Mortgage Broker in Boiling Springs, SC

BOILING SPRINGS, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - Realtors are calling it a development boom! Highway 9 in Boiling Springs has seen major growth over the last 10 years with no signs of slowing down.

“You know as a kid, the only real growth and development was on the East side of Spartanburg and the West side,” said Andy Hayes, the Vice President of Spencer Hines Properties.

Now Spartanburg’s growth is happening on the highways. Spencer Hines Properties agents have been busy making deals on Highway 9.

“10 years ago I would have thought you know it’s got to come to an end on Highway 9 in Boiling Springs, and then five years ago I would have said the same thing and we’re still saying that now but it’s phenomenal what continues to happen,” he said.

Highway 9 has a lot of empty land, selling for as high as $1 million dollars an acre. But developers are buying and change is coming fast.

“There will be other new projects that start next week, I mean it’s that active up there,” said Hayes.

Spencer Hines has already sold land for a car wash, Culvers, a BBQ restaurant, retail strip, coffee shop and family entertainment center with bowling and an arcade. Also a large Target development, behind the store will be more than 100 apartments and a townhome community. These projects are just half of the recent deals.

On Facebook we asked for your thoughts. Through more than 100 comments from Boiling Springs residents, many were excited and asking for more. Others have concerns, some comments saying---

“We do not need anymore apartments or housing. We are full!”

“Too many accidents..too many people..too much growth.”

“I feel that the infrastructure is not prepared”

If voters approve the next penny tax in November, Highway 9 is listed for corridor road improvements, but that could be years down the line.

“I think it’s a double-edged sword. People are excited about having it but they’re also going to have to deal with additional traffic that comes along with that,” said Hayes.

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"Sissy's Sweets" is a vision turned reality, symbolic of a bond between two sisters

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BOILING SPRINGS, S.C. —

"Sissy's Sweets" now has a physical store location in Boiling Springs. However, the journey of baking as a career pathway for owner Miranda Gilbert began back in 2020 out of her home, following the death of her sister, 22-year-old Erika.

"My little sister, her name was Erika and she was six years younger than me," Gilbert said. "She had Down syndrome. My family liked to say she was my soulmate, not just my sister. She was my best friend in the entire world. We loved to bake together. That was one of the many things we loved to do together.”

Gilbert said the two developed a love for baking early on, and it quickly became a hobby that would have an everlasting impact.

“After that, [Erika's passing] I just immediately knew I wanted to start Sissy’s Sweets in her honor,” Gilbert said.

Inside the bakery and coffee shop, you'll notice several large photos hanging on the walls that encompass Erika's larger-than-life personality as well as her love for baking.

Gilbert said the two always talked about opening a shop together, and now she has an opportunity to fulfill that mission.

"Her favorite part of baking was eating," Gilbert said, laughing. "With her having Down syndrome, my goal with Sissy’s Sweets was to give her a job opportunity as she got older, so now that I can’t do it with her.I just say I’m doing it for her.”

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As another way to honor her sister, Gilbert plans to hire individuals with a range of disabilities.

"I'm selfish and just love seeing their sweet faces," Gilbert said. "But it's all about loving them and giving them a chance. They can do anything just like anybody else, and a disability shouldn’t hold them back just because they’re differently able than other people.”

As you exit Sissy's Sweets, a sign above the door is hard to miss. It reads, "Thank you for come to see me."

“We know she’s in heaven, and she’s happy, but she would really love to be here getting all this attention and eating some cupcakes,” Gilbert said.

"Whenever we had Christmas or anything with our family or a big group of people, she always had to give a speech and stand in front of everybody," Gilbert said. "She’d always say thank you for come to see me.”

Sissy's Sweets is set to have its soft and grand openings by next month.

Boiling Springs baseball coach Jeff Lipscomb, after his team won an elimination game Monday night and reached the Upper State high school championship, had one more question for his team in the postgame circle.

“Who would you rather have up in the biggest spot than this guy?” he said, pointing to senior catcher Hudson Wilson.

It was a rhetorical question.

Wilson’s eighth-inning, game-winning hit off the right-field fence scored Luke Compton from third base, and it might be a tie between them for slowest 90 feet in high school baseball history.

“I was just walking,” Wilson said. “All we needed was a sacrifice fly right there.”

