Driving School in Forest Acres Columbia, SC

The future of the Richland Mall site in Forest Acres, which is being redeveloped into a sweeping new retail and residential corridor, is now set out in city code.

Forest Acres City Council Tuesday approved guidelines for the Richland Mall redevelopment site, where developers are building a new Kroger grocery store, nearly 400 apartments, and 40,000 square feet of retail space.

That move allows for more densely built housing, clearing the way for the new apartments. It also lays out rules for walkability and limits things like drive-thru restaurants to the Beltline Boulevard side of the site to protect the pedestrian-friendly and boutique character developers and city leaders hope to see with the mall redevelopment.

Construction on the site is expected to begin in early 2026, with the apartments taking approximately 18-24 months to build and the grocery store taking approximately 18 months.

The Richland Mall redevelopment is happening in three phases, with the first two being built out at the same time. That includes the grocery store, apartments and retail space.

“Phase three is toward Beltline (Boulevard) and will largely be driven by the demand for what is built in phases 1 and 2,” Forest Acres Mayor Thomas Andrews wrote on social media as part of an update to the community.

The city is also planning a new park on the site, set to be the city’s largest park, which will be built in parallel with the first two phases of the mall project.

Crews began demolishing the former Richland Mall in 2024, which was almost entirely empty, beyond a Barnes and Noble bookstore and a Belk department store that both closed before demolition.

Forest Acres first announced the major redevelopment plans in 2022. Earlier this year, the city announced that Kroger would be the first tenant in the new district once the demolition of the mall and the build-out of the new buildings on the site are complete.

Columbia Water issues a boil water advisory affecting apartment complexes, businesses, homes and school in Forest Acres

FOREST ACRES, S.C. — Columbia Water has issued a boil water advisory for an area of Forest Acres along Bethel Church Road.

The advisory was issued at 6:40 a.m. Wednesday, December 3 and affects homes and businesses along these roads: Bethel Church Rd, Montclair Rd, Storkland Ave, Valejo Cir, Atascadero Dr, 3400-3700 block of Covenant Rd, Robert Springs Dr, Ravenhill Rd, Havana Ct, 2800-2900 block of Willingham Dr, Pointe Vedra Dr, 4700 block of Ravenwood Drive, Fernwood Dr, Roper Dr, Reamer Dr., including Brockman Elementary School.

The Brockman (Montessori) Elementary School will release students early at 11 a.m. due to lack of water service. Bag lunches will be provided to all students before dismissal, and all after-school activities for Wednesday afternoon have been cancelled.

Columbia Water crews are working on emergency repairs to a broken 6-inch water line.

Residents in the affected area will experience water service interruption or lower water pressure while staff works to restore normal service. Once water is restored, customers in the affected area are advised to vigorously boil their water for at least one (1) full minute prior to drinking or cooking. Any ice made from water not boiled should not be used. Please follow the same precautions if you are in the affected area and have experienced a loss of water and/or pressure, or may be experiencing discolored water.

This advisory would remain in effect until Columbia Water Laboratory issues a repeal notification. Columbia Water staff is presently working to correct the problem as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience during this necessary work.

If you experience discolored water after the repeal notification, please run your taps for 2-3 minutes.

Please contact the Customer Service team at (803) 545-3300 if your water is still discolored after flushing your plumbing so crews can be dispatched to flush the lines in your area.

All food processors and restaurants should adhere to the recommendations provided by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture (SCDA). They can be contacted at (803) 737-0147.

A Christmas caper is upon us, Columbia.

Two local legends — robots Freddy and Tobor — have seemingly gone missing from their home on Forest Drive.

It all started when Elaine Gillespie, who’s owned and renovated the historic 3000 Forest Drive property twice, got a call from the new owner of the 1930s Moderne Streamline home. He was asking her about plumbing and other things the owner of a custom-built, nearly 100-year-old mansion might need to know.

Gillespie, a local realtor, had been dismayed that the previous owners of the house hadn’t put the robots out on their perch for the 2024 holiday season, so she took the chance to make sure they’d return this year.

“I said, ‘You know, those robots are really important to the community, and they didn't go out last year. I really hope you're … gonna put them out and decorate them.’”

“And he said, ‘They're gone.’”

Gillespie said she replied, “What?”

“They’re gone,” Gillespie recounted of the phone call. “They're not here. I heard about them, but they're gone.”

For years, the holiday season was marked in Columbia by the appearance of two vintage-style robots perched atop a second-story balcony along Forest Drive.

