Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

We're going to give it about 10 minutes. We're going to have a 10-minute delay while we wait for the fifth member to come. He is on his way in route.

Got your mic on? Yes. Okay. Okay. We move to convene the meeting. Second. Okay. Roll call. Roll call. Roll call. Say roll call or no roll call. Billy Brown, Shirley Bar, Lily Gibbs, present. Justin Troder, present. Shelmer Fal. Kevin Duggins,

present. Call my name. Did she call my name? I never heard. Yes. Okay, I'm here.

Is there any old business? All right. Bring forth the new business. Any discussion because I I haven't led a meeting in five years. All right. Is there we like to open it for any uh discussion if anybody like to take the mic?

Yes. Good evening. My name is Mackenzie Sosa and I live on 696 West Columbia Avenue, Batesburg. And I wanted to address the bed and breakfast by Miss Sheily that wants to be done. Um, I have two littles and I just wanted to raise concerns. I would not like it to be passed just because I don't feel like it would be any safety to my children. Um, and the traffic on South Bethlehem is very, very bad. With that curve going around, I feel like it wouldn't be any justice to that. And um, just more so the safety of my children having the ins and outs even though they're staying for a short period of time. I don't know who would be staying there and just the safety of our neighborhood. Thank you for your time. Members of the board of appeal, my name is Kathy and I live across the street from 700 West Columbia Avenue. Thank you for giving me this chance to share some thoughts regarding this request. I am generally against granting this request for four major reasons. First of all, there's a potential for parking and traffic problems. There's already limited space for parking at this address and more would be needed with the request. There's no on street parking available anywhere in our neighborhood. I'm especially concerned about traffic with the frequency of semi-truckss that come down our street traveling to the nearby chicken farm. The road is narrow and a bed and breakfast guests would not expect to see so many semis on our little road. The traffic problem is illustrated by the number of times our neighborhood mailboxes are hit and destroyed by passing traffic. The nighttime noise from the semi-truckss would also be disruptive to a guest trying to sleep.

Another traffic issue that would be encountered by the guests is the speed at which the cars and semi-truckss drive on Colombia Highway 1. The posted speed limit in our neighborhood is 35 mph. However, most cars are driving at least 55 miles even if they're passing the police station. This means the risk for accidents is greater as the guests would be encountering and exiting and entering through this establishment. Our neighbors have already experienced this hazard and have been involved in multiple accidents. We've even had cars driving through our yard trying to avoid an accident at this intersection. A second reason I'm against granting this request is due to the potential for additional noise. Guests at a bed and breakfast have the tendency to create more noise and activity than a single family home. Half the homes in our neighborhood are occupied by retired people. We also have young children where noise would have a negative effect on them. Additionally, we have a near a nurse who sleeps during the day and we have two people who work from home where even daytime disruptions could be a problem. A third concern relates to our property values. A nearby commercial venture like a bed and breakfast has the potential to lower our neighborhood property values. It would be different if we would have moved to the neighborhood with an already established commercial business. We would have been aware of this and could have made a decision on purchasing in the neighborhood accordingly. Also, keep in mind there are two adjacent properties in on Colombia that have been approved for additional housing in the very near future. This also impacts them. The fourth reason I am against this exemption is the potential to change the character of our neighborhood, eroding its residential feel. At this time, we can name every person who lives in the homes on both sides of our road. We interact frequently and share an everyday life. Adding the bed bed and breakfast will introduce a transient

element. This then introduces more safety risks. Finally, I have an important question. If the special exemption is granted, who will oversee the bed and breakfast to ensure it abides by the codes and ordinances of our town? The property owner already has a propensity not to follow the town's guidelines. So, there are some concerns that the bed and breakfast would follow in this same pattern. Thank you for giving me this chance to share my thoughts and concerns. Hi. How are y'all?

Good.

