Mobile Home Sales in Blythewood, SC

It could take five minutes, it could take 30. Liz Humphries can never be sure how long the commute will take between home and work. Traffic has gotten bad in Blythewood, residents seem to agree.

“It’s just growing so fast,” said Humphries, owner of Blythewood Consignment. “To go to the grocery store you have to wait in traffic.”

It wasn’t always like this. Fewer than 1,000 people lived in the small farm town northeast of Columbia in 2000. But as the area around Blythewood grew, and as more and more people noticed the quiet, idyllic community, more people wanted in.

Between 2010 and 2020, the town grew 136% and today is considered the 5th-fastest growing municipality in South Carolina, with just over 5,000 residents now.

Blythewood was already feeling growing pains. Now, as Scout Motors prepares to build an electric vehicle plant in town and employ 4,000 workers, people worry the traffic problems will only get worse, hampering essential services in the process.

A Virginia lumberman wandered into Humphries’ shop one day and she knew it had begun.

He was there cutting timber to prepare land for the new Scout Motors plant, which promises to produce 200,000 electric trucks and SUVs each year.

What that level of production will mean for the town of Blythewood remains unclear.

“I think it’s going to be huge,” Humphries said. “It’s going to be just crazy, there’s no other way.”

Gov. Henry McMaster announced in early March that Scout Motors, backed by Volkswagen, would be building its first ever production plant in a 1,400-acre industrial park in Blythewood, northeast of Columbia.

The plant is supposed to be up and running by the end of 2026.

Bythewood residents have shared mixed reactions to the project. Some think it will be good for business, others are wary about how it will change their rural community.

Most people do however seem to agree that traffic is going to be a problem.

At least some of the 4,000 new employees will likely want to live in the Blythewood area, and depending on how many employees Scout expects to work per shift, the roads around the plant could get congested fast.

South Carolina has already offered to build a new interchange on I-77 halfway between exits 24 and 27 to help workers access the site, and to make it easier for the company to ship materials via truck. That offer was part of the state’s $1.3 billion incentive deal given to Scout Motors.

The state is still assessing whether that interchange will be necessary, said Christy Hall, South Carolina Secretary of Transportation.

“We feel fairly confident it will require a new interchange,” she said. “A development of this size, even without knowing the exact details of how many shifts…. how many trucks ….we know that the existing interchanges would struggle to support that development.”

But state officials won’t know exactly what work needs to be done until they’ve finished collecting data from Scout on everything from how often the company will ship materials via truck versus rail, how many employees will be entering the facility at any given time and a slate of other details needed to determine traffic patterns.

Some local work is certain though:

-Scout has promised to improve the intersections leading to the plant, Richland County Economic Development Director Jeff Ruble has said. The existing I-77 interchanges at Blythewood Road and at U.S. 21 will also see improvements, Ruble added.

-In an unrelated project, construction is underway on Blythewood Road, which is being widened to four lanes between I-77 and Syrup Mill Road as part of the Richland County Penny Tax program.

-Community Road is also set to be widened to four lanes, Ruble has said, as it’s expected to see traffic from Scout employees entering and exiting I-77. Scout hopes the bulk of that traffic will be kept to the new I-77 interchange, and to a road extension between the new interchange and US 21.

-There will be an entrance to the plant at Syrup Mill Road, but most employees will enter the site at an entrance on Community Road.

Scout, as well as state and local officials, have stressed they believe the road improvements will ultimately benefit Blythewood residents, and at the very least won’t add to the town’s existing traffic woes.

The traffic problems in Blythewood have been mounting for years. It’s not hard to guess why. All around Blythewood are large vinyl signs advertising new housing subdivisions, or land that can be turned into new housing.

Columbia-Richland Fire Battalion Chief Tyler Gladden oversees emergency services in the Blythewood area and agrees traffic has gotten bad in parts of town.

For the most part, traffic hasn’t caused any major problems in emergency situations, Gladden said, but it can be dicey navigating in rush hour traffic, especially when drivers don’t stop and pull over to let emergency vehicles through.

Gladden couldn’t say what the new Scout plant might mean for emergency response times.

