City Council - Regular Meeting

First and only meeting. Our invitation tonight will be given by Councilman Matt Harbin in respect to the flags to be laid by Council Member John Roberts. Please rise. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you today with grateful hearts for opportunity to serve our community. Thank you for bringing together our staff and citizens with purpose to make our city better for our families. Grant us wisdom in our discussions and listen and speak with fairness. Bless our community, keep our people on the front lines safe, and let our discussions have lasting positive impact on our city. In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Our April 27th minutes have been distributed. Are there any corrections or additions to those minutes? Make the motion to approve. Second. First by Mr. Newton, second by Mr. Steel. All those in favor say I. I.

Opposed. The minutes of April 27th pass unanimously. We have three items of old business and the first item is request consideration of ordinance 26-07 authorizing a perpetual easement agreement on city property adjacent at 215 217 and 219 South Main Street. Mr. Mchuan, thank you. Uh Mr. Shin is going to go over this item for you.

Thank you, Mr. Mchuan. uh mayor and council have before you is request on second reading uh to grant an easement to uh ST Real Estate Holdings LLC as the owner of 215 217 219 South Main Street. The owner intends to redevelop these properties in order to get state hous historic preservation tax credits. Um the the state is requiring him uh to be granted an easement to allow windows historic windows to be placed in the back side of the building that was base our church street Heritage Plaza parking lot. Now if you take a look at the map that's on the property sorry in the packet you'll notice that the property um and the easement itself extend a little bit inside the parking area of the uh church street. Lots of exclusions in the easement. Um we can we can use the property use the use exactly how we're using it currently as a walkway as a sidewalk storm water conveyance and as a park this and we can maintain landscaping maintain that sidewalk lighting. Again, like I said, everything we're doing currently, we'll continue to be able to do making sure that when he installs those historic windows that there's not a building that's built right up next to them, negating purpose of those pretty straightforward, but happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Appreciate it. We did discuss it on the first reading. Um, any additional comments, questions, Mr. Stewart? Uh my understanding is that one of the reasons they need this easement is for fire reasons or something in case buildings can't so they can get out the window. That's my understanding earlier with the conversation. There are some building code requirements for proximity to to windows that sort of thing. But but this easement particularly is for the state this sort of preservation tax. But it one but they all going to roll in together you know because without getting that they wouldn't get building code approval that well

anything else guys I make a motion to approve Mr. Mayor first by Mr. Hart second second by the new guy Pickkins I told you I'd forget your name Mr. Marshall Pickets. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. It passes unanimously. On the second and final reading, our second items requests consideration of an ordinance to reszone 1502 and 1504 East Greenwood Street from Neighborhood Commercial to GC General Commercial. M. Muan.

Uh, Mr. Mayor and Council, uh, both these items, um, A2 and A3 went to the planning commission. It's coming back to you. Uh, M. Maurice McKenzie, our plan development director, will go over both of those items for you. Starting with A2. Thank you.

Hey, thank you. This request pertains to two lots and combined it will total just a little over 1.1 acres. And currently on the site, there are two vacant buildings, one building on each property. And the request is to reszone the property from NC neighborhood commercial to GC general commercial so the site can be redeveloped um for a car wash. Now in the NC neighborhood commercial zoning district, it allows your lower intensity retail office type uses and it does not allow car washes. So that's the reason for the request tonight. They're coming to us with a request to reszone it to GC general commercial which does allow car washes a little higher intensity zoning um than it is that you see in the NC zoning district. And when you look at reszoning requests, you look at the surrounding zoning, you look at the surrounding land uses and in this general area along East Greenville Street, the predominant zoning classification for commercial uses is neighborhood commercial. And there are a couple of exceptions uh in the general vicinity. There are two pockets of general commercial zoning as you can see on the maps that are included in your packet. Uh one is currently a shopping center, one is formerly a shopping center. We're talking about two larger parcels of land. But across the street and up just a little bit is the Anderson Pavilion shopping center. It where the Publix is located. It consists of 17 acres and that includes the out parcels that you see along East Greenville Street as well, but that is zoned general commercial. Again, a larger 17acre development. The former shopping center is the Windsor Place Shopping Center, which is just across Mccle Road from the subject properties. Uh it is general

commercial. It used to be retail shopping center as you know that is currently being redeveloped by ANMED for medical uses. So that is changing in use as we speak. So that is taking place. But again, those are two of the properties or two of the sites that are zoned general commercial in the area. But again, you can see on your maps that the predominant zoning along East Greenville Street is neighborhood commercial. Most of those lots are smaller in nature. But this comes to you tonight with a recommendation of the Nile from the planning commission. They met on April 7th and came up with that recommendation of denial. So it comes to you with a recommendation of denial. And while the comprehensive plan supports commercial development along East Greenville Street, the zoning patterns, the scale of development is typically less intense than what you see in general commercial districts. So that was part of the reasoning for the planning commission. And if you look at the stretch particularly between Mcccle and Cornelia, that is all intact as neighborhood commercial. But again, this comes to you for first reading tonight. I'll be glad to answer any questions if you have any.

Thank you. Um, is the applicant here? Yes. Um, why don't we do this? Let's hear from the applicant and then we can have discussion among us and maybe we can maybe some of the questions we might have um the applicant can address before we get into our body of work. Just tell us who you are and

uh first I'm going to say my little thing and then we'll kind of get into I wanted you guys to hear from us directly. Um good evening. My name is Ashen Hods. I was born and raised here in Anderson, South Carolina, and I graduated from Tana High School. I was also honored to be a part of Leadership Anderson, class 33. This community has played a huge role in shaping who I am, and I truly appreciate the opportunity to speak with you guys tonight. Today, PB operates four locations, including two right here in the Anderson area, along with locations in Easley and Greenville. Across our company, we currently serve more than 28,000 monthly members, including not including single wash customers. In Anderson alone, we serve 15,471 members as of today with 27% cross utilization between both of the Anderson locations alone. There's a few things I'd like to share with you from just 2025 just from the Anderson our two Anderson locations. $24,83 was spent with Duke Energy for electric. $243,390 was spent with the city of Anderson of utilities. $135,984 was paid in property taxes. More than 69,000 spent with local vendors, including HVAC, electrical, plumbing, uniforms, printing material, and maintenance companies. A majority of our vendors are all specifically located to the Anderson area directly. Over $27,000 spent yearly per location to maintain the landscape appearance we have on site today. Since Papa Bear opened in 2021, we have employed 329 people just in Anderson alone. We're also currently maintaining multiple fee partnerships with the city of Anderson, including the police department, city leadership, emergency services, public works, Anderson school district 5, Anderson University facilities and campus safety, and many others. But more importantly, I want you to emphasize I want to emphasize something directly for me tonight. We are much more than just a car wash. We are true owner operators with boots on the ground seven days a week. This is not a passive investment for us. Personally, Zeve Josman, who you'll hear from shortly, is right here behind me.

And there's Zeve, uh, took a chance on me years ago when I called him and said, "Hey, there's an old full service wash in Anderson, South Carolina, and I want to build a car wash." He met me at the property the very next morning, and within 48 hours, we're already in contract conversations for the Clemson Boulevard location. Maybe that story doesn't directly affect whether we get another whether another wash gets approved tonight, but I do think it shows the kind of people we are. We came into a market where many people said we shouldn't build and we shouldn't build and together we've built something that's truly thrived and been a staple in this community. I'm just one of the many people Z has invested in over the years and I wouldn't be where I am today without his leadership. He's not just a businessman. He's someone whose reputation and legacy in this industry carries weight across the country. More importantly, he believes in the people behind the business and is directly in the business. BJ and I BJ Davis and I are actively involved in our stores, our teams, and the communities we serve every single day. And so is Eve. Not many businesses our size can say that. At Paper, our culture is not built around people simply clocking in and out. Our core values are integrity, energy, urgency, ownership, team over self, and relentless quality. Those values shape the way we operate our business, the way we lead our teams and the way we serve each and every customer. There's a couple other things that I want to mention to you just for you to know. In 2025, we gave over 15 over we gave away over 15,000 free washes provided for different events in just the Anderson community. We've donated more than $55,000 in donations and sponsorships. More than 9,500 complimentary $35 washes that we've done annually for ANMED employees for their foundation fundraiser. Just this month, we provided nearly 10,000 free car washes to local educators, faculty, and staff across 67 schools in Anderson County, including all private schools. Anderson is where we have chosen to grow to this grow this business. And that's not by accident. It's because these are the people and this is the community we

