CAMDEN — Tom Mullikin has traveled the world, diving in all five oceans and climbing the seven highest peaks. But there's something that keeps him coming back to Camden, a small city about 30 miles northeast of Columbia. Mullikin, the chairman of the Carolina Cup Racing Association board of directors, boasts about the city's deep historical ties and culture.
It is the state's oldest inland city, the site of two Revolutionary War battles and famously has a long history in the horse industry. To Mullikin, it is one of the most beautiful places on earth — one he is afraid of losing. For months, groups of Camden residents have fought against proposals that would develop the Camden Training Center , a property where steeplechase and racehorses have trained for nearly a century.
Various versions of plans for a subdivision have been brought to city leaders, including proposals for a larger development and a recommendation to annex land from unincorporated Kershaw County, which the commission shot down. The most recent proposal would have built 152 houses, pickleball courts, a clubhouse and a pool on top of the historic track. Meetings considering the development were attended by large numbers of residents opposing the project, and the crowd burst into cheers when the planning commission unanimously denied the plan during a recent July meeting.
"I mean, these are critical cultural issues that need to be thoughtfully approached," Mullikin said. "To drop several hundred homes to disrupt a key piece of our ecotourism is just, it's kind of beyond anything that I could imagine." The historic Camden Training Center sits minutes from downtown Camden and has hosted many famous horses and trainers since the early 1800s.
For months, groups of Camden residents have fought against proposals that would develop the training center. While the proposal was denied by the planning commission, development will likely continue to be discussed as plans can be resubmitted with changes. Stuart Grant, the attorney, horse owner, breeder and philanthropist who owns the 360-acre Camden racehorse facility, has threatened legal action over the decision as proposals continue to fail.
The continued debate helps demonstrate the conflict in the oldest inland city over development and the preservation of a rapidly changing industry. Arch Kingsley, a former champion jockey-turned-trainer, said the horse industry in Camden is long and prominent. The city gained attention early on from the Northern sporting crowd as a good place to develop thoroughbred horses.
"There was good land, and the horses thrived there in the climate. And it just became an obvious choice — the horses just do well there," Kingsley said. "And that's been historically true.
" Camden now hosts the Carolina Cup and Colonial Cup , both prominent steeplechase races that bring thousands of visitors to the city and earned Camden the nickname, "Steeplechase Capital of the World." As a facility, the Camden Training Center has been the home of multiple champion horses and trainers. But Kingsley said the horse industry has changed since South Carolina's peak years, shifting away from places like Camden.
Training centers and facilities in Camden and Aiken used to be prime locations for horses to rest and train in the winter during the sport's offseason, Kingsley said. But now horse racing is more of a year-round sport which has shifted races and training facilities further South. "Nowadays .
.. they send those same horses to Florida in the winter and just keep running," Kingsley said.
During a March planning commission meeting, Grant said business at the Camden Training Center had been continually declining. Twenty years ago, the center housed 180 horses. In March, it sheltered eight, he said.
Grant said the center has become a "money-losing business" that is no longer economically viable as a racehorse facility. On the state level, legislators considered changing the state's long-held laws against state-sanctioned betting to support the infrastructure needed to keep the equine industry afloat. The bill would have legalized betting on horse races specifically, but despite passing in the S.
C. House, it stalled on the state Senate contested calendar and wasn't heard before the end of the session . Kingsley said that compared to other states, South Carolina lacks incentives like prize money or rewards for horses bred or domiciled in a state.
This has caused the South Carolina horse industry to be "left behind," Kingsley said. "Ultimately, racing is flourishing in some states and providing a great labor base for the people that are the service providers," Kingsley said. "But if you look at every one of those states where it is flourishing, there are some incentives that are built into the equation.
" But Kingsley, the former jockey, said hundreds, if not thousands, of people are still invested in horses in the state and passionate about it being successful. Camden sees over 30,000 visitors yearly for the Carolina Cup, and Kingsley said the Colonial Cup is a race known worldwide. "It's not a dead issue in South Carolina by any means, very much it survives," Kingsley said.
"I would say, healthy in the sense that we're alive, but we're not healthy in the sense that we desperately do need some help to be competitive with the surrounding states." He said the Camden Training Center helps represent "a critical piece of the American infrastructure for the thoroughbred industry." Mark Mohr, the planning commission member who first moved to deny the most recent proposal for the training center, said at the public meeting the governing body needs to consider how Camden's comprehensive plan ensures the city keeps its unique character.
"(The comprehensive plan is) not prescriptive about what we must do. It's a guidance document of what the city wants to see as a vision for where we live," Mohr said. "And I don't know a whole lot of comp plans that talked about things like horses, specifically.
" Will Cook, a lawyer with Cultural Heritage Partners, said comprehensive plans are often intentionally broad and focus on big topics like housing, health and conservation goals. By including the equine industry it shows the business "holds a lot of weight." C.
D. Rhodes, an attorney for the city, recommended to the planning commission that Camden needs to find a balance — one that residents are continuing to define. Comprehensive plans often have many objectives that are in "natural tension" with one another, Rhodes said during the planning commission's July meeting.
For example, a goal to preserve natural resources might clash with one to develop a range of housing options for Camden residents. He said it is difficult — and often impossible — for any development to be completely compliant with the comprehensive plan. "You can certainly cherry-pick particular objectives that are in favor of a particular proposal; you can cherry pick those that are in opposition to a proposal," Rhodes said at the meeting.
"That is not unique to the issue that's before you today." A few of the objectives in the plan include encouraging people to remain or relocate to Camden, developing more housing options and strengthening the area's economy. Director of Planning and Development Shawn Putnam said growing Camden and accommodating more development is crucial to reaching many residents' goals for the city and is generally supported in the outskirts of the city, where it is most common.
"So for example, we have a lot of folks ask for a Publix, and we talk to Publix folks, and they say, we just don't, we don't have the necessary population to support that kind of business," Putnam said. In 2010 Camden saw just a 2.3 percent increase in population, by 2020 it saw a 13.
9 percent boost. Camden has seen solid population growth for the first time in years, with most of the development on the edge of the city or in unincorporated Kershaw County. Putnam said the city has taken multiple steps to try to ensure growth is in control and fits with Camden's historical nature.
The city has updated its zoning and development codes with more details for utilities, water and sewer. It has also added more requirements for electric service, design standards and vegetative buffers for developments and started requiring a traffic study. Putnam declined to comment on the Camden Training Center, citing possible plans by the owner to file a lawsuit over the development, but said the city has tried to "be more proactive with developers and looking at the types of housing, how they're laying them out.
" Mullikin said he knows and expects growth to be coming but wants it to be "smart growth" that is thoughtfully planned — something he doesn't think is currently represented in the plans for the training center. "What are we going to do with development? Where should we allow it? How should we control it in a way that is good for not only these people coming in, but the people who've lived there?" Mullikin said. Mullikin said his main goal is to ensure Camden maintains its beauty and culture for years to come.
"Smart growth and smart development is critical for communities across South Carolina," Mullikin said. "We have a beautiful state. We want to keep it beautiful for our generation, for generations to come.
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