City Council - Regular Meeting

We're ready. All right. I'd like to call this March 24th meeting of city council to order. Madame clerk, would you please call the role? Council member Greg, Council Member Sheileely here, Council Member McBride here, Council Member Poke here, Council Member Brady present, Council Member Disandro here, Council Member Wearing, Council Member Seekings, Council Member Tinkler, Council Member Bowen, Council Member Appel, Council Member Scardan here, Mayor Cogwell here. I'd like to now invite Council Member Appel to give the invocation and lead everybody in the pledge of allegiance.

All right. Um, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Let us bow our heads. We gather tonight as servants of this city and its people. We ask for wisdom to guide our decisions, patience to hear one another, and courage to act for the common good. Tonight, we hold close in our hearts the brave men and women of our armed forces serving in harm's way. As our service members carry out Operation Epic Fury in the skies, on the seas, and on the ground in the Middle East, we ask that they be shielded from danger and return safely to their families. We honor those that have already given their lives and those who bear the wounds of this conflict. May their sacrifice never be taken for granted. We also we thank also of the families here at home in Charleston and across this nation who carry a quiet burden every day. May they find find comfort and strength. Grant us as a council and as a community the resolve to be worthy of the service of those who protect us. Let us never forget that the freedom we enjoy in this chamber was purchased at a great cost. We ask all of this with grateful and humble hearts. Thank you. I pledge allegiance 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. Okay. Uh before we get started tonight, I wanted to give a shout out to the fire department uh and read you all uh excerpts of a letter that we received uh from a property owner at the corner of King and Meeting Street. Dear Mayor Cogorn, members of city council, I write to commend the Charleston Fire Department for its outstanding response and professionalism in connection with an incident at King and Queen on March 18th, 2016. In particular, I want to recognize Division Chief William Perez

Jr. for his leadership, professionalism, and calm command presence. From my direct interaction with him and the personnel under his supervision, it was clear that the response was handled with seriousness, competence, and exceptional professionalism. He goes on to uh highlight the the crews uh for engines 102, 103, 104 and talking about how uh again professional our fire department h is and calls a lot of these folks out by name. So I'm going to just read them because I think you know these guys don't often get the credit that they deserve for what they do day in day out. So for engine 102, we've got Captain William Finley, Julian Keepsky, Matthew Hutzinganger, and Vincent Natal. For engine 103, we have Captain David Bombgarden, Nicholas Hunter, Robert Boger, I'm going to say that's how that's pronounced. Uh, B O G E R. Uh, and Thomas Tutin. In ladder 104, we have Captain Kyle Riff, Timothy Chararse, Matthew Coats, and Griffin Joiner. So again, ladies and gentlemen, I just wanted to uh give a shout out to the fire department for a job well done, and it's always good to show uh or to be appreciated for the work that you do. Um Chief is here, not here, but uh anyway, we'll we'll send our regards. Next up, we have a very special presentation. Um, and I'd like to ask is Dina Moses. She's bringing in the crew here. Come on up, guys. Come on up.

So tonight we are going to honor once again Greek independence uh day. And so um let me read the proclamation and I think we might have a special presentation. Is that what we all are here for? Right. Wave some flags. You're looking good. Okay. Whereas Greece, the birthplace of Western civilization with its concepts of democracy and individual freedom, has given the world the heritage of her achievements in science, philosophy, architecture, and art. Whereas on March 25th, 1821, after nearly four centuries of enslavement, the Greek people declared their independence and freedom. And whereas this declaration inspired and moved people in Europe and in the United States to compassionate expressions of support. And whereas since then the people of Greece have demonstrated their love for the freedom with immeasurable sacrifices and are this year celebrating the 205th anniversary of their independence. And whereas the proud daughters and sons of Greece who are residents and citizens of this country and the city of Charleston have inspired us with their independence, their gifts of good citizenship and their leadership. And whereas I urge all citizens to join in in appropriate observation of this day. Now therefore, I William S. Cogwool Jr., mayor of the city of Charleston to hereby proclaim Wednesday, January 25th, 2026 as Greek Independence Day.

Would anyone like to say a few words? You're the man of the claw, so I'm pointing to you first. Uh thank you for uh taking this uh opportunity to um honor us with uh welcoming us here at city hall. Thank you to Mr. Cogwell and to the whole city of Charleston. Uh my name is Father Theodore. I'm the assigned parish priest here at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church and it's an honor to be the head of the parish here of a wonderful Greek Orthodox Christian community. We are a multithnic community, but our roots are Greek by background. And it is on the 25th of March every year that we celebrate this very special um feast day as well. It's not just Greek Independence Day. It's also the feast day of the Annunciation where our blessed mother uh was given the good news by the Archangel Gabriel about um having Christ into this world. May God bless each and every one of us. Thank you for being here tonight. Thank you for welcoming us. And again, thank you to all of our Greek school teachers and to all of our children, all of our parishioners. Thank you.

Thank you.

