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News Details (Posted: February 15, 2007):
LAKE MURRAY RESIDENTS HOPE NEW TOWN SLOWS GROWTH
Full Description:
Residents in the Lake Murray community of Ballentine are watching the rapid growth around their once predominantly farm community and are looking to form their own town to avoid too much development.
"We want to continue to have a nice place to live," said Les Tweed, a leader of the Ballentine-Dutch Fork Civic Association.
What's infringing on that nice place to live is a plan by the nearby town of Irmo to annex a site planned to be the new home of a Wal-Mart anchored shopping center. The site is near farms and a scattering of neighborhoods.
Ballentine's proposed incorporation, Irmo officials say, is too expansive and would effectively bar future growth for the town a few miles northwest of Columbia.
"It's designed to upset us," Irmo Councilwoman Kathy Condom said.
One person trying to reach a compromise is state Rep. Nathan Ballentine, R-Irmo.
The area is named for Ballentine's family, and he says there is room in Richland County for both towns, as long as one doesn't hem the other in.
