City Council - Regular Meeting

We have a couple of people in the audience and hopefully a few more watching this on our YouTube channel. Invocation tonight will be given by Councilman Matt Harbin in respect to the flags that will be given by Councilman John Roberts. Please rise.

Let us pray. Gracious God, as we come together today to serve the people of our city, we thank you for this community and the privilege to working with it. We ask for your wisdom for our mayor, our city council, and the city staff. Give us clear minds, patient hearts, and a strong sense of justice as we make choices today. Help us listen well to one another, to respect diverse views, and to seek the common good for every neighbor. Grant us peace, unity, and integrity within our discussions. In your name we pray, amen.

The minutes of our August 10th meeting have been distributed. Are there any corrections or additions to those minutes?

I make the motion to approve.

First by Mr. Newton. Second. Second by Mr. Pickens. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Those minutes pass unanimously. I have a couple items of old business, and the first item is request second reading of Ordinance 2614 to annex and zone to PDD, which is a planned development district with approximately 9.36 acres located at 305 Edgewood Drive. Mr. Kuhn.

Mr. Mayor and Council, this has been considered by the Planning Commission and recommended for approval. Additionally, we've had several conversations, including on first reading and beforehand, with the developer's intentions with this project. It's a unique development that they're proposing for this particular annexation. And this comes to you before second reading. Mr. McKenzie will go over this with you tonight, and I'll see that the developer is here present as well. So, Mr. McKenzie.

Thank you. As Mr. McEwen mentioned, this did come before you on first reading at your last meeting. There was some healthy discussion regarding the proposal but in a nutshell the applicant proposing to construct a single family subdivision consisting of 15 lots custom built homes on the property off edgebrook drive if you drive down edgebrook you'll see a variety of land uses you have some higher density developments you have some larger lots in the area but again the developer is proposing 15 lots no mass grading, so basically the individual lot grading will occur at the time of each house construction. You have a larger minimum lot widths to accommodate rear-loading garages. Also there will be sidewalks, landscape buffers, a tree survey is being conducted to preserve existing trees on the site. And since this annexation process is going through at the same time as a unified development ordinance that's before you tonight as well, we wanted to make sure that the elements and the intent of the proposed Unified Development Ordinance isn't overlooked. So we spot checked it against the proposed Unified Development Ordinance. And although it's not exact, there are a lot of elements in what the applicant is proposing that meets the guidelines of the Unified Development Ordinance. So we were pleased to see that. But this is coming to you as a PDD, Plan Development District. This will be the last one under our existing zoning ordinance. So you have that attachment of development standards for this particular piece of property it's in your packet for review but again this comes to you tonight for second reading it did go before the planning commission at their august 4th meeting and they also recommended approval

Thank you. And I think at our first reading we had a couple citizens and I don't recognize anybody I don't think that would want to come down and speak. I will open it up for further questions to council. Mr. Stewart.

Yeah, again, I didn't ask this question last meeting. I just want to make sure as I was looking at the ingress and egress coming out of the development, just want to make sure, you know, you will be able to make that left turn coming out there. The island, I know we said it just probably resembles something like a Rankin's Lake. And as I looked at it, I looked at the most recent ones done on Shockley Ferry Road. And, you know, I think they had a little turning lane to the left. You know, is this one going to be similar to that? Because I don't, at Rankin's Lake, it doesn't. It's just that one way, when you get to the end, you either turn left or you, is it going to be

Turning lane one or just going to be one way in and one way out that has not been determined yet But it will go through the encroachment permit process So we will review that during the site plan review process it's consisting of 15 houses, so that really generates about 150 vehicles per day. So having dual lanes exiting the subdivision may not be warranted, but we will review that.

And I guess site distances, you know, coming, I guess, up to Haysburg, I guess that's good.

That'll all be reviewed during the process of site planning. All right, thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions, comments?

Ms. Newton? Mayor, if this passes, this would go into the area that I represent. I know we've had opportunity to talk a few times about it. I have not heard any other feedback since our last meeting. I want to thank the applicant. This is a good, high-quality proposal. I want to thank staff. I know this isn't something that just came out of nowhere. I know this has been several months, almost a year in the making to get it to such a point. And with that, I'll make the motion to approve.

