Mobile Home Sales in Nichols, SC

Two well-known York County properties are up for development decisions, while another would allow new senior apartments.

The York County planning commission meets Monday. On that agenda are changes for the Southbridge project where the Charlotte Knights used to play in Fort Mill. Also, a proposed expansion of commercial property at Nichols Store in Rock Hill.

Here are the plans submitted:

▪ Cato Land Development applied for changes to the massive Southbridge project at the former Knights Stadium site in Fort Mill. The property at Deerfield Drive and Springfield Parkway would take out a planned internal roadway to serve the property, and update language requiring more pedestrian access throughout it.

Southbridge is a 355-acre mixed-use development project. A 2016 change to the site allowed for up to 5.2 million square feet of office space, 600 new residences and 400,000 square feet of retail and service uses. Most of the property remains wooded and vacant. A three-story office building, at 150,000 square feet, is built. Townhomes are under consideration for development, according to the county.

▪ Plans to expand Nichols Store in Rock Hill were submitted, though county planning staff recommends against the requested zoning change needed. Nichols Store sells a variety of hunting, fishing, outdoors and other items.

The property owner of three parcels at 1956, 1962 and 1980 Mt. Holly Road applied to change almost 7 combined acres there to general commercial use. The plan involves a new parking area and almost 12,000-square-foot building for storage, office or retail use. The two parcels that don’t include the current store have homes on them. The existing commercial buildings at the store combine for 28,000 square feet.

▪ The owners of almost 8 acres between Pleasant and Gold Hill roads in Fort Mill applied to rezone the property to allow for a 134-unit senior apartment facility. Calamar and RM80 are the applicants. The property is at 2625 through 2655 Pleasant Road.

Two of three involved land parcels are vacant. Another includes a home. The vacant sites are heavily wooded with a creek along their border. A site plan shows the single access to the site would come off Pleasant.

▪ May Green Properties applied for a change to the Edmunds Farm subdivision plan approved late last year. A county change to open space requirements for some development types led to a plan for the owner to sell a portion of the property.

Edmunds Farm is a proposed 58 lots on 123 acres on Hines Road, near South Main Street and Filbert Highway in the Kings Mountain area near Clover. Lots will be an acre or more, and there still will be more than 20 acres of open space.

Editor’s note: In 2016, the tiny Pee Dee town of Nichols was nearly wiped out by floods after Hurricane Matthew. As it struggles to rebuild and bring back displaced residents, Hurricane Florence’s rains threaten to do it again. Gov. Henry McMaster told town and county officials Thursday that the state “has their back.”

NICHOLS — Billy Jones just wants to go back home, but the 78-year-old can’t. Nearly a half year after he left it in flood waters from Hurricane Matthew, he can barely breathe in his house because of the mold, even if it had a floor.

Nine of every 10 former residents still can’t go home in this tiny Pee Dee town. They and officials struggle to rebuild before the place falls apart as a community. The town took maybe the worst of last October’s storm that wreaked more than $100 million damages statewide.

The 400 people who lived here are mostly low- to moderate-income workers and retirees.

Nichols isn’t one of those flood-prone towns built straddling a river bottom. It sits on a modest bluff along the Lumber River in Marion County.

Before last year, the worst flood most people could recall sheeted the streets with only a few inches of water, but the town also sits little more than a mile upstream of where the Little Pee Dee River flows into the Lumber.

Matthew’s winds did little damage to Nichols, but heavy rains caused more than a half-dozen upstream dams to breach. By the time the flood reached Nichols, the rivers might as well have been one stream — running 4 feet high down the streets.

‘It’s overwhelming’

To glance at Jones’ modest brick home, you wouldn’t think anything amiss, besides the flap of yellow caution tape still on the door rail, a surgical mask dangling alongside.

“Everything is gone,” he said, his eyes tearing up to think of it. “The duct work, the heat pump. They disconnected the water and sewer. They tore out the flooring, the kitchen cabinets, piled them in the street.”

Jones is a gentle man who called himself “just a common, ordinary guy.” He is a little frail and had lost his wife in January before the flood.

A retired worker living on Social Security, he doesn’t have the money to rebuild. He didn’t qualify for Federal Emergency Management Agency help because he’s in the flood plain without insurance. He didn’t qualify for loans because he doesn’t have enough income.

“It’s overwhelming just to try to figure out what to do,” said Julie Bumgarner, his daughter.