care most about. We can build car washes anywhere, but this is where we're investing. This is where we're raising our families, and this is where we want to continue to grow. This project means far more to me than simply building another business on a busy road that we all know. This is personal for me because I genuinely believe in this town. I believe in the people who live here, the children we're raising and where Anderson is headed. We want we want to be a part of Anderson for a very long time and we hope can continue becoming both a business and a community staple for years to come. I sincerely appreciate your time and consideration tonight and I hope you give us the opportunity to continue showing you that this project can be a win for everyone involved. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Ashton is correct. We're not just any car wash. Um I've been in the industry my whole life. Um and I tell you we are in the top five to 10% as far as volume quality in the in the nation in car washing. Now, that doesn't mean much to y'all, but I tell you one thing that I'm very proud of is that between Ashton and BJ that we, you know, we teach the kids that from high school, we teach them how to be on time to work. We teach them to have a positive attitude and we teach them how to to make the next steps in life. Um, giving these kids opportunities is real important to me. Uh, we have examples of that. Two of our managers which make over six figures a year are one of them is here tonight, Alex Hill. And uh Alex Hill started at with us at at $10 an hour, $12 an hour, whatever we were starting at that time. And now he manages the site, makes very good money. He's 21 years old, 22 and teaching them responsibilities uh on how to run a business, P&L's and all those things are very important to us as a business owner. Okay. Um, I've been thinking about this for a while. Um, to understand, you know, if there was houses around there, you know, the noise and and we got four entrances on on East Greenville Street, which we're going to eliminate all those entrances. So, traffic is going to be reduced tremendously as far as in-n-out traffic. You know, the the back road, we plan on having two entrance, one entrance and one exit on the back road. Uh so you know we're not going to we're not going to be a traffic problem uh at all. I've actually put in three pay stations instead of two just to I've heard some people concerns whatever you know as far as us trying to get cars into the car wash when we're busy. But uh two or three pay stations either way I think will be just fine. But at the end of the day we've tried to accommodate and we are willing to accommodate. I've also

heard some other concerns as far as hyper building and I'd love to hear any, you know, input that I don't mind working with y'all on to to make it like, you know, you would like it, if you will, um to change it to to uh give you, you know, to satisfy any needs that you all may have as far as the building height, whatever. But as far as uh we're not going to hurt the community, people love to come to our car washes. They enjoy themselves there. It's a good, you know, kids love it. Uh we we try and we sponsor all the high schools. Uh you know it's a so it's a fun it's a fun business and when people come there it's a feel-good thing. Okay. Um uh you know we try to take care of all the policemen uh the firemen the teachers everybody that means a lot to our community here. So I I I'm trying to understand you know what objections and why. But everybody has their reasons. But I I don't think we're going to hurt traffic. I don't think we're going to we're going to make the place look good. I promise you this. our landscaping is top-notch and I I'll continue investing in landscaping whenever I can to make it better. Uh anything that will grow, you know, that'll look good, we will do. Um I'm so proud of BJ and Ashton for as much, you know, they put into this community with these young kids. That that is probably the best thing that Papa Bear brings to the community is these young kids and teaching them work ethics, work values, and positive attitudes. So, um,

thank you. You know, anything else? I'd be more than happy to explain. If you don't mind, let me look at my notes here. Oh, by the way, each project is about a 6.5 to 7.5 million build. Okay, these are not strip malls. Okay, this is a huge investment for each car wash. I put $3.5 million cash into each one that we build. So, uh, you know, to keep the the the debt down. So, these are not these are not a very cheap build by no means. Um, and that's all I got. Any questions?

No, sir. Let's do this. I'm I'm sure y'all talked to our planning department. I'm maybe ask Maurice to come back up and y'all hang out in case we do have some technical questions, but maybe Maurice you come up and I'll open it up because the the designs in our packet and um I appreciate you um giving this um community investment update, but I would open it up to council in regards to comments, questions. So, one thing he did, let's do this. raised his hands first. So, I'll go with Mr. Newton and then Mr. Pickkins.

Yeah, I don't mind kicking it off. Um because I have put a lot of thought into this. Um I guess the biggest thing when I think about it is, you know, where do I see that commercial corridor beginning? And I see it beginning with that CVS Walgreens area when you make that turn. And to me, you know, you make that turn, you got Sonic right next door. So I feel like you have a very you know GC you have very commercial area u looking at the plans I mean to me I'm very complimentary in the sense of definitely you can tell the goal was to mitigate traffic u because you know whenever the first time I heard about hey you know car washing that location first thing myself I'm sure everybody else here thought would be you know what are you going to do to mitigate traffic I feel like design was great with that um you know it's funny because a lot of times I get asked you know like when we have projects that come before us, you know, oh, you know, does that, you know, does that make you excited? Are you excited? Like, and I I know my audience right now. I mean, there are sometimes we have projects, I mean, this is just a market driven, businessled decision. I mean, in that area there, hate to say it, there's probably not going to be a new innovative business that says, "Hey, this is the area where we want to come. It makes sense for the business that y'all are proposing." Um, so I see that. Uh the one thing that I would say uh from a design aspect that and again I'm fine with it on first reading. You know, obviously I'm just one of one of nine. I'm fine with it on first reading. I would like to see on that south rear elevation that y'all have. Uh I do think that would be a good opportunity for us as a city to have some like tree buffers there. I I mean I think that would be because I mean that that really is kind of a a barren area as you kind of come through there. Um, I'm not as, you know, when it comes to the height of the building, like I know there's other people here on council who know a lot more than me, but I do feel like that would be a great opportunity for the city. Uh, you I think that would help the the aspect, you know, when you kind of make that turn around when you're going up East Greenville Street. I think

that would be very good for the optics, you know, having a little over there, things like that. I think, you know, I know a lot of times you don't want to block your building. The good thing with a car wash is, I mean, people pretty much know they're going there um, you know, when they're headed that direction. you know, I've seen it done in other places. I mean, I've stopped at a car wash on 278 in Hilton Head Island. I mean, I know it can be done and, you know, nice areas. You can make it look good. Um, and so, you know, that's kind of and I can keep talking for longer, but that's kind those are kind of the first things that I thought of. Mayor, Miss Pickkins, so question for staff. Um, the height of the building. Do we have any um restrictions on in our zoning about heights of buildings or anything like that? Yes. The maximum height in actually both the neighborhood commercial and general commercial is 35 ft.

And what I think my eyes aren't as good as they used to be. Um was it 30? It's on 35. It's on 35. Okay. And other than the shopping centers, is there any other um general commercial out that way?

No. So if you extend further out Greenville Street beyond Reed Road, the called Perpetual Square development, actually there's another car wash there that too is zoned general commercial, but it has a little further out as you exit the city, but it is inside the city limits. But other than the two I mentioned a moment ago, the shopping center and the former shopping center, that's the only general commercial in this area. Wait, we go Mayor Proam and then Mr. Steel. If you were through, Mr. P. Yes.

Uh, some general comments. Um, in my opinion, the scale of the building is overwhelming for the space uh even at 35 ft uh and it closeness to the street front. If you look at the surrounding uh developments which are already established, even NHC sets so far back, uh the new ANMED complex sits so far back, you wouldn't even know there's a Publix on Greenville Street, it sits so far back. Uh so the scale of the building and the proximity to the street is to me a concern. Uh and the area is already established. It's built out. You've got ANMED, NHC, three banks, twoarmacies, a Publix, and several food service uh entities. So, there's no guesswork about what's there. Um, and it's trending neighborhood commercial. I think in the packet, uh, even the ANMED site is probably on, uh, on track for a down zoning to in to neighborhood commercial. um my opinion it's not compatible with the surrounding uses and one thing and I don't know if y'all have ever noticed but the lanes begin to narrow right there and this isn't anything that other than just the lanes narrow in the center turn lane narrows right in that section um I do have several questions um I looked at the site plan and I like the idea of coming in from the back That's that's a good call and and the product is good. Very nicely done. Um but here are my questions. Where are the employees going to park? I saw everything in there related to vacuum stations and I don't know how many employees are

there at a given time, but that was that's one question. Uh let me just get my questions out and maybe you can have somebody come back up and answer. But the open space of the development, it looks like we're utilizing about every, you know, there's not a lot of open space left on the site. And because now that and additionally, um, land disturbance is going to be greater than an acre. I think it's 1.13. Does that now determine that there has to be storm water detention? If so, it's not shown on the plan. And I was wondering also if the setbacks are correct because I think I saw 25 ft and and there are two frontages there as well not only on Green Street but on the Cle Street on the Cle road. So I'm wondering if the setbacks are shown correctly.

Let's do the technical questions and then maybe from the owners to talk about employees and so forth. Go ahead. uh working backwards as far as the setbacks. The setbacks are 25 ft front yard. So you have a corner lot. Therefore you have to be set back 25 ft from Mccles also from East Greenville Street. As far as the site requirements, open space, detention, those will have to be submitted as part of a a full set of plans. This is what I would call a rough layout, but they will have to show all the areas of impervious surface, landscaping requirements, storm water detention, and all of those items would have to be submitted as part of the package.

Maybe on the question about parking, employees, somebody. So, yes, sir. And we will be using some of the parking spots against the building there. Um, we we in a couple different variations of the layout, we made the canopy a lot bigger. So, um, which I don't know if you got the first version, you probably didn't, but we're going to use about five five five spots in front of the in front of the building there for for employee parking. So, generally speaking, around five employees at any given time. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Okay. And they'll utilize the canopy parking and those will be for customers. the employees will be against the building. Okay. Okay.

