Category: Government

WINNSBORO – Town Council took some constructive criticism as well as some tough love from two different speakers during public comment, both of whom appeared to want the same thing – a better downtown Winnsboro.

Mike Kelly, speaking on behalf of the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce, where he serves as Chairman, as well as on behalf of the Downtown Merchants Association, asked Council to devote more visible police presence in the downtown area, preferably on foot.

“Nobody is here to criticize anything you are doing,” Kelly said. “We all know money is tight. We want to work with you. We have some ideas that don’t cost any money.”

Kelly said downtown had issues with panhandlers, and he said the speed limit was not being adequately enforced along Congress Street. Kelly also said cars were parking on the wrong side of the street – traveling north, for example, and swinging around in the middle of Congress Street to take a south-bound parking spot. The baggy/sagging pants ordinance passed by Council last year also needs more attention, Kelly said.

Kelly did not say exactly what ideas the Chamber or Merchants Association had, but said they would be forming an ad hoc committee to come up with solutions. Kelly asked Council to provide a member as a liaison to the committee.

Following Kelly at the podium, former Town Councilman Bill Haslett was not so kind. He peppered Council with questions about whether or not the Town planned to issue a parade permit and provide tables and chairs for the Memorial Day ceremony he has planned as part of the unveiling of the World War II memorial in Mt. Zion Park.

“I’ve got to do the planning. If ya’ll are not going to provide it, I’ve got to provide it,” Haslett said. “I would like for you to take a vote, if you would, on whether or not I’m going to get chairs, tables for this World War II memorial, or either I’ve got to rent them.”

Haslett said he was disappointed to learn Council had canceled the landscaping contract for the park, but said he was meeting next week with Santee Cooper, Chicago Bridge & Iron, Fairfield Electric Co-Op and SCE&G to push for a $40,000 grant to help support the memorial.

“You can’t put a park in without any landscaping, folks,” Haslett said, “but that’s what ya’ll chose to do. So anyway, I’m going to go get it. And if I get it I am going to dedicate $15-20,000, if ya’ll approve it, to go to landscaping around the park.”

Haslett then pounded Council on what he said was a lack of effective code enforcement downtown.

“I’ve got buildings beside me right now that have got plywood on the front of the building,” he said. “Why the damn Council can’t get off their butts and pass an ordinance to make them clean up their building, I don’t understand this.

“I’ve got buildings behind me that are grown up, that are 10-feet tall. I’ve asked for code ordinances to improve it. You think they’ve done anything? They haven’t done the first thing,” Haslett continued. “It’s been a month, Mr. Mayor, and they haven’t done one thing. I’ve got lots behind me that are absolutely snakes running through them. It’s 10-feet tall back there. Nobody does anything.”

Freddie Lorick, Chief of Public Safety, whose department enforces the codes Council passed last year, later told The Voice that he has one officer working that beat. The enforcement process is slow, Lorick said, but it is in motion.

Council sat silently through Haslett’s comments. After he had left the podium, Mayor Roger Gaddy introduced the next two speakers – Brenda Miller and Vikki Dodds of the Friends of Mt. Zion Institute.

As they approached, Gaddy said, “I assume you’re not going to be cussing us.”

Following executive session, Council voted unanimously to award their landscaping services contract to Dean Jackson of Ridgeway. Prior to executive session, Council OK’d $2,000 in economic development funds for the Chamber to use in conjunction with next month’s Ag-Art farm tour.

WINNSBORO – In spite of a marathon five and a half hour work session last week, County Council is still another two hours shy, at least, from combing through the proposed $26+million 2015-2016 budget. With another session scheduled for May 7 at 4 p.m., after The Voice went to press this week, Chairwoman Carolyn Robinson (District 2) said she hopes to trim what is already being billed as a “no tax increase” budget and perhaps turn that into a “tax decrease budget.”

“There is no millage increase,” Robinson told The Voice Tuesday. “We don’t plan on having one. After the first session, we actually cut some of the figures. We’ve cut a small amount of it.”

