Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

And I am going to go over the guidelines for the city of Aken. The planning commission meetings. Meetings are public forums in which many opinions are expressed in the business of the city must be conducted. As such, discipline, honorable and professional decorum is paramount. Courtesy and respectful communication is required. During public hearing, all questions and statement for the public shall be directed to the chair. If you wish to speak, raise your hand and I will recognize you. Please approach the podium, state your name and address. In order to allow an opportunity for everyone who wish to address the planning commission speakers should limit their comments to the subject being discussed. Each speaker will be given five minutes to address an issue and may only address an issue once unless questioned from the planning commission opposed to the speaker. Our next uh excuse me item on the agenda for tonight is approval of the minutes.

Second. It's been moved by Commissioner Lasset and second by Commissioner EPS that the minutes be approved as written. All in favor, let it be known by raising your hand. All right, minutes approved. There are no old business. The new business for tonight. First application number 26-20023. Request by Britney Lynn Kerry for annexation of 21 acres at 2910 Kataba Street. Tax partial number 10419-35-011. Is there anyone here that would like to speak in favor of this applicant? Anyone here that would that oppose this applicant? Okay. Then back to the commissioners. Mr. Chairman, in regards to application 26-200023 annexation request, current zoning RC proposed zoning RS15. I make a motion that we move to city council for approval. As through our finding of facts, we believe that the request is in alignment with all zoning and land use regulations and ordinances as well as the city of vacant concept plan. Second.

Okay, it's been moved by Commissioner Clarkson as well as second by Commissioner Lyson that we send this applicant to city council. All in favor? Raise your hand. Motion carried. The next applicant item B applicant for the uh development group location Sunday Avenue application number 26-220006 concept plan. Is there anyone here that would like to speak in favor of this applicant? Good evening. Jen Wilkinson. I live at 1121 Park West Boulevard in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. W I L K I N S O N. Hi chairman and commissioners. Appreciate you guys letting us come in and talk about this project again. We brought it to you last year and we're updating the concept plan from 144 units to 168 units. Building types stay the same. Building heights stay the same. Entrances stay the same. Um we did um uh approve get approved for the um parking is 20 parking spots over what's recommended by the city as well as our open space ordinance is still at 40% which is a minimum required. Um, we did pass the traffic and pedestrian improvement requirement. We're at 88, which um, prior, I'm not sure if it's been passed yet or not, was at 100 or below. So, currently we are, um, following that regulation. And, um, we appreciate you, uh, passing this through and I'm here if you have any questions.

Anyone have any questions? I do have one question. Um what percentage of the housing is for I guess low income or voucher assistant% 100% of the housing. Okay. Um that it's my understanding there's currently a gravel road that those folks use to access their properties there. Are you talking about the the roads um the Jake Place?

Yeah, Jake Place is is not a currently an unimproved road. We will make that improvement. And will that extend to the property of those two tracks that are that are in the back? Yes, ma'am. We don't own that, but you know, we well extend we would go to our to our property line. He means the current residences. The current residence at the end of Jake Place. Yes. Um we'll have to at least to the point that you do own. Yes. To our property line out on that road. Yes, we will definitely pave to that part. Okay. That's what I'm just wondering because Yes. Okay. All right. Yeah. I couldn't tell from this design. It looked as if we can make it more clear.

Okay. Will your company uh manage the uh property once it's built as well or will that be handed off to a management company or what is your intent there? That's correct. We do hire a third party. We're developers. That's what we do. We do that best. And we do have a third party. KCK management has been in business in the state for 20some years. Um they already manage properties in your area and that's who we have on our other properties. So they'll be our long-term management company. Which properties are those? Do they matter? KCK management. Which which do you have any examples of properties? Okay. And that was KHCK. C A H E C.

Yeah. I'm sorry. Back to my question about the access for the existing. So So if you look at your map and it's kind of hard to see. I know there's an existing gravel road that runs just straight up. Yeah, there you go. Straight up and down there. Yes. Under your concept plan, you've paved obviously it turns left into a parking lot and then right to access these other buildings. Are you going to leave that road unimproved? Unimproved and gravel through the middle of your property or is your intention to have them go through your parking lot? It just was a little unclear to me how those folks are going to access their

It'll be paved. Yes. So, it'll be a that Jake place will stay as Jake Place. I think what he did was his radiuses for entrance and exits when those are what you're seeing those carvings there. Okay. That is not stop curving. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's just him do doing his radiuses. Okay. Apologize. Good question. I just was concerned they're going to lose access if Yes. Yeah. Do you have any idea what the starting rent would start at?