M Stew, um just a few comments. Um we keep mentioning 35 ft, but the plan submitted indicate a peak height of 36 feet um throughout all the plans. So, is it going to be 35? Is it going to be 36? Is it going to be shorter? The ordinance says 35, sir. So, we'll definitely have these were uh well, I'm sure we'll go to 35. If we need to go to 34, we can go to 34. Okay. These are just your standard. This is this was the the drawing that we did for uh it was very close building that we have right now on Clemson Boulevard.

Okay. Um and just a few comments to follow up on council mayor proms. Um just a few other pieces that give me some cause for concern about this site. Um, looking at traffic, I understand the access road and I think that's a very wise decision. I think if you put access on East Greenville, it just that would make it totally untenable. However, one of the big traffic issues that currently happens is things get backed up next to that Sonic at the stop sign there and people coming out of Sonic or coming up from St. Joseph's Catholic Church or other places come up to that stop sign, you have four lanes of traffic total, two going each way. And if someone's trying to turn left on East Greenville, particularly at a busy time of day, that's already a pretty dangerous spot to try to pull out. Um, now people could go down to Cornelia and go to the light there. They could cut around behind the ANMED complex, try to come up to the light where the CVS is. But in reality, people's habits change hard. And a lot of people are going to come out of that AnMED shopping center, are going to come out of Papa Bear's car wash, and are going to come out of Sonic, and they're going to come up to that stop sign, and we're going to run into the same traffic issues that we're trying to avoid by having it on the access road. Um the other thing that just when we talk about kind of it being neighborhood commercial not affecting um you know the rest of the neighborhood. If you look at the zoning next to and behind it, the banks were already mentioned, but if you look behind it, we also have a lot of church churches coming through there. A church just bought the property behind that's neighborhood commercial uh to build a church there. St. Joseph's Catholic School is doing expansion and and moving on uh not not the limited office space that's shown here, but kind of further down. Um, and I know that they're going to be building their site. So, we're

we're potentially going to have increased school traffic as they uh move there. uh church traffic could potentially uh increase as um the church expands and everything there as um others have noted it is pretty low to the ground even if it's bank even you know when you go down further to Chick-fil-A and truest and Waffle House until you get way far set back from the road um when you come back into ANMED when you come up the hill to NHC when you go back up the the hill into Publix and this would be a even if it's 35 ft that's a pretty tall building to be 25 ft from the road right at a corner where you have a stop sign. So to me those are all real concerns. Um and I I appreciate Papa Bear. Um clearly they invested our in our community. It's a great wash. Every time I've taken my car through it's clear you have very good business model um and and have a real care for our community and and I appreciate those things. Um, but I I do have concerns about this specific location.

Thank you, sir. Let's do Mr. Stewart, then Mr. Hort.

Just like to first start off, I think it's already been said that, you know, we really appreciate everything that Papa Bears does as a community. I think that goes unsaid. But, you know, for me personally, you know, it's not about the car wash. It's not about Papa Bears. It's more about the location. it was further up Gringle Street. You know, may not be as a big of a heartache uh for me, but not only and I don't want to mention some of the things that has already been said from the height. That's a concern of mine as well. But, you know, with the traffic jumping back out on the Cleaves on that private road, you know, people are already starting to take a detour back through I think it's Hilltop back through the neighborhood coming back out. So, uh, you know, the neighbor the neighborhood when you turn right there at Walgreens, you know, that's a cut through and a lot of people are starting to complain traffic cutting through there. So, I can just see the neighborhood gaining more traffic to get back around to where March Banks is at. So, um, you know, that that's a concern of mine as well. Uh Maurice in our future zoning plan, you know, are we showing the trend on Greenwood Street as neighborhood commercial uh through our consultants? And then if I'm not mistaken, even though the public's own general commercial, it could actually be down size to become neighborhood commercial to make it conform, which is already there with with the rest of the business. Is that correct? We're in the process of revising our zoning regulations, zoning map as you know and we have drafts of that now that we're going over and studying and the majority of the land development zoning pattern is continuing to be neighborhood commercial as uh I believe Mr. Roberts pointed out earlier that the old Windsor Place Shopping Center, you know, is no longer retail except for the two out parcels. Uh we're even examining that to go to neighborhood commercial to be more consistent with the zoning pattern in

the area because it will still allow what AMD is doing. It'll still allow the two out parcels up front. So we're seeing that trend and the potential to drop that zoning down. Again, still in the draft um process, but that's where we are with it. As far as the public shopping center, currently uh the I believe the way the guidelines read for shopping centers, if it's 75,000 square feet and over, it has to be general commercial. Neighborhood commercial allows shopping centers, but they're smaller in scale. So that's the reason why it was zoned general commercial. Now, the frontage, the out parcels, the Chick-fil-A, Starbucks, and all of that, that would that could qualify as neighborhood commercial if need be, but it's currently zoned general commercial because it was all developed as one. And

and I guess, you know, and two, you know, getting back to the traffic, you know, and and I appreciate it's trying to come out on that private road on the back, but that road's only so big. And if you don't go back towards Sonic and you come out on Cornelia, we already have a police officer sitting down there at that red light trying to control that traffic at that red light every day during school hours. So that flow of traffic called the cars are trying to come out of MC turn back on to Cornelia and with the mechan's traffic and the cars lining up the hill going to St. Joe's. I just see it, you know, it's a traffic concern. So but anyway, that's my thoughts. Thank you, Mr. Harvey.

So Mr. McKenzie, while you're at the uh speaker, I get to ask questions. So, help me. You know, I think I've been consistent at my time on council. I remember this was a fast figure. It was, you know, a gas station and what was right next? Uh, was it a dry cleaners? Yes. And pretty sure so that was probably built before zoning that we even had zoning. I would assume because I think if I I can remember back in the 70s that was a commercial area, right?

It's it's been commercial for Yeah. a long time. Yeah. And the reason it went back to neighborhood commercial was because of our when it became nonconforming then it would go back or was it always been neighborhood commercial? Well, those uses that you mentioned the convenience store and the dry cleaners would be allowed in neighborhood commercial and so they were conforming when we when we did the Yes.

Okay. and the um the general commercial that's next to it. The reason it wasn't neighborhood commercial was because it was too big. Most likely. I know that with the Windsor Place Shopping Center was existing. I don't know the square footage of that, but I'm assuming that's why the zoning of GC was placed on it. I do know that with the public shopping center, that's the reason why GC was placed on it because of the size of the shopping center itself

and you know the traffic the other concerns that my fellow council members have. Yeah. I mean I think traffic is you know it's an issue anywhere I go in Anderson. It seems like it's Christmas on Friday. Friday before Christmas when I go up Boulevard to to to eat at lunchtime um today and with our growth that we've had in our you know, it's only going to continue to to be more. Um I I don't, you know, I don't have a problem with um the car wash here. You know, I certainly hear the I'm not going to penalize development over concern for traffic. I mean, that just doesn't make a whole lot of business, you know, sense to me that hey, so should we ask Chick-fil-A to move because you know, they back up on 81 to stop traffic. I mean, I'm not, you know, I I'm not going to penalize somebody for maybe that our forefathers didn't build wide enough, didn't make 81 eight lanes when they built it. Um, so, but I that's where I stand on it.

Thank you, M. Roberts. John Roberts.

Yeah. Um, thanks. Um, y'all going to hear for the eighth time, unfortunately, since it's down on this end, but you a couple of things, too. Obviously, I echo a lot of the sentiments that fellow council members have brought up. Um, you know, for me, I'm a member. I'm a Papa Bear member. I love Papa Bears. I think it's great and I love seeing all the kids. I know a lot of them when I pull in and see them grow up. I'm proud to hear the stories of individuals like you. But um you know uh for me right now today it does come down to scale and traffic and especially traffic at that in particular mccle's entry onto street that's a problem. Someone mentioned it's going to be hard to you know hard to fix people. Um for me this is a tough one. Um, you know, as a council member, it is our job to help promote and encourage business, uh, businesses that thrive, you know, that bring the economy to scale, that put dollars back in our community, which I've proven y'all do. Um, I'll disagree with my fellow council member, Mr. Harden, here just to touch on that one, though, with regard to penalizing for development over traffic concerns. I think it's also our job and our duty and I know you agree I'm not to to be mindful of what that does and how that does impact it and are there any future fixes for that area that location. So for me right now it's it's a tough call. That's what I can tell you. Um if there's any other discussions to be had about scalability, but more important than anything, traffic. I think traffic's really my A1 number one concern.

Let's do this. Um, the only person that hadn't spoken is me and Dr. Thompson. So, I'm going to give Dr. Thompson a chance to weigh in on a great listener.

You're a great listener. All the concerns about this and also to the positiveness in this development. So, I think there are certain things that the developers will be willing to address to keep this project going. I can see the pluses. I can see the minuses. I can always see also see opportunity for us to look and see what do we need to do to adjust this and keep it going. So I'm a good listener and I think there can be ways to adjust this to make it still palatable for our community.

