CAYCE, S.C. — Kim Lucas has lived on F Avenue in Cayce since she was a little girl. Now that she is retirement age, she has plans to downsize, and hopefully share her family land with potential homebuyers.
"Its a lot to maintain, as you can see we have got about five acres here, and it is a lot. The homes we are planning will be about 2,000 square feet and have small yards so there's not a lot to maintain, because I'm trying to get away from that," Lucas explained.
The family has teamed up with developer, Wes Taylor, to create a cul de sac with 22 homes and a retention pond off of F Avenue. Two of the project's houses being homes for Lucas and her sister.
However, their proposal was met with a lot of pushback from the community, in person and online.
"We've heard a lot of negativity for neighbors which I'm really shocked at because me and my sister thought this was a great project," Lucas said. "My sister is in the building business and she hears all the time that people want to move to Cayce, they want to move to the avenues. But to hear the awful comments on Facebook, and social media, and through word of mouth, it's hurtful."
The backlash led the family's developer to try to cancel Monday nights public hearing at the Cayce planning commission.
"The email says, thank you Monique but one of the reasons I choose to defer the meeting tonight is the fact that threats have been made against my family," read one commissioner.
The council decided to take a vote to see if they would continue with the public hearing.
"We should defer it because the developer is not here to answer any questions we have, and with as much confusion and backlash as this is stirring up, I think it's fair we hear from the developer," said a commissioner.
The council decided to defer the hearing, with the developer standing in the room unnoticed the entire time.
As people left the meeting, one resident says she simply wanted to share her thoughts on the development and how it will impact the water in the area.
"The creek that runs through the yard is turning into a watershed, and I just do not think it could realistically support 22 homes," said resident, B.A. Hohman.
The planning commission says the developer will now have more time to re-write their plans and present them to the public at at another scheduled hearing in June or July.
The city of Cayce and their police department says they have no record of reported threats made to the developer for the land on F Avenue.