City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, I'd like to call this April 23rd meeting of city council to order. Madame clerk, would you please call the role? Council member Greg, Council Member Shay, Council Member McBride, Council Member Poke, Council Member Brady, Council Member Dalisandro here, Council Member Wearing, Council Member Seekings, Council Member Tinkler, Council Member Bowen, Council Member Appel, Council Member Scardan, Mayor Cogwell

here. I'd now like to ask Council Member Greg to give the invocation and lead everybody in the pledge of allegiance. Let us pray. Uh Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for uh the blessing of living in this this beautiful city. Uh we thank you for your creation. Uh the trees that are that are in bloom and um the green marsh grass. Lord, what a what a treat it is to live here. Uh Lord, we pray that you would just uh direct our thoughts, words, and work to be pleasing unto you. Please help us to do just do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly. Lord, we also uh lift up Tracy Somerville to you. Please, please heal her. Um and our friend Robbie that uh you might strengthen him and help bring him peace. Thank you for this day. Thank you for our time together. In your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. to the flag. United States of America to the republic stands one nation under God and indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Well, give it a minute. I don't really trust him yet. Um, we have one very special recognition tonight. I would like to call on the kronsburggs to please join me up on the dis. Give him

told Jason that I'm sure he had PTSD coming back into this chamber, but here he is and we are excited to give him a muchdeserved proclamation. So, if you will bear with me as I read. Whereas Jason Kronsburg has dedicated 16 years of service to the city of Charleston, contributing significantly to the advancement of parks and capital projects that enhance the quality of life for our residents and visitors. And whereas through his leadership, expertise, and commitment, he has played an integral role in shaping Charleston's green spaces and implementing projects that will benefit the community for years to come. And whereas Mr. Kronsburg has consistently brought both professionalism and passion to his work, earning the respect of colleagues and leaving a lasting impact across this city. And whereas a proud Charleston native, he has demonstrated a deep commitment to his community through his public service and stewardship of the city's natural and recreational resources. And whereas while his tenure with the city of Charleston comes to a close, he will continue to serve the community as executive director of the Charleston Parks Conservancy, fostering continued partnership in support of the city's parks and public spaces. And whereas his contributions to the city of Charleston will endure well beyond his years of service and will continue to benefit future generations. Now therefore, I, William S. Cogwell Jr., mayor of the city of Charleston, do

hereby proclaim April 23rd, 2026 as Jason Kronberg Day. Now before I let him go and you want to say anything you Okay. All right. you know, we've we've given him a day and uh and we were trying to think about, you know, what other things we might be suitable to recognize how much he has given to this city. But then we realized that Jason has very strong opinions. And so we decided that it might be in everybody's best interest to work with him uh on a most fitting and tribute to to everything he's done. So more to come on that, Jason. Uh there's going to be something somewhere uh maybe a topiary that might look like you uh that that will be named after you. And again, we just wanted to say thank you for everything that you've done for this city and really this region and looking forward to continuing to work with you closely, very closely in the future. Hand it over to you, my man. Well, thank you, Mayor Cogwell. So, I I have this opportunity and I I did write down some notes, so just be brief. Got a light crowd tonight, but it is a Thursday, so I'll just take the liberty of just saying a couple uh words. So, thank you. Very appreciative and humbled as I'm going through this transition. Um, all of your support except for especially for the mayors, Liz's Paulies, um, council member Seekings,