First by Mr. Newton. Second. Second by Mr. Horvath. Any further discussion, comments? All those in favor sign. Aye. Opposed? I pass this unanimously on the second and final reading. Thank you. The next item is request second reading of ordinance 2615 to adapt the city of Anderson's new unified development ordinance and the official zoning map. Mr. McEwen.

We've been working on this for quite some time, and then the UDO, the Unified Development Ordinance, takes your zoning regulations plus your subdivision regulations and brings it together into one seamless ordinance. With that, we've had several drops out there. It's available on the internet, on our webpage, and all the different... uh revisions we've had that's been updated throughout the process again a lot of public participation over the last year year and a half on this and it did go to the planning commission they did recommend approval Public hearing was also held during that process. It passed first reading and is here before you on second reading. Mr. McKenzie, if you want to give a little bit more detail to it and go from there. Mr. McKenzie.

Thank you. Mr. McEwen covered a lot of the process, how we got to this point. Since we adopted the comprehensive plan last April, April 2025 that is, we have been working to create the Unified Development Ordinance. And that does combine the zoning ordinance, subdivision regulations, as Mr. McEwen mentioned. And it will be used as a tool. Basically the regulatory document to meet the needs and the goals of the comprehensive plan. along with the unified development ordinance we are coming to you with the adoption of the official zoning map and that zoning map reflects the zoning district boundaries city-wide that's established in the unified development ordinance and you do know that three years ago it's been three years now that you move forward with the adoption of two chapters of this unified development ordinance and that's the sign regulations also the landscaping and tree preservation guidelines you saw the need to get ahead of several things in terms of community appearance so you did adopt that three years ago and basically those guidelines will be incorporated into these new regulations so that has been adopted and that's two chapters of the 11 that's before you tonight Mr. McEwen mentioned it did go through an extensive public process. We had a public open house on June 4th to seek community input. It has been available on our website for over two months now to get community input. The Planning Commission held their public hearing on August 4th. They made a recommendation of approval. And also at the last meeting, you had some good discussion after a presentation from going over the UDO and the process. It has been a long process with a lot of discussion and input and we are coming to you with a recommendation of approval on second reading. This did come before you at your August 10th meeting. You approved it on first reading and again the Planning Commission they also recommended approval at their August 4th meeting.

Thank you. And I know that between the first meeting and this meeting, several of us went through the documents on the weekend. And I know some questions came up, but I will open it up for comments or questions to the council. Mr. Stewart?

Mr. McKenzie, I just want to make sure, I know we looked at a lot of different areas, but I know one of the things as the city continues to grow, you know, there's always going to be a need for, you know, making sure that all the city has efficient E911 and cellular services. And I know under this ordinance, the telecommunication section of the ordinance. It's only permitted in a couple of areas, but as we continue to look at PDDs, I think it's only permitted in GCs, light industrial, heavy industrial, but again, is there an opportunity to go back and revisit and say, hey, public institutions, municipal property, that type of thing, in case the the need arises or even when we're doing huge planned developments you know maybe out on midway you know it's a growing area maybe a lot i see a lot of pds nationwide that incorporates hey this isn't allowable uses in pdds that way if it ever comes up in the future you don't have to go back in and amend your pdd to allow for it you know and just want to kind of touch on that a little bit.

Yeah, absolutely. Changes can be made to this document at any time. Cellular regulations or anything else to that matter. A lot of times you implement these guidelines. There's a lot of information here. It's brand new. over time we will find areas that need to be changed that need to be amended so we will come to you from time to time with a list of those things many times we try to bring you you know several things at once that way we just don't come with little bits and pieces so but cellular regulations are something we need to move forward and look at in a more comprehensive manner absolutely we can make those changes at any time

Yeah, I just like for it to be, especially as we continue to grow, just, you know, where do we want to, you know, especially when it's not like the one we're looking at tonight, you know, where there's 18, 15 houses, but you got 350 houses or 400 houses like the one that's under construction out on 29, you know, there may be a need, but just look at, you know, see, you know, make sure that there could be allowances if needed to be in certain PDDs or PD plan development districts.

Good, thanks. Mr. Roberts, Jeff?