Please. I was waiting on it. I I don't know the words exactly, but I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to lip sync with these. We ready? Fore. Yes. Nailed it. I love it.

Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you all. That was wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. All right. How about you? All right. There we go. Five. One more. There we go. Nailed it.

All right. So, we are now on to public hearings. Uh the less musical part of our meeting tonight. Um, we have nine public hearings tonight. Uh, there are two items items, excuse me, two and four. Our second reading. So, I'm going to ask uh Christopher Morgan to come up and present and then we'll open it up for Or do we do the Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. Ron Buchcci is going to present. Yes. The storm water design manual update first. Yes. Yes. Sorry about that.

Did I miss that? Okay, I missed that. So, never mind. So, scratch that. We're going to go over to the storm manual uh uh update from um Ron Buchcci. Mr. Buchi,

thank you, Mayor. Um so, we are making a revision to the stormwater design standard manual related to the stormwater review fee. Um it was last changed in 2020 and we are increasing that fee to account for um what it costs us to perform reviews on projects today. Um we are also implementing a fee for every time we have to review a project. So every time project comes in for the technical review committee and we review it we are going to charge a fee to recoup our cost associated with that. Um we have run this by the home builders association the engineering community as well as some of the commercial developers in the area. um and communicated all of these changes to them and everyone seems to be on board. And if you have any questions or want specifics, please let me know.

If I may just add to that, I mean, I've met with several realtors, again, developers, engineers. Uh I want to give staff, particularly Mr. Buchcci, um uh props for really digging into this and being thoughtful about it. Uh but bottom line is folks, I mean a lot we hear a lot about uh storm water review and the delays, but um there's there's uh some staffing issues there and um and some funding resources there. I mean, basically our fees were ridiculously low and so uh I'm proud to say that the the business community leaned in. They were actually not just willing to tolerate it, they were very supportive of it. So um we again I think that that says a lot for again Mr. Buchcci's thoughtful approach on this. So really again want to compliment him uh for a job well done.

Thank you. Any further discussions on this? Are we taking a motion here? Um well we would need to have the public hearing first or we can go through the other have Christopher present the other public hearing. So that's on the Yeah. Yeah. So well we'll have Mr. Morgan and then um then we'll they'll take take the vote. So Mr. forward.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of council, I believe the just a second. I'll go ahead and get started on this. Um, so for uh item E2, this is an amendment to our DRB ordinance. I think there's been a good bit of discussion about that in the community and in the media. Um so I think you all are pretty familiar with that. But basically it gives a little bit easier path for the um city's capital projects as they get reviewed through the DRB. Just a little bit of a different scope on doing that. And um our planning commission did review this and I'm going to show you if this is loaded. It may not be loaded yet. Um, they had a number of comments here on this. Okay, I'm I'm going to read them off to you. I was thinking that. Here we go. Okay. So, the planning commission did not recommend for this item, this amendment. uh they were concerned about how projects like the these would be reviewed in context and I'm going to read some of these to you. Uh it says they they feel like projects need to be built in the context in the environment which within within which they were built. The definition of context is important as built environment of West Ashley, James Island, John's Island and Daniel Island are quite different from the peninsula. Civic buildings should be the pride of the community in which they are built. There needs to be additional study in order to get the best definition of context for each uh area where the project occurs. The described concept review hearing proposing the ordinance is basically a sharet. At a minimum, a vote should be taken on the concept approval. So the public gets to see their input and the ordinance seems

unfair to the public as the city needs to be held to the same review process as the private sector. So the planning commission was very intent that those be relayed to city council. So we are relaying those. Of course, staff was recommending before this amendment. We think it still makes sense in the context of how our DRB functions and it helps our capital projects of which we're doing many many in the city helps them be expedited and move along quickly. So um that is item E2 and then uh that is the text of item A2. Here we go. Oops. See this? Okay. Then item E3 is the NU3 workforce housing which I think again you all are pretty familiar with. It's been in discussion a good bit in the community. This would help us meet some of our affordable housing goals in the context of mixeduse developments that would have a mixture of both affordable and market rate housing. Uh there are a lot of details in that ordinance. Uh Mr. Martin is here tonight uh if there are more questions on that. But I think you all have seen a good bit on that ordinance. Then we have a zoning ordinance amendment for the county property that is at 993 and 995 Morrison Drive. This is to take the tech overlay requirement off the site. This was a requirement that was put in more than a decade ago to encourage a mixture of uses on the site, not just uh housing or not just retail, that type of thing. It didn't allow you to have a uh residential on a site. You had to have a mix of things. so that there would be some more office development area. And in our context of working with the county on their redevelopment of this property, that seems like a a not needed uh overlay. And so the recommendation is for removal of that. The planning commission did recommend for that as well. Just some images of the site and then what the uh