Thank you ma'am. I'm gonna hold up my my comments, but what I want to do now is let's make sure that we don't keep repeating the same comments. Number one, just a second. M still um mayor prom I'm not trying to cut discussion. I just don't want to I mean height, traffic, kids, community impact. We talked about that. So I'm gonna go uh Miss Steel and Mayor Pro Tim.

I I just briefly want to respond to um Mr. Harbin's comments about you know punishing development that sort of th this is different than the other commercial things in the the neighborhood in that we are having a reszoning request. It is zoned as something. If someone wanted to come in and put a neighborhood commercial uh business in these lots, we wouldn't even be here today. If it was zoned for a car wash and a car wash was a permissible use, you just start building the car wash. So, I think it is very important for us to consider these things differently because this is a reszoning request rather than something that, you know, we're necessarily looking at first.

Yeah. I was curious, was there any public input to the planning department? Yay or a nay? Other than the people that have spoken here? Not really. We receive a few phone calls as you know. We post the property with a public notice signed. People called and just asking really what it was. Not a lot of comments we received. Miss Pet.

Yes. So, I just want to uh commend Papa Bear um for all that they've do and all that they've done um in the community. Um, you see them everywhere. Um, I think the Clemson Boulevard, you've been there for seven years, I think, when I did my research. Maybe uh, five. Okay. Um, but the passion, you could see the passion when you're talking about your employees and the investment you've done. um with this where this is and the phone calls I've received um from the constituents back on the back end, they're already seeing um a lot of the cut through because of the schools and things like that and not knowing what ANMED will bring to that area. Um and personally, um having a daughter who lost the front end of her car pulling out of Mccle um uh four years ago and also a memorial being set up there uh for someone who died at that traffic section. I am going to uh make a motion that we deny this zoning.

Have a motion by Mr. Pickkins. Second, second by the mayor pro 10. We'll continue discussion. Mr. Newton,

thank you. Um, you know, when I I heard it was references, you know, that property used to be a dry cleaner. I also know many times that limits what can be on that property next. Um, kind of beat me to the punch. I was about to to make a motion uh to approve, but um along those lines, this is first reading. Um, I'm in support of it as long as the applicants can come back with maybe a little more short up of plan. Uh, maybe drop it down as low as you can get. Uh, again, some greenery in the front and stuff. Uh, that that's stuff that I would like to see. Uh, that's why I'll vote against, you know, with the proper time and that's kind of what I'm looking for. Uh, we still have some time to work through this. Actually, Dr. Thompson's got about 40 more years experience up here than I do. who I've learned a lot from over the last decade. But, uh, a lot of times when a project comes to us, uh, before I've tried to make that final decision, I always do like to make sure, you know, we can get the highest quality product possible. Um, I think that gives us the opportunity. Um, not killing it this meeting. Not saying that it's going to make it second reading by any means. U, no future promises obviously, but I do like it when we have this good conversation. we get a lot of good feedback and then it, you know, I think there's a some good motivation there for the applicant to to come strong uh maybe get innovative, come up with some different things. So, that's where I'm at. Mayor,

thank you. I've um been doing this for a couple decades and I know I don't have a unanimous opinion here between you guys and that's great. It's been good discussion and I appreciate it. My comments would be um and I'm I'm for it. Um, and one of the things I, and I think I mentioned this before that I see, my business is on 28 bypass White Hall Road. And from a traffic point of view, I never see traffic spill out into there's no there's more problems turning into the McDonald's there on the corner is coming in and out of Papa Bears, you know. And I think, you know, as been mentioned here, traffic's it's going to be a problem. We are in one of the fastest growing areas in the country. Um, our community is really growing and um, and I get the the school traffic and I think um, turning left. I think you eventually as a driver say I'm going to turn right and turn left somewhere else. I mean I mean that I mean eventually as drivers we say, "Okay, I can't do this on Clemson Boulevard right now. I've got to go out of my way a few minutes to to get into the flow of traffic. So, I I I know that we've talked about it. Uh I don't know if we have any more technical questions to ask.

I have one. Go ahead. You mentioned five employee parking spaces. What's the average number of employees on staff? Would you stand? Yeah. Stand at the mic for us so everybody can hear. What are your average number of employees on staff? Five. Four. Four to five. Four to five. Miss Stewart,

couple question a question then just a general comment. What is your pro uh projected traffic count that you're looking to put customers in and out of that car wash on a daily basis? I think I heard something about 15,000 employee memberships on Clemson Boulevard, you know, in a in a given day or so or or month. I forgot what Ashley said, but um but what is your traffic count that you got projected coming out right now for this car wash?

Just a couple a couple examples like Pandere Road for a second. Last month we did 29,000 cars. Okay. Clemson Boulevard we did about 28,000 cars peak season. That's the busiest month of the year for us. We should be doing about 20 22,000 cars, but as as someone mentioned, we get we get cars in and out of there fast. That's part of our process is to get cars in and out of there fast. are not there. So, cars move quickly, but that's a it's a large number when you when you hear that. But at Clemson Boulevard, I guarantee you we got just as much trouble with traffic there than anywhere. That's that site in particular with the stacking that I have there is minimal. I mean, I got four cars stacking there and we did 28,000 cars. So we pro the reason I'm saying that the example is we process cars very fast and we would we would block Clemson Boulevard and we very very rarely come you know close to doing that. So uh I think at the end of the day just to give you an example we are able with our systems to process cars very quickly through there. And I guess though my my comment goes I know I've heard from my fellow council members that hey you know let's uh maybe Papa Bear could come back with a different structure or whatever if it got to that point you know to take care of that elevation standpoint but one thing you can't come back and and correct is is the traffic count. You know that that's going to be a given and whether you turn left or right you're going to come to Cornelia or either you're going to come back through the neighborhood. And I'm just trying to be respectful of the citizens in the community right behind, you know, where this car wash would be at you. So if they turn left, you know, they're going to eventually make their cut through to come back around to get where they're going. And I just see the residents in that community, you know, having more traffic and I wouldn't want to see it come through my neighborhood.

Can I say something about And I don't mind doing a traffic study. Uh I haven't done that yet. Well, please. Mr. Mayor, if you would come to the mic.

Mr. Mayor, members of council, thank you for your time and consideration. I just want to add one one or two things. John Wright with McCoy Wright, we are the broker involved in the transaction uh for this property. And one of the things that was brought up was the traffic uh that Councilman Stewart mentioned, that stretch of 81 has about 25 to 30,000 cars per day along that stretch of road. And so I think when we we hear the number of car washes they're going to do in a month, it is a lot. But I think when you consider that what they do in one month is the same amount of traffic goes down that stretch road in in one day, it puts into perspective a little bit as far as the percentage increase. You're talking very minimal. Um the second thing I just wanted to address was the peak hours of people washing their cars. Um schools, church, etc. have been brought up as a concern. You guys can probably speak to this, but your peak hours probably do not interfere with that very much. So maybe you could speak to that a little bit.

Friday, Saturday from 12 to 12:00 to 5 uh are our busiest hours. So 9 in the morning uh you know the school gets out about two but uh and Saturday is our busiest day. Fridays that's a good very good point. I mean there's a lot of cars that come down that road. So you know sounds like a lot of cars that we process fast. Mr. Harbin, that was my point. I mean I was going to guess 20,000 cars are on the road and they're washing 600 a day. Gota. And so the traffic impact on I was guessing 20,000 cars but 600 more cars. Good.

So we had a a first and a second to deny it on the first reading and I would um by show of hands by show of hands all those in favor of denial raise your right hand. Mr. Pickkins, Mr. Mayor Pro Tim, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Stewart and Mr. Steel. All those in favor of the U approval on the on the denial voting. You got to make have a motion for

Well, no. Just so basically so no on then no on the denial. So the motion on the denial failed and then you could consider additional motion. an additional. Yeah. So clarification. Yes. So you have four no four nos to deny. So it did not pass on the denial. Right. Correct. So we'd have to have a motion.

Correct. That new motion to approve continue to do whatever council wishes. Mayor, I'll make the motion to uh reszone 1502 and 1504 East Greenville Street from neighborhood commercial to general commercial. Second, first by Mr. Don, second by Mr. Harvin. Again, show of hands. All those in favor? Can I make a comment to that? We are in discussion.

Okay. So, I feel like what we're doing is putting a square peg into a round hole. I think that with the way this uh commercial corridor is going, it's set as neighborhood commercial. This business could go somewhere else where it is already zoned that way. So that's I just want to say that on the the motion to approve like that. Any other comments? Look forward to seeing what other iterations considerations and opportunities may arise out. What would that be specifically?