Sunday evening after the storm, Jones and others began noticing water puddling where it shouldn’t have been. Then it was ankle deep, then waist deep.

“When it come, it come. It was just a matter of minutes,” he said. “I lost my house. ’Bout lost my life.”

Will enough return?

No occupancy signs are posted on window after window. Campers share yard space with rail car-sized debris containers. Businesses are boarded up. New flood codes mean a lot of it will have to be elevated when rebuilt. With its tax base disrupted, the town has exhausted its funds and reserves. It’s operating on a grant.

Roland Windham settles with a heave into his office chair after a day of relentless meetings. The retired Charleston County administrator, now working under contract for Nichols, is jumping from crisis management to recovery planning. The town wants to reinvent itself as a riverside tourism and inland port destination.

“Getting people back in the homes” is the most pressing need, Windham said. People displaced from storms tend to stay put after four or five months, so that puts the town at a critical moment.

Asked what would happen if enough of them don’t return, he shakes his head. That’s the question they don’t want to answer, he said.

‘We are worth saving’

Workers are setting sheet rock in the living room, while the household goods that weren’t lost to the flood wait in stacks on the porch. The place could be livable again in a few weeks.

“So hopefully, that will be by the end of April,” said Cynthia Tucker, a retired office worker who lives there with her mother and sister. “We’ve had so much throwaway.” They had been rescued by boat after waving down a helicopter. Nobody thought they were still there because her sister’s small sedan was nearly submerged.

One estimate put the repair cost at $77,000. They have a FEMA loan but it isn’t enough to finish. They’re working through agencies for other help.

At Town Hall, Sandee Rogers keeps up the chipper front of a saleswoman, but her eyes get somber. The town clerk knows what the community she loves is up against. Few of its residents had flood insurance, too big an expense. Each of them will need it or some kind of waiver to get back in their homes, after they rebuild.

“We’re not riding on the heels of anyone. It’s time to make this town what it can be,” she said.

“We are worth saving. We are Small Town America. If we can’t save this place, we as Americans are falling down on the job.”

During the opening drive of the Garnet and Black Spring Game, the South Carolina football team experienced something that all teams are trying to avoid during their spring scrimmages. Incumbent starting left tackle Jaylen Nichols suffered an injury to his knee. At the time, the injury seemed relatively serious as Nichols could not bear any weight on his leg and hat do have it put in a stabilizer. He was given crutches in order to walk, and he was in a tremendous amount of obvious pain.

Since then, there has been no official announcement regarding the injury. Most assumed that he had suffered a pretty significant injury and would miss most of, if not all of, the 2023 season.

On Tuesday, Nichols’ head coach spoke about what happened to his left tackle. Coach Shane Beamer called Nichols’ injury “pretty significant.” He acknowledged that Nichols would not be available at the beginning of the season in September but did not go as far as to say he would be out the entire year. The big offensive lineman is a redshirt senior, but he could theoretically recover an extra year of eligibility through a medical redshirt if he were to miss all but four games this fall.

Versatile offensive lineman Jakai Moore is the early favorite to play left tackle in Nichols’ absence. Moore has played the position some in the past, and he was part of Beamer’s “top-6” offensive linemen from the spring. The top-6 were Nichols, Moore, Nick Gargiulo, Vershon Lee, Trai Jones, and Tyshawn Wannamaker. Freshman guard Markee Anderson slid out to tackle for part of the spring game, and Beamer has spoken highly of Anderson, as well as Cason Henry, Ryan Brubaker, and Grayson Mains. All four players could play tackle if needed.

The Gamecocks could potentially be in the market for a transfer portal offensive lineman to fill the void left by Nichols’ absence. Any transfer would have to be already in the transfer portal or be a graduate student as the transfer portal’s spring window is closed.

It is unclear as of now what the Carolina coaching has planned for the offensive line, but they have plenty of options from which to choose. Things will certainly become more apparent the closer the calendar gets to the start of the season.

NICHOLS, S.C. (WPDE) — In October 2016, Hurricane Matthew made landfall near McClellanville, South Carolina.

What started as light rain and wind turned to severe flooding.

Communities that hadn’t seen flooding before were covered with water from rising river, including the town of Nichols.

"It was the most heartbreaking, heart wrenching thing ever. And the water was still coming up," said Town Administrator Sandee Rogers.