tech card or overlay did and this in our comprehensive plan. Then we have a recent annexation of some parcels off of Adele Street in West Ashley. These would come into the city as residential office. Planning Commission did recommend approval of these. These are uh right near the intersection of Ashley River Road and Savage Road. They're on the next row back behind some other commercial uses on the site or other commercial uses in the immediate area. Here's an image of the vacant parcels at present. And here's an aerial image and you see some of the commercial uses that are out in front of those parcels. And uh this is in line with our comprehensive plan. It calls for suburban use here and the uh O category is an appropriate use within that suburban category. So staff is recommending approval as did planning commission. Uh then we have other annexations. 1444 Joy Avenue. This would come in in the city as short-term, not short-term, excuse me, not short-term rental. STR, different type of SDR that predates short-term rentals. Um, and it was R4 in Charleston County. This is the parcel. It's about midway down Joy Avenue. It's a fairly large parcel, and it could accommodate some other housing. This would be some of the kind of missing middle housing that we are very interested in seeing in some of our neighborhoods. And this was recommended for approval at the planning commission. And we have some uh items at um 1310 and 1312 Edge South Edgewater. These would come in the city as SR1. And just a map image of where these parcels are we go. Then 1309 North Edgewater uh would come in the city as SR1. There it is. Same general area 50 South Edgewater SR1. Get that image. And then um that is the end of the public hearings for tonight. All

right. And Mr. Mayor, we have four people signed up to speak for public hearings. Let's give everybody a minute and a half.

All right. The time is a minute and a half. We'll start with the in-person um list first. Anthony G. Bryan. It's amazing. Anthony G. front 123 Corton Avenue Charles line 29403 and it's interesting enough that our school district has the FBI and US attorney in our in our neighborhoods and I actually sued the FBI in 2018 and 2019 because we have to use that process in order to file complaints against federal agencies under administrative procedure act so you know rules. So, let's just get this real quick here. Um, in terms of where we are with with with all of this, right? There's there's there's categories here, right? We're missing we've grown now. We're already grown city, right? So, the question becomes who's who, right? Who is who's housed in Charleston under the Department of Hur development, Department of Agriculture Agriculture? Who's housed? Who is at risk to be unhoused? Who is unhoused? and who was quietly unhoused. Okay. So, I don't even hear that none of you talking about and we're going to do 6,000 units. We're going to do this. You hear you coming to bring in capacity in right now. You bringing in capacity right now. You're going to county council. You want to deal with infrastructure capacity and our governor supports Ben Navaro right at the state of the state address. And he supports Ben Navaro, billionaire, right? And we gonna go ahead and take all our pennies. We got Prey picking our little pennies, right? And we going to provide infrastructure for Ben Navaro and his friends, right? So we grown. We grown now. Look at this council. Y'all y'all been seps and and and diapers when that was coming along. So So we grown. Okay. You have a grown city with people define clearly who they are.

Homeless, chronically homeless, unhoused, or unhoused. That's what you're dealing with.

Muhammad Dice. evening. I have a picture here in my hand with Muhammad Ali, greatest boxer that ever put on a glove. Imam War and Muhammad who inherit the Nation of Islam and change it when he became the leader. We stopped looking at all white folks as devils and we look at individual for what they did. And then you have a picture of me and this was in 1976. And I have the flag, the American flag. I show you the picture because these are fighters and I'm a fighter. Our mayor breached a contract with me and I told him I'm going to fight him all the way up to the Supreme Court. Thank you,

former council member Jackson.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Member. Thank you very much. Um, I'm here speaking for myself. I want to make that clear, but I'm here to um talk about the MU3 workforce ordinance as it's now back in front of you as a first reading document. I I do think that there needs to be some changes before you have second reading. And the most important one that I think reflects uh the sentiment of the housing authority and certainly the mayor as he's addressed this over the last many months uh that we need an an additional special condition clause in this ordinance that defines and codifies the exact one to one units replacement guarantee for every PHA property when it's reszoned. There's language in here that refers to the HUD RAD program that we'll be um operating from in order to get the the replacement subsidy vouchers that will uh take over in terms of the HUD contract that we currently have for affordable housing properties. But the language that comes straight out of the HUD guidelines says as amended from time to time. And I think to have our document clearly codify the land and the use for these replacement units would really go a long way for messaging and obviously the long-term results that we're all asking for. There is some uh changes to the height for the for the um affordable properties that are mentioned, you know, being um enabled in the zoning. And I do think that after attending these um the sharet all last week that we might need to have more flexibility than five stories especially in the commercial corridors. So thank you.

All right. And then we'll go to our online list but I think he is here Mr. Turner.

