There was much hand-wringing Tuesday as Irmo’s Town Council gave initial approval to allow a controversial development to move forward.

But the council members also expressed conviction that making way for Water Walk, a mixed-use residential project with up to 550 units along the shore of Lake Murray, is the only way for the town to control growth in the area. The project will be back on the council’s agenda for final approval next month.

The proposed 65-acre development at 2947 Dreher Shoals Road/S.C. 6 has faced fervent opposition from nearby residents. Concerns reiterated by citizens in attendance at this week’s Town Council meeting included traffic, both on the already taxed Dreher Shoals Road and on narrow residential streets that would connect to Water Walk, along with environmental impacts, whether the buffers between the new development and the surrounding neighborhoods will be sufficient, and the ratio of rental units to ones that will be for sale.

Last month, one resident even went so far as to mount an ultimately unsuccessful legal challenge to the town’s approval process.

The Town Council members emphasized that they are aware of concerns with the project, which calls for roughly 280 single-family homes and townhomes and 220 senior-living units, along with commercial space to include dining and retail options as well as a small boutique hotel with a maximum of 75 rooms. Those numbers could go up to 550 residential units, under the proposal, with as many as 145 of the homes being rentals.

But they all came back to the fact that the property had previously been zoned for general residential use, meaning that if the town rejects the agreement for Water Walk, up to 700 apartment units could be built on the property with no need for town approvals.

“I wish I was here on Town Council in 2007, 2008. I would like to think it wouldn’t have happened,” Mayor Bill Danielson said. “But the owners wanted it that way, and that’s what they decided to zone it. So we’re dealing with it. We’re tightening it up.”

Approving the proposed development, the council members said, allows them to retain some control over how the project will look, with developers having agreed to include a variety of house plans, incorporate walking trails and other amenities, and maintain the property’s natural slope down to the lake, among other binding promises.

Proposed Water Walk Development on Lake Murray

“What we’re presented with as a council is the option to leave the zoning as it is, which ... still means they can still build a significant number of units,” Town Councilman Erik Sickinger said, “or to rezone into a negotiated district, which offers us, as a town and you as our town residents, the ability to dictate parameters, to set thresholds and ceilings and hold the developer accountable.”

A variety of hurdles remain for the development to clear, Danielson said, including a traffic study and approval from the S.C. Department of Transportation as well as other necessary approvals related to infrastructure, the environment and more.

Sickinger clarified that the development would likely spur the widening of Dreher Shoals Road, something Danielson said the Central Midlands Council of Governments tried to get done 15 years ago.

“It’s like an ant moving an elephant’s [rear end],” the mayor said of getting the council to take meaningful action on issues such as traffic.

The town Planning Commission initially voted not to recommend Water Walk’s proposed rezoning last month at town staff’s urging, but then reversed course at their September meeting after staff explained that the developers clarified that they would have a sufficient variety of floor plans to justify the minimum lot size they were requesting and that they had agreed on a timeline to start on the commercial components of the development to ensure that they wouldn’t fall out of step with the residential aspects.

Town Councilwoman Phyllis Coleman expressed concern about the planned ratio of rentals to homes for sale, asking if there was any way for the town to dictate a ratio of 60-40 in favor of homes to be purchased. Staff said there wasn’t really a way to do that, and Sickinger responded that the senior living aspect is a different kind of commercial enterprise that won’t have the same impact as the other rentals, so the ratio will really be closer to 50-50 or 55-45 between rentals and homes for sale.

On top of that, Sickinger said, the build-to-rent homes proposed for Water Walk are different from other rentals.

“The reality is that what’s being proposed is not what many of us think of when we hear rentals,” he said, adding that average occupancy for a normal rental is 16 months, whereas build-to-rent units have an average closer to four years.

Danielson made clear that Town Council has felt the vehemence of some resident’s opposition, taking exception to insinuations by some residents that leaders are colluding with the developers to get this deal done and that the $1,000 contribution per unit to the town to help pay for expanding services is equivalent to them bribing the leaders by adding to a “slush fund.”

“I take offense to those kind of comments. These people are all way too nice to take offense,” he said, gesturing to his fellow council members. “But I do take offense.”