The Town of Lexington marked a first as it continues to debate a proposed lakefront resort.

On July 12, Lexington Town Council held an unprecedented joint work session with Lexington County Council to discuss Smallwood Cove, the nearly 94-acre development that has been a point of controversy since it was announced by the town in early May.

Interest in the meeting was high, with the large conference room at the town Municipal Center reaching capacity, with what looked to be about 250 piling in and an overflow area having to be established outside the room.

“This is probably one of the largest proposed developments in Lexington County, I’d even venture to in its history, but certainly in a very long time,” County Chair Beth Carrigg said of the project, which was been announced to include a conference center, marina, retail spaces, hotels, restaurants and living spaces ranging from single-family homes to condos.

The atmosphere at the meeting was tense, as members of County Council pointed out potential problems with the way the town has proceeded with the development. The conversation among the councils followed up on many of the concerns expressed at the beginning of the meeting during the public comment portion of the evening, as about 15 people took the opportunity to speak.

“When you say, ‘Lexington is where I live,’ you think of the town, not the county,” Laura Touchberry said in her comments to the elected bodies.

“People live here because it feels a hometown, not because it feels like a big city. We’ve had a very big influx of people,” she added. “They come here because they like the way we live. We need to keep it that way.”

County Council Vice Chair Darrel Hudson questioned the legality of the property annexations the town is pursuing for the project, saying he was unsure if they can do it by line of sight. Fellow County Council Member Charlene Wessinger claimed there is no case in the state that has been won by line of sight.

“I would imagine that most people when they think about annexation, they think about property lines in contiguity and a free body of water, if it's running through those two pieces of parcel, obviously doesn't impede annexation,” Carrigg said. “But when you're looking across a lake and you say, ‘Gosh I see the tip of that piece of property out there, I think we'll jump over all these other properties that don't belong in the town and we'll annex that one,’ that causes a great deal of concern.”

Carrigg said the annexation issue is among three major concerns she has with the project, with the others being potential traffic impacts, a concern echoed by many in the community, and the extent of the development.

“I think it's really important to put out on the table that the town of Lexington does not go out and aggressively annex,” Mayor Steve MacDougall said.

Town Council Member Gavin Smith asked Stuart Ford, the town’s interim administrator, whether Lexington has sought any form of outside counsel to discuss the legality of the project, asking the question three times before getting a direct answer.

“I haven't done that. On these matters, I have to defer to the legal advice that we've received,” Ford said.

Traffic remains a frequently voiced concern in the debate over Smallwood Cove, with Town Council voting to go ahead with a second traffic study on the project two days earlier, hoping to answer questions not addressed in a previous study commissioned by the property owners.

County Council members had many thoughts regarding the new traffic study.

Whetstone said it needs to be a very extensive traffic study, which Carrigg seconded, adding that multiple roads need to be addressed including North Lake Drive, Bush River Road and all of the U.S. Highway 378/Sunset Boulevard, as many travelers and tourists going to and from Smallwood Cove would likely use the thoroughfare.

“If you really want to serve the citizens, and I think you do,” Hudson said, “the traffic study needs to be during school hours, during peak travel times, and then before you make that decision you might want to get with the school district because we have no control over where they’re gonna put the next school.”

Another conversation point when it came to the traffic study was the proposed 50,000-square-foot conference center, for which the town is set to chip in $30 million and which is set to be included in the new study, thow how thoroughly it will be considered has yet to be determined.

Randy Edwards, the town’s director of transportation, said the center was excluded from the previous study as it will most likely not operate during peak travel hours, which is what that study was intended to observe.

The director added that people staying at a hotel when visiting the conference center is another factor that could impact traffic.

The biggest unknown for the development is what exactly the announced elements will on the property like and how they will function. According to Ford, the property will include residential areas, including multi-family, a variety of commercial developments, a restaurant and “a couple of hotels.”

Whether the potential marina on the property would be public or private was a key point in the conversation, though the question went unanswered.

According to Town Council Member Todd Lyle, the gated portion of the development is “up in the air at this point.”

Whetstone brought up concern about the integrity of the lake, with Mayor Pro-Tem Hazel Livingston expressing worry about the fact that no environmental studies were provided to council.

“We have to see those before anything else is done,” she said.

Livingston added that she would also need to see a feasibility study for the conference center to see if it has the chance to be successful, and Town Council Member Ron Williams mentioned doing a feasibility study on a different location for the center.