Photo by: Leslie Cantu/Journal Scene

Residents applaud the planning committee’s recommendation to deny a rezoning request at the corner of Old Trolley Road and the Berlin G. Myers Parkway.

A single vote put a rezoning request at Old Trolley Road and the Sawmill Branch Trail on the path to denial Wednesday.

The full Summerville Town Council will decide next Wednesday whether to deny the project or allow it to move forward.

Stolf Construction wanted to rezone two parcels of about seven acres to neighborhood commercial from residential.

Stolf first came to the town in October with a request to rezone the land on the southeast corner to general commercial.

Residents opposed the rezoning then and dozens showed up Wednesday, forcing the committee to move to a larger meeting space.

Councilman Walter Bailey said he opposed the rezoning because the land is surrounded by single-family residential and the nearest commercial on the same side of Old Trolley Road is several hundred yards away.

That the S.C. Department of Transportation would allow only right turns into the property would mean that people traveling from town would either make a U-turn in the middle of Old Trolley Road or cut through the Twin Oaks neighborhood to go around and enter the property, Bailey said.

And though buffering would be required, Bailey said the town has failed in the past to check up on maintenance, so plants die and the buffer disappears.

Bailey’s opinion carried the day – he was the only person voting. Of the three-person committee, Councilman Bob Jackson was absent and Councilman Bill McIntosh abstained from voting to prevent the appearance of conflict of interest.

McIntosh said he discovered while researching the issue that an attorney formerly employed at his firm handled the legal work to remove the restrictive covenants in the neighborhood.

The restrictive covenants permitted only residential development.

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