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South Carolina - Developers plan to build bicycles-only community


May. 25, 2010

By ANDREW SHAIN

Read More: http://www.thestate.com/2010/05/25/1...-bicycles.html

Soon there will be a subdivision where your car is not welcome. Developers plan to build a bicycles-only community in Lexington County, near Gaston. Those developers — from Ohio and the Lowcountry — think their Bicycle City will be the first subdivision of its kind in the nation. It will have no asphalt. It will have miles of trails and ponds for boating. It will have eco-friendly homes. And residents and their visitors will have to park their cars outside the community and bike — or walk — to their homes.

Developers have spent nearly $1 million to buy 140 acres about 15 miles south of Columbia, according to land records. They also have hired community designer Ozzie Nagler, planner of Harbison and the Three Rivers Greenway. “It could become an eco-tourism destination,” said Joe Mellett, a Cincinnati-based Internet marketer and one of the developers. Mellet and one of his co-developers will present their concept to Lexington County Council at a meeting tonight. Bike-friendly developments are not a new concept, though they have been difficult to pull off.