“That is going to create a lot of new challenges,” Gladden said of the new plant. The road work to build the interchange will be one thing, but the project also includes adding a rail spur to the Scout site, and trains can cause long delays in fire and EMS response, he said.

In the past, the fire department has been involved with the Department of Transportation and other local officials to prepare for detours and other things related to road work.

In 2018, the town commissioned a traffic study that showed even at that time, the situation in Blythewood was tenuous.

Sections of Blythewood Road at U.S. 321 and I-77 particularly struggled with congestion during peak hours, that study showed. Intersections at Blythewood Road and McNulty Street, and U.S. 21 and Community Road, had the highest delays at peak times, with five minutes or longer wait times for drivers trying to get through those intersections. And that was five years ago.

In the last 10 years, the amount of traffic on Blythewood Road between I-77 and U.S. 21 to access the interstate has more than doubled, from 10,400 average daily traffic users in 2012 to 20,900 in 2022, according to state Department of Transportation data.

Wait times at certain Blythewood intersections can last 30 minutes or more, residents say.

Residents in local Facebook groups share stories of school buses stuck in traffic for half an hour. Langford Road, a main artery leading to numerous schools, can get backed up so badly people sit in traffic for 20-40 minutes.

In a March interview with WIS, Scout Motors’ CEO Scott Keogh stressed the company wants to manage the “busy” construction process in a way that doesn’t add to Blythewood’s existing concerns.

“It’s obviously going to be a lot of trucks and a lot of infrastructure,” he said in that interview.

He promised to listen to the community’s concerns, and added he hopes the new interchange and other investments work to address the traffic issues.

“We’re going to have to do this together,” Keogh said. “We’re going to have to be respectful… The last thing we want to do is disrupt and annoy … the very community we want to love and embrace us.”

This story was originally published May 30, 2023, 5:30 AM.

A video surfaced on Facebook that appears to show a black bear roaming through a neighborhood in Blythewood.

BLYTHEWOOD, S.C. — After a video appearing to show a black bear in some backyards circulated through a Blythewood Facebook group, neighbors are keeping their eyes out.

Larry Johnson, a Blythewood resident, recalls getting a video from his wife that seemingly shows a black bear walking through his neighbors', and then his backyard.

"First, I was shocked, like 'is this really a bear?' Then you're looking and it's like 'Oh crap, it's a bear.,'" Johnson said. "It kinda started midway through their backyard and casually came down the hill, right across our property line."

The video has made it's way through social media and has become a topic of discussion throughout Blythewood. Fredys Castro says he's hoping to see them with his own eyes.

"It's the first time I'd see one. Here in Blythewood? It's kinda weird, it's exciting," Castro said. "But I want to see it from the distance."

Castro's son, Simon, plans to be a little more cautious if he sees one. "The bear is like kind of scary to see in the woods, like if I see one, I might run away."

According to the SC Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR), black bears aren't permanent residents of the Midlands, and just travel through our area.

The agency says if you find yourself crossing paths with one, "Remain standing upright, avoid direct eye contact, back up slowly and speak in a calm, assertive, assuring voice. Make yourself look as big as possible by waving arms, etc. Do not run from the bear or climb a tree."

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The department also says not to feed the bears because, "A bear that becomes accustomed to having food provided is an accident waiting to happen; don’t feed a bear the first time and it will likely leave the area soon."

The sighting has some families on high alert, including Zach Christie who expects to see more the wildlife with new housing and developments being put in wildlife.

"Being honest, I carry, and I train. So, it's like, 'Hey look, I'm watching my kids if they're outside.' We're going to have property, we're going to have a fence, we're going to have different boundaries, but still, you have to be watchful."

That's the plan for Johnson, too.

"When we're sitting out, I'll have a flashlight or something out here just to stay alert because I'm sure if I'm sitting out and a bear comes, the fire pits lit, and my son's out, that's a lot to try to get the fire pit off, get him in the house, and not freak out if I see a bear."

For more information on bears in South Carolina from SCDNR, you can visit this website.

State and county incentives will fund new I-77 interchange, several traffic circles in the town, and other improvements to roads to help alleviate traffic in and around Blythewood.

CORRECTION: There is a traffic light at Syrup Mill and Blythewood Roads – NOT a traffic circle. The map above has been updated to reflect the correction.

