Category: News

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.

 

Councilmen Push for Recreation ‘Revisit’

WINNSBORO – Fairfield County has, since officially adopting the $3.5 million plan last September, been working toward a recreation makeover for the entire county. But with the housecleaning enacted by voters during the November general election and the March special election, in which four new Council members were swept into office, the plan as it exists today may be in jeopardy.

District 3 Councilman Walter Larry Stewart, the last of the four newcomers seated to Council, brought the matter up during Council’s March 23 meeting.

“I am uneasy with our whole recreation plan for the County,” Stewart, addressing Chairwoman Carolyn Robinson, said. “I’m not sure where we stand on that, but it is my gut feeling that says we need some more citizen input on our recreation plan.”

Billy Smith, District 7’s new face on Council, echoed that sentiment during Council’s April 13 meeting.

“I do want us to bring that (recreation plan) up at the next meeting to see if there’s anything Council members want to change,” Smith, also addressing the Chairwoman, said.

Councilman Kamau Marcharia (District 4) questioned Smith’s suggestion of a review, asking if Smith was interested in having each Council member review their individual districts or take on the entire plan.

“I think we need to start the discussion to see where that might go since we do have a new Council up here, but I’m talking about the plan as a whole,” Smith answered.

Robinson said the plan was discussed at Council’s Feb. 21 retreat, but noted that Stewart, elected in a March 3 special election, was not in attendance.

“I have no problem with us bringing back that same presentation and showing everyone as well as the public what is out there for recreation,” Robinson said.

The presentation made to Council by David Brandes of Genesis Consulting just prior to their vote last September is available on the County’s website, and what it details is a project that is more than 100 percent over budget. But Brandes told Council then that “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.”

Only District 3, with a basketball court and a handful of playgrounds, came in under its $500,000 budget (at $499,337). The other districts range from as little as $9,600 over budget to more than $144,000 over budget, bringing the entire project over budget by $628,009.

By bidding out the plan as one large project, instead of as individual smaller projects, the County hopes to get those numbers down, according to Milton Pope, Interim County Administrator. At present, the County has only advertised for pre-qualifications for bids.

After the bids come in, Council will take another look at the numbers.

“We haven’t looked at the final (bid) plans, yet,” Marcharia told The Voice this week. “After we get the bids, we will look at what can be trimmed, or even added.”

Marcharia has long been an advocate for recreation in the county, particularly in rural District 4. After the adoption by the former Council of a comprehensive recreation plan, Marcharia is reluctant to see it tampered with.

“I don’t feel good about it,” Marcharia said. “I feel very threatened. The whole community has worked on this, to have a community place to go. I feel bad they are contemplating looking at stopping it or starting all over again.”

The plan for District 4, totaling $641,660 at present, includes a community center, walking trails and outdoor basketball court.

“If it were up to me, I would like to revisit that and come up with a new plan,” Smith told The Voice. “That would be on the table.”

With the bond money set to expire next year, however, any new plan would have to happen quickly.

“The clock is ticking,” Marcharia said. “What will it cost taxpayers to put on the breaks? That’s inexcusable after all these years.”

But Smith said the expense of starting over might be less than the expense of moving forward.

“All that has been agreed to so far is the consulting services (Genesis and Ken Simmons Associates) and the architectural renderings,” Smith said. “If we changed the plan, we would lose that money, but that may be better than putting through a plan that wasted a lot of money.”

The District 7 plan, created under Smith predecessor, David Brown, weighs in at $644,440 in pre-bid dollars, and calls for an outdoor basketball court, a baseball/softball field, picnic shelter, restrooms and improvements to the genealogy building. The latter, Smith said, pushes the boundaries of the definition of ‘recreation.’

“I’m not so sure the County government using taxpayer money should be involved in the genealogy research business,” Smith said.

And if individual Council members want to tweak the plans for their districts, Marcharia said, that is fine by him.

“If they see something that needs to be fixed, they can do so without starting all over,” Marcharia said. “I hope they don’t plan on putting on the breaks and stopping this.

“I am perplexed they think we would need to start all over,” Marcharia added. “And it wouldn’t just be for my district – everyone would have to start over at square one. Who knows how many more years that would take?”

Smith said he hoped the item would be included on Council’s April 27 agenda. Robinson, however, said that as of Monday afternoon, it was not.

“The budget is on everyone’s mind,” Robinson said. “Or it should be. I don’t know what is on their minds. I have my suspicions, but I don’t really know what it is they even want to talk about. Stewart was the only one not in our retreat. The other three (new Council members) got full disclosure on the recreation plan then. It’s to the point of being bid out. We are on a time table.”

Robinson said the item would not likely appear on any agenda before Council gets at least one more budget work session in, the next one of which is scheduled for April 30, she said. Furthermore, she said, there were several “legal questions” that she needed answered before moving forward and placing the item on the agenda.

