COLUMBIA, S.C. — A proposed student housing complex that would house hundreds of students just got a step closer to getting started.
Johnny "Holiday" Baez, the owner of Holiday's Barbershop, is excited about the possibility of a new housing complex coming to Huger Street.
"It's exciting to see the city doing what it's doing," Baez said.
In a Thursday Columbia Board of Zoning Appeals meeting, a proposal was presented to the board that received approval.
Leighton Lord with Nexsen Pruet, the agency representing Subtext developers, requested that the front yard setback be increased from 10 to 40 feet along the Wheat Street side and activate more space along Blossom and Williams Streets.
"The entire Blossom Street will be activated because it will have leasing. It'll have student study areas, but it will also have these units that open onto Blossom," Lord said. "So, we feel like Subtext has very creatively figured out a way not only to activate 60% of the street, but activate 100% of these two streets, and these are two streets you'll really see coming into the project."
According to Lucinda Statler, a planning administrator at the City of Columbia, now that the project has received the Board of Zoning Appeals' approval, the developers will need to get a design approval certificate from the Design Development Review Commission.
"They will also need to go to our Planning Commission because it is a residential project over a certain size," she said. "Because it has more than 24 units, it has to go to site plan review."
Statler said the city has not yet received the applications for those.
Baez said he's been on Huger Street for eight years and has seen the area develop gradually, including a new hotel site that recently began construction.
"To see the growth over the years has helped my sustain my business here especially throughout the pandemic that has happened," he said.