Robinson said the cuts weren’t drastic, describing them as “a $500 here, $600 there kind of thing,” and services and departments would not suffer. One reason for the flexibility, she said, is because revenue is projected to be up, from $25,711,549 last year to $26,153,115 this year.

In his budget letter to Council, Interim Administrator Milton Pope noted that while the general fund budget includes no tax increase, he is recommending an increase in spending. That spending, he said, is chiefly “one-time” spending “for a few major ticket items needed for County operations and public safety issues.”

One of those “major ticket” items is slated for the Detention Center, where Pope has recommended $500,000 for a new roof. And while the Detention Center requested an additional $117,000 for vehicles and a freezer with walk-in cooler, Pope is only recommended the freezer at $40,000.

The EMS Department requested more than $1 million in vehicles, equipment and a new substation in Ridgeway, the recommendation is for $735,000. That will cover the substation ($400,000), one ambulance, one set of extrication equipment and a training simulator.

The Recreation Department is getting slightly less than half of the $740,000 it requested.

“There may be certain cuts to some proposals,” Billy Smith (District 7) said this week. “There are some things written down that we want to go have a look at. Maybe there will be some type of millage decrease.”

Traffic Study Wording Cleared Up

BLYTHEWOOD – Following up on Town Council’s April 27 final vote to create the Limited Industrial Two District (Li2) with a height limit for facilities within the district set at 100 feet, the Planning Commission Monday evening voted to recommend a uniform height limit within all industrial districts. The Commission also cleared up language in the Town’s codes requiring traffic impact studies for the expansion of existing developments, while also recommending a text amendment to the Town’s Historic Preservation Ordinance to include input from the Blythewood Historical Society.

Height Limits

Town Council unanimously passed final reading on April 27 on an amendment to the Town’s Zoning Ordinance text to include a Limited Industrial Two District (Li2) and various regulations that relate to the district. Included in the vote was approval to allow the height of facilities in the industrially zoned district to be extended from 35 feet to 100 feet. Another 10 feet can be approved by the Town’s Board of Zoning Appeals, for a total height of 110 feet. That decision left the other industrial districts – Light Industrial Research Park (LIRP), Light Industrial (LI) and Business Industrial (BI) – with height limits ranging from 35 to 100 feet.

Monday, the Commission unanimously recommended setting the maximum height for each district at 100 feet, with an additional 6 feet of setback. The recommendation will go before Town Council at their May 18 meeting.

Traffic Impact Study

“We thought we were adequately prepared for advising developers on the need for having impact studies and that text was presented to Council last Monday,” Malcolm Gordge, Commission Chairman said Monday, “but there was a question about how that would be applied to all potential situations, whether the neighborhood is increasing or the density was changing.”

The result, according to Town Consultant Michael Criss, was expanded language in the Town’s codes to “hopefully . . . cover all the bases,” Criss said.

Previous language, Criss said, only required traffic impact studies on “future phases” of existing developments.

“That was not clear enough to apply adequately to new projects, existing projects that were originally designed to expand, existing projects that were not originally designed to expand but now they have acquired adjacent property and want to add more lots,” Criss said.

The new language for subdivision plats would require a traffic impact study to be reviewed and approved by the Planning Commission as part of the “preliminary plat procedure for those subdivisions designed for 90 or more dwelling units, or a total non-residential gross floor area of 25,000 square feet or more.”

For group development plats, a study would be required for “developments designed for 150 or more dwelling units, or a total of non-residential gross floor area of 25,000 square feet or more.”

Any traffic impact study must “meet or exceed” the S.C. Department of Transportation’s Access and Roadside Management Standards, the recommended language states.

The Commission’s 7-0 recommendation will also be forwarded to Council on May 18.

Historic Preservation

Finally, the Commission added language to the Town’s historic preservation ordinance to include input from the Blythewood Historical Society in developing and maintaining the local inventory of sites more than 50 years old.