Good evening Mr. Mayor. Uh members of council. Ryan Turner for the Preservation Society of Charleston and we urge your thoughtful reconsideration of agenda item two, the DRB ordinance. Um, I want to stress the importance of maintaining public confidence in our processes. We don't doubt the talent of city staff that bring these projects forward, but trust in how city's funds are used is crucial. Um, and by stating that no approval shall be required in conceptual review, the DRB would have its hands tied. And it's a little bit like telling a teacher that they can't grade a test. The student might still have to take a test. Um but there's little motivation to actually really prepare if you know you're going to pass. Um second, um I think the real problem here is timing. Getting projects to the city um in advance um is uh can can help save major expenditures of time and money. Um and that seems to be the core problem. So, it's unclear to us whether um something less than a full um tying of the DRB's hands was was pursued to make sure that these projects are heard earlier, but we would encourage that as a less um extreme um measure. But looking forward, I also want to mention that we welcome a whole a more holistic view of DRB's authority. The ordinance is is clunky. I think most of us agree with that. And I also I think in doing that we want to look to both the aesthetic as well as the economic advantages of having a discretionary review. The DRB was born from a spirit of competition with Mount Pleasant um that had m and maintained higher standards in its commercial corridors um and has largely avoided loopholes. Thank you very much and thanks for your service.

And then we did receive some comments online. U Mr. Turner provided a comment um just u that went over concerns regarding internal inconsistencies. Four comments were received in support of the Preservation Society of Charleston's recommendations regarding the DRB process and four comments were received in opposition to the changes to the DRB ordinance. And those were all the comments that we received.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. Um okay. So uh can I get a motion on item one which is a storm water um uh design standard man? We have a motion made probably seconded. Any any further discussion on this item? If not all those in favor signify by saying I opposed eyes have it. Then we're on to uh ordinance two. Um can I entertain a motion to get this on the floor? Move for approval. Second. Have a motion made, properly seconded. Any discussions, comments, thoughts on this? Councilman Appel.

Um, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, now I'm not going to stand up here like Frank Castanza at a uh festivist dinner and say that I have a lot of problems with the DRB members. I have great respect for the DRB members and everybody serving on all of our quasi judicial boards. I served on the board of zoning appeals for four years, so I know what service looks like and I deeply respect it. But I do have a problem with the DRB's current framework. And bear with me, y'all are going to hear about it. Um, there is a fundamental difference between a private developer building a private land, building on private land for private profit, and this city council investing public dollars in public infrastructure. When this body votes to fund a fire station or a stormwater project, that project has already been through a democratic public approval process. Elected officials, us, debated it and budgeted it. Professional architects and engineers designed it. City staff reviewed it. The public had opportunities for input. An additional round after all of that of subjective board review creates risk without a corresponding benefit. This amendment preserves design input. Capital projects will still receive one conceptual review by the DRB. The board sees the project and offers comments and guidance, but no approval is required. We are calibrating the process to match the nature of the project. That calibration matters because sending a city project back to the drawing board is not a minor inconvenience. Substantial design changes require serious re-engineering and redoing expensive architectural drawings. Consultants come back in. Timelines stretch. Costs climb. If we're talking

about a luxury hotel downtown, the developer absorbs that. But when we are talking about a fire station, increasing costs to taxpayers by hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, not to mention delays, is not acceptable. We simply cannot afford it. And I think it's worth stepping back and reme and remembering our role here. This council created the design review board by ordinance in 1999. It exists because we established it. There is no state law requirement to even have a DRB. It is not a co-equal branch of government. It is not some long-standing institution woven into the fabric of Charleston's history. It's 27 years old. In the context of this 356-year-old city, the DRB is an experiment. And it is an experiment in need of fundamental reform. This body created it. This body oversees it. And it's our duty and our obligation to ensure that the DRB, just like every other city board, is functioning well and producing the right outcomes for our community. We owe that oversight to the people we represent, and we owe it to the volunteers who serve on these boards to make sure the framework we have given them actually sets them up for success. Now, I want to go further. This carve out for city projects is much needed, but DRB reform must go beyond this amendment. It is my view that the DRB in its current form is the single biggest impediment to West Ashley revitalization currently. And I think we need to be honest with ourselves about that. Look around West Ashley. There are some nice pockets for sure, but the vast majority of it is anywhere USA. Or let's face it, it's downright ugly and rundown in far too many places. subjective, unpredictable, and yes, sometimes politically motivated board

review is warding off smart capital in people willing to invest heavily in infill development. Want proof? I got proof. The most significant investment in West Ashley's history, Ashley Landing, would not have happened without carving them out of DRB review. Let me say that again. They would not have moved forward with the most transformative investment in West Ashley's history if they had to go to the DRB. They simply would not have done the deal. That should tell us everything we need to know. When completed, Ashley Landing will be by far one of the most visually appealing developments in the city without DRB review. DRB review is being or design review rather is being um performed at the staff level in that case. This shatters the notion that good design can only come through the status quo. There's other ways to achieve design review and and ensure that we're taking care of those things. We also need to eliminate the absurd requirement that any structure over 50 years old must go to the DRB for demolition review. That is a broad standard. It sweeps up countless awful, ugly buildings that desperately need to go. We should identify the sites that are genuinely historically significant and protect them. But this overly broad requirement has warded off needed infill redevelopment for far too long. And I want to ask a question that I've been asking recently to everybody that I can. What are the DRB's actual success stories? I've posed this to some very knowledgeable people around. The answer I got from one was compare the car washes in West Ashley that are in the city to the car washes that are in the donut holes in the county. And that was provided as a serious response to the question. That's sad