“I have to know if we are following all the rules correctly,” Robinson said.

BLYTHEWOOD – Town Council will take its final vote Monday evening on a zoning text amendment that will, if passed, provide for the Limited Industrial Two District (LI2) in the town and regulations relating to that district. According to the Town’s Economic Development Consultant Ed Parler, the new zoning district will allow a wider variety and greater intensity of manufacturing uses than the Town’s current Limited Industrial District (LI).

Industrial uses allowed will include tire manufacturing, textile industries, testing laboratories, public relations agencies, cafeterias, restaurants and more. But Parler said LI2 would not allow such uses as foundry and smelting operations or distribution centers. He said distribution centers should be located elsewhere because of their heavy use of truck traffic.

Council will also be considering whether to allow the height of the buildings in the district to extend to 100 feet as recommended last week by the planning commission. Should Council approve the height extension, the Board of Zoning Appeals would have to option to approve an additional 10 feet. The building height in the ordinance as it is now written is 35 feet. Parler appealed to the Commission to approve the height extension, saying the County has no height limit at all.

Parler said the text amendment is needed for the rezoning of a specific 600-acre tract of land located between Ashley Oaks and I-77, known locally as the Barnett property. Parler said Richland County has its eye on the property for an industry it says is interested.

“Be assured,” Parler told Council, “that if you establish this LI2 zoning district, you will immediately receive a zoning request for LI2 zoning for this 600-acre property and the applicant will be Richland County.”

Other items on the agenda include possible action on a new structure for rates for business meetings at the Manor, presentation of the proposed FY 2016 budget, consideration to bring the Wall that Heals to Blythewood to honor the community’s war heroes and appointment of a new Town Clerk. The current Town Clerk, Beverly Colley, was recently married and will be relocating with her husband.

The meeting is scheduled for Monday evening, April 27, at 7 p.m. at The Manor.

 

Rezoning Comes to Public Hearing

BLYTHEWOOD – Rimer Pond Road residents are expected to show up at a Richland County Council public hearing on Tuesday evening a little before 7 p.m. to sign up to speak against the proposed rezoning of a 5.23-acre parcel of land at the intersection of Rimer Pond Road and Longtown Road/Trading Post Road. The owner of the property, Sycamore Development, is requesting a change in zoning from Medium Density Residential (RS-MD) to Rural Commercial (RC). The parcel is located across from Blythewood Middle School.

While the County’s Planning Department staff is recommending that Council vote in favor of commercial zoning, the County’s Planning Commission, which is the recommending body to County Council, voted 4-1 on April 6 against the staff’s recommendation.

The Chairman of the Planning Commission, Patrick Palmer, recused himself from voting on the rezoning request since he is handling the sale of the property. Palmer is the Director of Retail Services for NAI Avant Commercial Real Estate in Columbia. It was reported in the April 17 issue of The Voice that Palmer is also an owner of Sycamore Development, but he told The Voice on Tuesday that he is not. He would not say who the owners are. However, the Secretary of State’s office lists his father, Hugh A. Palmer, as the registered agent for Sycamore Development.

Two Columbia area commercial realtors, who asked not to be named, provided The Voice earlier this week with a sales promotion flyer from Palmer’s office advertising the property to prospective buyers as having already been zoned for commercial use. Both sources said the flyer was distributed prior to the April 6 Planning Commission meeting. The document lists Palmer as the person to contact for more information. When reached by The Voice on Tuesday to verify the authenticity of the flyer, Palmer took responsibility for the flyer, but said he did not realize that it contained incorrect information claiming the property was already zoned commercial. He told The Voice that he would make that correction in the flyer.

Among other information, the flyer states that the 5.23 acres identified as commercially zoned are priced at $350,000 per acre and an additional 31.23 acres of adjoining lots owned by Sycamore Development and zoned for medium density residential use are priced at $28,500 per acre.

A notation at the bottom of the sales flyer states: “This document may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written consent of NAI Avant.”

Twenty or so residents from Rimer Pond Road, LongCreek Plantation and Round Top Community attended the April 6 meeting to protest the rezoning and remind the Planning Commission that there is no commercial zoning anywhere on the road. They talked about their love of the rural, the increasing traffic congestion on the road and their fear of how commercial development would change their community.

“For the last 25 years we have been down here helping the county make zoning decisions on our road,” longtime Rimer Pond Road resident Michael Watts told the Commission. “Every time commercial has come up on this road, we’ve been here to say thanks but no thanks. We like it the way it is. Commercial zoning has no place in this rural environment. We’re begging you to not put it on us. Let us continue to enjoy the rural out here.”

Joanna Weitzel of LongCreek Plantation said, “Blythewood has managed to maintain the integrity of its rural. If you open up one store out here, you’ll open up a flood gate of commercial. You’ll change our rural community. I’m not against development. But I am for responsible development. This is not responsible development.”

