Columbia neighbors felt betrayed by USC’s Campus Village development. Now they’re suing

Some of the University of South Carolina’s neighbors warned years ago of potential consequences of Campus Village, a student housing development that at the time was planned for the south end of campus. Now, just six months after the residence halls opened, a lawsuit says their fears have been realized.

Among those fears was that the housing complex, which now is home to 1,808 students, would exacerbate parking and traffic issues. The lawsuit says students can now be found traversing through nearby residential neighborhoods to find a spot for their cars.

Columbia resident Kit Smith, along with the Wales Garden, Hollywood-Rose Hill and Wheeler Hill associations, are suing because they say an agreement for the project between USC and the neighborhoods was breached, according to a complaint filed against the university, university architect Derek Gruner and the City of Columbia on March 26. A university spokesman declined to comment on the litigation, and the city could not be reached for comment.

Planning for Campus Village, a $240 million project on Whaley Street and the largest in USC’s history, began a decade ago. It originally imagined a sprawling development to be completed in several phases, the first of which is the four buildings that are now finished, featuring classrooms, a dining hall, retail and green space.

At the time, the university reached out to residents near the site to discuss the project. Over the next few years, they crafted a deal to avoid any negative impacts on the surrounding community, with the hope of a “win-win” situation, the lawsuit said. As a result, USC and the neighborhoods entered into a cooperative agreement, in exchange for letters of support from the neighborhoods, in which they promised to ensure future collaboration for on-going planning and problem-solving efforts.

USC was supposed to revise parking and construction plans to reduce traffic in the area, to create a more walkable route to its main campus and to mitigate “student intrusion” in neighborhoods, the lawsuit said.

In December 2016, the university sought a special exception from the Columbia’s Board of Zoning of Appeals to build Campus Village, as required by the city’s zoning ordinances. It was approved in February 2017. But approval was predicated on the agreement with the neighborhoods, the lawsuit said.

When a site plan review was submitted to the city’s planning commission in December 2019, things had changed.

The number of beds had increased by more than 400 from the proposed 1,399. Original plans for a parking garage were scrapped. What was once a 945-space garage became a 237-space “transportation hub.”

In the fall of 2022, The State reported that when USC came before the state Legislature to get funding and approval for Campus Village, state Sen. Dick Harpootlian, a Richland County Democrat and Wales Garden resident, objected to the parking garage. He said he believed it would only make things worse. So it was nixed.

“We feel like we’ve been screwed over,” Frank Adams, president of the Wales Garden Neighborhood Association, previously told The State.

Neighborhood leaders previously told The State they weren’t notified of such changes until construction began. Though the university claimed that there would be “sufficient” parking for Campus Village residents, they still feared a traffic nightmare.

Campus Village made its debut in August 2023.

Since then, traffic in the surrounding area has “worsened,” the lawsuit said. Students can be found “cruising” the area to find parking, along the edges of the neighborhoods and within the neighborhoods themselves.

Neighbors’ ability to “peacefully enjoy their homes” has been damaged, the lawsuit said. And the “uncertainty” of further development is “troubling.” The university has said Campus Village may have two more phases, but the school hasn’t shared its intentions or a timeline.

The lawsuit also claims that the neighborhoods have “repeatedly” reached out to USC about their concerns, but were met with “resistance” from leadership.

Now, the neighborhoods are asking a judge to declare that Campus Village does not conform with a special exception and that Columbia’s planning commission had no authority to modify or eliminate the special exception by the Board of Zoning Appeals.

They are also requesting an injunction that would prevent the university from furthering Campus Village development until the “traffic, pedestrian, and student intrusion mitigation efforts have demonstrated success.” USC, the lawsuit said, should create a town and gown task force for future development. It should also re-establish a cap on the number of students living on the university’s south campus, adopt strategies to reduce congestion in the area, and “meaningfully” address concerns of neighbors.

The lawsuit was a last resort, Smith said, after USC failed to address their anxieties.

“We have lost all hope,” Smith said.