Palmetto Compress housing project gets rehearing
Members of Columbia’s Design/Development Review Commission (DDRC) couldn’t make up their minds last week.
The question: Whether they should grant a rehearing after they rejected plans for a student housing complex on the site of the Palmetto Compress warehouse on Blossom Street in December.
The proposal would have torn down the historic building and replaced it with eight low, vinyl-sided buildings, prompting a chorus of dissenters, Free Times reported. It was rejected 7-1, The State reported.
The crux of the commission’s question was simple: Did it do anything wrong in last month’s hearing?
Supporters of the rehearing suggested that the developer, Ohio-based Edwards Communities, wasn’t given a chance to rebut the public’s commentary. Opponents said the right of rebuttal isn’t guaranteed in the commission’s rules.
Still, the DDRC appeared a hung jury. Over the course of six votes, it twice rejected a rehearing, three times voted not to deny one and, eventually, decided to go ahead with a rehearing, 5-4.
The proposal will be considered again at next month’s DDRC meeting.
Main Street ice skating rink extended two weeks
Columbia’s downtown ice skating rink is sticking around for a little while longer.
Last week, City Council voted to extend its contract with Magic Ice USA Inc. and to keep the rink at Boyd Plaza, in front of the Columbia Museum of Art, until Jan. 21.
The extension will cost the city $20,000, according to a memo written by Allison Baker, the senior assistant city manager.
Initially, the city paid the Miami-based company $158,500 to operate the rink through the holidays and dropped $21,605.42 on decorations and equipment, for a total of about $180,000, Free Times reported in December.
The rink exceeded $100,000 in revenue as of Jan. 1, and revenue from the two-week extension was expected to cover the new $20,000 expense, according to the memo.
In addition, Free Times reported last week, the rink has played a part in a growing resurgence on Main Street and reintroduced consumers from the suburbs to the area.
Escaped suspect rearrested after New Year’s getaway
Michael Juan Carrell had an eventful New Year’s Day.
The 20-year-old was arrested around 2 a.m. Jan. 1 on the 700 block of Harden Street in Five Points and, WIS reported, provided police with two different ages.
But what began as a relatively minor underage possession charge spiraled into a litany of offenses when the officer stopped to help another cop with a fight near Rosewood Street.
He parked at the BP gas station; then, Carrell allegedly broke through the car’s back window and made a run for it. Later, his friends helped him cut and unlock his handcuffs, according to a police press release.
Now, Carrell is charged with escape, resisting arrest, providing false information to police, possession of alcohol by a person under the age of 21, drunkenness, malicious injury to property and petit larceny.
And to boot, Amber Dean, 27, Keith Allen Hood, 27, and Melissa Rose Dean, 20, have been charged with accessory after the fact.