all of you on city council, uh, Edmund, Beth, you're both here. Thank you for being here. Jessica Jabadlo, she's not here, but Jessica is a current interim executive director at the conservancy. She's been amazing over the past six months. she has brought me on with a book of spreadsheets like you'll don't even know it's like um so thank you Jessica the conservancy board of directors um they've all been so supportive and quite frankly all of you and everybody at the city have been so supportive through this transmission trans uh transition so it's been so positive and as I've said before I didn't jump ship I just happened to get on the other pontoon so I'm still here. Um, this is the only job that I would consider leaving the city for to serve in the same way. So, um, it it really is a wonderful organization. There are way too many accomplishments that we've experienced over the last 16 years. Um, but most importantly, and you've all heard this before, is is working with all of the city staff. Really, the these jobs are not easy and it's amazing what gets accomplished every day. So, thank you to the entire city staff. Um, the parks department, the team I've left behind is second to none. Um, all the way down from the groundskeepers up to Edmond's position, Beth, the project managers, superintendants, deputy directors, everybody there is a master of what they do. It's a lot of work and and and you know, the the the depth of the chart is incredible. Um, so in closing, I just want to say that as we roll out our new mission at the conservancy this year is to cultivate exceptal public gardens and experiences in Charleston city parks. How do we do that? We do it together. And uh, that's the city, that's the conservancy, and that's the neighborhoods. That's the

only way it works. So, I'm looking forward to to reinvigorating that that fire and that passion. The volunteers have come out in full force. So supportive. uh the donors incredibly supportive. So, we're looking forward to um the next 20 years. 2027 2027 is the 20th year anniversary of the parks conservancy. So, it's been a long time. We're looking forward to the next 20 years. Um so, anyway, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm so happy to still be here and working with all of you. All right, we are now on to public hearings. We have eight public hearings tonight. Christopher Morgan, if you would please come up to the mic, give us a rundown. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Okay, here we go. Should go on here. So, um the first item before you tonight, item number one on the public hearing docket is 806 LC Drive. Uh this is in West Ashley. It's a request to reszone from single family residential SR2 to the job center classification. And uh here you see the property in question. To the east of the property is the old St. Andrews High School uh parking area. Um I don't know if this is

advancing or not. Let's see. Not at Okay, there we go. So, you see on this aerial the uh old St. Andrews High School parking area and then the um football field. Um to the south is a residence and there are some other residences along um the adjoining streets. To the north is a um child uh development center or small preschool type of facility. Uh so it's a very mixed area over here. Uh as far as types of uses, uh this is an image of the actual property. So it's a single family zone property, yet it has a older metal shed on it that's kind of like an industrial type of building. Uh it had had some sort of a warehouse type of use in it in the past. I believe it was for a slurpee vending machine items. uh and that moved out and then the property went up for sale and the applicants have bought it to convert it into a landscape um maintenance and landscape uh design business. Um this is uh some other images from around the street nearby uh on either side of it. And in our comprehensive plan, it is in the job center designated area. This is part of the DWAP plan. So it's in line with what the DWOP plan did uh recommend to have job center here. I think the reason it was zone single family was way before the DWOP plan when um there was some thought that there would be a little bit more residential in that particular location. But uh planning commission did review this and recommended for approval and uh it comes to council tonight. Moving on to your next item. This is uh item number two. This is 80 Aken Street on the peninsula. This is a request to change the old city

height district on the site from a four classification to a five classification. That means a four-story classification to a five-story classification. It's immediately adjacent to the humanities uh development, humanities uh foundations development that's going to be to the west of this on the left side. That is a fivetory building that's planned that's been going through design uh process. Um it is uh to the right of it is the SC state facility. That's a twostory kind of elevated two-story facility. Uh we've got some street views there. You see the SC state facility to the right and the vacant lot that will have the plain set affordable housing. I have an image of that in here as well. There are some threetory and fourstory residential structures nearby to the south. Uh there's also a older uh church that's going to be elevated to the south uh to the uh uh southeast of this particular property. Uh it's in our neighborhood designated area in the comprehensive plan. The planning commission did recommend approval for this uh 9 to zero. Um here is an overall image of some of the other buildings that have been built in the nearby area. You see the James Lewis apartments that are also a five-story structure and um other structures that were built by the Charleston Housing Authority. And oh, here we go. Here is the image that is the point set. This is coming from the adjoining lot being built by the humanities foundation, a five-story structure. So again, it gives you a sense of the other things that are going on in the area. Um and planning commission did recommend approval for that. And then immediately adjacent to this are properties the city owns that may be part of this project. And uh this request which is number three on your agenda is uh for 76 Akin 119 and 121 America. It's a two um prronged uh request. The first is to change the

