After the extremely long, heated public hearing on the Camden Training Center (CTC) during the Camden Planning Commission’s meeting a week ago, we’re beginning to wonder if maybe everybody’s wrong.
On one side is a man who has owned the property for about two decades, who has made it clear that he can no longer operate the training facility profitably, and who has every right — as we all would — to sell the property for whatever profit he can make. He wants to create a large residential neighborhood of (now) 352 homes (originally 792) called The Paddocks. As long as he follows regulations, he has that right.
On the other side are people who are adamant in their resistance. Many of them have concerns regarding traffic, school capacity, and more. We’ve expressed those same concerns and still have them in at least some cases. Some are neighbors who are worried about the impact on their own homes; others are concerned about the sweeping away of a facility that holds a special place in the equestrian world.
The problem we face is one of accepting reality: the racehorse industry has changed. Grant was not wrong when he pointed out both a huge decline in horse racing stock needing stabling. Last November, the Thoroughbred Daily News, citing a Yale University study, reported that during the previous 20 years, there had been a nearly 40% decrease in total horses that raced, a 55% drop in total trainers to have at least one horse make a start, and a 42% decrease in the number of owners who owned at least one horse.
We are lucky, then, to have the S.C. Equine Center for other types of horse-related events that take place nearly year-round, and — as one person noted last week — lots of local residents who own horses. We are lucky that we still have the Carolina Cup, coming up this weekend, and the Colonial Cup, returning this fall. We hope this weekend’s attendance is at least what it was last year, and that the Colonial Cup will be full up as well.
Yet, still, the reality is that things have changed. “Saving” the CTC is not going to cure any ills the racehorse industry is suffering, whether around the world or here in Camden. It’s just not. Three hundred and fifty-two houses, on the other hand, is just too extreme for that part of Camden.
So, here’s a what-if, keeping in mind, we’re not experts: What if The Paddocks was a small community of 10- to 20-acre horse farms selling in the $1 million-plus range, that included access to at least one of the two tracks for their use? And what if that community had a single, gated entrance from Chesnut Street — preferably without negatively impacting the folks who live there?
Perhaps we’re wrong, too. Maybe we all are. We don’t want to see the CTC property waste away; that won’t do anyone any good, either. Hopefully, a solution will be found with which we all can live.
