Work began Tuesday morning, Oct. 20, on three adjoining, city-owned lots at 1859 W. Buchanan Drive. The City of Columbia, Columbia Green and the Gills Creek Watershed Association are developing the site through their Neighborhood Stormwater Greenspace Collaborative, according to HERE Columbia and WIS-TV.
Plans for the site
The project calls for plantings to take in stormwater and provide habitat for birds and insects, while leaving space for neighborhood use. The partners intend the Buchanan Drive site to demonstrate an approach that could be used in other neighborhoods, HERE Columbia reports.
The lots are among properties affected by the 2015 flooding. Tropical Storm Joaquin brought roughly 20 inches of rain to South Carolina, and hundreds of homes in low-lying parts of the Midlands were destroyed. FEMA bought many flood-damaged properties; some were later sold to the City of Columbia and to Richland and Lexington counties, according to HERE Columbia and Columbia Green.
How the partnership came together
The collaborative formed in 2026 after Columbia Green and the Gills Creek Watershed Association recognized that they were pursuing similar work, WIS-TV reports. Columbia Green says it discussed the possibility of using city-owned stormwater lots with Mayor Daniel Rickenmann in January, then brought the watershed association and City Councilman Sam Johnson into the effort. The city announced the partnership with the two organizations, according to WIS-TV.
The project follows a 2025 effort by the Whitehall Garden Club in Lexington County. With permission from the county and a Columbia Green community grant, the club turned a reclaimed stormwater lot into a pollinator garden open to the community, Columbia Green reports. A cleanup at the Buchanan Drive site in June drew nearly 40 people from the partner organizations and the neighborhood, according to Columbia Green.
