City Of Anderson Posts Growth; Downtown Paving Early 2027

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

Cities rarely change all at once. They change through documents few residents read in full; through a street closed for paving; through a new apartment building rising where an industrial property stood; through a new sidewalk, a tree ordinance, a bike lane or a restaurant opening in a storefront that had been dark for decades.

In Anderson, those changes are now part of a larger idea of how the city should grow and what it is becoming while it grows.

The city council’s recent approval of a new Unified Development Ordinance, or UDO, is among the most consequential recent steps in that effort. The document runs more than 200 pages, but Mayor Terence Roberts described it in simpler terms as a set of practical rules intended to carry out the vision set in the city’s comprehensive plan — the plan for what Anderson wants to look like, where it wants housing and businesses to go, and what it intends to protect as development continues.

“The basic concept of a Unified Development Ordinance is to bring a lot of things together in regards to zoning,” said Roberts. “It all came from the comprehensive plan that we started. You have a vision of what you want your community to look like.”

A comprehensive plan can describe the aspiration while the development ordinance determines what gets built, how it is built, where it may be placed and what obligations accompany construction. It is, as Roberts put it, “the nuts and bolts” of a long-term vision.

“What the UDO does is it protects and it also gives some perspective to where particular things go within the zoning part of our community,” he said.

The city had already moved ahead on two major issues before the full UDO was adopted: tree protection and signage. Both will be visible in the ordinary experience of moving through Anderson. One determines what is preserved on the ground; the other shapes what residents see from the street.

The city’s tree ordinance was an early component of the larger development effort. Roberts acknowledged that tree regulation can be complicated, particularly when residents see clearing associated with new construction and assume that trees have simply been removed without restriction.

The ordinance addresses tree canopy, mass grading and the number of trees required in a subdivision. It also requires replacement trees to meet certain standards rather than allowing developers to satisfy requirements with newly planted seedlings.

“You just can’t plant a seedling and that be part of the tree ordinance,” Roberts said.

Over time, he said, the standards should produce more substantial landscaping and tree cover in new developments.

“In our particular part of the country, trees are important,” Roberts said. “I like that outlook of how we protect it going forward with the tree ordinance.”

The city’s sign ordinance was another early step. Roberts said he continues to notice signs around Anderson that reflect the city’s new approach. Regulations governing scale, placement and appearance can sound minor beside the questions of housing and transportation, but they shape a city’s visual character more persistently than most people realize.

The UDO also opens the possibility of more sidewalks in neighborhoods, an investment whose significance often becomes clear only years later. A sidewalk makes a neighborhood more durable and generational as it gives children, walkers, older residents and families a safe route through the place where they live. It turns the distance between one house and another into public space rather than merely road frontage.

Downtown Anderson is in the middle of a transformation that can be difficult to appreciate while it is occurring.

Main Street’s long-awaited paving project has taken longer than city officials initially anticipated. Roberts said the delay reflects the complications of rebuilding infrastructure in an older city, where work on the surface often reveals needs below it.

“Any time you have a city as old as our city and you start with repavement and looking at things that are underneath a layer of asphalt, there are certain things that we had to take care of,” said Roberts.

Those needs include water infrastructure and the opportunity to install fiber for connectivity within city operations and potentially for downtown businesses. The city is also expected to redraw some parking areas, with the finished project anticipated to create additional space for parking.

Roberts compared today’s downtown disruption to earlier public works projects that generated skepticism before their benefits became apparent. Two decades ago, sidewalk and crosswalk work also placed pressure on businesses and residents. Yet those investments helped establish the foundation for much of the downtown development Anderson has experienced since.

“If we hadn't done what we did 20 years ago, which set the footprint for some of the things that happened over the last 20 years in regards to downtown development we would not be where we are today,” said Roberts. “This is a natural consequence of future growth and prosperity.”

The mayor pointed to the East-West Parkway, also known as the Richard Shirley Parkway, as such an example. The project faced criticism when it was proposed. So did the bike and pedestrian trail sometimes dismissed as a “trail to nowhere,” a route that has become a key connection among the parkway, the YMCA, the Civic Center, Lindley Park, AnMed and downtown.

“Can you imagine if we didn’t have that parkway right now?” said Roberts.

The Main Street paving project is expected to be substantially complete during the first part of 2027, with city officials asking businesses and residents for patience as the work continues.