Language added to section 155.539 (Historic Property Inventory) reads: “The Board (of Historic Preservation) shall invite and consider recommendations from the Blythewood Historical Society for developing and maintaining this local inventory,” while an addition to section 155.540 (Designation of Historic Properties) reads: “The Board shall invite and consider recommendations from the Blythewood Historical Society for assigning total value scores” under the ordinance’s classification system for designating historic properties.

The Planning Commission is scheduled to meet again on June 1 at 6 p.m. at the Manor.

Rimer Pond Issue Takes Another Turn

COLUMBIA – An unheralded but potentially game changing item that appeared on the agenda of the Richland County Planning Commission on Monday afternoon has some residents on Rimer Pond Road and the surrounding area confused about where a request by Sycamore Development, Inc. for 5.23 acres of commercial zoning on their road is headed.

The agenda item, titled ‘Summary of Rural Commercial (RC)’ is a paragraph in the zoning ordinance with the purpose of serving as a guideline for how the County staff makes recommendations on zoning requests to the County Planning Commission, which in turn makes recommendations on zoning requests to County Council, the chamber where zoning requests ultimately become law or die.

When the request for commercial zoning on Rimer Pond Road came before the Commission on April 6 with a recommendation from County staff favoring the rezoning based on the summary guidelines, residents along the road showed up at the meeting to protest that, among other things, the summary’s guidelines for where to establish Rural Commercial zoning are flawed. While the opening sentence of the summary states that the RC district is suitable for “residents of the more isolated agricultural and rural residential districts and residents located beyond the limits of service of the municipalities,” another section of the summary states, “the RC district is proposed to be within or adjacent to residential neighborhoods.”

Agreeing that the appropriate location for Rural Commercial zoning as defined in the summary is not consistent with that of the Rimer Pond Road area, the Commission balked at the staff’s recommendation favoring the zoning and sided with residents in a 4-1 vote against what could become the first commercial zoning on the road.

Commissioner Beverly Frierson agreed with residents that the Rimer Pond Road/LongCreek Plantation area surrounding the proposed commercial rezoning is not isolated or located beyond the limits of service. Frierson questioned how staff had come up with their recommendation for commercial zoning for this area based on the summary.

The summary also stated that “this (RC) district is designed to be located at or near intersections of arterial and/or major collector roads.”

When the issue came before County Council for a public hearing and first vote last week, residents representing Rimer Pond Road, LongCreek Plantation, Eagles Glen and the Round Top Community showed up in even larger numbers, about 40, to protest the zoning request.

However, without allowing the residents to address Council with their concerns, County Council Chairman Torrey Rush called for the issue to be deferred until the May 26 Council meeting, saying he wanted to give the developer time to meet with the residents to explain the commercial plan. Rush also expressed concern as to why the Commission had not followed the staff’s recommendation favoring Sycamore Development’s request for commercial zoning, though it is not required in the code that the Commission follow staff’s recommendations.

Rimer Pond Road resident Trey Hair told The Voice that the residents attending the meeting were frustrated by the delay and felt, whether intended or not, it favored the developer, owners and broker, not the residents.

A few days later, the ‘Summary of Rural Commercial (RC)’ showed up for action (vote) on the Planning Commission’s May 5 agenda but, before it was discussed, the Commission’s Chairman, Patrick Palmer, said he would have to leave the meeting early so the item was deferred until the June 7 meeting.

Suzi Haynes, Boards and Committees Coordinator for the County’s Planning and Services Department, told The Voice that the item was put on the agenda by staff in response to Commissioner Frierson’s concern at the April 6 meeting as to whether the ‘Summary of Rural Commercial (RC)’ might be outdated, therefore not applicable to Rimer Pond Road. But Haynes said she did not know how the Commission might consider changing it if they should choose to do so.

“As it stands currently,” Hair said, “the summary favors our position against commercial zoning being brought into our area. Rural Commercial is not appropriate for our area. But it could be changed to favor the developer. We’ll just have to wait and see what the Commission does with it.”