Oh, good question. Um I believe that the rent start around 550 600 something on that line. It will be exactly what it was in our approval last year. Oh, okay. So I I'm assuming the 550 be at for one bedroom. I'm sorry. One bedroom. That's correct. Yes. And um rents have not changed this year yet by HUD. They've not posted or they're posting them any time now, but South Carolina housing is making us underwrite to 2025 rent. So, it's going to be the same as we had last year. And my last question, have you had the opportunity to look over the suggested approval conditions? I did and you are in agreement as well. We will comply.

Anyone know? Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you'all. Anyone else that would like to speak in favor of this applicant? Anyone here that would like to speak against this applicant? Wish you could pick I wish you could pick a middle word because I'm not for it. I'm not against it. I just want to raise an issue of serious concern the city is facing and it seems to be glossed over in this packet and that's sewer capacity. We were told very clearly uh from the county substantiated by the uh delegation involvement that we have limited sewer capacity. The number I remember is 410.

I'm sorry you probably said it but I didn't hear you. Did you state your name in there? Dick Dwire. I'm sorry I didn't say it. I should have. All right. Thank you.

106 Bell Reef Drive. Anyway, the number I recall is 410,000 gallons per day. And I recall a prior member of your commission, now a council member, Pete Msina, studied all of the projects approved between 2020 and 2025. And all of those projects, some of which obviously uh will not be done, use more than 410,000 gallons per day. Um, and as a result, the new rate for um city capacity is $10.89 a gallon. And this doesn't tell the developer how much the developer is going to have to pay for sewer capacity because you really don't know whether you have it. Um I I read the memo the city engineer put out and the implication was that they would u there there would be a South Carolina engineer that would have to determine how much sewer capacity this project and this applies to the other two projects on your agenda as well. But a South Carolina certified engineer would have to tell you how much sewer capacity this project um requires and then when they pull a permit then they have to pay the check. So, I'm a little disappointed that you're not dealing with the sewer capacity, which is a major issue at this point, but I'm quite sure that the engineering department have already taken in consideration of that. I have not had that information, but I saw someone raised a hand. They may have some more information as far as that.

I understand. And with all due respect, you're approving a project that you're going to tell city council to approve and they're more than likely going to approve it, but you're the first step in this whole process. So, you can't just turn it over to the engineering department. It would seem to me in your capacity, you need to know how much sewer capacity this project needs and the other two that are on your agenda to be fair to the developer because this may turn out to be a waste of everyone's time. When they get to the point of pulling a permit, if there's no sewer capacity, then then all this time is has been wasted.

And I'll say again, maybe the developers already have privilege to that information. And if she would like to speak to to that, I have no problem with that. So I you have a comment. I do see on the third page, at the bottom of the third page, it says all sewer capacity will be subject to approval by the Aken County Horse Creek uh pollution control, etc., etc. Is your suggestion that instead of just having that verbiage, it it's more of a specific number, this is the projected usage um and that be included in every packet going forward for developments? Yeah, I read that, but it's it's generic. It's not it's not specific,

but but I just want to make sure we understand your recommendation is that moving forward any new development um provides the estimated amount of sewer usage that that development. But that's what the city ordinance requires. Right. Right. I mean, it's not it's not Dick War saying you ought to do it. It's the city ordinance that approved by council says that you have to do that.

Well, I I will say this. They're they're working they're very much on top of this. They are currently not only have they gotten more sewer capacity. They have been given more sewer capacity, but they are going through everything and and making sure that what has been approved that if it's not being developed, it's off the roll, you know, it's off the sewer rolls. They are very much on top of this. However, we are not the PSA. We do not give that authority. So, ultimately, it will be up to the PSA to say yes or no. But again, engineering speaks directly with these developers. They're not just flying blind. So I think it is important to maybe let the developer speak to their conversation.

And you are aware that there's nothing being done as we speak to increase capacity. I know that they have given us more capacity and then they are we engineering is staying on top of it and they are analyzing everything now. That's all that I'm not engineering. I'm just telling you what they're doing.

I know. And I I I um I'm just dismayed because the whole planning kind of process starts here. And I'm just dismayed that you're not paying attention to sewer capacity. And this project and the other two and many others that you're going to be doing in the next several months uh may end up not to have sewer capacity. The plans are wonderful. Everybody thinks it's not going to be an issue, but it is an issue and we got the numbers to prove it. So, thank you for your time. Thank you, sir.

And to your comment, sir, it's my understand and I and I know that you said that this may end up being a waste of time, but if there isn't adequate capacity, the project at the time that they seek to break ground doesn't move forward. So, it's what we're doing here is approving a concept plan. We're not telling them that there's adequate sewer capacity. And I think they all understand, these developers should all understand that if there comes a point when that capacity is exhausted, they don't get to develop and that's the risk that they take.

