Fort Mill doubled in size Monday, thanks to annexations and development agreements covering more than 5,000 acres. Town Council voted on two long-awaited projects: Completion of Clear Springs Development villages and a Culture and Heritage Commission museum surrounded by a 340-acre development.Clear Springs, which controls about 2,700 of the annexed acres, plans to begin developing Kingsley Village first. The project spans several hundred acres from S.C. 160 West north between Interstate 77 and U.S. 21. The village will include commercial and residential development, similar to Baxter Village, but with more commercial buildings, according to company officials.Clear Springs is still creating detailed development plans for the village and others, and construction is still likely more than a year away.“It was a great day, a very historic day for Fort Mill,” Mayor Danny Funderburk said. “And we did it in an effective way with smart growth principles.”West of I-77 and south of Sutton Road, officials with the Culture and Heritage Commission and Cherokee Partners are finishing plans for a new museum on the Catawba River and the Kanawha Development on about 400 acres.The plan includes 40 to 50 acres of commercial development, 337 single-family homes, 111 townhouses and as many as 267 apartments.Kanawha developer Cherokee SDG plans to start with a small section of homes near the museum as models for “green” design and technologies that may be incorporated in the overall development, said Project Manager Allen Harrington.The Kanawha plan also includes 15.4 acres set aside for a Fort Mill public elementary school.Additionally, Leroy Springs and Co. sought and received annexation of the 1,800-acre Anne Springs Close Greenway.