The blue-and-gold robots, and the house, are basically local legends. The historic Streamline Moderne house was built and designed in the 1930s by George R. Price house. It was restored in the late-’80s by Gillespie, who also first put out the robots for passersby to see.

Gillespie first saw the robots “chained up in the backyard” of a house in Rosewood, where her work managing rental properties often took her.

"I couldn’t stand it, after awhile," Gillespie told Free Times earlier this year. She wound up buying two for $25 a piece.

The robots are 1960s-era promotional materials named "TOBOR" (ROBOT spelled backward). Equipped with an 8-track and motion sensor, the robots were leased to stores and malls. When someone walked by, they would light up and announce "shoes on sale! ... or whatever they were selling," Gillespie explained.

Another pair of TOBORs can be seen next door, on the covered second-story balcony of 3004 Forest Drive, and a pack of them stand watch at the longtime Vista watering hole Art Bar.

In Gillespie’s hunt to find or replace Freddy and Tobor, she asked the eclectic Vista bar if any of their robots — part of co-owner and artist Clark Ellefson’s collection of 22 — were for sale. But they aren’t.

A friend found another one, but it wasn’t “splashy” enough to grab people’s attention from the road.

“And everybody keeps saying to me, ‘They're next door,’ but those that are next door, they just don't have the high-profile appearance,” she said.

The home was purchased in October for a little more than $700,000, according to real estate site Redfin. The previous owners had only owned the house for a little over a year. But Gillespie wasn’t able to track them down to ask about the missing robots.

“Nobody really knows,” she said. “Never really got to know those people or anything.”

She added that the new owner of the house, who did not return this reporter’s call by time of publication, was eager to continue the festivities if more TOBORs could be acquired.

Gillespie asks that anyone with a lead on Freddy and Tobor’s whereabouts reach out to her via Facebook. She wants to see the vintage “clankers” decorated for Christmas and spreading techno-cheer once more.

“It's such a weird, freaky tradition,” she said. “I’d just hate for it to go away.”

New zoning rules in Forest Acres that outline the city’s future growth and which put limits on certain developments and businesses in different corridors of the city are now final.

City officials say the new unified development ordinance sets the stage for the next 40 years of growth for the 11,000 person city that shares its borders with the city of Columbia and Fort Jackson.

“We’re not a city that can grow our boundaries by annexing new commercial property because we’re fairly landlocked,” Forest Acres City Administrator Shaun Greenwood said. “And so most of our commercial growth comes from redevelopment of existing lots.”

To help shape that redevelopment, the city created different zones along Forest Drive and Beltline Boulevard, each with its own expectations for what future construction might look like. Together, these zones make up what the city calls the Centers and Corridors districts. Important to note is that the new zoning corridors don’t automatically change the zoning in an area, but it sets a standard for if the zoning is changed in the future.

The general idea: allow more intense commercial uses where they already make sense, and scale them back where commercial areas meet neighborhood streets.

“One of the things I tell the council all the time is anything built today you’re going to be looking at for the next 40 years,” he said. “So you want to make sure whatever you’re building meets the character of your community and the future vision you have for your community.”

Some Forest Acres residents voiced concerns over the new rules at a public hearing earlier this year, worrying that the rules signal a future where commercial development runs unchecked in neighborhood areas, but no residents spoke at the Dec. 9 Forest Acres City Council meeting where the rules were approved.

Forest Acres City Council Tuesday gave final approval to the rules in a 4-1 vote. Councilman Stephen Oliver voted against the new rules, saying he didn’t want to cut out certain property from the new zoning code after the city spent taxpayer money on the effort.

“Ultimately, the Unified Development Code is an attempt to plan for the next 30-50 years in a way that protects our residential areas while also guiding appropriate growth,” Forest Acres Mayor Thomas Andrews wrote in a social media post explaining the rationale for the new rules.

The new zoning rules also lay out specific limitations on businesses like smoke and vape shops, payday lenders, and drive-thru fast food restaurants, among others, depending where they are located and how the properties are already zoned.

The zoning ordinance also sets the stage for regulating Airbnbs and other short-term rentals, which will now have to register with the city and operators will need to have a business license, similar to rules in Columbia.

Forest Acres City Council Tuesday also sent a resolution to the city’s planning commission that would ban smoke shops and businesses that sell alcohol in the Covenant Crossing area by Trenholm Park, where Covenant and Bethel Church roads connect.