So we're not here to make that judgment call at this point. We're we're assuming adequate capacity, but they understand that they can't move forward if that capacity isn't exhausted. if they understand that. There are some in the community, I think it's been very clear. There are some in the community that quite frankly would rather see a moratorum until we get our act together, but I'm not going to bring that up at this point. Uh, some communities have done that. Sure. Again, thank you very much. Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to speak against this applicant?

Does she want to address the I'm sorry. is we have any want to address this from the commissioner standpoint? I would just invite the developer to come forward and if she has any uh comments and response about capacity. Yeah, just as part of our application process with state housing, we are required to show them in our application that we have verified capacity is available. Our civil engineer has done that from day one. That's the first thing I have him go do before I go through all this. Okay. Thank y'all. All right. Thank you.

Is there anyone else that would like to speak against this applicant? Okay. Then back to the commissions. Mr. Mr. Chairman, in regards to application number 26-220006 concept plan um current zoning uh PR, I make a motion that we uh move to city council for approval with the six listed conditions as through our uh finding of facts. We believe that the request is alignment with all zoning and land use ordinances and regulations as well as the city of Bacon concept plan. I'll second that motion.

Okay, it has been moved applicant number 26-220006 concept plan. It's been moved by Commissioner Clarkson, second by Commissioner Lyson that we send this applicant to city council.

U just yeah, just some a little bit of discussion. Um I know Dick left so can't directly address him but um just to address another thing that he he mentioned you know he talked about moratoriums also the uh number of projects that were had been approved by the city of Aken and uh water usage and sewage capacity etc. you know, this commission um while I I don't want to undermine our importance does take a lot of cues uh from city council and and some of the issues that were brought up such as moratoriums, how we count uh water capacity, etc. I I would defer to city council as uh I don't think we would be the body to kind of make some of those decisions. And so while I I do appreciate his comments and I do certainly understand a lot of those comments and I'm not trying to undermine our own authority, but some of those issues are uh above our pay grade for a recommending body of appointed officials as opposed to elected. So I just wanted to go on the record to say that.

Any other comments from the commissioners? Okay. All in favor raise your hand. All right. Motion carried. Our next item on the agenda is item C and D is application number 26-6010 reszoning and number 26-220007 concept plan. Is there anyone here that would like to speak? And this applicant is the Bradley Bradley House Developers in favor of this applicant.

Good evening. Uh my name is Chris Whitner. My address is 3768 Citation Way, Sweet 200, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina 29577. And I'm representing Bradley Development. And um this is a another it's an affordable housing um property. It's uh a much smaller scale. It's 39 units we're proposing. It also um it doesn't h have tax credits done a little differently in the financing, but it does address the income spans go from 30% 50% 60% and 80%. With most of the majority being 50 and 60%. So this is this property is based on the Aken AMI which as of uh 2025 was 88,000. So roughly you'd be looking at on the 30% of um targeting homes that make 32,000 150 on the 50% would be 44,150 and then the 80%s would be in 70,000 range. So, on just for example, I don't have all the rents yet finalized, but if you took it on a 50%, you'd be looking at about uh $1,000 on the two beds and on the three beds, 1150. So, you can kind of do the math on the 30% and the 80%. Normally, it's would kind of fall into the 50 and 60%. The South Carolina State Housing Agency kind of determines that based on the market study that we provide, and they try and fill the gaps. This this isn't done with this one is not this property is not financed with tax credits. It's through national housing trust, South Carolina housing trust and home funds. So it's uh it's a lot of uh work. A little bit more with the home funds comes into uh a lot of

different aspects with green friendly being the uh we also you know protected species and some other stuff. It's it's a a very lengthy process. Um the property is 10 acres. We have proposed um and speaking with Mr. Kowick, we we have two different plans that we've proposed. One being the threestory building um which would all 39 units which would contain one, twos, and threes. you're looking about 10% ones and then just depending on the market probably either an e even split on the remainder for the twos and the threes. And then our other property or the other proposal would be the three building proposal which splits it up into 11 12 16 units with a clubhouse also being incorporated. We would prefer to do the threetory um just from its less of a footprint. Um it provides even more buffer for the for any adjacent property. I think we on this on the three story it's about six and a half acres with the surrounding property versus 5 and a half acres. So which is still pretty pretty huge and it also you have less pavement um less building footprint. So but either plan um when we talked to Mr. C whatever the city would prefer.

Couple questions for you. Sure. So, how did you arrive at 39 units? That is the maximum of this program you can do. It's a it's really to impact smaller communities in smaller areas which other affordable housing programs don't always address. Okay. And this is to try and put it into areas that haven't seen as much housing as many of the other areas like Charleston or Columbia or Myrtle Beach. And you don't int anticipate adding to this property? I mean, it's 10 acres. No, it's 39. What we see is what we get kind of thing. There'll be no future development there. Um, one of one of the um issues that have come to our attention and we we're well aware of it is there's a there's a homeless community kind of living on that property right now. Okay.