Well, I think some of the questions that were brought up with regard to scale is the site, how's the engineering look, can it even work? Um, you know, retention and and storm water and landscape and parking and with regard to those things, I would not want to approve it to general commercial and somehow the site not be able to use as proposed to us tonight. with regard to general commercial and then we're stuck with general commercial there and an unknown entity come in and be able to just do whatever because the site specifically did not work. Comment comment. Yeah, we're we're in discussion.

If I'm not mistaken, we're we're not the issue is here. We're not zoning a car wash. We're zoning a piece of parcel. That's correct.

So, we can't come back and make what Mr. Councilman Roberts uh just asked for. you know, either we going to reszone the property and whatever it is is whatever it is from here on out. You know, take Papa Bayers, take Herz car, take anybody out of the equation because that's not what we're here. We're not zoning the car wash. We're zoning a parcel. And I think that's what everybody needs to be mindful of. And so, uh, we can tell them to come back with what we can approve it here tonight and tell them to come back with whatever iterations that they want to. And they bring it back to us and we say, "That's here. that's great, dandy or whatever, but they could change their mind. Once they change it, it could be something else. They're not we're not stuck to their design, you know. Uh we're we're here about a parcel, not about a design of a building for final approval. So, just want to make sure everybody understands that.

I think we do.

Thank you noting. I agree. And thank you. Just still lots of questions with regard to layout and everything. So, we had a first and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor of approving this agenda item, raise your right hand. Opposed like sign passes on the first read. Thank you. Uh third item requests consideration of ordinance to reszone 1200 South Tower Street from Alli Light Industrial to RN10 multif family residential. Mr. Mchuan.

Okay. He's been up there for a little while, but uh Mr. McKenzie, I'm back.

Okay. This comes to you tonight for first reading. And again, this is request to reszone 1200 South Tower Street from Light Industrial to RM10 Multif Family Residential. The applicants requesting to reszone the property to bring the single family home that's on the site into zoning compliance because in LI zoning districts, single family residential just is not permitted. So, it's a legal non-conforming use. they would like to bring it into zoning compliance and also have an opportunity to subdivide the land to construct one additional single family dwelling. Uh the RM10 zoning classification that they're requesting uh allows houses on lots that are at least 5,000 square feet in size and this lot is over 16,000 square feet. So if reszoned there's an opportunity for it to be subdivided so they could build another house there. And this is considered a downzoning going from a more intensive industrial classification to multif family. Furthermore, it's only 16,000 square ft. So, not a lot of industrial things you can do on a 16,000 foot lot. But, uh, this area, and I believe we mentioned it during the referral a couple of weeks ago, that it's trending residential in this area. Last year, early 2025, there was a request that came to you to reszone an adjacent piece of property for them to construct four houses and the construction of those homes are now complete. So, this is a similar request to what you saw last year, but uh this comes to you with a recommendation of approval from the planning commission. They considered this at their May 5th meeting and recommended approval. Also, this is in keeping with the comprehensive plan and it does eliminate a non-performing use.

Thank you, sir. That area is changing. I hope it help to comments, questions. I'd just like to say, you know, I do think I know this is Dr. Thompson's area, but I know this area is changing, not only, you know, with what we're seeing here with the other houses being built, but you also got the Murray Franklin project, you know, which is uh right the Franklin right there uh being developed as well. So, I I I agree with that. Any other comments, questions? Make a motion we approve on first reading. First by Mr. Steel, second by Dr. Thompson.

All those in favor say I. I. opposed. That passes unanimously on the first reading. We got four items of new business and our first item of new business is request consideration of an ordinance adopting the budget for the fiscal year 2026 2027. Mr. Mu,

Mr. Mr. Mayor and Council, um, this is on first reading to you, the proposed budget for the city of Anderson for fiscal year 26, 2027. We did have a public hearing um just before the meeting at scheduled at 5:40 p.m. where Chief Financial Officer Marty Martin provided a quick overview which is the legal requirement and the ad that we placed in the paper according to state law. Additionally uh regarding uh fees both including the sanitation fund and also on andm rate operation maintenance rate um to our partners of the sewer plants with that and with this first reading for you and let me make note that the we did not hear any comments uh there was no comments recorded uh from the public hearing itself. The city's annual budget serves as both a policy guide and a financial plan. It directs our resources toward city council priorities, ensures the delivery of essential services, and maintains our commitment to sound fiscal management. While this document provides a 12-month outlook, and you hear me say that a lot. It's not just the the 12 months that we have to look at. is it's the multi-year financial strategy that we're following and the capital plans that we're following. It is built around the city's ongoing five-year budgeting model and we have that even stretching out 10 years and so forth. Uh the five years is about as accurate as you can get it and we're following a multi-year financial plan. However, before you on the vote tonight is the 2627 budget. It's rooted in the city's strategic plan. The budget is the budget is guided by our three pillars of performance as you

can see on your screen. Advance quality of life, our sheer sustainable growth and attract partners. Under that in the subtitle you can see several of the major um impact areas of this budget including a fire station, park, trails and recreation, downtown development under sustainable growth uni unified development ordinance which we spoke briefly about tonight earlier on another item streetscapes water and sewer capital improvements and our partners and employees. Moving on, the total proposed budget across all funds is 94,234,92 representing an 8.23% increase from prior years. The budget reflects our dedication to our employees who are the foundation of the city operations and our most valuable asset and supports daily operations including public safety, utilities, public works and administration, ensuring the continuity of essential services. Our investment in personnel directly supports our strategic goal of creating a safe and secure environment and I will add a great workplace as well for public servants. Operational funds also reinforce our commitment to building strong communities by supporting housing initiatives, code enforcement, blight mitigation, and infrastructure improvements, especially in our utilities. And what you can see before you there is all our funds together in the pie chart. And you can see that the general fund of course represents the largest of which at 46% 42.4 million. And you can see then um followed by our enterprise funds of of sewer and water. And we'll dive into those here in just a little bit. Proposed budget highlights.

There's no tax increases proposed for this fiscal year. The millage rate remains at 109 mills. Core services continue to meet the needs of our residents. Projected increases in property tax and business license revenue reflect continued economic growth. A cost of living adjustment is included 3% for full-time and part-time employees. 53% of the general fund budget is allocated to public safety. 64% of the general fund budget expenses are dedicated to personnel at $27 million. And I will say we are a um heavy employmentbased uh service provider. So it takes a lot of employees to run the city of Anderson. Um and I think you heard from another business model earlier tonight where there's a lot of automation and there's fewer employees. With us, there's a lot of hands-on activity and a lot of involvement u from our employee base that's needed to serve the community. City Growth is supported by additional members added to the city team including a city planner, a building inspector, horiculture crew worker, three community parame paramedics and that is being funded as you can recall from the opioid recovery funds that the state's administering and a bus driver and I'll I'll speak about that a little bit when we get to transit as well. Sanitation fees change from 550 to 1050 per cart per month as proposed. And this budget ultimately contributes to a robust 5-year capital improvement plan. General fund expenses by category projected at 16.945 million. This figure rep represents 994,000 increase of property tax

revenues primarily due to the city growth. You go back to the the slide you were on right there and new commercial developments with the city. Uh the city is continuing to grow thankfully. Um without growth uh it's not very sustainable. Uh decline you you're not stagnant. you you either grow or you decline. And so we're fortunate to capture uh new commercial developments, new infill developments uh within city growth, increasing the revenue, thereby continuing to uh keep pace with the uh cost of living for employees and also operation and maintenance expenditures as they increase and capital expenditures and we'll we'll show some of those later in the presentation. Business license revenues projected at 12.965 million. This rep figure represents a 585,000 increase over last year reflecting the city's continued growth. And these numbers are being budgeted conservatively and as I looked at the budget report today that just came in for the end of April. Uh we have met these numbers. Moving on to the next slide and then a pie chart and this is just of the general fund and you can see again 64% of it is personnel 27 million operating 33% at 14 million uh capital and this is just general fund capital. We do have another capital fund and then capital within the sewer and water and the enterprise funds are calculated within those funds themselves. So that's what makes them an enterprise fund. And debt service for the general fund is just at 2% 960,000. And moving on to our special revenue funds or excuse me general fund expenditures by division. Uh we did show this earlier but uh you can see the pie

chart again too. This is uh for the general fund and this is typical for a city our size and larger that uh police at 34% um fire, public works, general government and so forth that make up it. But that's very typical that you'll see the public safety make up the majority of the general fund budget along with public works and other and I will add here public works would actually be greater here if the if you also added the sanitation fund to it but it's just calculated separately from the uh general fund. And moving on, special revenue funds that these are legally restricted for specific purposes and they're used to account for revenues that are legally restricted in each of the categories. A good example of that, the hospitality fund, which you're very familiar with at and as it sits in this pie chart at 41%. We'll go into it in just a minute. But this practice maintains transparency by tracking income and expenses within that own fund. So it's almost like its own bucket or bank account where it's tracking that income to expenses within that fund. For example, the hospitality hospitality fee revenue any balance of cash balance you carry and the expenses would all show within that fund itself. Same with parks and recreation. And moving on, the hospitality fee, we have projected revenues at $4.5 million suaree and other downtown events now reported in the hospitality fund. And that's just an accounting transfer where it's more appropriate to account for it in here versus the the general fund. Debt service for special obligation bonds, uh, $1.4 million. capital projects. We have been carrying this balance of $2.5 million that uh as you know we we have a quite a bit of work on

