|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Lowcountry businessman Rom Reddy – founder of the DOGE SC movement – apparently isn’t the only South Carolinian dealing with an overreaching government hellbent on destroying private property rights. Nor, evidently, is he alone in confronting a “tyrannical” government hellbent on destroying structures erected by private businesses to solve problems the government either refuses or is incapable of addressing.
Reddy’s fight was chronicled by FITSNews last week. We will be picking the story up against next week as he continues to represent himself in a high-profile trial before the S.C. Administrative Law Court (SCALC).
This week, we learned of a similar battle taking place in Columbia, S.C. involving a local car wash owner and the results-challenged government of the Palmetto State’s capital city – which appears to have destroyed a once-thriving business as part of its ongoing failure to mitigate perpetual flood drainage problems.
On Tuesday (May 13, 2025), attorneys representing Constan Car Wash and its owner, O. Stanley Smith III, filed a motion for summary judgment against the city of Columbia, S.C. in a case involving “inverse condemnation.” This term refers to plaintiffs’ suing government entities for seizing or damaging their property without paying them just compensation.
***
According to the filing (.pdf), in March of 2021 the city “demolished a wall” erected by the plaintiffs to alleviate storm drainage problems associated with the city’s perpetual mismanagement of a downtown Columbia watershed.
“The city never owned this property and never had any right to do what it did,” the motion alleged.
Constan Car Wash’s Gervais Street location – which closed due to flooding following the wall’s demolition – is located at a critical juncture in the Rocky Branch watershed, an area of approximately four square miles which drains into the Congaree River just north of the Vulcan Materials quarry in the Olympia neighborhood.
Constan’s former location was located within the “most impacted” subwatershed of the Rocky Branch, per a May 2016 report (.pdf) prepared for the City of Columbia’s utility and engineering department. That report found a confluence of issues in the immediate vicinity of Constan Car Wash’s Gervais Street location – and recommended numerous mitigation measures to the city.
***
***
It is not clear whether the city took any of those measures, but it did take it upon itself to destroy private property without authorization or compensation – causing millions of dollars in damages, according to the pleading.
The wall erected by Constan to address the flooding was actually approved by the city in January 2018 – and completed in early 2019. It stood for nearly two years.
“For the duration of the time that it stood, the wall effectively prevented floodwater from Gervais Street reaching the Constan property,” the motion noted.
By December 2019, however, the city was demanding the wall be torn down – arguing it “could push water” into a nearby road, “causing drivers to lose control of their vehicles, resulting in serious accidents and potential loss of life.”
In demanding the destruction of the wall, the city claimed it owned the land upon which it stood – failing to note the rightful owner of the property was actually Norfolk Southern, which acquired the land via a 1874 deed. Constan had an existing lease with Norfolk Southern – a document which was amended in early 2018 to permit the construction of the wall on its property, per the pleading.
On the day the city showed up to destroy the wall – March 9, 2021 – a Norfolk Southern police officer was on the property to assert the company’s rights. Despite being informed by this officer that the city was trespassing on private property, city officials – led by lead engineer Dana Higgins – were reportedly “unfazed,” per the motion.
“The wall is coming down,” Higgins told the Norfolk Southern officer, according to the filing.
***
***
It came down, too… causing all manner of chaos, including a fire on an embankment near Norfolk Southern’s railway overpass.
“Dust from the demolition was cast upon cars that had just been washed,” the motion alleged. “It was a chaotic scene. One struggles to imagine more affirmative, positive, and aggressive acts than the ones the city committed that day.”
Not surprisingly, the destruction of the wall resulted in a resumption of the flooding – which, in turn, resulted in the business being forced to close its doors the following fall, per the motion.
“The effect of the city’s actions was to render plaintiffs’ land and improvements unusable for their intended purpose,” the pleading noted.
What was the city thinking? According to the motion, it was attempting to mitigate its watershed issues without having to spend money on costly repairs.
“The truth is that the city just wanted to use plaintiffs’ property as a drain field to remedy its own inadequate stormwater infrastructure that it refused to fix, and wanted to do so without paying (plaintiffs) the just compensation they are owed for the city’s taking and destruction of private property,” the motion alleged.
In submitting the motion for summary judgment, Smith and his company are seeking damages in the amount of $4.27 million, pre-judgement interest and attorneys’ fees and costs. As of this publication, the case is docketed for trial in Richland County beginning on June 23, 2025.
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
***
WANNA SOUND OFF?
Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.
4 comments
Interesting and informative article. Very much unlike the constant barrage of Micha Miller and Murdaugh dreck.
If Smith wants to place blame for the failure of his establishment, he need look no further than the mirror. In an age where I could take my car to a “semi-automated complete” car wash or a “complete car wash” establishment such as Constan, I chose to let Constan do the whole thing – just as long as they were actually doing the “whole thing”.
In the last few years of Constan’s existence, their service quality had fallen waaaaaaay off. It’s obvious that a car wash can be a money maker in that area as a brand new “semi-automated” Time to Shine facility has just opened literally on the other side of the rail overpass.
As far as the drainage issues, I worked for Jackson Camera on Harden in the early ’90s where flooding was not an uncommon occurrence. I work at USC now and we have a drill for flooding along Wheat Street. In fact, flooding in the Five Points area has existed since there was a 5 Points (Groucho’s had issues in 1941 when they first opened, The A&P on the corner of Devine an harden had issue sin 1949) The 5 Points is a basin that drain an even bigger area than Will’s crayon work map shows and it gets worse by the day. More development, without a real plan to address the bottle neck that starts at Maxcy Gregg Park and goes all the way down to the Congaree is only going to make it worse. We already have a Class V rapid forming behind the Carolina Natatorium beside the USC Child Development Center. Whaley at Assembly floods so often that permanent gates were installed to block the intersection off as needed (basically any time it rains hard).
Will, why is it pertinent to not only name specific people who work for the city, but post their picture and link their social media? Is it because you know your insane followers will go after them? Pretty sick shit.
The city fucked up on this one.