if that if that's the response to to to what its biggest accomplishments are. Or how about the famous gas station that was proposed for the tip of Sumar Street? That's often talked about as a DRB success story. the DRB shut it down. I would argue that is the biggest indictment of everything that's wrong with the DRB. The DRB is supposed to be limited to design, review, and aesthetics. But when a disfavored use came along, a use that was allowed by right under zoning. The DRB was used as a political platform to kill it. I am not here chap cheerleading gas stations but the point is the board was used as a cudgel to politically crowbar a byright use out of existence. If I'm managing a real estate fund somewhere there's no way I'm investing into that kind of uncertain unpredictable environment. And that's something we need to be mindful of. And to those who are upset that this amendment treats city projects differently, I hear you. So let's talk about taking it a step further. Let's consider extending the same approach to private development. Let the DRB provide one round of conceptual review with comments and guidance and let professional staff handle the final details and approval. Multiple rounds of board review lead to enormous costs, delays, and unpredictability for applicants. They also consume significant staff time and resources. If the conceptual review model is good enough for city projects, and I believe it is, then we should be willing to have that conversation about whether it is good enough for private projects, too. For those so a gasast at the city being treated differently, even though we are completely different than private developers, let's level the playing field. And I'm getting close to winding down. I appreciate everyone's time.

Oh, thank you. I'm I'm I'm I'm preaching to tonight. And here is the thing. A conceptual review model like we're talking about doing for capital projects today and I'm proposing we talk about doing for private projects moving forward is not some radical departure from Charleston's traditions. It actually honors our history. When the Board of Architectural Review was established in 1931, it was the first historic preservation board in the United States. Charleston pioneered this. But the BAR's original role was not what we have today. It was conceived as a negotiator. It facilitated conversations between developers and preservationists. It was not exercising the kind of strict regulatory approval authority that our boards exercise now. Somewhere along the way, these boards boards evolved from advisory bodies that guided outcomes into gatekeepers that control them. Returning to a model of conceptual review for comment and guidance with professional staff handling final approval is not abandoning Charleston's design heritage. It's getting back to the spirit of how this all started. This amendment tonight is a good step. It protects critical city infrastructure from unnecessary delay. But we have much more work to do. Design matters, but so does public safety. So does public so does fiscal responsibility. So does making West Ashley a place where smart capital wants to invest rather than run away from. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment and I look forward to continuing the broader discussion about DRB reform in the coming weeks and months. Thank you.

Council Pel, any other any further comments on this item? Council Wearing.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to applaud my colleague for doing the research that you did do. I think it brought it 360 degrees. Uh you are capital R I G HT and I mean capital R, capital I, capital G, capital H, capital T with an exclamation point. Uh your point about a broader review in particular for the private sector. I served 17 years on the planning commission and when the planning commission would defer things and kick it down the road and kick it down the road, the state actually had to step in and said, "You know what? You can't defer things forever." So, it said if the planning commission deferred it 30 days and did not rule on it, it was deemed approved and it comes forward to city council. The DRB doesn't have that handcuff for the private sector. So the private sector could be deferred longer than it should be. Recently we did a um RAFQ for the swimming pools on uh John's Island and and Council Member McBride was there with me. We vetted down probably 12 or 13 bids and it came down to about four. We brought them in for interviews. This is some of the the due diligence that the public doesn't see. uh council members, our capital projects people all are part of that. And you're right, that's part of the public process that I've never seen anybody showing up to it. Um independently each one was asked how long would this project be delayed with uh if it has to go through um DRB. Each one said four to five months. four to five months to get a swimming pool approved through

our own DRB. That's the part that the public doesn't see. You're increasing the cost to everyone. We call it John cute uh taxpayer, but it's really your neighbors. It's your mothers and your fathers and your sisters and your brothers, your aunts and uncle. That's who we increasing the property taxes on to do the same product that we've already voted and approved to do. So coming out boldly the way you've done and and council member Tinkler and Council Member Bowen and all of you all, I thank you for your extra consideration on this and the way you couched it and I hope I'm hopeful that the news media will not cut you short and put in a cliffnotee version of that and put the whole version in so people will know um we do handle other people's money frugally. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Councilman Wearing, any further discussion on this before we take a vote? If not, all those in favor signify by saying I opposed. Nay,

we have 12 yays and one nay. All right. One for the record. That's council member Pulk. Yep. One, sorry. Oh, we need third reading. Yeah. So move. Motion made, probably seconded. All those in favor signify by saying I. Opposed? Nay. Eyes have it. All right. Now we're on to item number three. Mu3. Move for approval. Motion made. Probably seconded. Um, any further questions, comments on this item? I'll take a moment. I'm uh

Councilman Dellesandre, you have the floor. Thank um I'm excited to be a part of this uh new zoning. Um all of this uh project 3500 begins with this creation of this new zoning. Um, I think it has the potential to be a model for the rest of the country for how to develop an area that um, uh, protects current residents, incorporates a diverse group of new residents, and at the same time meets the challenges of building in a coastal area. Um, I hope that we all in these chambers can uh come together and figure out how to make this happen um more than uh trying to prevent it from happening. um to that. Uh I want to see that these developments um work well for the development but also that they enhance the people that live around them. And to that end, I would I I have a uh a few questions or comments um regarding the parking. Um would they be able to obtain or should I wait for Mr. Morgan?

