Ballentine, South Carolina

Infobox Settlement|official_name = Ballentine, South Carolina
motto =


map_caption = Location in Richland County, South Carolina
subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_type1 = State
subdivision_type2 = County
subdivision_name = United States
subdivision_name1 = South Carolina
subdivision_name2 = Richland
area_magnitude =
area_total_km2 =
area_land_km2 = 5.6
area_water_km2 =
population_as_of = 2000
population_total =
population_density_km2 =
timezone = EST
utc_offset = -5
timezone_DST = EDT
utc_offset_DST = -4
latd =
latm =
lats =
latNS =
longd =
longm =
longs =
longEW =
elevation_m =
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Ballentine is an unincorporated community in Richland County, South Carolina, United States. It is part of the Columbia, South Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The town was recently in the planning stages of being incorporated. Ballentine would be the seventh incorporated community in Richland County if it were to be incorporated. It would be the first created in the area since Arcadia Lakes was formed in 1959, according to the Municipal Association of South CarolinaFact|date=July 2008. The town would have had a population of about 2,500 people, however, the recent vote for incorporation was not successful. [http://www.thestate.com/local/story/423849.html] . The town's desire to incorporate was partially driven by the encroachment of nearby Irmo, South Carolina.

Ballentine is located on Lake Murray, a large reservoir formed in the 1930s by the Dreher Shoals Dam, which at the time was the largest earthen dam in the world. Ballentine refers to itself on the signs leading into town as "The Gateway To Lake Murray". The community experienced much growth during the late twentieth century, sparked by the combination of its lakefront location and its proximity to the city of Columbia. In the twenty-first century, Ballentine has been transformed by the addition of two large, new, middle-class subdivisions and by some new commercial development as well as a new elementary school. It is now an affluent suburb of Columbia although it maintains something of a rural feel in many areas.

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