Good. So, I am Leanne Riker and I am proposing for the bed and breakfast to be at 700 West Columbia Avenue. I do um or I have listened to the concerns of the neighbors and um I have not talked to them before tonight. So this is something that if in fact it passes we will um have to sit down and you know have a meeting and come to you know some agreements and talk this through because in no way am I planning to disrupt the neighborhood nor am I planning to um lower the property values. That would definitely be the last thing that I would want to do because at some point in time I will want to sell this property and I do not want it to be a reflection of lowering property values by doing this. I have done a good bit of homework on opening up a bed and breakfast in town. And yes, there may be some others that are coming to town, but they're not here yet. Um, I am planning to it's and it's not going to be big. I mean, this is only four bedrooms. Okay. And we were talking about the traffic and how it works. I've already looked into that because if you turn in off of Highway One, this home already has a circular drive that there is enough room for four parking spaces, which is all that are required to be on the um side at which you turn in. So, you would turn in off Highway One onto the Circle Drive. the spaces will um go in the direction and I think I'll have a drawing there that shows how the spaces will be um done and then they will exit on to South Bethlehem Road. Um when you exit onto South Bethlehem Road, they will I mean of course they can go left or right, whichever way they want to go, but that would take them back out to number one, which is to a stop sign. I'm really not sure how that would I mean I

do it every day. You know, I'm not sure how four other vehicles would make that much of an impact to change the safety of that intersection. I do agree there are trucks that go to the chicken farm, but we live in a rural town. We live that's the community that we live in. Um, you know, we're not going to get rid of that. They're going to every six weeks there and we have chicken houses, so that's how it works. Every six weeks those trucks are going to come in. They're going to pick up the chickens and they're going to take them out. It's going to last for two nights. If I want to be a great bed and breakfast owner, I can actually figure out when those trucks are going to be coming and going and not even have openings that night. Um, you know, or let them know ahead of time because I know the family that has those chicken farm, they grow for the same company that we do. So, that's something that I can even coordinate if that was something that was necessary. Um, honestly, maybe I'm used to it. I don't hear it. It doesn't bother me. I've lived here my whole life. Matter of fact, I've lived on that road my whole life. The house that I'm living in was part of my family's home. The or every house down the line now except for one is owned by somebody in my family. You know, that's on the right side of the road. Um, so this is something that when I bought the property, it was something that I wanted to do. I looked into it. I loo I mean, as far as safety of children in the neighborhood, I'm not sure how having a bed and breakfast and I'm not calling it transient because these are people that I'm wanting to market to um JB Martin. You know, they have people that come in all the time and Saldo, which is walking distance from the home. These people need somewhere to stay. Right now, they're driving to Lexington. They're staying in Aken. They're staying at a bed and breakfast in Ridge Spring.

They're staying other places. I want that money to come here in our community. We have a great community. And I think that having the bed and breakfast, it's on number one, you know, and eventually number one is going to widen. you know they they're going to matter of fact there's a building right up the road where they've had to move where their sign was going to be placed because of widening of number one that's going to change the whole aspect because it's going to widen from Batesburg all the way to Aken you know that's going to change so I think at some point in time it's going to be a lot of commercial that goes down number one highway it is a main highway yes right now it is residential but as time goes on and things progress. I do feel like that it will become more of commercial real estate going down Highway One. Um, so I think I have presented my plans, my thoughts, how it would work in the packet that I hope that you have received and understand that if you approve this, and I hope that you do, I will be living on the property. I will not in any way jeopardize the neighborhood, the you know the people in the neighborhood. If I see any in, you know, security issues or infractions of anything that's going to happen, believe you me, I will be the first one to call to have it taken care of. So, if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them. But, like I say, I I do think that it's something the community needs. I plan to um invest, you know, in the community using um you know, different local businesses and things like that. I've already talked with several local business owners about working with them to promote not only their business, but to be part of the community with the bed and breakfast.

That's all. Yes, sir. Actually, it's every actually it's every eight weeks. Actually, with best dressed is different. We grow for best dress. They do too. Best dress. Oh, it's down to six. Yes. Six to seven weeks. It's actually every 42 days. Okay. Well, now Columbia Farms and House of or Columbia Farms, House of Rayford and Amex, they do about every eight weeks, but Best Dress grows a smaller bird, so they do it about every 42 days. I haul chickens for Amit. Yeah. And they used to be Amik's chickens. Yeah. And I'm glad they're not anymore.

