A 133-acre stretch of farmland off Winnsboro Road in Blythewood is one step closer to becoming a subdivision after Richland County Council gave first-reading approval to a rezoning request that could allow as many as 800 homes on the property. The vote came after a public hearing where residents warned that the area's roads and services can't keep pace with another wave of rooftops.
The rezoning would shift the land from agricultural to Residential-3 designation, according to WLTX. County documents show the zoning designation could technically accommodate up to 800 homes on the site, though the station reports that Stanley Martin Homes, the builder behind the proposal, intends to build fewer than 300 and preserve roughly half the property as open green space.
Luke Boatright, vice president of land acquisition for Stanley Martin Homes, told council the company aims to develop thoughtfully and provide a product the public wants to purchase. The rezoning passed its first reading following the public hearing, with Councilmember Derek Pugh casting the lone vote against it, per the same WLTX report.
Residents Push Back on Density
Not everyone at the hearing was convinced the green space promise outweighs the risk. Resident Jessica Ross told council that high-density rezoning is not good for the infrastructure, for the constituents, or anybody with Blythewood, reflecting a concern that has followed multiple growth proposals through the area this year.
Those worries echo complaints raised earlier this year during a separate Blythewood rezoning fight. In that case, Richland County gave initial approval in May to a Haven Communities project that was ultimately scaled back from 388 to 255 planned homes after a town hall, according to The Post and Courier. Residents in that dispute raised concerns that the area's infrastructure was already struggling to keep up with rapid growth, according to The Post and Courier.
A County-Town Overlay in the Works
Richland County Councilwoman Gretchen Cooper said the county is beginning work with the Town of Blythewood on a development overlay meant to guide future growth, a coordination effort she suggested could help establish a more consistent approach to new projects. Cooper also framed the timing question around infrastructure costs, saying that building roads and utilities before development shifts the expense to county taxpayers, while building them afterward puts the burden on developers.
The Winnsboro Road rezoning is expected to return for a second reading at the council's next meeting in November, per WLTX's reporting.
Growth Pressure Builds Across Blythewood
The Winnsboro Road proposal isn't an isolated case. In January, developers floated rezoning four separate Blythewood-area parcels that could bring hundreds of new homes and potential commercial development to largely agricultural land, according to WACH. One of those plans sought Residential-3 zoning for 80 home lots across 60 acres along Wilson Boulevard, while another requested roughly 155 acres along Koon Store Road and Wilson Boulevard for 233 home sites, leaving about 70 acres as open space.
The underlying numbers help explain why residents keep showing up to these hearings. Blythewood's population grew 135% between 2010 and 2020, reaching 4,772 residents, per The Post and Courier's earlier reporting, and the town is also expected to become home to Scout Motors and at least 4,000 auto workers. Traffic counts have climbed alongside the rooftops: cars per day on Fulmer Road rose from about 1,600 in 2023 to roughly 1,750 in 2025, the newspaper reported, part of what it described as a broader pattern of traffic and infrastructure-funding challenges tied to the town's rapid growth.
