Residents Approve University of South Carolina's Plans for Hotel.

By Jeff Stensland, The State, Columbia, S.C. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Jul. 15--Residents of Columbia's University Neighborhood gave their blessing Monday to a proposed $12.5 million, 117-room University of South Carolina-affiliated hotel on Pendleton Street.

The deal comes after months of negotiations between residents, university officials and city leaders and includes a written pledge from USC to sell four additional school-owned properties in the neighborhood.

The proposal could end a bitter, decades-old feud between the school