Several comments, but you know, council, this all started with a vision of ours, what we wanted the city to look like. So this is, I'm so pleased to see this finally coming about, finally getting ahead of some of the development that's coming, not already, you know, already coming, it's here. I describe this as robust. very healthy. I can see some changes or challenges, perhaps, and there's a process for that. And we'll just let that play out. Unless there's other comments, I'd like to move that we adopt the EDA.

Well, first by Mr. Jeff Roberts, second by Mr. John Roberts. And we can continue discussion. Mr. Stewart.

Mr. McEwen, you know, we've got a lot of new and old revised zoning regulations. We're continuing to grow, and I know it's a lot from tree ordinances to sign ordinances to making sure that we can able to enforce that. Are we possibly looking in upcoming budgets about maybe expanding the staff of the zoning administration to kind of help? I think it's just... Mr. Darnell and Mr. McKenzie right now, and that's a lot of ground to cover and a lot of eyes to be on. You can't always see everything. So I would like for us to think about that as we move forward in upcoming budget cycles to see what we can do to help support that staff. Sure.

First and second. For discussion, all those in favor sign. Aye. Opposed? That passes. You know, I'd also, I mean, as Mr. Stewart said, it's new. Mr. Roberts said it's robust, it's complicated. There was a, we'll have a, local media outlet has done a good job of synopsing the ordinance in probably about 20,000 words as opposed to, how many pages is this?

A little under 300.

Yeah, so did a good job of doing that. We've got a couple of items of new business and The first item is request consideration of an ordinance amending the 2025-2026 and the 2026-2027 annual budgets. Mr. McEwen. I'll turn it over to Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Marta Martin.

Thank you. So a significant portion of these amendments relate to multi-year capital equipment and construction projects. Unspent funds must be carried forward and included in the subsequent fiscal year's budgets so they remain available for their intended purposes and are reflected in the appropriate fiscal year. These adjustments largely do not represent new spending or funding. They primarily reflect previously received or authorized funding, including grants, bond proceeds, capital lease proceeds, insurance proceeds, and other committed resources. Some of the 26 highlights include approximately 6.5 million representing funds that were carried forward from the prior year to be spent in 26. This is an important component of the amendment because these are largely, excuse me, these are largely funds that were already available and committed, including 5.6 million of hospitality fund proceeds for the Lindley Park Caters Lake project. and $804,000 for the two garbage trucks that were ordered but took quite a time to be received. Grant revenues received in 26 for projects that have been in process over years include $11.6 million. The largest component is the $7.5 million of skip grant revenues for the Genesee Creek Relief Sewer Lines Project, along with about $3.8 million in American Rescue funding. We are also increasing the 27 budget by approximately 993,000 for items that were not reflected when the original budget was adopted. This includes insurance proceeds for a fire department vehicle, an increase in the retail business license revenue with corresponding street and street lights expenditures, and 500,000 for the water funds capital meter replacement program. The primary purpose of this amendment is to place these revenues and expenditures in the appropriate fiscal year and provide a more accurate representation of the city's financial activity. Incorporating these adjustments included the appropriated use of carryover funding for capital projects and other previously authorized purposes provides a more accurate and meaningful comparison of the budget amounts to actual financial activity.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I would have the questions, comments on the amendments to the 2025, 26, and 26, 27 annual budgets.

I would make a motion we approve, and I'd just like to thank staff, as always, for your hard work. These are very tedious items, but you all make sure that they are maintained with the utmost care, and really, really appreciate your hard work on this and the budget every year.

Thank you. First, by the Mayor Pro Tem.

Second.

Second. By Mr. Horbin. Any further discussion or comments? All those in favour say aye. Opposed? That item passes unanimously. On the second item of new business, the administrative team has asked for a continuance on this particular item to bring that back to us in our first week meeting in September. We'll move on to the third item, and that's a request consideration of a construction contract for Fire Station 4. Ms. McEwen?

Thank you. I was involved in this with the committee, but Mr. Strickland was helping run a point on this, and he's going to go over this item for us and make the recommendation, Mr. Strickland.