Main Street going on. And so this includes uh crosswalk that's actually crosswalk repairs and repaving. That's u one items on our agenda tonight. The crosswalk uh repairs are on there for consideration. The budget includes carryover funds for for capital projects. And then we also have transfers out. So, transfers out to the general fund of a million dollars to support IT, security, and downtown uh patrol, recreation, $830,000 in beautifification uh which supports our parks and recreation facilities of $412,500 for $2.25 million. And moving on to the enterprise funds, these services are provided to the public for a fee and should fully cover the cost of the operations and capital improvements. Users are paying for their consumption, not the general t taxpayer. So within here, you also pick up some additional accounting requirements which includes depreciation and amortization. And so that is uh not a requirement and it's not picked up in the special revenue funds or or the general fund, but that expense is calculated and built into the budget for your enterprise funds. And so the enterprise funds total is $35 million. You see the water fund is at 12.12 million, sewer at $19.82 million, transit at 1.887 million, and storm water at 1.2 million. just making 4% of the chart before you. The electric city utilities uh this is our utility or our enterprise side of the house operating essentially as a company and it's operating as a company in the water and sewer providing water uh distribution. Uh we do receive our water and purchase it from Andrew Regional Water System. The water fund budget is $12.12 million. Our largest

expense being the purchase of the water, uh, $3.9 million there. And we have cash fund and capital projects, uh, at $1.21 million. Our sewer fund budget at $9.82 million. We have sewer on& and M rate is based on the cost of service analysis to update the sew sewers on&m rate paid to the city by our partners Anderson County and Homeland Park. So this is identical to us and how we purchase the water from Anderson Regional Water Authority. And so they send us a new O andM rate each year uh to balance the cost across the different um different service providers that they provide to where one of them were where they're largest and we do the same and we calculate the new on andm rate to recover 100% of the true cost to each of the utility uh for the flow calculated to the plant. And we do we do operate two plants. The Rocky River plant and the generosity creek plant. U Rocky River at 9.5 million gallons a day and generosity at 10 million gallons a day uh capacity. And then you can see quite a list here. We have uh a good bit of sewer fund budget towards cash funded capital. Uh we have been fortunate to receive very large grants including this $10 million skip grant for the generosity creek plant uh trunk line that is almost complete. We had a match for that and you can read through them though and we we are applying for other I will mention the next one here. $1.3 million match for a EDA grant that we just applied for for Influent Pump uh rebuild for Rocky River. That would be a a very large achievement if we're able to receive that grant. Um either way, we're have to rebuild it and so uh it'll be uh very beneficial to the utility customers to be able to receive the grant of course and be a relief to them. We do have

repair and replacement built into the budget for $800,000. Um and we have many projects that you can see there and there's a master list um behind as well. We'll transition to the the next slide here. our transit fund. We do operate from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekdays. Uh we have an operational budget 1.887 million. We're adding an additional full-time bus driver and that came at the request of a partnership with Anderson County on the purple route. And the purple route serves uh the Belton Honey Path area. And right now it's operating from 6:00 a.m. to about midm morning and then actually stop service and then start service again um in the afternoon from 2 to 6:00 p.m. And so that was a route that was trout out several years ago. Um and the goal of that was to move workers from those locations into the city or vice versa um during the workhour periods of time so they could get to uh their workplace. However, with the addition of the full-time bus driver and the partnership with Anderson County, we'll be able to operate that on our normal schedule. So, operating every hour, um, the same as the other routes. And right now, it's uh, it's being serviced and you've probably seen it by by a a shuttle van. And it will go to actually a full-size bus as well. A capital budget 1.478 million. And we do have these arriving very soon, November 2026. Um, the picture is to the right, very similar of what we'll be receiving. It is a modern-day bus, but built as a uh or with the look of a trolley. So, it has all the features, all the state-of-the-art features, ride comfort, so forth as a modern bus that we have in our system now in our fleet, but uh has a nice new look to it that I think is respective to Anderson and is something

that, uh, council had the option to look at several options that we looked at on this purchase and decided to go with this one and and we look forward to getting those. They'll look nice out there and and it's um also been looked at on this, I will add, that it can increase ridership. Um, and so there is data out there on that and the on these trolleys. So we'll see and look forward to putting those in service and moving on. And then I like to show um our actual planned capital projects that are ongoing. We have $52 million, almost $53 million worth of projects, $18.3 million in public safety, which includes fire station 4, engine the purchase of engine 4 and rescue three trucks, uh, which will both be assigned to station 4 and we're well underway in that process with the architect and um, look forward to continuing that. Uh, $1 million for parks, recreation, and trails. But it is noted here that we have a we have a lot of moving parts here from the Whitner Creek Greenway phase 3 Lley to rec recreation center that just opened up. I think they removed almost opened up. Okay. I saw some orange uh ribbons removed, but I'm ready for it to open up. And so look forward to making the run um there from through Lenley Park, gorgeous Lenley Park to the recreation complex. And uh maybe I can do that a couple times back and forth and but what we have in the process is engineering for phase four of that which includes connecting the rec center to downtown and we're right now we're in engineering for that cost. And then that leads into the or streetscape engineering as well, which as you know, that's one of the streets downtown both west and east that uh has not had a refresh, has not had a streetscape. And uh we do have very active and popular businesses on that. And so, but those two go together hand

in hand as far as the investment and how they'll tie in together uh with the plan to bring the trail head to Main Street. $21.3 million in sewer projects. Um, and we have a lot more out there to come and future capital years or future fiscal years as well as we continue to not only maintain our system and we have an item on the agenda tonight with that, but also to enhance efficiency and capacity at our plants and make sure we're serving our customers, including Anderson County and Homeland Park sewer authorities, um, with the best service that we can provide at the lowest cost that we provide. Uh, $7.2 $.2 million in water projects and $1.3 million in capital equipment. And that ends my presentation. Mayor, um this is on first reading for consideration. I know we have uh spoke about the multi-year financial strategy at the council retreat in detail. Um had a work session and of course we had the required public hearing tonight.

Good. Thank you. Um I'll open it up. As you mentioned, we've looked at this several different times in different ways, made some adjustments, but I'll open it up to council now. Any questions, comments?

Dr. Thompson. very hard earned development May I respond, mayor?

Yes. Go ahead.

Thank you, Dr. Thompson, for for those comments. And of course, that's a that's a major part of our budget. Um, we do have the community development fund. Um, and we receive those CGBG funds uh that invest right into our community, into our neighborhoods. And those neighborhood those projects include uh rehabilitating houses uh renovating them and we do 15 to 20 of those a year. We we also demolish uh around 20 houses a year as well that are blighted that are past their useful life that are unoccupied. They might have caught on fire and they're a nuisance to the community. And so we do that as as well. Uh we do have small business loans. Um, and as you know, we have invested heavily into the the our pocket parks throughout the city of Anderson. Very proud of that. I I think you will not you will not see that in the city of Greenville, pocket parks that are to the exceptional level that we've invested in there. Um, and the one thing that I I want to point to as well that has changed drastically with us um in our neighborhoods that um are our focus area neighborhoods is the fact that we now have private investment occurring. We have a lot of infill development occurring within those neighborhoods. Um especially in your district, Dr. Thompson, there's a lot of new houses over there that are being built that are affordable and somebody's going to be able to call that place home and it'll be also efficient for them. So you you'll have lower utility bills and so forth. So it's a huge part of our budget and we continue the funding on that. Um nothing's been defunded as as far as this budget.

Miss Stewart. Yeah. You know, um kind of getting back what Dr. top. I know our CDBG funding has been going down year after year after year and um it's actually stayed the same. It's about a half a million, right? That's raised. 555,000. At one point it was.

It was it was going down. And I know at one point we were spending a lot a large majority of it trying to pay back the flume that we put in through our neighborhoods and uh as as a loan and u and uh but but again I would like to you know as we look forward and coming years and looking at CDBG we used to do a lot of public facility projects and in the communities where it's sidewalks putting it in and a lot of our communities don't have accessible walk walking paths to get to parks. And so it'd be nice to kind of see, you know, sidewalks and stuff. Kids have to walk down the middle of the street to get to one of our parks, whether it's be Thompson Park or Gley or DB or Watson Park, any of the parks, but really like to, you know, kind of see us think about that, you know, in in years to come. So, uh, with that, I think I'm okay with it on first reading. And just to um thank you uh Mr. Stewart, I agree with you on the sidewalk. Certainly, I think it's in our future to have a sidewalk fund that we put money aside for just for that purpose. And as we continue to growth and experience this uh private investment coming into our community, we're able to do more things like that and catch up on the maintenance because we very much were coming out very slowly out of a recession. And I I I look forward to telling that story more in the fall um and showing you some some data on that compared to our other peers. But uh I wanted to go back real quick and note Dr. Thompson because I have in front of me that we do have $250,000 in the budget for housing demolition. And that's the blighted houses that I mentioned and the the ones that are no longer occupied.