Palmer told The Voice on Tuesday that he thinks commercial zoning will not bring to fruition the residents’ worst fears.

“It makes sense to me that Rural Commercial zoning would be appropriate (within) a rural zoned area,” Palmer said.

The County zoning code for RC includes grocery stores, liquor stores and convenience stores with gas pumps as well as offices and restaurants. Palmer said he envisions this particular commercial zoning to “service the folks who live there.”

He also said this zoning “is what the County, as a whole, has instructed the development community to do. Maybe it’s against what the residents out here want. But as a person who owns property in the county, all I have to go on is what the County says, so that’s what I’m going to do.”

He said the County’s Comprehensive (Comp) Land Use Plan and zoning ordinances say “this is the direction we want to grow.”

Palmer also said a cell tower on the property limited what he could do with the property, saying he couldn’t put homes there because, “people don’t want to live around cell towers.” Rimer Pond Road resident Ken Queen reminded the Planning Commission, though, that Palmer had originally asked for and was granted residential zoning for the entire property and now wants to change the point of the parcel to commercial zoning.

According to the County staff’s zoning district summary, RC zoning is designed to bring commercial services to residents in the more isolated agricultural and rural districts who are located beyond the limits of commercial services. The summary also states that the RC district is designed to be located at or near intersections of major collector roads.

“All the (zoning) guidance points to this intersection as a parcel needing rezoning. That’s what the guidance says,” Palmer continued. “The documents that the County has passed have put this area as an area for change per the comp plan.”

Planning Commissioner Heather Cairns disagreed.

“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,” Cairns said. “That means we won’t ever have integrity in our rural areas. It may be an intersection, but this area is already well served by commercial development a couple of miles away.”

Cairns also addressed the suggestion that the school contributed favorably to commercial development.

“To me,” Cairns said, “to see a school completely surrounded by residences, I say that’s a good thing. Just because a school is there does not mean it has to have commercial next door. This area is not underserved by commercial development.”

Commissioner Beverly Frierson agreed, saying that the properties along Rimer Pond Road are not isolated from commercial services.

“These residents,” she said, “would be adversely impacted. There are already stores and conveniences nearby.”

The zoning request will be heard by the County Council at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28, at the County Building, 2020 Hampton St. in Columbia (at the corner of Hampton and Harden streets) and is the first item on the docket.

H-Tax Passes First Reading

RIDGEWAY –The third time was not the charm for a lease between the Town of Ridgeway and Norfolk Southern Railway as Town Council once again tabled a final vote on the agreement during their April 9 meeting.

“We had a contractual question,” Councilman Russ Brown told The Voice this week, “and they responded, but not until 4 p.m., right before the meeting. One of the questions they did not make very clear, as far as terms and length of terms and conditions. And we have a new contact at the railroad and he is kind of playing catch-up. We’ve just got to get one or two things squared away.”

The $300 a year lease demanded by the railroad company would also require the Town to purchase liability insurance for the property at $1,000 a year. Mayor Charlene Herring told Council in December that the railroad company is reviewing leases and properties all across the state, forcing municipalities to either lease the lots and accept liability or see the lots fenced off. In Ridgeway’s case, at least two buildings stand on the property – the police station and the fire station – and the railroad would demand their removal unless the Town agreed to a lease.

Budget

As Council begins preparations for its 2015-2016 budget, Council members presented items for consideration.

Councilman Heath Cookendorfer said he would like to see an itemized breakdown of miscellaneous expenses in this year’s general fund, while Brown said it might be helpful to have someone overseeing the Town’s monthly bank statement and for Council to have that statement included in their meeting information packets.

Focusing on the Police Department, Councilman Donald Prioleau said he would like to see Council come up with funding for body cameras for the Ridgeway’s officers, as well as money for police overtime pay and for a stable of reserve officers or constables to be used on an as-needed basis. Cookendorfer added that he would like the Town to find money for internet service at the police station.

Councilman Doug Porter said Council should be prepared to raise water and sewer rates again this year, as the rates for water from Winnsboro, Ridgeway’s primary supplier, are also going up to 98 cents per 1,000 gallons. Herring also suggested a review of the Town’s business license fee, which she said had not been increased since 1987.

Hospitality Tax

Council also passed first reading on an ordinance authorizing a hospitality tax.

The ordinance caps the tax at 2 percent and only applies to prepared meals and beverages in an establishment or under an establishment’s license.

During Council’s March discussion of the tax, Brown said the revenue could go toward tourism-related, cultural, recreational or historic facilities, as well as highways, roads, streets or bridges providing access to tourist destinations. The revenue could also go toward advertising and promotion of tourism development, and to water and sewer infrastructure serving tourism-related facilities. The funds could go toward preserving the arch on the old school property, and for promoting Pig on the Ridge, Arts on the Ridge and other Town events.

Council will hold second reading at their May 14 meeting.