zoning from the um uh DR2F to the mixeduse one workforce housing and then also to change the height district here from the old city height district 2 and a half to three to the old city height district 5. So it would match the property we just looked at to the north. Uh it would be to the rear of the SC state facility. And again just going through right now um the property to the north is four stories. The request for that one is to five. This would go to five and it would be in line with the properties that are to the west. And again, uh just giving you a sense of the aerial and relationship to the SC state facility and in the comprehensive plan and planning commission did recommend for approval on this item as well. Uh moving on, we have some recent annexations. Uh E4 is at 1416 Drexel Drive. We've come into the city a single family residential SR1. And there is a map of the property. There's an image of the property. The next one is um 879 Trent Street would come into the city with SR1 as well. There you see property. And then we have uh 205 Shady Lane in West Ashley would come into the city as SR1. And there you see an image of the property. And then 107 East Edgewater Drive in West Ashley. Uh SR would come in as SR1. There you see an image of the property. And then finally, number eight is um uh 2158 Golf View Drive, which would come into the city as SR1 as well. And there you see the map of the property and an image of the property. Happy to answer any questions you

All right. And we have three people signed up to speak. We have three people signed up to speak on these agenda items. Um, just want to remind everybody the rules of decorum. We ask that you be respectful. I'll give you one warning if you're not. Um, and if you continue, we will um, you'll be asked to leave. So, we have three people. So, let's give everybody a minute and a half. All right. Please call the first people.

Start with our um, in-person list first. Muhammad Okay. Um, John Henry Techberg. Um, good evening, city council, Mr. Mayor. Um, my name is John Henry Technberg and I'm the recent owner of 806 LC Drive. Um, I'm here to support the request to reszone from SR2 to Job Center. Um, I'm the owner of the small a small business that I started myself about seven, eight years ago called John Henry Designs. It's a I'm a landscape designer and garden designer. Uh, grow some plants and you know that kind of thing. So, I lived in that neighborhood and um I saw the existing warehouse on site and me and my family, my wife to have her second child and we're moving back into West Ashley. So thought it'd be a good opportunity to try to run my business out of this warehouse. Um so uh yeah, the reasoning would correct the mismatch and bring the property into alignment with the city's future land use map which said which designates it job centered and um yeah the request was approved by the planning commission and it's um my business is very low impact in nature. Plants will just be going in and out a couple times a day. uh will really improve the property with plantings and things like that so it doesn't look in its current conditions in pretty rough shape. Um so um yeah I think that's about it but thank you for your time consideration questions but thank you.

All right and we will move on to our online list. If you signed up to speak about the ebike ordinance, um you'll be speaking during citizens participation. This is just for public hearings. So, our online list, Anthony Bryant, you can press star six to unmute yourself.

Anthony G. Bryant. Uh my concern is under the administrative procedure act in terms of GB zonings uh in with staff in terms of a use variance provided similar to what's going on now GB on the corner of of Courtland and Rutledge. There was a fire at a church unsecured. There is a there's a housing authority development being redevelop homes unsecured. And then you had you have these issues, right? I've made public comments against against these issues for years in terms of staff following up with public safety in terms who have a sprinkler systems or whatever. We're longtime residents here. It's not our job to call them about issues. If we see it, it should be prevented. Now, we're getting all this new growth, new ideas. We need to be about the business of a followup with the community in terms of a user. This user isn't even being done. They're not even honoring their business. So, should it be a year? Should it be the end of use ranch for a year or whatever with this growth because we're dealing with unoccupied unsecured properties on from Munford to to to to Courtland on Ruters Avenue, the long-term residents in between on Saturday. So, I don't have a problem in terms of of the zonings. The followup is a deeper concern for me and definitely for me as a person. I'm the only person in my neighborhood with my type of skill set and talent that came before you. So, I'm taking this a little little little little little personal now in terms of that.