“The finished product,” Roberts said, “will be something that the community will be proud of.”

Downtown development is also being advanced one vacant building at a time.

The old Big John’s Luncheonette building, along with neighboring long-empty addresses, is expected to receive a new round of life through historic tax credits and redevelopment. Roberts said Mattie’s Patties, a business that developed through a food truck and the city’s shared kitchen and once had a location downtown, is expected to occupy part of the ground floor.

The arrival would give downtown a dedicated burger option and add another food destination near the Church Street entrance into the central business district. Roberts also said there may be a pottery-focused business — a place where customers could make or paint pottery — among the prospective tenants.

Above the commercial spaces, three residential units are planned.

“Putting that building back in use just creates a lot more activity downtown,” Roberts said.

The effect of a single restored building is often larger than the building itself. It pulls pedestrians along a block, gives businesses a reason to open nearby and makes a once-empty corner feel occupied. The Church Street entrance, which connects the parking garage, Magic Spades Wine Bar, the hotel and downtown, is expected to receive its own improvements.

The city plans to raise that street level to sidewalk level and add trees, lighting and seating features. The former entrance into the Church Street parking lot has already been closed and dead-ended, allowing the area to be reimagined as a pedestrian-oriented space rather than a route for cars.

“We’ll do some creative things with trees and lighting,” Roberts said, “just to make that again a focal point where you can come and sit and enjoy yourself.”

Downtown, Roberts said, has expanded beyond the traditional few blocks of North Main and South Main. The area around Calhoun Street, Magnetic Street and the Commercial Building has become part of the larger downtown ecosystem. The return of a restaurant to the old PBJ building near Magnetic Street, he said, is another indication that activity is spreading outward.

The city’s next downtown chapter is also taking shape east and west of Main Street.

On Franklin Street, a workforce-housing development is nearing completion which will include more than 80 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. Rents will be tied to income, with eligibility thresholds including 20 percent, 50 percent and 60 percent of median income.

The project is not Section 8 housing, Roberts emphasized. It is a tax-credit-financed development intended to provide rental homes for people whose work is essential to the daily life of the city, but whose wages may not align with rising market rents.

“These are apartments that are being built by state dollars,” Roberts said. “It’s a very competitive process.”

Workforce housing, he said, is designed for restaurant workers, hotel staff, first-year teachers, firefighters, police officers, senior citizens and other people who need to live near their jobs without spending an unsustainable share of their income on housing.

“It allows people who work in our restaurants, who clean our hotels, first-time teachers, firefighters, police officers, even senior citizens, to have a place to live based on their income,” said Roberts.

He compared the challenge to resort areas such as Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head, where service employees may be priced out of the communities where they work. The concern is not yet of that scale in Anderson, but the underlying question is the same: Can a city retain workers who make its businesses, schools, public safety departments and service economy function?

Murray Mill, on the former Chemtex property near the Anderson County Farmers Market, at the corner of Murray and Tribble streets, represents another major opportunity. Demolition is underway and the development could bring roughly 125-130 apartments, including the renovation of one existing building.

The project is also planned to include a 20,000-square-foot commercial building, green space, a water feature, clubhouse and workout facilities.

“People always ask me, ‘We should have maybe a grocery store downtown,’” said Roberts. “Maybe that might eventually be a spot for that. I’m not saying what that will be. That’s up to the developers, but I can see that happening.”

The project would be the first major new residential housing development in downtown Anderson in decades. If it is built and occupied as expected, it could place 200 to 300 additional people in the downtown area full time.

Roberts pointed to the high occupancy rates at The Palmetto and The Calhoun as evidence that demand exists for residential living near downtown.

“All of a sudden, you put 200 people, 300 people downtown living full-time,” he said. “So that’s huge.”

A downtown population brings not only customers but needs: groceries, pharmacies, restaurants, services and the ordinary conveniences of daily life. The phrase “drugstore downtown” may sound like a small thing, but it is also a measure of whether a central business district is becoming a neighborhood.

The city’s trail system is another way Anderson is trying to join its separate pieces into a more connected whole.

Roberts said the original purpose was rooted in health and quality of life. Trails encourage people to walk, run and bike, and they create a sense of safety that makes outdoor activity more possible in an urban environment.