Thank you, Mr. McEwen. Mayor, Council, what you have before you is the next step forward for an exciting project that is Fire Station 4. You all have seen the latest designs. They are in your packet there, the latest rendering of the floor plans. That has been painstakingly come through and updated with our fire department team. Chief Charlie King has put together a jam-up group of folks who are really excited to be a part of really what we're calling a generational build for the city of Anderson. This is not a throwaway fire station that we're going to build now as cheaply as possible and hope to tear it down in 20, 25 years in place of a newer, more updated building. This is something we intend to build once and then update in 100 years even with new technology. So we're designing it with that in mind. It's an exciting project for us. Fire Station 4, as you'll recall, will be the northern command center. We're referring to it as the northern command center for our Anderson Fire Department. So this is a much needed project. I'm very excited to move forward here. As Mr. McEwen alluded, we had a selection committee that received eight submittals from contractors to move this project forward. We are happy tonight to recommend one, Hogan Construction. They really rose to the top. They have a really robust fire station experience. They have a team essentially dedicated to building fire stations. That will be a part of our project as well when construction kicks off, hopefully towards the first of the year. However, tonight we're asking approval to move forward with them in a pre-construction capacity only. As you recall, as part of the construction major risk process, we start with pre-construction, which is essentially how much does this cost to build. We go through various design options and pricing options, equipment options. It finally arrived at that guaranteed maximum price before we authorized that. We bring that back to you guys for authorization, of course. And that will be the final authorization needed to move forward with construction. But tonight, again, we're just asking for authorization for pre-construction with Hogan. Steve Hill, senior project manager with Hogan, is here tonight. Happy to answer any questions, I'm sure, if there are any, for Hogan especially. But again, very excited to move forward with them. Recommend them for this project with their robust fire station experience. Experience with local partners. Anderson University has used them. City of Greenville has used them. Honestly, Talking with them, talking with other of our team members and industry professionals across the upstate, if it's a fire station in upstate South Carolina, more than likely Hogan has built it. They are that well-versed in fire stations and that popular among fire stations in upstate South Carolina. Very excited to bring them and their experience here to Anderson. They have, like I said, they have robust experience and they're ready to roll on day one with a local upstate subcontractor program as well. So we're excited to have them, have them a part of this project. I'm happy to answer any questions as we move forward here.

Thank you, appreciate it. I'll open it up for comments. Mr. Newtons.

Thank you, Mayor. He's probably more directed towards Mr. Hill if he's available just for some questions.

I'm Steve Hill. I'll be the senior project manager for the fire station core project, and I'm here to answer any questions you have.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Hill. I know all of us are very excited, and I'm particularly excited. I have a great district. There's not a lot of new build happening in my district, but as the city's kind of expanded and stuff, this is a great opportunity. I think everyone's very excited. I know staff and council and... Craig Alden Davis, everybody's put in a lot of work. I think it's already maybe somewhat been addressed, but I know that y'all have done a lot of work, and I know there are other government entities looking at doing fire stations in the upstate and stuff, but I know this is a pretty large project. Would this have a dedicated superintendent just for this job? Yes, sir. I just wanted to make sure I know that some of us have talked about that. I think that's a great thing because this is a big project for Anderson. It's a big project for our community and stuff. I guess the other thing I was going to mention is we've been very fortunate, and I want to commend David and the entire staff that particularly over the last, I'd say, five, six years, our partners, JMCOBE, Edifice, those that we've partnered with, they've been very visible for council and for the community and stuff, and I know that's a big part for y'all, you know, community relations and being, you know, accessible. Because I've already received some questions about, hey, you know, what could the finished product look like? You know, I've had some community members reach out, hey, next community meeting, you know, could you maybe have somebody come and, you know, provide information about kind of the process and the timeline? Because... I think everybody knows the location where this is going, and that really is going to set the tone for that entire area. So, you know, I've heard great things from y'all. I've never had, you know, the fortune of really meeting anybody from Hogan or working with you directly. But, you know, I just, you know, if we can get that commitment to, you know, just from, you know, Availability for council members and staff so you know as those things come up from those in the community we represent I think that would go a long ways So again, I'm looking forward to working with you. I know I'm excited. I'm very excited to you know get the confirmation that you know One dedicated superintendent just for this job that that's a big deal for us.

So I'll mention there we're proposing Lee Hammonds. He was at the interview and He's done the majority of our fire stations at our more complex stations. He's been to the Fierro Conference several times. Very familiar and gets along great with all the public safety people. Just speaks the language. He's a very good superintendent.

That's awesome. I think we have a great design firm. Sounds like we're going to get a great construction firm.