Yeah. They're they're not anymore. Yeah. They Best Dress does every 42 about every 42 days. They just picked ours up this last time at 41 days. Okay. Well, Amit grows a big one. Theirs is more like 10. They go Yeah. They grow those little turkey they call chickens. Yeah. Well, lot of them are 10 lbs. Yeah. Or better. Yeah. And best dress, their goal weight is like 6.75 lbs. Well, my neighbor across the street, Justin, he drives for best dress. So, I know the chicken part. I mean, there's nothing we can do. I mean, that's just that's where we live. You know, I know somebody that built a house down the street from me and did not like the fact that there were chicken houses there, but you know what? Chicken houses are there before you built the house. You know, I mean,

you come you come build in the country, you got to expect that. But, right. Um, I personally would like to see this happen. I mean, we need to grow. This is a slow growth. You ain't putting in a subdivision with 900 houses, 10 to the acre. No. And as they enlarge, once they get started on the Bakesburg end, number one to Aken, yeah, it's going to open up a lot of things. And one thing that you will be able to probably do is approach uh the people in Augusta certain time of the year like the first full week of April. Bingo.

When um what was the name of it? Jeez. Well, we have a rental that now that is a like a Airbnb which not a bed and breakfast but an Airbnb. It is our every year the first week of April is already rented. I mean, I have spoke to the people that uh there's a couple bed and breakfast in Ridge. The first week of April is already gone. And that brings people from all over into our town. Yeah. The one that's on number one right up um that used to be the bed and breakfast on number one. Right up from Sheilies. Yeah. The Able House. Yeah. Able House. I stayed there the night I got married. Um Yeah. Every April they were they were sold out

all the time. Yes. Yeah. And it was I mean and it was a wonderful and they didn't even have like a bedroom bathroom for every room. I mean it was I mean but it was wonderful and the reason they closed was because her husband passed away and it was just too much for her to do on her own. But they stayed full and I mean she enjoyed it and it was you know a nice establishment. So Leanne. Yes. Your intentions are just bed and breakfast. Correct. No events. No. Okay. No. Okay.

No events. Matter of fact, that's what somebody even mentioned. You know, did I I do there are enough event venues here in town. I do not have the parking for that. I do not want to start that. So, it will and matter of fact, it's not even going to be where if say you're staying there and you've got family and y'all all want to come over. I don't have parking for that. If everybody can fit in one vehicle, you got four parking spaces. If we can all fit in one vehicle, that's fine. Now, I will have additional parking on the other side of the house. Um, if you're facing the house, it's on the far right. Um, but there again, we're not talking we're talking maybe two or three other spaces, not No, it will not be an event venue. Okay. So the max um far as parking is concerned this going to be anywhere between six and nine spaces. D four

four in the front cuz like each bedroom is required to have one parking space for per bedroom. So there will be four in the front and then after those four I will have maybe two or three additional on the far right side. But I mean, like I say, the intention is not I mean, it's only going to sleep a total of I think 11 guests is how I had it um figured out. You know, there'll be two bedrooms that have two, one that'll have three, one that'll have four. So, it's not, you know, they don't need Everybody doesn't need to come in their own separate car.

Okay. All right. So, no events and we looking at give or take about four extra vehicles, correct? Yes. Okay. We got that many vehicles in the yard now. So, they got to go somewhere. What would be your timeline on adding parking spaces? And you think that's something you'd have done pretty quickly?

Oh, that would be something that would be done before I actually opened before it started. And I'm looking for a timeline to start um would be probably the spring or summer of this coming year. So not tomorrow, not next week, you know. So um but no events. So that should take care of the concern from the neighbors regarding the noise because you're saying about the trucks coming with the chickens. That's going to be that is what it is, right? Okay. Yeah. So no event. So there's no extra noise coming from your bed and breakfast.

No. Okay. No, it's not. We're not going to have any type of, you know, venue type events or anything like that. No.

Are there any other questions? Are there any other questions for Mr. I don't do you have anything else to add? Mr. I think you covered a lot. Okay. All right then. Is there anybody else that would like to speak uh about this matter? I move to adopt. Is there a motion to to make a vote?

