Anderson Co. housing developments denied, school capacity a factor in decision

ANDERSON COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA) – Two housing communities will not be built in Anderson County after a school district spoke out about how the developments would impact their schools.

The county’s planning commission denied requests this week to build Harvest Creek Cottages in the Powdersville area and the Acorn Glen community in Piedmont. Both communities would have produced a combined total of 85 new homes.

The county told 7NEWS that several factors contributed to the requests being denied, including concerns from Anderson School District One.

“We’ve had a lot of growth in Anderson School District One over the last several years,” Dr. Seth Young, the district’s superintendent, said. “We are really just trying to keep up with the growth that’s already been planned and the growth that’s already underway.”

Dr. Young said schools in the Powdersville and Piedmont areas are full, and would not have been able to accommodate more students.

“There’s already new development with literally thousands of houses going into the Wren attendance area,” Young said. “The burden we’re anticipating in that end of the district over the next several years is quite a lot.”

According to Dr. Young, the district has seen significant growth in the last five years. It has had to add portable classrooms to the schools to keep up with the students who are moving into the district.

“The traffic on the roads around some of our schools is already pretty maxed out,” Young said. “We’ve looked at staggering our start times this year. That’s really been successful in helping the traffic around our schools. But, more development means more people on the roads. A lot of the roads in Anderson School District One weren’t meant to support the additional strains on the road in the area.”

The district is currently building Oak Hill Elementary School in Powdersville to keep up with growth. When it opens in 2026, 1,000 students will be able to attend.

According to Dr. Young, the construction project is not being funded by a bond referendum. He hopes the district and county can come up with a long-term plan to continue to accommodate growth without raising taxes.

“We want growth,” Young said. “We want to be able to support growth. People move to our community because of our schools. The last thing we want to do is put additional strain on our taxpayers.”

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