Yes. What was that? The Franklin development. Why is it so slow? Why is the so what's the construction?

Oh, they're it's a big it's a it's a big building. Um but they on a very fast construction timeline for that building. It's uh of course you saw that they had to do the raw grading the the infrastructure and their storm water retention. Um and then they've been working on the foundation. Uh they've gone vertical on the what you see the elevator shaft and uh I think the the the most interesting and fun part is is very close and that's where they completely go vertical. So we're we're close to being there. I think the slowest part of it will be um the interior and the electrical, the plumbing and so forth. So we'll see it go vertical very quickly. Um and then probably what will feel like a slowdown on the the the inside um infrastructure

and I think they have a timeline that they have some deadlines that they have to meet. Y thank you Mr. Mchuan for the overview. Um, one of the items that sort of stuck out, if I I think my math is correct, the property tax increase, um, is about 5.8% in what we collect. Is that right? I have not run the number on that. The increase that we referenced to the overall collections,

yes, it's right at 6%. Do we anticipate that growth to stay because that that's property tax? I actually expect to speed up a little bit. I would I was thought it was behind what my anticipated that number to be because the the way the tax year works, we won't see an increase in revenue with the growth until next year. Right. Well, we have reassessment next year and so that's when everything will be tred up as far as the actual fair market value. Um and then we will have some added to the inventory.

Yeah. Added to the inventory. That's right. Um and that's correct. The I will say that we we are we're going to hit our mark. We're going to hit what we're budgeting and we'll seat it. Um we're being revenue conscious and conservative there which is a uh as you hear from our auditors always a best practice and it adds to our fund balance as well to keep a healthy fund balance um above 20%. So we try to stay in that range 20 to 25% um on fund balance and that's so you uh can maintain through events like hurricane Helen that cost us a lot of money. We're still waiting on that FEMA money.

Yeah. in the the the in our packet and I meant to ask this in the work session. I apologize, Mr. Mayor. The um the the summary that we got that's broken down in sections that is changes or difference modifications that we've made to like section the one thing that jumped out to me was section five memorandum of agreement for school resource officer program. Is there a change to that? Is that why it's in there?

No change. We just put that in there so it' be an automatic approval because it runs concurrently with district 5 budget. Okay. And they and we usually we talk to each other as far as that item and so they approve, we approve and it just authorizes to go ahead and have it automatically. And I can't think of a better way to have resource officers and I'm always impressed with our city officers that I see in our public education facilities and you know I think they're exceptional. Absolutely. I I agree with you and uh and with my own experiences with kids in school. That's all I have. Thank you. M

um on the new buses that are going to come online in November. I remember uh hearing when they were first coming through that they're going to be diesel rather than the compressed natural gas. Is that going to add any operating cost to our budget to operate moving forward?

Believe it or not, it's actually going to reduce it. So, we we're in a been researching this topic at length and I'll keep it short here, but um the compressed natural gas with the supply chain now that we've had them uh four years now and in service is getting the parts uh from California as the provider is very difficult. Uh they've been very costly on that. So, while the fuel cost has been um it's more efficient, it's is it's cheaper than the diesel and we've we've hedged well there on the repair side of things. Uh they're they're reliable, don't get me wrong. I mean, putting hundreds and hundreds of thousand miles on these buses, they get up to 300,000 miles, 400,000 miles on these buses. Uh but the the part and the part replacement and the the downtime is what's really hurting us. And so our our recommendation uh for consideration for a new purchase which is will be coming before you is to go to diesel until there's more proven additional proven technology.

Speaking of buses, any what's your your thoughts on electric buses? Not a good time to purchase them for the electric city. I'm sorry. But yeah, that's what's coming in right now in 20 is electric buses, right? Oh, no, sir. The It looks that way. These these trolleys look that way. They're actually diesel and it's it's a common engine. It's the same engine that we run in actually in our fire trucks and so the mechanics are very familiar with them. The parts are readily available and the downtime has been the the the big issue along with the part costs. So, we're we're going to be able to shorten that.

Any other comments, questions? If I I recall correctly, the the electric bus issue is kind of the compressed natural gas bus issue, but five times as bad. It's really hard to find replacement and charging and that

it is. There was a company and I won't name the company um to to not start litigation, but other cities have been in litigation with this company. Um, and it actually got so bad that and it was one of the main providers and it actually got so bad that the Federal Transit Administration actually came out and said ordered to stop buying stop buying electric buses period from them. Um, I know there's some other companies out there. Um, for us the technology is just not there yet. I think it will be. I think it's definitely coming. It's just not quite there yet for us.

Question Stewart. uh have we um thought about um I guess with what's happening in the world uh with gas prices, you know, how that affects our budget, have we looked at I guess factoring that in? And I can remember uh many years ago, Dr. Thompson, when gas prices were very high, we enacted a no idling policy on city vehicles to kind of help curb those gas prices. And have we got to that yet? you know, with a lot of our vehicles, whether it's police cars or other, you know, where you can be out of the car 20 or 30 minutes and the cars, you know, is it's running constantly, but we did that as a council, you know, to kind of help with gas prices several years ago. And just want to see, have we gotten to that point yet?

Uh, no sir, we haven't. Uh, we're we're we still buy it at a lower rate than the the retail market. Uh, we have our own gas facility, as you know, including diesel and gas. And so that's that's helpful, but uh we're not to that point yet. Um we have built in cushion in the budget and contingencies in the budget um if the fuel prices continue to increase in in that regard. Um to the point of the idoling, I mean we try to minimize it as possible. The the challenges are that the electronics that run them, the police units, I know that's that's common. Why is this police car running that kind of thing, but the electronic demand on that car is so heavy that uh the the risk to come back out and have a dead battery and try to respond to a call is there. And so that's we try to avoid that. Um and so that's that's where you mostly see those idling. The rest though um are you know fire department does their thing, they go back, they they're shut off. We don't use too much fuel there. Um the heavy fuel use of course is is is public works and um and going out and running those routes with the uh the heavy diesel trucks.

All right. Thank you. Good. Anything else, guys? Good job, guys. Um, budget. No, we don't. But I'll just make Go ahead. I have first by second. Second by Mr. Steel. My comment is u great comments on council. I'm excited about possibility of one day having a sidewalk fund. We've talked about that a lot. I even see it in my neighborhood. Uh Malden Street uh is used a lot of people walking from Blakeley to really Main Street. I see a lot on Molden. Um and we talked about um

Mr. Chapman Simpson Road. A lot of people walk Simpson Road. So I mean all that's a challenge, but as I think Mr. Harvin said, um, we we can't do these things unless we continue to grow and continue to have good management. So, with that, first and second, all those in favor say I. Opposed? It passes unanimously on the first reading. A second item, new business, requests consideration of a contract for Main Street Cross walks. Mr. Mchuan.

Okay. Yeah, I spoke about this um actually within the the budget presentation. Just briefly mentioned that, but um want to give you a quick update and overview again mainly for the public. I know uh council's up to speed on it, but um I had a question this weekend when I was at a uh a sports event from a um from con constituent of the city about if we're going to repave or not. And so, uh, absolutely. Uh, one thing I I warned, uh, before we got into this project is that there's a lot of subsurface and, uh, infrastructure that's in place, and we need to replace all that so we're not digging holes here and there after you have brand new type-C asphalt on top of that. And so, nobody likes to see that happening. And, uh, that's not very efficient government. And so with that, the uh the water line's been replaced, the sewer line's been rehabbed and replaced in sections, but and then including all the laterals to business on both both the water and uh sewer. Um fiber optics are now going in the ground. And so that's fiber optics that uh will serve us, but also could serve um commercial entities as well in the future. And um now we're getting to the the final stage here where we get into the crosswalk repair and then paving. And so you want two different contractors here. The paving company kind of does their thing. They come in, they, you know, they mill and they put down the binder and they they they put down the top coat and they move on. And so with this, I'll turn it over to um city engineer Lricia Bilbury to uh go over this request before you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Tonight, I'm requesting approval of a construction contract for the downtown crosswalk repair and replacement project. Beginning in 2019, the city started replacing um our hodge podge of various designs of crosswalks. And to date, repairs and replacements have been completed at several intersections throughout downtown by our in-house public works crews. This project represents the next phase of that effort and includes the repair of 17 of 13 crosswalks and the replacement of 17 crosswalks for a total of 30 um crosswalk improvements using our new standard design which is what's out here in front of city hall and alsite on John Street. This project was publicly advertised through the city's website, the independent mail, and skebo. We had a mandatory pre-bid meeting on April 20th, and bids were open on April 30th. We received two bids for consideration. After review, staff recommends approval of a construction contract with Southern Concrete and Construction in the amount of $333,645. I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Any uh questions, any comments in regards to this agenda item?