Mr. Morgan, Mr. Martin, both of you, you could come up.

Yes, sir. Uh, regarding the parking for MU3, would they be able to how how does the residential parking tag work for that zoning? They would not be eligible for residential parking. That's for for much lower density types of residential. All right. Thank you. And and the uh the clustering of particular uh classifications of affordable housing, is that um is that something that's codified or um how is it say um

how is it programmed is what you're asking. In other words, is it blended? Can you put all the uh 30 AMI in one piece of the property and then the market rate on another piece of property? The whole intent of this is to be mixed use to mix the different uses together uh to ensure that you don't have a concentration of one uh u economic level. Right? So that's what we saw in um when we when we toured all over England. That's kind of the best practices these days and that is 100% what we intend to do. know I don't want to speak to the legal uh uh requirements or framework that would that would require that or prevent that. Um maybe you can speak to uh the language in the ordinance that if somebody for some reason could get through our bar that would concentrate uh one building for all the affordable uh if that could be something that could make it through if we need to put some parameters uh add some parameters to the language. Do you all have any color on that? So, so just to to step back one one moment, um this is uh kind of unique in terms of how the structure of this new district is is being presented because it's not being presented um as an entirely new uh section of the zoning code. It's actually amending existing zoning code language. So what you're seeing when you see the the ordinance itself, these are the amendments to the base language that reside within the zoning code. So there are a number of sections that are not in this this this ordinance that are in the base code such as what you're talking about in terms of scattered housing and mixed income and those types of provisions that you're not going to see in this document because we're just amending what has been in um in in in effect in various uh forms for the past 20 years when

So then to answer the question what the cons the very legitimate concern that Councilman Dellesandre has about uh um uh focusing or concentrating. Yeah, that can't be done. Would not be allowed. So that's covered in the base ordinance, right? All right. And then uh my final uh question is uh is there a design purview over this zoning? It it's on a case-byase basis depending on where they fall within the city. So they could be in B, they could be in um even DRB I believe in downtown some of the corridors. And so it just depends on a case by case basis.

But anything on the peninsula in particular in your district would require some level absolutely of review and approval. Probably B B for your district. Yes. All right. Well, thank you very much. Okay. Any other questions, comments? Councilman Wearing, I did have a question. Council former Council Lady uh Jackson I thought had a good point. Can you address the 1.1 replacement, you know, item that she brought up with affordability?

I do think it's a good idea. I think it's a a point of clarification is something that we have been very consistent about saying um and it is a again at least for me and I suspect all of you a very hard line in the sand that uh we intend to uh do the build first where there would be no displacement of existing residents in the housing authority properties. So to codify that in some form or fashion, if there's a simple amendment that could be done there, uh I think u I'd certainly be in support of. So maybe we take that a step further and just uh incorporate all the guiding principles of redevelopment that we've been talking about for project 3500 which would include that and and the others. So So can we do that in between the first and second reading? We can. Okay, let's do

completely. So I I echo what council member Wearing just brought up. I think that we need to codify that in the actual ordinance just because there's been so much questioning of us about that very issue. Are we going to build are we going to build elite people out there? The answer is no. We're going to put make sure people are housed. Um I think that's is important to codify it. It's a great suggestion and I think we agreed. We'll we'll we'll we could we can do we could do that between first and second reading.

Yep. And just for the record, in conversations with some council members and some um uh concerned residents, we did make a change to include the AMI level for the public housing. Uh so that there was some confusion that the AMI levels didn't go down to address those that are currently in public housing and would be uh as part of the RAD program. So we've made that uh modification per uh the HUD uh standards that are found um in the federal code. Any other comments, questions, thoughts? If none, we have a motion on the floor and it's been seconded for approval with condition that we between first and second.

Between first and second reading as Okay, so uh all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed. Eyes have it. All right, we are now on to uh item number four, second reading. Motion made properly seconded. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed? Eyes have it. So move. Motion made for third reading. Uh all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Eyes have it. Move five through nine taken together. Mr. Mayor, can we separate five? I have a direct conflict on that. I can't

We can. So let's take item five. Councilman Wearing has a conflict on this one. Can I get a motion? Motion made. Probably seconded. Any further discussion on this item? If none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. And I abstain. Yes. Eyes have it. With one abstension. Six through nine. Move to take six through nine together. I move for approval. Move taken six through items six through nine together. And for approval. Do I have a second on this? Did I get one? Yeah. Uh, we got a second. Uh, all those in favor. If no f further discussion signify by saying I. I.

