Before Tropical Storm Debby rolled through South Carolina — canceling, among other things, an August public hearing concerning a controversial West Columbia development — city leaders were set to consider the plan for as many as 95 townhomes along a two-lane road set back from Sunset Boulevard/U.S. 378.

Another public hearing was scheduled and canceled before West Columbia’s City Council and Planning Commission met earlier this week to finally consider the project, which now looks a lot different.

Instead of about 90 townhomes, the developers are proposing 55 detached single-family houses on what is currently a grassy 10-acre plot on Comanchee Trail with a small house and four large towers previously used for radio broadcasting. The property sits on the edge of the Saluda Gardens neighborhood and backs up to the Edgewater condominium complex.

The Planning Commission voted Monday to recommend the project and the Town Council will hold an initial vote on it next month.

Members of the public who attended the public hearing still expressed worries, largely keying on traffic given the limited access from Sunset Boulevard and what they see as already poor roads in the neighborhood. But the reduced proposal does seem to allay concerns from local leaders that 90 homes was just too many for that particular spot.

The property is already zoned such that 55 homes could be built on it. The developers are seeking to enter into an agreement with the city so that the current owner, communications company Vertical Bridge, has the ability to keep a tower on the property. That commercial parcel could end up being used for other purposes, the developers said, mentioning possibilities such as a cafe or coffee shop.

“They came with a plan for 188 apartments,” Mayor Tem Miles said of what was initially proposed for the property. “It was pretty obvious that it wasn’t going to go anywhere. And they came with a plan for 90. And it was pretty obvious that wasn’t going to go anywhere. And then through discussions, it became kind of their best idea to go with the current zoning density, and they’re seeking approval for it. The favored mechanism for that approval is [this agreement] because we can get additional upgrades that are required.”

The agreement mandates high-quality building materials, which the mayor said will keep it from being a “vinyl village,” as well as vegetative buffers along Comanchee Trail. Developers noted that green space in the neighborhood will be set aside for a small, fenced-in park, adding that the homes will likely be sold for between $255,000 and $300,000.

Increasing traffic in the area has been a concern throughout the process, but developers and city leaders said the 55-home plan shouldn’t have much of an impact. The property has just two close-by outlets to Sunset Boulevard in Park Lane and North Lucas Street, both two-lane roads.

Shawn Escobar with Cross Engineering, which is developing the project, said that the 55 homes should only put 23 additional cars on the road during peak morning hours and 29 during peak afternoon/evening hours. The S.C. Department of Transportation doesn’t list an average daily traffic count for Comanchee Trail, but it does list counts for North Lucas Street (1,800) and Seminole Drive (1,150), which intersects Comanchee further into the Saluda Gardens neighborhood and connects to Sunset Boulevard.

One resident asked why the city couldn’t just rezone the property to become a park, to which the mayor responded that property owners have rights to sell or develop their land as they see fit.

“My problem, we hear it a lot, is, ‘Well, this should be a park. This should be this. This should be that,’ ” City Councilman Jimmy Brooks said. “It’s my understanding that everybody in this room had an opportunity to buy that property. It probably cost more money than most of us would ever want to pay for that property. I have no idea what they’re paying for it. But when somebody comes and says, ‘Well, it should be a park,’ when they buy that property, as the mayor says, they are buying it with the assumption that that property is going to be [zoned as it is] and they’re going to be able to build what they have now.”

Proposed Development on Comanchee Trail in West Columbia