Columbia City Council approves $1.1M land purchase

The Columbia city council approved a $1.1 million purchase of land at Providence and Broadway in downtown Columbia Monday night.

It passed 5 to 0. Council members Karl Skala and Laura Nauser were not at the meeting.

The money would come from interest the city makes on capital improvement project accounts.

The land was part of the site CVS Pharmacy targeted for several years. The council rejected the company for the third time last year, citing issues with building use and traffic flow, and the company abandoned its plan to build sometime after that.

Some residents like the plan because it would expand green spaces downtown for the area’s only park. It would remove the vacant building there, which CVS would have done as well, and give the city a chance for an attractive downtown entrance and improve the health of Flat Branch Creek.

Others said there’s no need for a bigger park. The city has enough, they said, and want to see the money used on projects like safety or road repairs.

Removing the building may be difficult. Large concrete pillars hold the building up, as the back half hangs over the creek. City and state laws would make it difficult for anyone else to build a similar structure today, Deputy City Manager Tony St. Romaine said Monday.

Fourth Ward Councilman Ian Thomas said the method of payment did little to foster trust between the city and its residents. He didn’t even know interest from capital improvement projects could be spent. With a mounting need for more police officers in the city, Thomas said the city would eventually have to ask people for a tax increase to hire more. However, he felt the opportunity to buy that particular plot of land was too good to pass, and voted for the purchase.

The corner carries important history, according to testimony given at the meeting. Columbia was founded at the corner, community outreach director Steve Sapp said, due to the spot’s proximity to Flat Branch Creek. Councilman Clyde Ruffin said expanding the park will help link the African American History Trail, from the “Sharp End” business district to the north to the city’s founding spot. A dedicated spot to African American history would help bring that community’s history into the city’s “mainstream” and unify the shared history of the town between races.

“Although there will not be a commercial development on that property…attracting more families, more tourists into the downtown area will, in fact, have a significant economic benefit for all of the businesses that exist in that area,” Ruffin said.