Driving School in Red Bank, SC

What is currently a construction zone will soon be a Judgement Free Zone.

Planet Fitness, which has locations across the U.S. and carries the “Judgement Free Zone” slogan, has a new location coming to the fast-growing Platt Springs Crossing development in the Red Bank area of Lexington County. The progress of the construction of the new facility has been noted in several social media posts in the last month from Mimms Contracting, which is working on construction for the project.

“The new @planetfitness in Red Bank is really taking shape!,” the contracting company said in a Jan. 17 Facebook post. “From steel installation to interior framing, our team is hard at work bringing this space to life — one step closer to a place where the community can focus on strength, wellness, and feeling their best.”

The fact that a Planet Fitness would be part of the Platt Springs Crossing development has been touted since the project was first announced more than two years ago. Now the eye-catching, two-story structure is taking shape on the property, located just west of the Lowes Foods grocery store that opened in November.

There are more than 2,700 Planet Fitness locations in the U.S., per data website ScrapeHero. There are a number of locations in the Columbia and Lexington areas.

Platt Springs Crossing is a 60-acre, $65 million mixed-use project that is quickly developing off Platt Springs Road near South Lake Drive. Businesses that already are operating at the site include the aforementioned Lowes Foods supermarket, a Panda Express Chinese restaurant, a Whataburger, a Chipotle, a Big Blue Marble Academy early childhood center and a Prisma Health urgent care facility.

Developers recently announced that Tropical Smoothie and Venus Nails have signed leases to be a part of the development, and Lexington County public records have shown a LongHorn Steakhouse is being planned there. Also, there are 142 townhomes planned on the northeast end of the property.

The Red Bank area in south central Lexington County has boomed with growth in recent years with new subdivisions, schools, businesses and more. About 18,500 cars per day travel down Platt Springs Road near the Platt Springs Crossing development, per state Department of Transportation data, while more than 27,000 cars per day traverse South Lake Drive nearby.

LEXINGTON — Plans for a 400-home subdivision in the Red Bank area are moving forward after Lexington County Council gave an early vote of approval.

The development comes as the county continues to face community concerns over growth.

The Serenity Lake subdivision would add 402 new homes to a 174-acre plot along S.C. Highway 6 / South Lake Drive between Buck Corley Road and Briarpatch Road, according to plans submitted to the county.

The homes would be around half a mile north of White Knoll High School. The subdivision, being built by Midlands developer Mungo Homes, would straddle the existing Arrants Pond.

Lexington County Council opted to allow the project to move into the permitting process in a 7-2 vote at a Jan. 13 committee meeting. The vote did not grant overall approval to the project, but did move it a step ahead.

If approved, the subdivision would take about six years to complete, county Community Development Director Robbie Derrick said at the Jan. 13 meeting.

Councilmembers Charli Wessinger and Larry Brigham opposed the project, with Brigham citing the overall density of homes on the lot at over 4.5 homes per acre when not counting the planned 40 acres of open space.

When including the open land, the density comes out to around three homes per acre.

“I understand the calculation of how you get that,” Brigham said at the meeting. “I get it, but that’s more than four per acre.”

The plans include a report from the Lexington One school district on the potential impacts the subdivision would have on nearby schools.

According to documents submitted by Lexington One, the development could add around 600 new students — assuming 75 percent of the 402 homes will have school-aged children living there.

That number wouldn’t require the schools to build additional classrooms or bring in portable classroom units, but subsequent developments in the area would, according to the report from the district.

The schools that would serve the subdivision, Red Bank Elementary, Carolina Springs Middle and White Knoll High, have room for 180, 90 and 370 additional students without taking into account portable classrooms, according to the report.

The report from the school district is leftover from a county policy that formerly required questionnaires to be sent out to school districts ahead of council votes on new development. That process was adopted in early 2025. County Council voted to drop it in November.

Though the county’s school districts no longer submit feedback on how they will be impacted by new subdivisions, the county’s emergency service departments are still able to give feedback on a subdivision under the current policy.

The Serenity Lake subdivision has been given the green light from the county’s emergency service providers, Derrick said at the Jan. 13 meeting.

Serenity Lake will be one of the last projects to include information on how new homes will impact local schools, as it began moving through county channels when the previous policy was still in place, county officials said.

The county still sends subdivision proposals to impacted school districts in advance, officials said.

The Lexington County Planning Commission had recommended County Council approve the subdivision in a 7-to-1 vote at a Nov. 20 meeting.

Holdout commissioner Keith Frost opposed the project, citing the feedback from the school district.

“One of the biggest things I hear is that our growth cannot be supported by infrastructure and resource needs that we have,” Frost said at the Nov. 20 meeting. “It’s what I hear every day.”

He lamented the lack of school district feedback on future projects.

“It’s kind of like putting the cat back in the bag now,” he said. “We already know, it’s been shown with these documents that we have severe issues with being able to support the kids in the educational system with all the developments that are in the pipeline. It’s disappointing that we won’t see this information as we move forward, because now it’s just development at will.”