Opposed. Eyes have it. Uh, can I get a a motion for approval on council minutes from March 10th? Motion made, properly seconded. All those in favor signify by saying I. Opposed. Eyes have it. Madam clerk, we're now on to citizens participation. How many people do we have signed up? We have five speakers signed up to speak. Okay. Uh, let's keep it consistent. Go a minute and a half. All right. The first speaker is Anthony G. Bryant. Project 3500

should be a thousand units replace first

first first a thousand for very low-inccome people. Okay. You got a you got a coordination here of county council, taxpayers, tax property, zerobased property, a a a port related group. I should get some tax credits for them because you meeting folk there that you've seen there since my fact my daddy was born on handover street right by midwife right there. my my first house on Hui Street. He helped right there and and I refuse to be here and not ask for a thousand from 500 for Teddy Pride and Henry Derby and 500 in here. I don't care what you do after the thousand what you do but there's market forces beyond you real estate investment trust hedge funds all these all this money here ain't a Bank of America back in the 90s. So you answered my question. Do you have a commitment to those who are here? Bignyards beyond comeyards need to pay. Been not paid already. We can't grow in this area, but vignyard is being taken care. I'll fight every one of you in this building. We need 1,000 from the 3500. Start off there. After that, do whatever you want to do. No more creas. No more chore view drive. I seen all of it. The replacement of folk in this city.

Muhammad. This picture of the mayor and myself taken January the 8th. And he said, I know you're going to keep me an eye. Well, that's the truth. I'm going to do the best I can with the help of God. He said that I know, Muhammad, I know you are going to keep me in line and I'm going keep him from lying. He must tell the truth and he must fulfill his commitment as a citizen and as a mayor of this city. Thank you.

Former council member Jackson.

Good evening again. Thank you. Thanks for the MU3. Um yeah, I'm here just because um since I came or since the end of the year when the former Human Affairs and Racial Consiliation Now retiring commission uh took the resolution to ask the council to recognize Mr. Pierre Manag for his um current office in the Interamerican Freedom US Freedom Association. He's now issued his year-end message for that association which is even more clear and more strong about the freedom of the press in our nation today. So I really do think that this is a made you know for a TV moment to recognize Mr. Manag. You have an um second reading on item 16 where you're going to make proclamation requests with council members an exception to the um ordinance that we admire that you're making stronger that resolutions and ordinances need to be voted on by the council. But proclamations to recognize individuals or groups like you just had tonight are an exception to that requirement of council vote. So please recognize Mr. Managal. Um, I don't know the gentleman, but I think he's very admirable for what he's doing in our country today. Thank you.

Bill Reside. I'm the interloper here tonight. Thank you for the opportunity, Mr. Mayor and the council. My name is Bill Reside. I'm from the town of Edestto Beach, and last week I filed with the state to run for the seat being vacated by Representative Nancy Mace in the US House. I'm a retired nuclear engineer with 40 plus years in nuclear power generation and research and I'm looking forward to serving you. I'm making my way around the district to find out uh what the important issues are for you at the federal level. So again, I thank you for your service and I look forward to serving you in Washington next year.

And we will go to our online list, Jerry Harris, but I believe he is here. Mayor, members of council, good evening. Jerry Harris, 528 Sicilia code driving. Um, it is really important that your amendments to chapter 2 administrative code clarifies very clearly how resolutions and ordinances should be brought forward. I will suggest to you one amendment that you should make in the title. should include resolutions behind ordinance so that if citizens are looking uh in our administrative code for how they um put together a resolution or get bring it forward is clear. I also have some concern as a experienced uh public administrator that the removal of the twow week um incubation period if you will for resolutions and ordinances from any for anything that comes from city staff uh is not I think a good practice. Uh certainly there are reasons to uh have a expedited review or action for items bringing forth forth by uh city staff but I think it's really important that your responsibility as members of the council due diligence uh to ask questions uh can be accomplished in a twoe period of time. I suggest that you consider removing that particular provision and maybe creating some language that accomplishes the same thing but doesn't kind of make it the standard that uh on a day before before the agenda is ready uh a staff member can put in a resolution uh and it can come on the agenda without having been discussed by you pre previously. Thank you very much.

And those are all the speakers that we had. We did receive two comments from Mr. Bryant. Those were forwarded to council in full.

