Wedding & Event Venue near Camden, SC

Camden launches its first city bus route, King Haigler Express, on August 4th with free rides during the pilot phase.

CAMDEN, S.C. — The city of Camden is getting its own downtown bus route.

“We are investing in common sense solutions that help people live work and do business right here in the community,” said Councilman William Wilkes

Camden is rolling out its first the city bus route, the King Haigler Express, beginning August 4th.

The city is working with the Santee Wateree Regional Transportation Authority to bring it to life.

The pilot phase is being paid for with federal transportation grants and support from the city of Camden.

During the pilot phase, it'll be free to ride.

The service will run Monday through Friday, from 10am to 4pm with the bus making roughly 18 stops around town.

The stops include grocery stores, downtown Camden, MUSC, the library to name a few.

Councilman William Wilkes is spearheading the project, and he says it will always be low cost to ride.

"The most it will ever cost is one dollar. And hopefully it will be free,” said Wilkes

Temporary bus stop signs will go up later this week as the route gets finalized.

The route will start in Boykin Park and end at Monument Square.

Wilkes says they expect higher ridership from areas around residential homes.

The United Way of Kershaw County had been offering transportation help, but that funding ran out at the start of the new fiscal year.

"We're really excited that Santee Wateree RTA is stepping up. We were just bridging the gap until that time."

Camden resident Derwin Jeffcoat says the new route could have a big impact.

“I think now with a new bus route and city of Camden, and DeKalb, I definitely think it is going to help tremendously.” Said Jeffcoat.

City leaders say this is just the beginning and they'll be making changes as needed based on what the community wants.

"We are open to making changes, modifications, changing hours, stops, adding stops, taking away stops," says Wilkes.

CAMDEN — Amid a yearlong pause on new housing developments, some residents in a fast-growing Midlands city say there should be more affordable housing, while others oppose major residential projects.

Census estimates released this month show Camden added 436 residents last year for a total of 8,899 — its largest increase in years and 10th-fastest growth in the state. Since 2020, the community has grown 14 percent, adding 1,092 people, the data shows.

Shawn Putnam, Camden’s planning director, said growth has partly come from military families relocating after U.S. Army Central moved to Shaw Air Force Base in 2011, more than 20 miles from the city. Additionally, he points to the Haile Gold Mine’s reopening nearly a decade ago.

"I've heard stories from realtors about them selling homes or finding apartments for people that work there," Putnam said, referring to the gold mine, which reports employing more than 700 workers.

According to city planners, the city issued 122 permits to build new homes in 2024 and 220 in 2023. From 2006 to 2019, annual permits ranged from 14 to 42 before jumping to 110 in 2020, the year the COVID-19 pandemic began in the U.S.

“The pandemic caused people to reevaluate their living situation, especially people that could work remotely, or were retired,” Putnam said.

In September 2024, citing concerns that major housing projects might not align with the city's vision, Camden's City Council enacted a six-month pause on new residential development. Elected officials extended the moratorium another six months in March to give the new mayor and mostly new council time to study the issue.

Last week, the Kershaw County Planning Commission approved a similar moratorium, which the County Council plans to discuss May 27 and vote on in June.

To gather input from residents, the city posted a now-closed survey, hosted an event with the planning director and consultants and set aside time at a council meeting for public comments on future development.

More growth, more traffic

Robert Lamprecht, 69, lives in eastern Camden near the site of a proposed housing development for hundreds of houses. It would be just outside city limits. He worries future residents would crowd the stretch of Jefferson Davis Highway that runs past his neighborhood. Both traffic and the number of people in stores has increased in recent years, he said.

"Our local Walmart, it's busier," said Lamprecht, who moved to Camden in 2012 after years of commuting from Summerville to work at the Target distribution center in Lugoff. "The traffic probably is one of the bigger problems."

In the parking lot of a downtown hair salon, Lamprecht told The Post and Courier he wants rules that require at least a half-acre of space per home to limit how many are built.

At Books on Broad and Coffee, a used bookstore and coffee shop in downtown Camden, cafe manager McKinley Dixon, 22, said dozens of mostly out-of-state customers ask in a typical week how she likes living in Camden as they consider moving to the area. Oftentimes, she said, they’re families of people working at Shaw Air Force Base.

The people she meets are "barely ever from South Carolina. A lot of them are from mostly up North," said Dixon, who has lived in Camden nearly her whole life.

Dixon also worries about new housing developments, pointing to a project under construction near Camden High School, where she graduated. Drivers already face delays near the school, Dixon said, and she fears new housing could overcrowd classrooms there and at other schools.