Anybody second it? I'll second the motion to vote. All right. All in favor say I. Yes. Do we going down the line or Wait, do we need to do this on the mic? Okay. All right. All in favor, one at a time, preferably. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. All right. The motion's passed.

I'd like to make some motion to adjurnn. Second. Make sure we know business. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. Second. Our portions

for this evening. We are going to go ahead and um as soon as seats are swapped out, we'll begin the uh planning commission regularly scheduled meeting for this evening.

Call to order of the town of of Batesburg, Leville, the regular planning commission meeting. This is for November the 17th, 2025. Roll call, please. Laura Gillespie, here. Sean Bryant here. Jennifer Edwards. Leona Williams here. Rachel Taylor here. Riley Adams. Johnny May Lemon here. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes for October the 20th, 25? Motion. Second. Approval of the minutes.

District two votes yes. district for recuses myself. I wasn't here. At large, yes. Mr. Gate votes yes. I vote yes. Don't know if we may have to revote on that one. She recused.

Mhm. So, we'll have to bring that back up to the next meeting. All right. So, that's a postponement. Okay. We're going to move to old business. Motion to re to review the well, let me go ahead and say this is a postpone request from Claudia Donnelly Old House Properties LLC to reszone property located at 413 Hartley Street. That's going to be TMS number 007020-05-004 consisting of.37 acres requesting property be reszoned from C1 which is general commercial to R3 which is a multifamily residential district. Motion to consider.

Motion second. Hello. Hey, welcome. Would you introduce yourself, please? My name is Claudia Donley. Becky Banks had called me about this. Um, she said you guys had some questions regarding this um zoning request. So, here I am. Well, I think we we're just going to let you tell us about it first.

All right. Really, all I can say about this, I found this house online. I knew I was going to buy it when I saw it. Didn't even see inside. And I bought the house. And then the next day, we found out it was so commercial. I always thought it would be the absolutely most beautiful home. It is a beautiful house. It needs everything done, but here we stripped it down to bare bones. Everything that wasn't there in 1910 is out of the house. And um we're just going to rebuild it, but I was hoping that it could be lived in like a home. Okay. And it sits in the middle of a residential. There's neighbors all the way around, right? Exactly.

Everybody has pulled that map or you've driven by and you everybody knows that. I know y'all probably have driven by twice now at least from last time. Yeah. So, I'm going to open up the discussion. I have a question. Um, what is your intent about the um building that's on the back of the property that appears to have been an apartment or something at one point in time? No, it was an apartment. I want to take it down. I just wanted to be a house with a backyard with a garden. Okay. Can you hear her? Can everybody hear her? All right, Miss Stley. Okay, I hear other questions. M Lemon?

No questions. You don't have any. Uh, so are you you're going to make this a house to live? Are you living in this house or are you I'd like to. Yes. Okay. That was my friend. Okay, it's definitely not liveable now.

I thought the house was a lot more livable when I bought it, looking at the pictures, but everything was pretend everything. The second we turned the water on, it was water everywhere. It's everything needs to be redone. So, we started with taking out everything that doesn't belong in the house, the lowered ceilings, drywall, all that stuff. So, it's down. It's all beadboard, wooden floors. It's really, it's an amazing beautiful house. has all the original features and I just want to restore it to what it used to be and have you know proper modern things like a kitchen and the bathrooms nothing that's hooked up the toilet sits over hole bathtub sits over hole nothing is set up there have you already started the permitting process

no because we only have taken stuff out you've just done a demo as as such okay it's kind of a bit of a treasure hunters getting in there to see what we have because there's walls where they don't belong doors where they not door no doors where they were supposed to be and we found everything. So, we stripped it down to the original. And I noticed some of the pillars are uh tree stumps that are up under the house. Um I don't think that they're actually functional, but yeah, the house has to be kind of reset a little bit. It's a little crooked. They did that to level it up. You suppose

I some of it just sits under there, but it's really has nothing sitting on it, but the whole house needs to be leveled. It's very crooked in different places. Actually, that could be cedar or it could even have come from the Edestto River. So, you could have you could have cyprress under there.

