money, if we move the pond. The property still will have a pond, it just won’t be in the exact same location.”

Councilman Tom Audette said the cost to pave roads has more than doubled in two years. So waiting unnecessarily on a project doesn’t make sense.

“The cost impact has been brutal on all of our projects,” Audette said.

Council members say it’s unusual to have purchased property from a landowner for right-of-way, then have another public body buy the whole property. Councilman Tommy Adkins said running the road through what is now a public park isn’t ideal, but he sees an issue of fairness.

“I don’t want it to show, just because that’s become a park and all, that we treat any of that any different than we do our normal citizens,” Adkins said.

Councilman Watts Huckabee said there are streams on either side of S.C. 557 and a house that’s eligible for historic property designation. They all make alignment changes unlikely, he said. The county could double what it’s already spent to wait and look at more options, he said, only to find other routes aren’t feasible.

Huckabee also said the Lake Wylie tax board bought the Woodend property after road officials bought right-of-way, so both groups knew of plans to drain the pond.

“Really the pond was never an issue, I don’t think,” Huckabee said. “I apologize to people that thought it was, but I don’t think it was.”

The county push to move forward with a project approved three times already in a 20-year span comes amid ongoing work to create the next Pennies road list. A citizens commission continues to form a list of roads that, pending council approval in full, would appear on the November 2024 ballot to continue the cent sales tax.