Enrollment at Kershaw County's 19 public schools has grown 3.9 percent, or 404 students, over five years, district data shows.

"I know that every year the freshman class gets bigger and bigger and bigger compared to past years," said Dixon, who recalls her 2020 graduating class had about 200 students. "And I just feel like soon there's not going to be enough space for every single student to not be looked over in some way."

Newly elected Mayor Vincent Sheheen told The Post and Courier he discussed the “need for planned growth” during his campaign, but noted some residents want more affordable housing — goals that can conflict with the city’s pause on residential development.

Dixon, who lives with her parents, said she would have to move to another city like Columbia to find an affordable apartment.

"I think that just a tiny bit more affordable housing would make a ton of difference," Dixon said.

'It has to grow'

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, "Like That" by Future, Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar blared from All Stars Braid Shop & Champion Barber Shop. The shop sits just blocks from city hall, where the city council was set to meet in half an hour. In interviews, officials have discussed preserving Camden’s historic character in the state’s oldest inland city, home to the Historic Camden Revolutionary War Site museum and located near two Revolutionary War battle sites.

When asked about the housing pause, barbershop owner Champ Champion said elected officials need to "get out their bag."

"They can't keep it the same old city that it used to be. It has to grow," said Champion, a 13-year Camden resident originally from New Jersey, with a Jersey accent to match. “If it’s not growing it’s going to die.”

He said when he first opened downtown, businesses wouldn’t open until 10 a.m. and closed early. Growth has led to more customers and allowed him to expand to another barbershop in Elgin, he said.

"It was a hometown, now it's becoming a city," said Champion, who is in his late 40s.

Michael Alexander, 66, recalls when Camden's downtown had dirt roads and juke joints could be found in the surrounding woods. Still, he opposes the moratorium, saying the city needs more affordable housing and jobs for young people.

Closer to Columbia, Blythewood had the sixth-fastest population growth in the state in 2023-24, with officials expecting a boom as Scout Motors’ electric vehicle plant opens in late 2027. In Camden, Alexander hopes the city grows enough to attract major companies to set up shop.

"You're going to have bigger companies come to Camden," Alexander said. "You've got only a few companies here and that's not allowing opportunities for young people to work."

But in the five years since, permits have more than tripled every year, according to the head of the city's planning department. Some residents have also raised concerns to local officials about traffic.

"There are longer lines at the grocery store, and you go to dinner at a restaurant, and you see very few people that you know, whereas when I was a kid, that wasn't the case," said newly elected City Councilman William Wilkes, who grew up in the community about 35 miles northeast of Columbia.

Census estimates released this week show the city added 436 residents last year for a total of 8,899 — its largest increase in years and 10th-fastest growth in the state. Since 2020, the community has grown 14 percent, adding 1,092 people, the data shows.

Citing concerns that major housing projects might not align with the city's vision, Camden City Council enacted a six-month pause on new residential development in September and extended it by another six months in March.

With a new mayor and all but one councilmember taking office since November, officials wanted time to engage the public on future development plans.

The city has posted an online survey, which is open until May 17. Last month, it hosted an event for residents to share input with consultants and Shawn Putnam, the city’s planning director. Over 100 people attended the workshop, where they could discuss preferred housing types and what they want to preserve in Camden, Putnam said.

"They wanted to see more residential development downtown, they wanted to see lower density developments on large undeveloped tracts of land. We don't have many of those," he said.

On the same day as the event, the city council set aside time during its regular meeting for residents to weigh in.

Wilkes, the councilmember, campaigned on a "balanced development" platform, while Mayor Vincent Sheheen told The Post and Courier that he also discussed the "need for a planned growth" during his run for office.

Sheheen said residents he’s spoken with want to preserve undeveloped land and natural areas and have raised concerns about whether the city’s infrastructure, including schools, can keep up with growth.

In interviews, he said Camden is not a "sprawly suburb," contrasting it with fast-growing Mount Pleasant, near Charleston, and northeast Columbia.

"I think we want to concentrate on the historic downtown, making it thriving, making it lively, making it continue to be a special place and less of loss of green space in the community, strip malls and that type of development," Sheheen said, referring to the area that includes the Camden Opera House and Clock Tower, built in 1886, and is near the Historic Camden Revolutionary War Site.

Even so, he noted that some residents have called for more affordable housing, adding that those goals can conflict with the city's move to pause residential development.

Last year, former Camden councilwoman Joanna Craig proposed the moratorium but lost her seat in the November election. She said she pushed for the pause partly out of concern over several large developments in the area. She said she hopes the order prompts officials to identify and study ways to enhance affordable housing, including converting existing homes into duplexes or places where multiple generations can live together.