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Antsy to See the Future Sun City?: Safety Cited in Keeping Curious People Off Massive Development

Posted on: Friday, 23 December 2005, 09:00 CST

By Henry Eichel, The Charlotte Observer, N.C., The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Dec. 23--INDIAN LAND, S.C. -- So many people want to see what's going on at Sun City, the massive age-restricted community being built in northern Lancaster County, that sheriff's deputies are having to shoo folks away.

On Saturdays and Sundays, an officer sits at the community's main entrance, on U.S. 521 five miles south of the state line, while other deputies in cars patrol the 1,225-acre site, said Maj. Barry Faile of the sheriff's department.

"They check all the entrances, because we've found people in four-wheelers trying to come in the back way from the river," Faile said. Another problem, he said, is "people sneaking in so they can break into trailers and steal stuff."

The officers work at Sun City during their off-duty hours and are paid by the developer, Del Webb Corp.

"It's really a safety concern more than anything right now, because of the fact that it's still a construction site," said project manager David Vitek. "There's a lot of open trenches, a lot of curbs that are in and no roadways -- still an unsafe environment for an unescorted public to travel through."

The grand opening is scheduled for March. Eventually, Sun City will have 3,200 homes, a golf course, tennis courts, a recreation center with indoor and outdoor pools, a fitness center, a canoe and kayak center, and walking trails.

The community will be restricted to people ages 55 and older, or couples with at least one member that age.

So far, however, all there is to see are expanses of bulldozed red clay into which a road network is being cut. Only one building, a sales center, is under construction.

Before the deputies were posted about three months ago, Vitek said, "I'd go out there on a Saturday or a Sunday, and in the 15 or 20 minutes that I'd be out there, I'd easily see a half dozen to a dozen cars going through."

Vitek said he drops by the site about three times during the week, when no deputies are working.

"Every time I'm there," he said, "I see at least two or three people who are driving around. I immediately approach them and thank them for their interest, and for their own safety ask them if they can wait to come in."

Contact Henry Eichel: (803) 255-1388

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Source: The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)

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