TEGA CAY--Stonecrest's developer and owner want Tega Cay to give them the green light to build a Wal-Mart supercenter off Hwy. 160 West.

The Wal-Mart supercenter would anchor the commercial area of Stonecrest, a 122-acre mixed-use develop-ment near Tega Cay.

Stone’s latest offer
With a Wal-Mart
Total revenue expected from one-time impact fees of $2,500 per unit: $0 Annual debt service revenue expected: $53,189 Students added: 0 Total annual cost for all students added: $0 Expected benefit to Fort Mill School District year one: $149,672 Total expected benefit to Fort Mill School District after 10 years: $1,496,722 Note: No new students would be added because the 207 apartment units allowed under the current agreement would disappear under the Wal-Mart option. Even under this plan, Stonecrest would still have hundreds of townhomes.
With apartments
Total revenue expected from one-time impact fees of $2,500 per unit: $517,500 Annual debt service revenue expected: $86,358 Students added: 169 Total annual cost for all students added*: $1,235,728 Expected cost to Fort Mill School District year one: $474,179* Total expected cost to Fort Mill School District after 10 years: $9,399,294* Note: The above figures assume 100 percent in both occupancy of apartments in the development and vehicle registration in Fort Mill School District.
— Figures provided by City of Tega Cay

The Tega Cay City Council annexed the large swath of land between Gold Hill Road and Hwy. 160 West three years ago, hoping to attract commercial de-velopment and tax revenues to the predominantly residential community. The controversial annexation nearly doubled the city's size.

Now city leaders are being asked to consider annexing and rezoning 15 more acres adjacent to the future Stonecrest so that Wal-Mart could build a supercenter there.

The proposal

Stonecrest is a mixed-use development off Hwy. 160 West and Dam Road that includes office and retail space, townhomes and apartments, and some open space. The plan approved by Tega Cay leaders when it annexed the property did not include a Wal-Mart.

Stonecrest's owner, Herman Stone, has offered to eliminate all the apartments planned in Stonecrest - 207 units on 14 acres - and replace them with an office park if Tega Cay approves the Wal-Mart. Stone would also nearly double the amount of commercial space overall.

The 203,000-square-foot Wal-Mart supercenter would sit in the southeast corner of the development, along Dam Road and the future Stonecrest Boulevard. It would replace some planned retail space, and it would include a 12-pump gas station. Businesses that typically follow a Wal-Mart - CiCi's Pizza, Wachovia Bank, Dollar Tree, Payless Shoes, for example - could also locate there, Wal-Mart representatives have said.

Stone and his developer, The Tuttle Co., would swap the apartments for the Wal-Mart and an office park, if the city agrees to annex the 15 acres that run from Dam Road back to the current boundary of the Stonecrest land. He also wants the option of shifting a section of townhomes to accommodate the additional commercial space.

The deal would cut the total number of housing units planned in Stonecrest from 690 to 327, and raise the total area zoned for commercial use from 39 acres to more than 60, according to Tega Cay City Manager Grant Duffield at a city council meeting July 10.

"With this proposal we would be reducing the number of students going into the Fort Mill school system and increasing the tax revenue going back in," Mayor Bob Runde said.