Bill Hampton's Hiller Hardware in the Vista was forced to shut its doors due to city construction Photos by John Temple Ligon

Advertising executive Kevin Fisher, candidate for mayor, worries over the resurgence of Green Diamond, the 4,600 acres of flood-prone property off Bluff Road along the Congaree River. Last week he issued a press release on the matter, sharing fears of an alleged bait and switch strategy on behalf of the project's developers.

Back in downtown on the high ground, Fisher held a press conferenceon Friday, March 3,in front of Hiller Hardware on Lady Street. The 62-year-old store's owner, Bill Hampton III, announced the closing of his Lady Street location in favor of a consolidation at his other Hiller Hardware store in Five Points. Hampton complained, "Before this mess we had 19 parking spaces for our customers, trying to honor city code. Now we have nine spaces four of which are handicapped, and we just can't do it anymore." Fisher and Hampton blame the city's streetscape construction mismanagement for an unbearable falloff in business.

Bob Hughes speaks to Columbia City Council regarding the Green Diamond project. Columbia developer Ben Arnold is buying Hampton's Lady Street property to restore it and rent it out to retail tenants. By then, Arnold must figure, the interruptions in access due to construction should be over. That's also the thinking at American Apparel, a West Coast clothing operation known for trendy goods. American Apparel is locating its first Columbia store at 701 Lady Street, the former Meritage location. Meritage had to close due to the same conditions suffered along Lady Street as Hiller Hardware.

Still, the Lady Street improvement project, all $10.25 million of it, slogs along. As Fisher put it, "One of Columbia's oldest and best known businesses has been forced to close its Congaree Vista store, not due to competition from the big box chains, but instead due to poor planning and management of street projects by Mayor Coble and City Council. It didn't have to happen."

At the 4,600-acre Green Diamond property Fisher is afraid the developers are not coming forward with good faith intentions and with full disclosure. Meanwhile the 4,600 acres are being divided into three parcels. A parcel of 1,300 acres on Green Diamond's south side is going to buyer Kirkman Finlay III. Finlay intends to farm the property and maintain it for recreation.

Between Finlay's purchase and I-77 there's another 1,300 acres targeted for a soft path to sewage treatment with a large field of cattails and other nitrogen/phosphorus eating plants. The treatment plant would allow its process to include a slow seepage of treated sewage across the 1,300 acres on its flow to the river. By the time the treated water hits the Congaree, the developers say, it should be cleaner than the Congaree.

Several years ago, the first attempt to develop Green Diamond was driven by the Myrtle Beach development firm, Burroughs & Chapin, still one of the owners of the 4,600-acre site. The ownership comes under the name Columbia Venture. Burroughs & Chapin receded to promote Greenville developer Bob Hughes as the project's driving force.

Fisher said last week, "When Columbia Venture's new front man, Greenville developer Bob Hughes, went before City Council he was asked directly if they intended to build levees. He danced around the issue, refusing to say no."

The need for improved levees is apparent to Fisher if the 2,000 acres targeted fordevelopment actually gets built out. The area north of I-77, around where the city has its sewage treatment plant near the campus of Heathwood Hall School, needs levee protection now to prevent a repeat of the damages from a flood 30 years ago. Then the property owner of what is now called Green Diamond successfully sued the city for millions.

City council sees the potential for taxable development at Green Diamond and also the potential for low-cost, low-impact sewage treatment improvements as described by developer Hughes. Council has authorized further study, to include a fact-finding trip to a similar treatment project in Orlando.

The city has the end to the Lady Street construction project on its calendar, as they see the end of the first phase of Main Street construction coming soon enough to allow for the beginning of the second phase. The Harden Street restaurant Parthenon closed, but even Five Points appears to be approaching completion of its street improvements. The problem in Five Points, though, is the $32 million project reportedly is not improving much of the flooding problems.