They both made it, eventually, and Boiling Springs beat T.L. Hanna, 2-1, triggering the celebration of a dramatic comeback. The Bulldogs were being shut out and down to their final three outs in the seventh.

Boiling Springs (19-8) will play at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Blythewood (20-4) and needs to win twice to advance to the state championship.

Hudson, who went 3-for-4, made one of the defensive plays of the game in the top of the eighth and his highlight inning was just getting started.

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Hudson, an Anderson University signee, caught a runner leaning too far off first on a failed bunt attempt and that led to a shutdown inning and a chance for a walk-off in the bottom half.

“What a great night for No. 7,” Lipscomb said. “Picks that guy off and does the job catching (starting pitcher and Clemson commit) Jackson Cole all night long and then comes up with the game-winner. Mr. Clutch.

“... Man, he was fun to watch.”

Unexpected pitchers' duel with Clemson commit

It was a pitchers’ duel, which was normal in the Upper State finals because three runs by T.L. Hanna in the first round against Lexington is now considered an offensive explosion.

But this one was rather unexpected because it was between Clemson commit Jackson Cole of Boiling Springs and T.L. Hanna freshman Easton Thomas.

Cole reached his 110-pitch limit in the eighth. He struck out nine, walked three and allowed six hits. Thomas went six-plus and had a 1-0 lead when he departed in the seventh with a runner on first.

T.L. Hanna baseball is ahead of schedule

Hanna’s final record won't be all that impressive, 12-11, but the Yellow Jackets went 7-2 in their region during a rebuilding season.

They lost 13 seniors after last season, had two returning offensive players with more than 30 at-bats and just one pitcher with significant experience.

“I just loved the growth and maturity,” Hanna coach Daniel Crenshaw said. “We were so young and not a lot of people expected a lot from us. But these guys competed their tails off.”

Boiling Springs assistant baseball coach John Goodwin was promoted to lead the Chapman program, replacing Steven Fusaro, who stepped down earlier this month to become an assistant principal at Chesnee Middle.

"I am honored to be named the Head Baseball Coach at Chapman High School," Goodwin said. "As a lifelong resident of Spartanburg County, I have always had a deep administration for the dedication to success, both academically and athletically, that Chapman High School possesses.

“I am excited to work alongside the talented coaching staff and to continue a program that Chapman and the community can be proud of."

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Goodwin has been on the Boiling Springs staff since 2015 and has served as assistant athletics director since 2016. Before his time in Boiling Springs, Goodwin was the coach at his alma mater Broome from 2010-14, leading the Centurions to the Class AA state championship series in 2011 — ultimately falling to Bishop England.

That same season, Goodwin was named the Spartanburg Herald-Journal baseball coach of the year and the South Carolina Baseball Coaches Association Class AA coach of the year.

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"We are thrilled to welcome Mr. Goodwin to Chapman High School and Spartanburg (School District) One," incoming Chapman principal Matt Davis said in a news release. "His extensive coaching experience, dedication, and strong leadership qualities make him an ideal fit for our baseball program. We look forward to seeing our student-athletes thrive under his guidance."

Chapman will lose six seniors from this season's team that finished the 2023 season with an 18-9 record and in second place in Region 3-AAA but will return a talented core led by rising seniors Kole Brown, Hudson Moss, and Wesley Shipman.

Three years after enacting zoning for southwestern Spartanburg County to regulate growth, County Council is moving forward with plans to bring zoning to the entire county.

Planning Director Joan Holliday told council members Monday public input will be sought in drafting a performance zoning plan to be ready for council approval by this fall.

The plan would not apply to incorporated towns and cities, but could bring order to fast-growing unincorporated areas like Boiling Springs and Campobello, where many residents have said uncontrolled growth has brought traffic headaches.

Some residents said they want to see what's in the plan before outright supporting it.

"If you surveyed citizens of this county today, most would say that development is out of control," said Sally Rock of Campobello. "Will the proposed zoning be a political path to more rapid development? How do citizens in the southwest corner feel zoning is working there?"

Southwest zoning plan moves forwardZoning plan for southwest corridor approved

Spartanburg County's Southwest Performance Plan is modeled after Lexington County's plan, Holliday said.

The 160-page Southwest Performance Zoning Plan covers a large area from Greer to Woodruff, where most of the current industrial and residential growth is occurring.

