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A Tale of Two Sports Complexes
Northeast Richland Getting One, Lower Richland Isn't
BY NICK MCCORMACA three-year tug of war on Richland County Council over whether to build a sportscomplex and golf course in Lower Richland appears to have ended with the councilabandoning that idea while moving ahead with a similar project in Northeast Richland.Tinged with socioeconomic tension, it is a story of two County Council members passionately pursuing visions they believe in, but only one prevailing.The story goes like this: In 2006, the Mungo Co., a well-known Midlands developmentconglomerate, offered 180 acres behind a Food Lion at Garners Ferry Road and Lower Richland Boulevard to County Council with the stipulation that part of the land be usedfor a golf course. But because the land is adjacent to a Carolina bay, an ecological rarityrich in biodiversity, some conservationists and council members were not so quick to jump on the offer.Enter Councilman Norman Jackson, who represents that area of Richland County.Jackson convinced Mungo Co. president Stewart Mungo to give the council a portion of the land to build a recreation center on and use the rest for Mungo’s purposes.“Instead of building just a golf course, I proposed a multipurpose facility for hostingsporting events, which would help boost tourism and satisfy residents,” says Jackson, aresident of Lower Richland for more than 30 years.Funding for the sports complex would come from the county’s hospitality tax collectionsand revenue generated by the center would make it self-sustaining, Jackson says.But Councilwoman Kit Smith, a critic of Jackson’s plan from the start, says no evaluationhas been done to support the idea that the center would sustain itself and that chemicalsused to maintain golf courses could damage the Carolina bay.She also points out that Jackson joined County Council after decisions had been madeabout appropriating hospitality tax funding, including renovating the TownshipAuditorium and establishing a retail farmers market in Lower Richland.“We want to distribute the money evenly throughout the county and our original planallowed that,” Smith says. “We have prior obligations we need to meet and the plan wehave will allow us to do that.”But one part of that plan — a proposed $40 million sporting complex on HardscrabbleRoad in Northeast Richland — doesn’t sit well with Jackson.Smith touts the facility as having the potential to attract a global audience. “We want thiscenter to be so appealing that it will draw in people from not just around the region, butfrom around the world,” she says.
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