And and what's what's the developer's intention to uh for lack of a better term mitigate that? Um that's a good question. Um, I mean, we could, you know, working with the city. Um, currently I we don't own the property. So, um, I could work with, you know, the owner on that. Um, I don't know is is it like in a camp or It's kind of a camp. Yeah. Yeah. We've had we've had those issues in Myrtle Beach before. Okay. And we've worked with the city where they've gone out and clearcut some of it or, you know, under not cutting all the trees, but and working with that and law enforcement and stuff. and I really can't do much with the property until I take ownership of the property,

but I can work with the seller and try and help with that. So, your your intent is to to once you own the property, you you won't move forward with trying to purchase a property till you get a an approved plan from the city, right? And this is a lengthy process. So, this is probably we're looking at a year or two, a year and a half. Okay. And once we get once the property has been submitted, I can't really outside of the phase one environmental or geotechnical once I'm in the process of of the applications being submitted. I can't touch it and I can't touch it until we purchase it and that's due to the federal regulations that come with the home dollar. Are you optimistic that this will all fall into place?

I do. We just finished one in we're finishing up a threetory in Sumpter. Okay. Uh South Carolina. Um, I am, but it is a competitive process, but it's not as competitive as the bond program, the tax credits, the bond program. So, maybe you have 10 or 12 applications versus 50 or 60. So, we've we've had a good track record with it. Um, and it I I like it. It's you get a a good bang for your buck, you know, as far as the community goes. It's easily to manage. We have a col uh Columbia based um um management company. Okay.

So um and we have we do have a property in North Augusta called Brookstone that we that was a tax credit property done quite a few years ago. Well, that was my next question. How would you manage it if if you did get it built?

It would be through the management and we have a large portfolio in South Carolina and um the company's based in Colombia. They've been doing this a long 25 years. One of the suggestions from a resident, and I'm just throwing it out there because he suggested it was maybe fencing around the perimeter or something that looked nice but still kept people from going into the what remained as wooded area, right? And it's setting up a camp essentially. So, I'm not I'm not advising one way the other, but it was done fences before. It's not an issue. Whatever the community wants as far as that goes. Um, we have a lot of excess land, so we were even I'd mentioned to Mr. If the city would be interested, we could donate a good portion of it or Okay. You know, or just leave it as green space.

Got because we're I mean this program doesn't allow really for a second phase and if it does it's four or five years down the road. So I don't anticipate another one. They don't usually like this program's in its kind of in its infancy. It's only been six years. Yeah. So they haven't gone around. They're trying to spread it spread the allocation amongst the state. Yeah. I mean, I think you'll hear from the board tonight. I I'll only speak for myself, but we kind of like the twotory concept. Okay. The footprint's bigger. It looks more inviting as houses instead of an institutional like building, right? Um it's more inviting to the community, if you will, and it doesn't I could see it might have that massing effect if otherwise. So, yeah, that's not a problem. I'm just prepping you cuz it's

Oh, no. No, that's fine. No. Well, and I'm GL and I appreciate that because right now we're about to start our third party stuff and I've been running two site plans and they're like, "Please pick one." So, that works perfectly. We're going to help you with that in just a minute. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you for your answers. Appreciate it. Any other questions or any other questions from the commissioners? No, I just I I had a concern too about is there a plan for future development and it it sounds like that's not an issue here given the nature of this program. Pardon me. Given the nature of this program that you're applying through, it doesn't sound like that's a concern. Um um I mean I'm sure the city would certainly love the opportunity to have more green space.

Yeah. And and and like I said, we we've done, you know, conservation easements and anything. I mean, we really I didn't we didn't want to buy the full 10 acres, but they didn't want to subdivide it, right? So, okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you, sir. Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. Is there anyone else that would like to speak in favor of this applicant? Is there anyone here that would like to speak that who's not in favor of this applicant? Okay, back to the commissions.

U M Mr. Chairman in regard to applications 26-600010 resoning request and application number 26-220007 concept plan uh current zoning office proposed zoning uh plan residential. I make a motion that we move to city council for approval uh recommending concept B as well as the five conditions listed. As through our finding of facts, we believe that the request is in alignment with all zoning and land use regulations and ordinances as well as the city of vacant concept plan. Second.

Okay. It's been moved by commission. Are there any discussion? I'm sorry. Okay. It's been moved by Commissioner Clarkson as well as second by Commissioner EPS that application number 26-600010 reszoning and number 26-220007 concept plan concept plan B with the uh approval conditions 1 through 5 that we send this to city council for approval. All in favor raise your hand. Unanimous vote. Vote carried. Now we have a motion to dismiss.

So moved. Been moved. Second. We're dismissed. Thank you.