All right. Um, those were all the speakers that we had signed up. Was there anyone else who needed to speak to any of the public hearings? All right. That's all we had. Mr. Mayor, move approval of items 1 through eight. Sorry. Motion made, probably seconded. Any further discussion on any of these items? Items 1 through eight? If not, all those in favor signify by saying I opposed. Sorry, we had what? We had an A. It's an I from Oh, sorry. From the sky. All right. Opposed. Eyes have it. We are now on to uh We got council minutes. Can I get a motion? April 14th. Second.

Motion made probably seconded for April 14th. Approval of minutes. All those in favor signify by saying I. Opposed eyes have it. We are now on to citizens participation. Madame clerk, how many people do we have signed up to speak? We have seven. Let's just stick with a minute and a half. Thank you.

Katie Zimmerman. Hi, I'm Katie Zimmerman, executive director of Charleston Moves, 478 King Street. And um I wanted to thank you all. I know I've been very opinionated about the ebike, bike parking, emoto ordinance. Um, and I really appreciate the conversations I've been able to have with a lot of you and the conversation that was had today in the TNT committee um to amend the ordinance to really focus on sort of a pilot uh program related to ebikes um on Daniel Island specifically rather than a wholesale ban of ebikes on paths throughout the city. I also want to thank you all for taking a look at the ebike parking and regular bicycle parking aspect of the ordinance and just want to make sure that before expanding the confiscation program citywide. Um there's an opportunity to first replace the bike parking that has been removed, which it sounds like that is happening on side streets and then also expand the bike parking program so that everybody has the chance to actually follow the law before it becomes a law. Um so I think that's that's everything. Hopefully I'm not forgetting anything, but I just I really appreciate all of you for considering all of this, taking your time with it, and and coming up with a a good quality ordinance. So thank you. Francis Bailot.

Hello. Sorry. Um, I came up to ask you to look more carefully at the ordinance and make it more clear about what you don't want on PASS and what can be on paths. As a pedal assisted ebike user, um, at 54, I'm Michelle of my former self. I know I look fantastic, but um after six back surgeries, you know, I can't keep up with my son. He's a freshman at the Citadel and he's in better shape than I ever was or ever will be. So, I really do need a pedal assisted bike and I'm also a little bit lazy, I will admit. And I think a wholesale ban on quote ebikes was a bit premature. And so, I appreciate you taking the time to think that through and consider a uh more a different approach um so that we can allow those. And I look so much forward to uh crossing the Ashley River Bridge or the new pedestrian bridge on my pedal assisted grandpa bike um when that's developed. And I appreciate you just taking the time to think that through. Thank you,

Mohamd Dice. with the name of God. I accidentally found out that we was having this meeting this evening and it led me to the Bible in the 23rd chapter of Psalms first. The Lord my shepherd and thou shalt not want. He leadest me into green pasture and stole my soul. He kned my with all of my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I said those words from the Bible because we are being deceived. I didn't know they were going to have a meeting today, but I accidentally called my councilman, ask him about something else, and he told me, "We got to stop this foolishness, deceiving the public, and then want the public to do the right thing." Thank you.

Brian Helman. Good evening, Mayor, Council, members. Brian Helman, 105 Broad Street. I'm here tonight on behalf of my clients, King Street Holdings and Historic Charleston Foundation. I sent all of you a letter last night. I just wanted to say that if any of you have any questions about that letter, I'm here to answer them. Otherwise, I would ask that with respect to I2 on your agenda tonight, the matter in which that letter addressed, that when considering it, you do not vote in favor of that for the reasons set forth in my letter. Thank you. Brandon Gaskins.

