CLEMSON — An overflow crowd of close to 100 people, many wearing “No Lowe’s” badges, packed City Hall on Monday night with concerns about a proposed Lowe’s store.

“A big-box retailer is going to disrupt our neighborhood,” said Clemson resident Diane Perpich.

It would be “a classic case of urban sprawl,” said Peter Lawrence, who lives in Camelot subdivision near the proposed site and teaches architecture and urban design at Clemson University.

The $17 million development would provide about 120 jobs and an estimated $130,000 to $140,000 in taxes to the city, David Harner, vice president of development at Myrtle Beach-based Paramount Development, told City Council.

At issue is a proposed zoning change to allow for construction of a 137,916-square-foot building that would include a garden center.

The site, on Issaqueena Trail at U.S. 123, “won’t remain a pristine woodland,” Harner told the council and the crowd. “The owner wants to sell. It’s on the market.”

Harner made his case to the council and the crowd that Lowe’s is a good corporate citizen and could bring less traffic and other disruption than other possible buyers.

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