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Evans-Columbia County


DaGABoyStinger

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I was in Augusta this past weekend and got a chance to get to the Savannah River Rapids Pavillion and Park off of Stevens Creek Rd. in Columbia County. Ive been there before, probably a decade before, but boy have they added to that place! It was fantastic! you can walk or bike from the Pavillion in Columbia Co., all the way to DT Augusta (9-10 miles) and not realize your in the middle of the city. You have the slow moving Canal on one side and the rocky, fast moving Savannah River on the other. We saw beavers, a fox and numerous birds and lizards...yes they were out in the cold weather we had on Easter!!

It was wonderful and anyone visiting the area it is a must!!

btw, how large, (many lots) is the Rhodes Hill development that borders the ground of Savannah Rapids Pav.?

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I think I may be confused about names of the subdivisions in that area. Rhodes Hill (I believe) is the neighborhood which has been there for at least 10-12 years. Rhodes Estates is newer and smaller and is across the street from the other Rhodes Development which is UC right now. Looks like it is quite big.

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I was in Augusta this past weekend and got a chance to get to the Savannah River Rapids Pavillion and Park off of Stevens Creek Rd. in Columbia County. Ive been there before, probably a decade before, but boy have they added to that place! It was fantastic! you can walk or bike from the Pavillion in Columbia Co., all the way to DT Augusta (9-10 miles) and not realize your in the middle of the city. You have the slow moving Canal on one side and the rocky, fast moving Savannah River on the other. We saw beavers, a fox and numerous birds and lizards...yes they were out in the cold weather we had on Easter!!

It was wonderful and anyone visiting the area it is a must!!

btw, how large, (many lots) is the Rhodes Hill development that borders the ground of Savannah Rapids Pav.?

Edited by CanukInAugusta
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Made a quick trip into Evans today after a dentist appt. in Augusta, (and visiting a friend in Grovetown). Noticed a new bank building going up on Washinton rd. near RR parkway. It appears to be a 3 story building BUT the top floor is the height of at least 2 floors and the bottom 2 floors are relatively high as well. Im guessing it has the height of a 4-5 floor building (top of 3rd floor with be a faux floor?) and rises above the surrounding sprawl like a midrise tower.

Also noticed the E. middle school is gone and they are grading the land, (for Home Depot?)

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  • 2 weeks later...
Made a quick trip into Evans today after a dentist appt. in Augusta, (and visiting a friend in Grovetown). Noticed a new bank building going up on Washinton rd. near RR parkway. It appears to be a 3 story building BUT the top floor is the height of at least 2 floors and the bottom 2 floors are relatively high as well. Im guessing it has the height of a 4-5 floor building (top of 3rd floor with be a faux floor?) and rises above the surrounding sprawl like a midrise tower.

Also noticed the E. middle school is gone and they are grading the land, (for Home Depot?)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I hear the greenbrier area in evans is trying to become its own. Almost like Hephzibah in richmond county is this true? I have rode through this area before it seemed ok but do that many ppl stay in this area. It must be growing fast or already it is a nice size because hephzibah has about 6 or 7,000 ppl. How about that evans could have its own surburb already

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  • 3 months later...

Marshall square is progressing quite nicely. The land has been cleared, and it looks like all the site work is coming to an end. Hopefully, it won't end up like the Village of Riverwatch.

Here is a marketing brochure I found online: http://marshallsquareaugusta.com/pdf/marshallbro.pdf

I went to Aiken yesterday and walked around. My hope is that Marshall Square ends up with the same pedestrian friendly feel of downtown Aiken. I can always dream, right?

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Evans may be getting a downtown-type street or avenue for the Evans Town Center. They want to widen Town Center Boulevard and place a median in the middle and parallel parking on the side. This will add to the downtown feel since part of the plans for Evans Town Center include the construction of buildings no more than five feet from street.

Here's an article.

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Evans may be getting a downtown-type street or avenue for the Evans Town Center. They want to widen Town Center Boulevard and place a median in the middle and parallel parking on the side. This will add to the downtown feel since part of the plans for Evans Town Center include the construction of buildings no more than five feet from street.

Here's an article.

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Not really i think the buildings are going to be 5 or 6 floors. Maybe in 5 or 6 yrs evans or martinez could get a 8 to 9 fl building. This may be good that this is not in downtown augusta, we need skyscrapers were a city not a suburb. Maybe it is better this way that aiken, north augusta, & evans, grovetown, hephzibah, will become their own city away from augusta. Kind of like atl, with decatur, marietta, or sandy springs, college park, stone mountain. Good news for evans instead of home depots and lowes and other strip malls.

Since richmond county spilled over into columbia county. Where do yall think columbia counties sprawl is going to next mcCormick, lincolnton, edgefield, thomson, or grovetown. Not just sprawl but ppl who are going to move when columbia county becomes overdone with sprawl. I would say since evans is growing faster than martinez that grovetown and lincolnton will be next. But if evans grows faster towards grovetown instead of down washintong rd to lincolnton. Thomson mcduffie county will have a great shot to be the next hot spot since their population is about 7 to 10 thousand the same as grovetown. Grovetown is still to little to give harlem a boom. Mccormick still has a shot to because like lincoln the water has it advantages with selling homes. Since the savannah river pkwy is almost complete in south richmond, hephzibah and burke county will grow their combined population is the same as grovetown and thomson. My mom works at spirit creek middle and alot of homes are being built from tobbacco rd down into hephzibah. The goshen area or 56 could always add homes not sure if ppl called that hephzibah though. It seems augusta suburbs are doomed to be sprawly like atlanta. Why dont ppl look at a city only 2 hours away when planning a city.