I had a question. What was reasoning behind going with the higher bid? Was it that they were local and kind of knew our local areas? Um, no, the low bidder could not produce um adequate experience that um they they had a lot of concrete flat work, residential driveways, that sort of stuff. Um, their bigger projects were all interior concrete work and renovations. Um, they did not show experience in the in the amount of traffic control and this this what we're facing out here. And we're confident that the company of Select is going to be able to

Yeah, they they've already done um several of our existing streetscapes and have have done this crosswalk um before for us. So, thank you. Any other questions, comments?

Move for Tim. Um it's exciting to see us getting one step closer to repainting Main Street. Um, and I know we're accepting a higher bid by 90 something thousand, but uh maybe a relay a message to Southern Concrete. We have a lot of confidence of them. We have history with them, but our expectations will be a little higher because they have a little more money to work with. And with that, I'll move that we accept their second. First, second by Mr. Newton. Did you have comments?

No, I was just going to thank Lacricia. I mean, I think we've all seen it many times. You know, low grid, low bid is great sometimes. We also know how quickly you can get burned sometimes. Just, you know, and again, I don't know this company. I I don't know anything about them. But, um, sometimes doing this work on the front end saves not only time for y'all, but also money in the long run. So, just thank you. Thank you, M. Stewart. Yeah, I just make one more quick comment because I know it's getting late, but get back to what Councilman Roberts, Jeff Roberts was saying about they got a little bit more money, but the good thing about it is we're talking to the city manager. I think we're about $170,000 under budget for what u our in-house estimate was. So, that's that's good. So,

yes, sir. Any other comments? First and second. All those in favor say I. Opposed. The passes unanimous. Thank you. The third item is to request consideration of a contract for the rehabilitation of sewer lines. Mr. Muan. Okay. You're you're aware of this term SEOM for those that have been on council for a while.

Unfortunately, yes. and um our mandated um EDA from the federal government compliance uh with managing operating and so it's actually capacity management operations and maintenance seamount program um it is a very good thing uh that while the federal government did force us into that path and many other utilities are not proactively doing uh what we're doing uh rehab and sewer is is a very important thing uh for to reduce our cost ultimately at the plant for ini which is rainwater infiltration uh that occurs during high rainwater events and you end up with just a lot of rain water at the plant that you're still treating at the same uh cost uh with that flow. And so that's obviously a benefit there. But then the environmental impact of uh rehabbing the sewer lines and because if it's you you're having issues where if you're not doing that it it's seeping into the the ground in places. Uh with that that's uh we did mention it in the budget as well. This is one of the items that you'll see every year. Uh with that Mr. Scott Banks our utility director will go over the what we bidded out and the scope of the project.

Thank you Mr. Mchuan. Um, as we as we discussed, uh, as part of our SEOM program, we are required to evaluate and remedy issues within our collection system. And as part of that process, we've dealt with a project that includes lining approximately 3,131 ft of 8 in uh, through 12-in diameter pipe, pipe burst, and approximately 2,34 ft of 6-in pipe, increasing it to 8 in diameter, and the rehabilitation of approximately 25 manholes. We applied for and were awarded a a state rural infrastructure grant um amount in the amount of $1,500,000 in May of 2025 to go toward this project. Um we received bids on May 7th. We had five responses. The apparent low bidder was Champion Cleaning Specialist Incorporated out of Cincinnati, Ohio. Um, their bid was $829,916.776, which uh for the I'm sure a lot of math is is being tabulated up there. That's $498,537.74 less than the next higher bid. uh with that big of a gap, we did have discussions with uh this contractor um and uh and several of their references to for through due diligence to make sure we were um good to go. Um the contractor indicated that he is a distributor for the lining material and that he utilizes in-house um crews for the majority of the work rather than subbing out a lot of the task out which allows him to have lower prices. Two of his references were one was North Augusta and one was Aken. Both gave good reviews. Matter of fact, the North Augusta folks that we talked to um their the project they had with them was a million-dollar project that they generated a $500,000 change order that they authorized them because they for

increasing the scope of the work because they were happy with it. We also talked with a few further off customers uh just to to cover our bases and they were also pleased with their work. Um but as as we said with the funding of uh for the project would be from the state grant and required matching utility funds. So, we're coming to you tonight recommending approval of a contract with Champion Cleaning Specialist in the amount of $829,916.76 along with the authorization for up to an additional $1,195,8324 for a total of $2,25,000. Uh this authorization would allow us to add additional project scope to the bid unit price uh in the order to hopefully fully utilize the available uh grant funding of 1.5 million and the required match of 525,000. The additional 1 point or excuse me additional 1,195,8324 represents the remaining unallocated balance after deducting the low bid amount uh from the total grant and matching funds. uh because bids came in lower than anticipated. Rural infrastru rural infrastructure authority has indicated the city may have the opportunity to expand the scope of the project. While it's uncertain whether the full amount will ultimately be approved for additional work, staff is recommending council authorizes the full grant and matching fund amount now so that we can maximize available funding if RAI approves the expanded scope. I will add in your packet on the screen um is a map of the proposed um lines that will be rehabbed and also pipe bursting uh to occur. And then you also have a letter in your packet from the engineer on record regarding this project uh with a notice of tent to award um speaking to the qualifications of the the vendor.

Thank you sir. Additional comments, questions.

I'll make the motion to approve. Second. First by Mr. Newton, second by Dr. Thompson. Further discussion. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Passes unanimous. Thank you, Mr. Baines. Thank you, The last item of new business is request consideration of a resolution authorizing a project be considered for participation in a special tax assessment for rehabilitation historic properties. Mchuan,

this project is also another very exciting project for downtown Anderson and it's revitalization. Um, and this is uh in regard to the access to the Bailey bill and 522 North Main Street. Mr. Maurice McKenzie will go over this for us. Thank you. If you recall back in November, you adopted guidelines by ordinance to promote the preservation and redevelopment of historic properties by granting a spe special tax assessment for qualifying rehabilitated properties. And this is made possible because the state of South Carolina enacted the Bailey bill many years ago. So it allows local governments to freeze the pre- rehabilitation assessed value of properties that are participating in the property for a set number of years. You may recall that we have a tiered approach in our ordinance that um freezes properties for a number of years, but um a couple of months ago, you authorized um the first one going through the process. That was the Big John's property just up the street. So, this is a second one that's coming to you. And just to remind you of the process, uh once somebody makes application for this, uh it comes to you first for a resolution authorizing a project to be considered for participation in the program and then it goes to the board of architectural review for preliminary certification and they confirm that the project meets the design and investment requirements. And then once construction is complete, it goes back to the bar to ensure that the completed work met the approved standards, that the expenditures were made properly and all of that. So, uh, we do have an application as Mr. Mchuan mentioned, it is coming from Talon Holdings LLC. The property address is 522 North Main

Street. The fair market value of the property is $450,000 and they're estimating to invest $600,000 into the project. And again, it in order to actually participate in the program, the rehabilitation costs must exceed the fair market value of an income producing property. So, you can see that it does exceed what the fair market value is. With the investment being $600,000, this falls into the $2 million or less improvement category, which will allow them to have a 7-year special tax assessment. So, this is coming to you tonight with a recommendation of approval to pass a resolution authorizing this project to be considered for participation. And if you do approve, it will go to the BA at their next meeting for consideration for preliminary certification. Thank you, sir. Any comments, questions? Mr. Stewart?

Uh, I know when this first came about, uh, I had a question. Uh, I know we, you know, they purchased it for $450. They're looking at doing $600,000 or whatever our checks about. How are we going to know what the actual cost is? If we're freezing the taxes, what documentation are we going to get from a city to show they actually spent $600,000 into this project? Yeah, they provide all the receipts, all that information to us and the board of architectural review checks that through the process to ensure that the um requirements have been met and that regards the final certification by the board. Yes. Of architectural review.

So they give us they give us estimates at this point, construction estimates, we certify that that's that's true and accurate false based on all the information we got. They do the work and at the end of that period they come back review and say hey this is this is what I actually and that's through what you know they say here's what we actually through cancel checks or whatever the case may be or or just their word or just their word that we spend paid invoices checks so in essence we audit the board architecture gets an audit of Yeah,

good sighting project. Anything else? Comments? I don't I don't know why I can't remember this, but when does the clock start ticking? That's what I was going to ask. I think I've got a block, right? I mean, once it approved by the B says yes, this project qualifies and we approve the design and all the all the work that you're proposing to do, that's when I think we delayed the sevenyear for Two years. We delayed the five years for two years. Okay. Gotcha. Good. Looking forward to it. Looks good.

Yes. Did we make a motion? M. Steel makes a motion. Second. Mr. Harvin gets a second on that. We can talk about it a little bit further or we can vote. Dr. time. Let's vote. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Passes unanimously on the resolution. I entertain a motion to adjourn. I make a motion. First by Mr. Steel, second by Dr. Thompson. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. We stand. A journ.