According to Haynes, the current request for commercial zoning would come under the Summary for Rural Commercial (RC) as it is currently adopted. She said Sycamore Development, Inc. would have to withdraw its current request and start over after any changes were made to the summary for the request to be subject to any new summary guidelines.

Adding fuel to the residents’ burning opposition to the commercial zoning request is the fact that the sale of the 5.23 acres is being handled by Palmer, the Planning Commission’s Chairman, who is Director of Retail Services for NAI Avant Commercial Real Estate in Columbia. While Palmer told The Voice that he is not an owner of the property and would not reveal who the owners are, his father, Hugh A. Palmer is listed as the registered agent for the property on the S. C. Secretary of State’s website. Palmer recused himself from voting on the zoning request at the April 6 meeting. But Haynes told The Voice that Palmer is not in violation, ethically, to discuss and vote on changes to the Summary of Rural Commercial (RC).

The commercial sales price of the 5.23 acres is listed at $350,000 per acre.

WINNSBORO – More than a month after new County Council members began hinting that they wanted to get their hands on the County’s $3.5 million comprehensive recreation plan, Chairwoman Carolyn Robinson (District 2) has yet to place the item on the agenda. At the outset of Monday night’s Council meeting, Billy Smith (District 7) asked Robinson about the potential for future discussions on the matter.

“I asked for it to be placed on the agenda for this meeting,” Smith said. “You and I spoke on that. I’m OK with that, if we set a work session date. Do you intend to set a work session date for that tonight, to discuss recreation and be able to bring back some ideas or times that Council might want to address at the next meeting of Council?”

Robinson said she would, “in the near future,” set a date for a work session on the recreation plan, but that it would be “for information only.”

Smith responded by voting against approval of the agenda.

The public, meanwhile, weighed in during the second public comment segment of the meeting.

Fay Sandow, a District 4 resident, noted that only the plan for District 3 had come in under its $500,000 budget and encouraged the other six district representatives to “go back to the drawing board to review your plans to stay within the budgeted amount,” she said. “If one district can come in under budget that’s proof enough that the other districts can also.”

District 1 resident Randy Bright questioned the inclusion of genealogy in the District 7 plan, and asked if, should the plan go through, the Recreation Department would then own the genealogy building. Bright also questioned the total real costs of the plan, to include utilities and upkeep.

In an unusual response to public comment, Interim County Administrator Milton Pope said the County knew from the beginning that the early estimates on the plan were over budget.

“However,” Pope said, “it was mentioned at that time that we also included several other things in the recreation when we plan on the bid; that was the fire stations and the EMS stations, because what we’re trying to get is cost savings based upon the bidding to bring that under the $3.5 million amount.

“And it was said at that time to the Council and to the public that if in fact that amount, once we got those final numbers back, once those projects were bid out, the Council then would be faced with the question of whether or not that we had to go back and strategically reduce things.”

Council presented the plan to the public and voted to accept the plan in a single meeting last September. In a presentation of the plan prior to the vote, David Brandes of Genesis Consulting said, “We’re not trying to get down to the exact budget. We want some ability for the marketplace to play a role. If prices come in better than we anticipated, we wanted to take advantage of that.”

District 3 Councilman Walter Larry Stewart, who first suggested Council may want to review the plan during a March 23 meeting, again pushed for a review Monday night. Stewart said he was concerned whether or not Council had budgeted completely for the three recreation centers on the drawing board as part of the plan.

“Before we build new centers, we need to repair the equipment and the building and playground equipment in the existing areas,” Stewart said. “We should develop a comprehensive recreation program that ties into our programs for our seniors, our after-school programs and what the citizens really want. We need to present options for the citizens to select from.”

Councilwoman Mary Lynn Kinley (District 6), on the other hand, said she had held four community meetings in her district prior to bringing her plan to the table.

