Published: Friday, Mar. 01, 2013 / Updated: Monday, Mar. 04, 2013 04:18 PM

Tega Cay hosts public meeting on connector road

By Amanda Phipps - Special to the Fort Mill Times

TEGA CAY --

Residents expressed both their concerns and hopes for the Tega Cay/Gold Hill Road Connector during a public meeting for the project Thursday at the Glennon Center.

The meeting gave residents a first glance at a definite route for extending the new road. Now a cul-de-sac in the residential part of Stonecrest, the road, named Hubert Graham Way after the city’s late former mayor, will connect Stonecrest to Gold Hill Road.

Project members hope the connection will help ease congestion at the Hwy. 160/Gold Hill intersection and provide more outlets for emergency vehicles and residents, said Erin Pratt, project engineer for Campco Engineering. The road will also provide residents with an alternate route to I-77.

Amanda Phipps - Special to the Fort Mill Times - Rob Walsh, vice president of Campco Engineering, answers questions about the plan to extend Hubert Graham Way.

Pratt said many people’s concerns centered on a need to understand the reasoning behind the project. Part of the Pennies for Progress roads improvement program, the project is funded through a one-cent sales tax levy York County residents passed in 2003 referendum.

“We hope people realize the positives of the project,” she said.

Tega Cay resident Joanne Misiuda, whose property lies within the proposed alignment of the road, said she recognizes the need for improvement.

“We knew it was coming for a while,” she said.

Misiuda said her main concern is how much of her property would be lost to the right-of-way.

Residents voiced other concerns with the new road, including the loss of trees in the area.

“We can now see Gold Hill [Road] from our house,” one resident said.

Beverly Keller, whose home is near the proposed road, fears the connector will hurt her financially.

“It will destroy my property value,” she said. “I hope that road never gets built.”

Keller also pointed out that some Tega Cay residents voted against the new road.

While still in the design phase, Pratt said the current design “was the most effective alignment.”

As proposed, the connector would replace the T-intersection at Stonecrest Blvd. and Hubert Graham Way with a single-lane round-a-bout rather than install a traffic signal at the intersection, cutting down on congestion and keeping everyone moving, said Mike Fry, CEI president.

The road will extend the existing Hubert Graham Way built by Stonecrest developer Herman Stone and Wal-Mart. This was something Stone hoped would happen six years ago. If the road is ultimately extended, maintenance will be shared by the city and the county.

Stone said his property right now is “backed up to Tega Cay. [The road] will make us a part of Tega Cay.”

He also said the road will help improve the city’s economy.

“It will create a tax base for Tega Cay,” he said.

CEI hopes to start and complete right-of-way acquisition this year and begin construction in summer 2014.

“That would be a great accomplishment,” Fry said.