COLUMBIA – The Richland County Economic Development Office announced on Monday that Scout Motors EV, which is backed by Volkswagen, is bringing its manufacturing operations to Blythewood’s new industrial park off Blythewood Road.

The plant will build all-electric trucks and SUVs under the Scout brand with production expected to eventually reach 200,000 vehicles per year.

“Originally produced by International Harvester from 1960 to 1980, Scout was an early SUV that stopped being made in the 1980’s,” according to a statement released by the SC Department of Commerce. “Scout Motors is bringing it back as both a truck and an SUV, both all-electric.”

The company’s planned $2 billion investment and its potential to create 4,000 jobs, would both set all-time records for a Richland County economic development project according to county officials.

Choosing Blythewood

During a remote roundtable Monday morning with Governor Henry McMaster, Scout Motors CEO Scott Keogh and Secretary of the SC Department of Economic Development Harry Lightsey, Keogh said the company looked at 74 sites around the country before choosing the Blythewood site to establish the world’s first manufacturer of the Scout electric vehicles.

Incentives offered by the state and county to attract the company included $1.291 billion over and above tax and other incentives.

Blythewood Road Improvements

Approximately $650 million of the $1.291 billion state incentive package will be used to fund improvements to roads in and around Blythewood to support this project and to help alleviate traffic in the Blythewood area that is already unmanageable at times, according to Jeff Ruble, Director of Richland County’s Department of Economic Development.

“The improvements to Blythewood area roads are in addition to the current penny-tax plan to widen Blythewood Road from the Exit 27 Interchange to Syrup Mill Road and to add a traffic circle near Cobblestone Park,” Ruble told The Voice. “We’ll be making additional improvements between the interchange and the traffic circle, and we’ll continue the four lanes on Blythewood Road from Syrup Mill all the way to Muller Road,” he said.

“Just about everywhere in town that there’s a road leading to the plant, the company plans to improve the intersections,” Ruble continued.

“The entrance into the industrial site off Blythewood Road will be located at Syrup Mill Road,” he said, “and we’re going to install some long turn lanes to alleviate traffic problems there. We’ll also be landscaping the 300-foot-wide buffer along Blythewood Road across from Cobblestone Park, and we’re going to do it right. Our goal is to make it look like the entrance to Cobblestone,” Ruble said.

Community Road Widened

Community Road, he said, will also be widened to four lanes.

“The goal of the company is to have most of the traffic, including employees, coming off I-77 at the new interchange or from a new road extension from Highway 21 through the Google property to the front and main entrance of the plant. This should keep a lot of the to-and-from plant traffic out of Blythewood and easily onto the interstate.”

Ruble explained that a rail spur will run from the track on the east side of Hwy 21 across Hwy 21 and extend to a rail bridge over I-77 at the lower part of the company’s complex.

“Several traffic circles will also be incorporated into some of the road improvements, particularly at Syrup Mill and Blythewood Road, at Highway 21 where it connects to the extension road through the Google property, and at intersections within the industrial site,” Rubble said.

During the Monday roundtable meeting, Lightsey echoed concern for easing local traffic.

“The new interchange and these road improvements will actually help and benefit the residents of the Blythewood community,” Lightsey said. “It will improve the traffic flow and keep traffic coming to and from the site out of downtown Blythewood.”

Plans for the $650 million incentive also include upgrades to the Blythewood fire station, and stipends to support eligible employees’ childcare costs. An onsite child care facility is also planned.

The $1.291 billion incentive package also included $400 million for the company to build facilities on the site; a $200 million loan for soil stabilization (paid back at 5 percent interest); $25 million to build a publicly owned Midlands Technical College training center for employment with Scout Motors; and $16 million for property acquisition for construction of the railroad spur to the site.

Other county incentives include a reduction in the company’s property tax assessment ratio from six percent to four percent over 40 years. County officials say the company would also be eligible for a 50 percent tax break through an infrastructure tax credit.

Richland County Council is scheduled to give the package third reading on March 21.

Scout is planning to break ground on the new manufacturing facility in mid-2023 and begin production by the end of 2026.

“This proposed manufacturing facility marks a major milestone in the history of Richland County and the potential to be our most significant economic development project to date,” said Overture Walker, Chair of the Richland County Council. “This decision represents a transformational breakthrough that would position us at the forefront of the clean energy future while promising to boost the quality of life for residents across our county for generations to come.”