“I had a total of seven people to attend those meetings,” Kinley said. “They were advertised months ahead, and we just couldn’t get people to come out. You can try to be in touch with your public, but sometimes they are just not interested in what we’re doing.”

Kinley said the seven who did attend were active enough to canvass the community and bring ideas and suggestions back to her over the last year or two leading up to the finalization of her plan.

Councilman Kamau Marcharia (District 4) said recreation has been a drawing card for neighboring counties, which he said have outgrown Fairfield over the last 10-15 years. And, he said, recreation plays a large role in economic development. Marcharia said he feared a delay to the plan.

“We’ve been arguing about recreation, this particular plan, for three or four years,” Marcharia said, “and the citizens in here could have been here, long ago, giving us advice and helping us figure this out. Now that we’re down to the wire to make a decision, everything’s going to change and I just think that’s going to be another prolonged disaster for Fairfield County. It looks like we’re never going to get to development for quality of life for our citizens.”

BLYTHEWOOD – At its regular monthly meeting Monday night, Town Council unanimously passed final reading on an amendment to the Town’s Zoning Ordinance text to include a Limited Industrial Two District (Li2) and various regulations that relate to the district. Included in the vote was approval to allow the height of facilities in the industrially zoned district to be extended from 35 feet to 100 feet. Another 10 feet can be approved by the Town’s Board of Zoning Appeals, for a total height of 110 feet.

During public comment time, Patty Appleton of Ashley Oaks neighborhood, which is situated to the East of the 600-acre property that the Town’s Economic Development Consultant Ed Parler has said multiple times will be the site of an industrial facility if the proposed Li2 zoning is approved, asked Council the following questions: Would the Town consider the use of buffers around the rezoned property, would Locklear road be used as an entrance to the industrially zoned district and would the new industrial district be adequately screened from the neighborhood? Appleton said she was not necessarily for or against the use of Locklear as an entrance, but wanted to know whether or not it would be used as such.

Parler did not address the question about Locklear Road, but told Appleton, “What we have here is the creation of a zoning district that is not identified yet as any specific parcel within the County.”

Parler said later, however, that “There will be an opportunity in the near future when the (Limited Industrial) zoning would be placed in the area.”

But Parler said there are natural buffers and that he understands the owners (of the property) have said that 100 acres between Ashley Oaks and the industrial area are not going to be developed.

“So, immediately, you have a 100-acre buffer sitting right there,” Parler said.

Budget Passes First Vote

Council passed first reading on the Town’s proposed FY 2015-16 budget without any discussion. A budget workshop is set for May 6 and second and final reading could be held as early as late May. The proposed $1,295,117 budget is slightly higher than last year’s actual budget, but less than the Town’s current budget of $1,447,651.

The proposed budget document is in a different format than past budgets and, according to the Town’s Administrator Gary Parker, “hopefully easier to read and understand. The expenses are arranged in a department format in order to see better the actual costs of all Town operations,” Parker explained.

“We were able to balance this budget with existing revenue sources and, combined with cost savings like transitioning from outsourcing accounting services to bringing those in-house with the new software, reducing audit, legal and IT costs and bidding out some services which reduced annual contract costs, we may not need to find additional revenues for another year or two,” Parker told Council. But he said that may not always be the case as the population grows and more services are needed.

Traffic Impact Study Discussed

In what could possibly be the last word on the Town government’s desire to require Traffic Impact Studies (TIA’s) of developers, Council discussed an ordinance providing for such.

“Under section 253.36, a traffic impact study could be required as part of the preliminary plat review for those subdivisions designed for 90 or more dwelling units or a total non-residential gross floor area of 35,000 square feet,” Parker said.

Parker also said that, “Under section 153.121 of the ordinance, a traffic impact study also will be required as part of the site plan review procedure for group developments of 150 or more dwelling units or a total nonresidential gross floor area of 25,000 square feet or more, including future phases. The ordinance is expected to soon be placed on the agenda for action.”