Okay, moving on from uh citizens participation, we're now on to petitions and communications. Um I ask Mr. Copelan uh to present the next two items related to 99395 and 899 Morrison. You're thought you looked too comfortable back there. So, okay. So the term sheet for 99395 Morrison, this is a high level uh I would call it almost like an exclusive listing agreement uh that the county and the city would go into together where we would list their property as part of our project 3500 overall project uh for a year from the effective date and I think within 15 days of closing or within 15 days of a bonafideed offer they would begin the process of going into the MUH3 uh district and changing the zoning on that property. So everything would be uniform. Also a concession that's noted in the term sheet is that should the deal fall apart, meaning we don't get a bonafideed offer within a year, uh they would also uh add a restrictive covenant into their own deed that would um not restrict but require a certain level of affordable housing. So it matches essentially the original LOI that we had um entered into earlier on with a set level of percentages uh for AMI. So once we agree with this county is also considering this uh at their meeting tonight at 6:30 uh then we will enter into a formal agreement.

Look I I will hats off to the county again. We had some disagreements there, some honest disagreements on the price. You know, I I can't u um blame them for trying to be good stewards of public money. We had the same responsibility. Our two appraisals were too far off to make it work. I think this is a good compromise. We don't have to use a lot of city money to buy it. We can let the private sector do that. So, uh they've been good to work with on this. I think it's in the spirit of collaboration and the spirit of uh trying to deliver collectively uh serious affordable housing into our community. So, I completely support it and uh appreciate the county's hard work on it.

May I add one little thing, too? It will not require an amendment to the term sheet, but uh Josh and I were speaking about this. They would like the ability to enter a ground lease uh for parking or something like that on the property in the interim, but they'll have the ability to terminate uh if we can reach a good closing, right? Which is fine. Okay. Um any further questions on this? We want to cover u uh 8.99. I always forget the addresses.

Do that one as well. Okay. So, this one is an amendment to the PSA. We've already reached the end of the due diligence. We're still working with dees to work out a voluntary cleanup contract or to um determine the restrictions and covenants uh that dees would put on us should we find some contaminants on the property. Um and we have conditioned the closing on those uh restrictions and conditions and whether or not we are willing to take them on. Yeah, this is a VCC agreement if you're familiar with it. It's a standard process. We want to make sure we get that in place. Um so it's pretty standard and they they completely support it. So correct. Any further discussions, comments on either one of these items? If not, can I entertain a motion?

Do we need a motion? Yes. As amended. Is that for both of them? Yeah, there we go. Trying to. So, I have a motion for approval as amended on uh items one and two. Any fur have a second? Second. All those Any further discussion on that? If not, all those in favor signify by saying I. Opposed, eyes have it. We are now down to committee reports. Uh, council me chairman Greg as as amended. A motion made properly second before we even get the light on. We have an amendment to uh to ways and means. We have an amendment.

Yes, it was. Yeah, it was as amended. Oh, as amended. Is that what your motion was? as amended and the second was as amended. Any further discussion on this? If not, all those in favor signify by saying I. I.

Oppos. Have it. You need this back. And mayor, just before you go on to second readings, um we need to withdraw three and they are items two, three, and number five. Um these were actually fasttracked at a previous meeting and I think they were um they followed over. Yes, they followed over with some of our other ways and means ordinances that received first reading. So those three just need to be withdrawn. That's 2, three, and five.

The scribers error. So, um, we've now instead of 16 bills up, we have 13 bills up for second reading. Um, can I entertain a motion?

Have a motion made uh, properly seconded. Mr. Mayor, uh, before we go to comments, Councilman McBride,

just really quick on items seven and eight, I didn't bring it up last time, but any annexation on John's Island gets extra scrutiny for obvious reasons. So, I just want to point out that both of those annexations, one for 2.29 acres and one for 0.41 acres, allows for a much needed stoplight to cross May Bank. uh on in the vicinity of Southwick and St. John's Woods Parkway connecting I would estimate at least 2,000 people um through multiple neighborhoods on both sides of Maybank to actually be able to turn left while the sun is up safely on Maybank Highway. So that is a very much needed uh and good development. Thanks.

Thank you for those comments. Any further comments on um these items? If none, we have a motion properly seconded on the floor. All those in favor signify by saying I. Opposed. Eyes have it. Move a third reading on 146 through 16. Second.

We have a motion made, properly seconded. Any further discussion on this? I start slowing things down. If not, all those in favor signify by saying I. Opposed? Eyes have it. Uh, give me a minute.

Oh, you you moved your Is that it? Uh, two more. Wait, you got No, go ahead. Hang on. So, our next city council meeting will be held on April 14th at 5:00 pm. If there is nothing further, yes, Mr. Mayor, really quickly, please.

You all will see. Council members, you have a packet on your desk. This weekend is one of the more exciting weekends in the city of Charleston. Um it's bridge run weekend. Um I know a number of you have already signed up and are going to participate, but if there's any member of city council, your family, or anybody here on staff who has an interest in participating, please let me or um all weers know from staff. We'll get you signed up. The race starts sharp 8:00 Saturday morning in Mount Pleasant, ends at Marian Square. It's a good time for all. And if you're not running, come out and cheer people on and uh enjoy really what's a great weekend in the city. So, bridge on weekend coming up. Big weekend. All right. Looking forward to it.