We have worked with Craig Galdon Davis several times. When we see the Craig Galdon Davis name, we know it's going to be a very high-quality building. We're excited for the opportunity to build a beautiful building. Thank you.

Looking forward to it. Real quick, let me address something. You mentioned kind of a public communication standpoint for this project. We do always create... a project page on our website for every project just to help get the renderings and plans out there, start to answer some of the questions ahead of time. Hogan actually was unique during the interview process. They use a technology during the construction process that will let essentially with a scan of qr code anybody interact with the building through various phases of construction virtually so they'll be able to see from various points through around the building just like they're standing in the middle of the building so that's going to be an exciting way to help us roll out some of the public facing information as we move throughout the project awesome

Thank you. This is Stuart. Yes, I just would like to, you know, I may be jumping the gun a little bit, but as we get forward. You've never done that. And as we move forward and getting into the construction phase and the bidding out and awarding subcontracts, you know, always be a proponent about trying to keep as many jobs as we can here locally, you know, with subcontractors, making sure we use local subs, giving them an opportunity to bid on the work and reaching out to them. So I'd just like to make sure as we get to that process, we have a list of subs, especially our minority contractors, making sure they have an opportunity to bid for whatever special needs that may be out there. So I just want to kind of get that commitment that we'll you know use as much as we can you know as all possible you know local contractors yes sir and if y'all have a preferred list or minority subcontractor list that y'all already approved uh we'd love to get it we just wanted to meet your standards that's all whoever it is don't it doesn't matter who it is we just want to make sure that everybody because a lot of times we have a i hear a lot you know we have all these projects going on People say, oh, I didn't know the city was building that. I didn't have an opportunity to bid. Well, just putting the word out there, making sure, you know, hey, we've got a bid opening. Submit your bids for X, Y, Z. You know, just putting the word out there ahead of time. That way everybody knows, you know, that there are, you know, work that is being awarded. And it's up to them whether they want to submit, you know, to you all to be a subcontractor of, you know, Hogan or not. Yeah.

That's right. And, you know, they've got to be strong to be able to do work like that with the cash flow cycle. Yes, sir. You know, our insurance requirements are pretty stringent. But if they can meet that, we're welcome, and they're qualified. The beauty of the CMAR, we'll go through a multi-step approach with the estimates and working through the drawings. In fact, our first estimate is due at the end of next week. That's the first estimate. drawing package we received. I mean, we had some preliminary stuff in the RFQ, but we got a 135-page, about 60% DD set. It's a very good quality set of drawings. We'll be tabulating the bids next week and going over it with the architect and then meeting with the owner shortly thereafter to present our estimate.

Mr. Robbins, I appreciate it.

I appreciate it and look forward to working with you. We do as well. Thank you for the opportunity.

Mr. Robbins. Yes, thank you. A couple of questions and maybe a couple of comments. Congratulations, by the way. Thank you. I did happen to notice the AU athletic building go up and took particular interest in that. It was near where I live and work. It turned out to be a beautiful building. Yes, sir, it did. I am most pleased that we're entering a CMAR agreement. I think it gives us the best quality for the best price. It definitely does.

Particularly on a complex project.

And maybe a couple of questions. Just curious, who was on the selection committee?

Yeah, so this being a fire station, our chief, Charlie King, assistant chief, Ron Brannan, Adam Kroeber, who pulls double duty sometimes. He's our stormwater manager, but he's also, he's a fireman at large. And a fire chief as well. And a volunteer fire chief as well. And he's at home. David McEwen and myself.

Very good. Final question, maybe for either one of you, but do we have any final say on direct access to the East-West Parkway yet?

We're still working on that, but I think things are probably looking good on that, and we'll continue to process forward that they've laid out for us.

Good. Thank you. Any other questions, comments?

Sorry.

It is. Mayor, I'll make the motion to approve. First by Mr. Newton. Second. Second by Mayor Pertin. Any further discussion? I think we heard the term complicated a couple times. I can't remember. Maybe at one of the retreats where Chief King was taking us through the... and hows and how we had to have a certain height and the doors swing that way. It's not like building a municipal building center with offices. So it's complicated. So I appreciate everything everybody's done. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? It passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Having no more business, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. I make a motion. First, by Mayor Pro Tem. Second. Second by Mr. John Roberts. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?