Cobblestone PDD approved

After accepting considerable tweaking requested by Cobblestone Park developer DR Horton, Council passed second and final reading of an ordinance providing for the amendment of the Planned Development District (PDD) of the Primrose portion of Cobblestone Park. The amendment provides for additional single-family lots, an amenity area and related infrastructure and to modify parcels previously zoned for multi-family use to single-family attached townhomes. The total dwelling unit density of the subject is reduced from 1,600 dwelling units to 1,155 dwelling units.

The next regular Council workshop will be at 9 a.m., May 12.

COLUMBIA – After a large crowd of residents from Rimer Pond Road, LongCreek Plantation, Eagles Glenn and Coopers Pond showed up at a Richland County Council public hearing on Tuesday night to protest the rezoning of a 5.23-acre parcel on the road for commercial use, County Council Chairman Torrie Rush called for the meeting to be deferred until Tuesday, May 26, saying he wanted to give the developer, Sycamore Development, the chance to meet privately with the residents before Council voted on the issue.

Rush also asked the residents to write their names, addresses and emails on a signup sheet outside the chambers before leaving the building so the developer could get in touch with them.

The sale of the property, which is located across the road from Blythewood Middle School, is being handled by commercial real estate broker Patrick Palmer, Director of Retail Services for NAI Avant Commercial Real Estate in Columbia. Palmer is also Chairman of the Richland County Planning Commission, and his father, Hugh A. Palmer, is listed with the S.C. Secretary of State as the registered agent for the property. Patrick Palmer recused himself from voting during the April 6 Planning Commission meeting.

Rush said another reason he was having the residents come back to Council for the May meeting was so he could have time to read the minutes of the April 6 County Planning Commission meeting to learn why the Commissioners, who are appointed by the Council, voted against the commercial zoning after the County’s planning department staff had recommended it.

Palmer is requesting Rural Commercial (RC) zoning, which includes more than 200 permitted commercial uses on the property including grocery stores, convenience stores with gas pumps, liquor stores, restaurants and drug stores.

The County’s official summary of the zoning district in the meeting agenda packet stated that the purpose of a Rural Commercial zoning district is to “recognize the need to provide for areas within Richland County where residents of the more isolated agricultural and rural residential districts and residents located beyond the limits of service of the municipalities can receive convenience merchandising and services.”

It further stated that the Rural Commercial zoning district was “designed to be located at or near intersections of arterial and/or major collector roads . . .”

Commissioner Beverly Frierson, one of four commissioners who voted against the commercial zoning, argued that the Rimer Pond Road/LongCreek Plantation area surrounding the proposed commercial zoning is not isolated or located beyond the limits of service.

“They are already well served by commercial conveniences,” Frierson said.

Commissioner Heather Carnes agreed, saying, “If all it takes is an intersection for there to be commercial development in what is an otherwise totally rural area, I’m sort of horrified.”

Council will hold the first of three votes following the public hearing at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6 at the Richland County building at 2020 Hampton St. in Columbia. Residents along Rimer Pond Road share information about the zoning issue at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Keep-It-Rural/298240514708. Palmer can be reached at 803-744-9853.

WINNSBORO – Town Council passed first reading Tuesday night on an ordinance that could have a far-reaching impact on water and sewer infrastructure.

Ordinance 050515 establishes impact fees for water and wastewater disposal facilities for future Winnsboro water customers, with residential customers charged a one-time fee of $1,500 for water and $2,100 for sewer service.

Industry will feel the biggest sting from the new fees, with water costing anywhere from $1,500 for a 5/8 of an inch meter to $172,500 for a 10-inch meter. Wastewater ranges from $2,100 to $241,500, also based on meter size.

Town Manager Don Wood said the funds generated by the impact fees can only be used for new infrastructure, and not day to day operations. The fees come after a recently completed water study undertaken by the Town. Mayor Roger Gaddy said a rate study was also currently underway as the Town considers another rate increase leading up to budget preparations.