“Richland County has spent years laying the groundwork for today’s historic announcement, and we are thrilled that Scout shares our view that this area is the ideal location for a world-class company to plant its flag,” Ruble said.

Most hiring is expected to happen toward the end of 2025, according to officials. Individuals interested in joining the Scout team should visit readySC’s recruitment website.

Map updated 3/13/2022 at 9:28 a.m.

BLYTHEWOOD, S.C.(WACH) — A project officials say will bring 4,000 new jobs and billions of dollars to the region, was front and center at a Town Hall in Richland County on Monday night.

State and local leaders hosted the public forum so people could ask questions about a new electric vehicle plant slated for the Blythewood area.

Scout Motors chose South Carolina, over 74 other locations for the plant.

Last week, the South Carolina House approved a roughly $1.3 billion incentive package for the electric vehicle plant.

But, the plan still needs to be approved by the Senate.

The money will help build a new exchange on I-77, and a railroad bridge to support the plant.

"This is our first opportunity to discuss with the public here, the citizens of the Midlands, the great impact that the new Scout Motors is going to have here in the Blythewood industrial park," said Bryan Franklin, the Town of Blythewood Mayor.

One thing many here Monday night were worried about, was an increase in housing construction and and how that would affect development and traffic.

With nearly 300 new homes already being built less than two-miles away, residents say it's an iaaaue.

Still, one Richland County official says it’s a game changer for local schools.

"I expect it will change the way we approach education, from k thru 12, straight to the technical colleges. This is going to have ripple effects for generations to come," said Jeff Ruble, the Richland County Economic Development Director.

Some residents were also concerned about smog and run off, but experts say Scout Motors will have state-of-the-art ventilation systems.

One local business owner sees the facility as a positive.

"We will see more local businesses coming into Blythewood. More patrons for the businesses that are here. As a business owner here, I expect to see an inflex of people. So it’s a win-win for me," said Bring King, local business owner.

With salaries ranging between $60,000 and $100,000 dollars per year, experts say it won't take long to fill those 4,000 positions.

"I think the biggest challenge will be the roadways and the traveling because we already have a big issue now. I'm not convinced that the road studies are accurate enough, if we are already struggling," said Tammy Armstrong, a Blythewood resident.

There will be another Town Hall meeting on March 21st.

BLYTHEWOOD, S.C. (WIS) - A multi-billion dollar investment is coming to the Blythewood area.

Friday Gov. Henry McMaster announced Scout Motors has selected the area as the site for a manufacturing plant. The $2 billion investment will create a manufacturing facility and an estimated 4,000 jobs.

Here’s the moment it happened: pic.twitter.com/UCgvRzCorA

— Gov. Henry McMaster (@henrymcmaster) March 3, 2023

The company will build electric trucks and other vehicles at the site located off I-77. The Blythewood Industrial Site is around 1,600 acres, and the estimated size of the plant will occupy 1,100.

Production of vehicles is expected to begin at the end of 2026. Groundbreaking on construction is scheduled for mid-2023. Once at full capacity, the plant is expected to create 200,000 vehicles per year.

“Scout Motors will provide thousands of South Carolinians with previously unimagined opportunities and prosperity for generations to come,” said McMaster.

“Richland County has spent years laying the groundwork for today’s historic announcement, and we are thrilled that Scout shares our view that this area is the ideal location for a world-class company to plant its flag,” said Jeff Ruble, Director of the Richland County Economic Development Office.

Organizers said the state and county plan to add investments to roads and infrastructure in the region to support the project.

Additional funding from the county is planned to upgrade the Blythewood Fire Station. An incentive package from the county includes stipends for future Scout employees to help support childcare. The package is scheduled for a third reading on March 21.

Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickemann said, “This is what collaboration looks like.”

Bryan S. Franklin, the Mayor of the town of Blythewood said, “This historic investment will bring thousands of jobs, economic growth and opportunity to our local community. We are honored to have been selected for this exciting new venture. We look forward to working closely with our partners, community members and other stakeholders to ensure the success of this project and to build a bright future for our town and our region.”

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