Another resident said she didn't expect it at all.

"It was scary and sad all in one because we didn't expect that to happen," said Nichols resident, Elaine Davis.

Davis and Rogers said they remember Matthew like it was yesterday.

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Prior to the flooding, they had been taken to the Nichols courtroom where others were being taken.

Davis said she and her family had to wait in the courtroom until a rescue boat arrived.

They were eventually taken to safety and stayed with a relative for a few weeks as they waited for the water to recede.

Davis explained that when they got home, their electricity was touch and go, and they had limited heat and air conditioning.

However, while they decided to stay, other residents decided to move on.

"It was tragic, and it broke a lot of people," said Rogers.

The United States Census Bureau reported since 2016 that Nichols has seen a decline in population. They went from 350 residents in 2016 to 335 in 2019.

After Hurricane Matthew, Rogers said they expected some people to leave, but they were focused on getting people home as quickly as possible.

As time passed, thousands of dollars were donated to the town to help with recovery efforts.

Looking through the town's financial records, more than $500,000 were donated after Hurricane Matthew and more than $113,000 were donated after Florence.

Rogers said all the money went towards home repairs.

The town then received nearly $1.7 million from FEMA and state grants. Rogers said this was used to keep town operations going.

Then in 2018, Hurricane Florence hit, setting back those projects and turning away even more residents.

With another storm devastating the town, we asked what are town leaders doing to prevent Nichols from becoming a ghost town.

"I understand, because these things take time. We're not an independently wealthy town by any means," said Rogers. "But we're five years after the first flood. We got flooded again, and we're still surviving and still making progress and we're still cleaning ditches and getting grants and talk to everyone we can possibly talk to, to get better things to happen to draw big business in," said Rogers.

It's been nearly five years since most of Nichols was under water from Hurricane Matthew. To prevent future flood damage yet again, a hydrology study was done and paid for by state and federal funding.

Clemson University also provided a master plan to revitalize the town.

The plan included using shipping containers around downtown and creating new sources of income through ecotourism.

However, Rogers said plans like these take time and hopes a major investor will see Nichols' potential, being close to Myrtle Beach, and help jumpstart the process.

As for Davis, she said Nichols isn't the town she once knew, but is hopeful to see her community thrive again.

"If you're here, and you got this far, then that should let you know that anything is possible," said Davis.

Rogers said they are still waiting on bids from contractors to start elevating multiple homes in the area.

A starting South Carolina football offensive lineman is expected to miss the start of the 2023 season after “suffering a pretty significant injury” in the Garnet and Black spring game.

USC offensive lineman Jaylen Nichols is likely to some of the 2023 season, head coach Shane Beamer confirmed during a press conference on Tuesday.

“He won’t be ready for the beginning of the season,” Beamer said. “Optimistic that the recovery process will go well and we’ll get him back hopefully before the season is over.”

Nichols, a fifth-year lineman from Charlotte, appeared in 12 games with seven starts for South Carolina last season at left tackle and was expected to help anchor the Gamecocks offensive line in 2023.

The veteran player left the spring game at Williams-Brice Stadium with what Beamer deemed then as a “lower body injury” in the first quarter. Beamer didn’t go into specifics Tuesday on the nature of Nichols’ injury.

Nichols’ left knee appeared to buckle during a pass blocking snap and trainers applied ice to the area on the sidelines after he exited the game. He didn’t return to the contest, which the Black team ultimately won 19-17 over the Garnet team on running back D.J. Twitty’s game-winning two-point conversion.

Nichols signed with South Carolina as a three-star recruit in the Class of 2019 out of Myers Park High School. He’s appeared in 37 career games for USC with 18 career starts (with 14 of those coming over the past two seasons at left guard and left tackle).

South Carolina is in the process of replacing two starters on the offensive line from last year in guard Jovaughn Gwyn and center Eric Douglas, along with veteran Dylan Wonnum.

With Nichols out, redshirt freshman Cason Henry and transfers Sidney Fugar (Western Illinois) and Nick Gargiulo (Yale) should compete for the starting job.

Henry worked with the second team offense during the later portions of 2022 and was expected to do so again, but has been hampered by a lower-body injury during spring. Fugar has also seen time with the first team in his first spring at South Carolina, while Gargiulo played every position on the line during his time at Yale — including tackle.

This story was originally published May 2, 2023, 5:14 PM.