Edited by augga706
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The Village of Crossroads has already open at the richmond/columbia county border. The complex is a community based setting has a Charleston like feel with fountains, pergolas, gardenbenches, and streetlamps, kind of a bygone Southern era where patients came first.

Sports Medicine Associates is a proud tenant.

Here

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Actually I think the idea of incorporating Columbia County into a city has pretty much died. Earlier this year there was a straw poll in the primaries to guage public support and over 60% of the voters opposed the idea. Plus it just doesn't make sense. Columbia COunty in no way resembles a city... it is a suburban sprawl county. Even areas like Evans and Martinez, which some people mistake as towns, have no recognizable centers.. no main street , no downtown area.. just strip malls and sprawling subdivisions. There is a zoning area known as Evans Town Center which was envisioned to become an actual town center for Evans, but the developer-friendly commission relaxed the zoning rules and now you have big box stores in what was supposed to be a "town center". To me cities and towns should have some degree of urbanity... Columbia COunty, with the exception of it's two incorporated towns Harlem and Grovetown, does not meet this requirement.. It is a suburban bedroom county of Augusta.

Edited by Disgusta
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Columbia County is certainly growing at a faster clip then Richmond County (Richmond has lost population since the last census).. but I would not call the growth in Columbia County has "phenominal"... it's pretty much about the state average.. around 14% to 17% . You have places like Hall County, Forsyth County, and Cherokee County that are growing by leaps and bounds....doubling their populations in short periods of time. I also think growth in Columbia County will slow because of the credit crisis and housing crunch as homes in the area lose value. When you look at Columbia County as a part of The Geater Augusta-Aiken metro area then the area is actually growing at a slower pace then the state average. I don't see any explosive growth coming to the metro Augusta area.. the last time that happened was the 1950s when SRS was constructed.. I don't see any big projects like that coming to Augusta in the near future. Also Fort Gordon is still vulnerable in future BRAC closures.. that would likely contract the area. Positivism is good, but when it reaches bling boosterism, sometimes the reality is ignored.

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Actually I think the idea of incorporating Columbia County into a city has pretty much died. Earlier this year there was a straw poll in the primaries to guage public support and over 60% of the voters opposed the idea. Plus it just doesn't make sense. Columbia COunty in no way resembles a city... it is a suburban sprawl county. Even areas like Evans and Martinez, which some people mistake as towns, have no recognizable centers.. no main street , no downtown area.. just strip malls and sprawling subdivisions. There is a zoning area known as Evans Town Center which was envisioned to become an actual town center for Evans, but the developer-friendly commission relaxed the zoning rules and now you have big box stores in what was supposed to be a "town center". To me cities and towns should have some degree of urbanity... Columbia COunty, with the exception of it's two incorporated towns Harlem and Grovetown, does not meet this requirement.. It is a suburban bedroom county of Augusta.
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Lowes.. Home Depot.. Super Wal-Mart.. all of those have been zoned into what was supposed to be the Evans Town Center.. The concept of the town center was continually watered down by the commission to allow the big box stores in. They still have to abide by certain architectural codes.. Wal-mart had to make some architectural modifications inorder to locate within the town center zone (such as a diferent paint scheme than its normal stores)..But when the idea of the town center came about, big box retailers and strip malls were not envisioned as part of the mix.. now that's mostly what they have in that area. The original plan was to give Evans an identity.. a sort of traditional downtown.. but for the most part it has ben developed in to the same suburban sprawl common throughout the county.

I haven't heard of any big box stores going there and haven't heard of any plans to put any there either.
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Lowes.. Home Depot.. Super Wal-Mart.. all of those have been zoned into what was supposed to be the Evans Town Center.. The concept of the town center was continually watered down by the commission to allow the big box stores in. They still have to abide by certain architectural codes.. Wal-mart had to make some architectural modifications inorder to locate within the town center zone (such as a diferent paint scheme than its normal stores)..But when the idea of the town center came about, big box retailers and strip malls were not envisioned as part of the mix.. now that's mostly what they have in that area. The original plan was to give Evans an identity.. a sort of traditional downtown.. but for the most part it has ben developed in to the same suburban sprawl common throughout the county.
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The town center area encompasses a half mile radius around the government complex.. The Columbia County News Times has done many stories on how the commission has watered down the town center concept and scaled it back to allow the big boxes in...

Those are not part of the town center. If you drive down Town Center Drive and Ronald Regan Drive there are no big boxes and that is the area for the proposed town center. As a matter of fact Town Center Drive may be widened to look like a main street area with buildings built five feet from the right of way of the street.
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Those are not a part of the town center. They may be on land that was going to be included in the town center...but they are not anymore. Frankly they didn't need a town center that big anyway..they are not even an official city. So I'm happy that Evans is doing what it's doing in it's town center.

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