City leaders have talked about creating a Main Street district in that area, but exactly what that could look like is still being worked out, Greenwood added.

Greenwood acknowledged the zoning ordinance is complex, but said the intent is straightforward: protect the community’s character while making redevelopment predictable for both residents and business owners.

“It is very nuanced,” he said. “But this is about encouraging smart growth, preserving what makes Forest Acres what it is, and making sure properties are used in ways that benefit the community long-term.”

FOREST ACRES — The city may soon have a new, four-legged option for lawn maintenance.

With a population of approximately 11,000 just north of Columbia, Forest Acres could join its larger neighbor in allowing goats to be used for landscaping by creating a workaround to the city’s codes. Forest Acres currently prohibits owning any livestock within city limits.

“I think it is doable,” Forest Acres City Administrator Shaun Greenwood said at a Dec. 9 City Council meeting. “I think the question … is just more general terms.”

Proponents of goat-based lawn care argue the animals can access harder-to-reach areas than mechanical yard equipment and are more eco-friendly than spraying herbicides.

One of the city’s larger homeowners' associations has expressed interest in using goats to trim growth near a creek, which would be difficult for a lawnmower to tackle and not ideal for spraying, Greenwood said.

The city would also look into potential stipulations for goats to be used on commercial properties, he said.

“Because there are some big lots that are owned by commercial entities, but obviously you wouldn’t want to see them in the front area of Publix, right?” he said.

Forest Acres is looking to model its goat-scaping policy after the one Columbia adopted in December 2023.

Columbia added a section to its city codes allowing residents to circumvent the city’s ban on owning goats in order to do occasional landscaping, with some conditions:

Forest Acres is considering if the city’s smaller staff would make a similar policy to Columbia’s more difficult to enforce, Greenwood said.

Forest Acres City Council discussed a potential policy change at the Dec. 9 meeting but did not take a vote. The city hopes to solicit resident feedback before making a decision, Greenwood said, with a proposed ordinance to be presented in the coming months.

Columbia’s Planning and Development Department has issued 12 permits for prescribed grazing in 2025, the department said via a city spokesperson.

“The City of Columbia has not experienced any negative issues with our prescribed-grazing policy since its adoption in December 2023,” the department said. “Overall feedback has been positive.”

Columbia isn’t alone — Greenville County has also used goats to fight off invasive and notoriously hard-to-kill Kudzu vines.

Straight from the goat farmer’s mouth

Jacob Porter, a retired veteran and owner of Green Goat Land Management, worked with Columbia while the city drafted the new policy. He has also been in touch with Forest Acres, he said.

Since starting his company in 2019, the operation has grown from eight goats to 130, he said.

He now does work across South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. His operation outgrew his properties in Elgin, Neeses and Sumter and has been based in Barnwell for a little over a year, he said.

Along with the goats being able to reach tough spots and keep property owners from needing to spray chemicals, they can also eat plants like poison oak that human workers would rather not touch, Porter said.

The animals are often cheaper workers than humans, he said.

“I tend to be half the cost or a little bit better,” he said. “Obviously, the goats work for food. The humans don’t.”

Porter’s goats are also all friendly and enjoy being fed saltine crackers and mini marshmallows, he said. Some repeat customers request their favorite goats when they call.

“Over the years of doing this, they’ve actually gotten worse,” he joked. “They’re big, big dogs.”

Some of the goats are spotlighted with personal profiles on his website: Hey-Hey is “always the first one in line for treats,” Ladybug has a “spicy attitude” and Remington is “nosey, friendly and acts like a dog.”

Since Columbia adopted its 2023 ordinance, Porter’s goats have found work on property owned by the University of South Carolina and with the city at Finlay Park and along the Columbia Canal.

One thing he and the city didn’t anticipate was the amount of large commercial properties the goats would be working on, rather than residential yards, Porter said. The city has had to grant exceptions for the goats to stay longer on some projects to get the job done, he said.

He’s looking to do more commercial properties in the future, as they are better for business than smaller properties, he said.

As of early December, the goats are on their last job for the season — eating rivercane on a property in Blythewood. Soon they will come back to their home in Barnwell for the winter, Porter said.

He continues to offer his services to any cities looking to bring the goats on.

“I would always tell the city to invite me to a city council and let me have three minutes to tell them about my business because nobody's going to know what I do better than me,” he said. “If you look around this area, there's nobody been doing it longer. I've probably done thousands of good jobs. There's very few things I'm gonna run across that I haven't seen.”