Well, it has it has the corner pillars and all that. It's just I think they're settling from all the years and it being empty for so long. I'm really not too concerned. But as far as I mean, it's an old house. It's never going to be, you know, all straight and this and that and I'm okay with that. But there's an old porch um section in there where you put a marble and it'll be over there in two seconds because it's so crooked. It's an old porch, but it has everything there. It just needs to work and put some love in it. Okay. Very good. Any more questions? All right. Do we have an a motion to approve? Motion to approve.

Do we have a second? A second. Have a motion to vote. Motion. Second. Okay. District two votes no. District four votes yes. At large votes yes. And district 8 votes yes. And district one votes yes. Now you just have to get with Becky. The motion carries. You'll get with Becky and she'll tell you what your next steps are. Okay. Thank you. Okay. And I think the next step is council. That one go through counsel. Yes,

I think so. Maybe. Becky, you and Becky will get together on that one. Okay. Thank you so much for your time and I wish you the best of luck on your on that home. because they're missing. All right. So, now we're going to go to new business and this is the resoning request and from help me with this name, please

Mr. TR PXC Trans LLC to reszone property located at 532 West Columbia Avenue. That's TMS0000727-07-1. It's from C2 Office and Institutional Commercial District to C1 General Commercial. Joel, I have a motion to consider. I make that motion to consider. Second. Okay. Motion to discuss. Mr. TR, would you like to come on up? Good evening. Um yes. Um we would like to um uh change from C2 to C1. Last time we changed from C1 to C2

for the daycare, but unfortunately the lady who opened the daycare uh she um the state has ended the um daycare funding so she could not continue and then it's hard for us to um to rent it out as a C1. So we request that we change to C2 and my brother-in-law he's a graphic designer and also I'm staying to be a a general contractor. So hopefully I can open a renovation business there or construction company. I definitely remember when this first came up and I remember we were concerned yes

at the time but we also thought it was the that her ideas were a good idea. So yes I thought she didn't turn out the way we wanted to. All right. Do you have any questions for Mr. TR? Anybody? But you are requesting it to go back from C2 to C1. Correct. Correct, ma'am. Okay. Correct. Yes. General commercial. And what were you planning on using it for?

Um, right now we are planning to open a graphic designer and web site um designer. So my brother had 15 years experience in it. So hopefully he he started a well. But I also intend I'm studying the uh general contractor and I'm planning to take a exam. So hopefully I can open uh a construction company there also. So uh we open our own business instead of renting out too much trouble. I make a motion to vote.

I second to vote to approve. Yeah. Motion. Motion to approve. Approve. Mhm. Okay. Second. I second. All right. Ready? Yeah. District two vote yes. District four. Yes. At large. Yes.

Thank you, ma'am. District 8. Yes. And district one votes yes. Thank you, Mr. Fan. Tran, Mr. Trent. You'll also get with Becky later over all of this. All right. Thank you so much for joining us this evening. All right. Now, we're going to move to an ordinance, and this is an an amendment of the 7-7.9 regarding the height of structures in the industrial district from current 35 ft to 55 ft. Do we have a motion to consider?

Motion. I have a second. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? We don't have anybody to discuss that with now. Is this because Okay. Pardon me. All right. Rachel kind of alerted me to something earlier. Is this because the fire department now has a truck that can reach 55 ft.

So, our new truck does have the capability to reach 55 ft and does have staffing as well. Also, they are considering the new West Hampton would be within our area. they have the staffing and they have a truck that can actually go quite a bit higher than that for rescue. So now that we have the ability to rescue above 35 ft, we are asking for an ordinance amendment so that um you know we can go a little bit higher there. Okay. So we do have a motion to approve. Motion to approve. Second. Okay. District two district two votes yes. District four yes. Atlarge yes. And district 8 votes yes.

And district one votes yes. That in that concludes everything that was to be discussed this evening. Do I have a motion for adjournment? Motion to adjurnn. Second. District two votes yes. District four. District four votes yes. At large. At large. Yes. Miss limit. District eight votes yes. And I vote yes. District one. And we are adjourned.