“I see people walking that feel safe to walk in a particular urban environment that I don’t think would have been walking a couple of years ago,” said Roberts.

The city has invested in Lindley Park, B. Thompson Park and D.B. Walker Park, Cater’s Lake, as well as recreational facilities that serve children, adults and sports teams. The East-West Parkway, a 3.1-mile route, connects to the Civic Center and reaches across Interstate 81 toward Midway.

At Lindley Park, the city reduced Murray Street from four lanes to two and added bike lanes and pedestrian lanes on both sides. Roberts said he has noticed more runners and cyclists using the street since the changes were completed.

The city’s longer-term goal is to connect Lindley Park to the Civic Center, creating routes that would allow residents to travel by bike or on foot from downtown to Lindley Park, the Civic Center, the East-West Parkway and AnMed.

Urban trail systems are more difficult to build than rural ones.

“Urban bike trails are very difficult to do,” he said. “There’s a lot of rights-of-way and you’ve got to look at easements and power easements.”

But the city sees trails as part of its responsibility beyond roads and public safety.

“Part of a city’s responsibility is the quality of life that happens within our community,” said Roberts. “Part of our responsibility as a city, as a municipality, is the health of our community.”

The city’s recreation center is also feeling the pressure of that growth.

Roberts called the facility is “absolutely packed,” with demand for classes and activities exceeding the space currently available. The recreation center has two basketball courts, but those courts are also being used for programming, making it difficult to schedule additional classes.

The city is considering an L-shaped expansion to accommodate more activity as part of the discussion of the next phase of Anderson’s recreation master plan, which has already produced upgrades at Lindley Park and other facilities, relocation of ball fields to the recreation complex and additional athletic capacity.

“We don’t have enough fields and gyms,” Roberts said.

That shortage is evident in youth sports scheduling. Soccer games can be pushed to 8:30 or 9 p.m. on school nights because facilities are heavily used. The YMCA and other municipal recreation programs are experiencing similar demands.

For Roberts, that strain is a challenge but not a bad one.

“We have growth,” he said. “We have a mechanism in place to handle that growth. We just need to make sure that we plan smartly for that growth.”

Funding for some recreation investments comes from the city’s 2 percent hospitality tax on prepared food and beverages. The tax generates millions of dollars, Roberts said, but it is dedicated revenue that must be spent on permitted uses, including recreation and tourism-related improvements.

The future of Darwin Wright Park is also open for public discussion. Some residents have suggested developing the site as a kayaking destination, comparable in some ways to Green Pond’s role in bass fishing. Roberts said the city will seek community input before moving forward with decisions of that kind.

The fall will bring a series of public events that place downtown Anderson at the center of civic life.

Anderson County’s bicentennial parade is expected to draw participants and spectators downtown, a rare large-scale downtown parade outside the city’s annual Veterans Day and Christmas traditions. Roberts said the occasion offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for residents to celebrate the county’s 200th anniversary together.

“You don’t get but one opportunity to celebrate things like this,” he said.

The city’s Christmas-tree lighting will arrive earlier than usual, in on Nov. 25, extending the holiday season in downtown Anderson. The city will again decorate around the tree and host activities, including the Holiay Ice ice-skating attraction that has gained popularity since the city began using real ice.

“We get more and more people who grew up in places where there is ice in northern parts of our country that have moved here,” said Roberts. “They like the idea of the real ice.”

Roberts said downtown’s holiday atmosphere has sometimes been compared to a Hallmark movie: decorated storefronts, lights, crowds and the combined efforts of the city, county and business owners.

“It’s very quaint,” he said.

As the city enters fall, Roberts said Anderson is financially healthy, with reserves where they need to be and a recognition that municipal budgets must prepare for unexpected crises, including major storms.

“The city continues to grow,” he said. “We’re healthy. We have a very sound financial bottom line.”

The deeper objective, however, is not simply expansion. It is a question of character.

The city’s UDO, comprehensive plan, downtown projects, housing developments, trails, recreation investments and holiday events all form parts of the same answer: Anderson wants to grow with enough structure that growth does not erase what residents value about the city.

“At the end of the day,” Roberts said, “the city wants to be the most desirable city in the region.”

He is careful to distinguish desirability from size.

“That doesn’t mean we’re going to be the biggest,” he said. “But we want to be the most desirable city in the region.”