At first, county officials anticipated expanding the zoning to four other areas, piece by piece, but have now decided to simply expand the Southwest Plan countywide.

If enacted countywide, it would replace the county's 22-year-old Unified Land Management Ordinance (ULMO) that has regulated development with rules such as buffers, height, landscaping and setbacks.

Over time, the ULMO has been criticized by many residents as too weak to protect against sprawl and address infrastructure needs such as roads, before growth happens.

Two years ago, County Councilman Bob Walker cited an example, saying the ULMO would not prevent an RV park planned on Landrum Mill Road in northern Spartanburg County that residents have opposed, but performance zoning might require the developer to find another site.

Performance zoning, on the other hand, is loaded with what uses are allowed in certain areas. It classifies roads from most traveled to least traveled: arterial (heavily traveled); collector; local; limited local; restrictive local; and residential local.

The greater the traffic volume on a road, the more uses that are permitted, such as schools, daycare centers, hospitals, flea markets, retail stores and manufacturing facilities.

Highway 101 is an example of a major arterial road with the highest classification.

The zoning also includes restrictive districts by protecting rural areas and guiding development toward population centers.

Former County Councilman Roger Nutt, who headed up the process of drafting the Southwest Plan, said the plan preserves property rights – a major concern at the outset of planning.

Public input will be sought on zoning plan

Holliday said meetings will be held with council members and planning commission members in February and March, followed by "stakeholder engagement" from April to August.

Planners will then seek public input from July to September, with a planning commission review in September, and finally three readings of the ordinance by county council in September, October and November.

Details of where and when public meetings will be held have not been finalized.

Residents react to zoning effort

Campobello-area residents critical of uncontrolled growth said the plan is long needed.

"I was a big proponent of performance zoning," said Jeffrey A. Horton Jr., a resident of northern Spartanburg County. "I feel it's the only way to regulate growth and preserve rural areas of my district.

"It's not necessarily meant to stifle growth, but guide it where it can become viable and manageable. People are jaded with traffic, state of our roads and over-congestion this population growth has produced, yet no one is actively addressing these issues."

Lou Nespecca of Campobello said he hopes the plan provides grandfather provisions to exempt some current uses.

"I would find it hard to tell someone who has done something for 25 years it is now illegal," he said. "I would like to know the push behind this agenda. Do they now want to over-develop other areas of the county and plan to force people out of their current situation? What happens if the pig farm was there first, and houses start to pop up around it?."

Rock, one of many northern Spartanburg County residents who oppose a planned RV park near Landrum, said she hopes the county is sincere in taking public input into account.

Opponents of the RV park were upset after the Planning Commission gave conditional approval to the RV park in March 2021. Opponents said they were not notified ahead of time. County officials said the park plan was on the Planning Commission's agenda and properly posted on its website a week before the meeting.

"This county has a track record of not welcoming citizen input and ignoring citizens' concerns when it comes to development and a vision for the future," she said. "Folks feel they have zero voice in local government land use planning. If you surveyed citizens of this county today, most would say that development is out of control."

Nathan Williams, a third-generation farmer on Highway 357 in Campobello, said the influx of housing developments is causing streams to flood more often and destroy topsoil needed for crops. He's also seen more traffic on narrow roads, making it impossible at times for his combine – a machine to harvest grain crops – to get to fields without the use of an escort.

He said he hopes the zoning plan will preserve farmland and steer growth to population centers.

"I don't know the solution," the 60-year-old farmer said. "I'm just concerned that in our future, we're not going to have anything left to farm."

Mike Brady of Boiling Springs has often been critical of the lack of county planning in Boiling Springs, where commercial growth branching out from the Highway 9 corridor has prompted many discussions about whether Boiling Springs should be incorporated with its own laws.

"The county has always held the opinion that zoning is the answer, but look in areas that have zoning regulations like Greenville County. I don't see it has worked very well there," he said. "Council holds the opinion that I am anti-growth, I am not. I'm for the county doing its job of planning areas for the benefit of the communities the growth will impact.

"Roads are a prime example of the tail wagging the dog. Let development come in unplanned, congest an area, and then try to address the problem on the back end. Old-timers like myself are looking at leaving the communities we have loved and worked in for a lifetime because of the issues lack of planning has created."