Good evening, Mayor Car Cogwell, members of city council. My name is Brandon Gaskins. I'm an attorney at Morren Van Allen at 78 Wentworth Street and I represent 650 King Street LLC and I am here to respectfully request that you approve the settlement agreement between the city and 657 King tonight. Uh to begin, I want to dispel any suggestion that this settlement agreement was the result of a rushed or flawed process. The underlying dispute began approximately a year ago when the board of architectural review of gave conceptual approval to my client's design uh that was actually encouraged by the city. Since then, there have been a lot of twists and turns along the way um including settlement efforts that included uh the historic Charleston Foundation. Uh unfortunately those efforts went nowhere but I'm happy to report that we have an agreement before you today that resolves the underlying dispute and ensures that uh neither of the parties will have to deal with litigation in the future. Um, this was the product of an armslength negotiation in a mediation that was attended by the city's attorneys, uh, the city zoning administrator, the board, the chairman of the board of zoning appeals, and the board of zoning appeals, uh, attorney. So, while we understand Historic Charleston's Foundation's desire to be involved in this process, that desire does not trump what is in the best interest of the real parties and interest who are my client.

Importantly for you, the city of Charleston. This agreement is in the city of Charleston's best interest and for that reason, we ask that you approve it.

All right. And we will move on to our online list and you can press star six to unmute yourself. Anthony G. Bryant. I'm I'm deeply concerned. Um Dominion Energy Corporation has held back my lawsuit. The mayor met with Dominion Energy about Palmetto trees downtown. Secondly, the US attorney FBI is in Charleston County Duke School District where they have my information regarding the curfew. I saw the lobbyists, municipal lobbyists, council lobbyists, probably sheriff lobbyists lobbying to to undermine free speech, undermine opposition to the half cent seal stacks, to the tiff districts and whatever. And what we're seeing here is is pretty serious. Tonight there are special finance committee meeting the county council about the list for the half cent sales tax billions. So the future is billions. The present for us is atrisisk unhoused. That's our reality. And so we will talk to that reality irregardless of who's pushing this forward in November. Instead of talking to the opposition and working things out, you have to put them in prison or something really, really, really not cool. Thank you for your opportunity speaking with you tonight.

Right. Zach Biti and I believe he is here in person

here on the petticat issue. You chose to renew for another 10 years. Um, first, uh, I operated a pettic cab for five years. So, the idea that I could not safely do that, uh, seems a little ridiculous. I operated a pettic cab for five years, um, worked for these companies. So, the idea that I could not start my own company and do so safely seems a little uh, strange. Second, instead of having a bid, you said, "We're going to renew for an additional five-year contracts." I have those contracts. You held a bid in 2025. It was the first time in 15 years you got $60,000 from each of the three companies totaling $180,000. That is more money than they have given you in the entire 20 years of operation. So to forego a bid and forego millions or hundreds of thousands of dollars and just renew those contracts, if you want to see that the blue is for a bid, the pinkish red is for the actual renewal price that you got. That seems very uh foolish and you know counterintuitive. And finally, this is America. We have bids. We encourage people to take capitalist risk. We encourage people to start businesses in this city, in this country, and to say that our business threatens incumbents so much that you have to just give them all of the decals. It is foolish and unwise. And lastly, we bid on five decals. That's it. There are 30 that you are supposed to be bidding out, but instead of doing that, you are just giving the incumbents back. And we just wanted five.

So to say that we're going to completely displace them is just wrong. All we're going to do is encourage them to spend more money, which you will get.

And then we did receive some comments online. And one comment was received from Chris Order saying that the confiscation of bikes not parked in official bike racks would only be appropriate if the city expanded available bike parking. Three comments were received in support of ebikes on multi-use pass and against a bike confiscation program without increased bike parking. One comment was received from Hannah Donnelly stating that not allowing ebikes and e- scooters on multi-use paths would result in increased injuries and deaths. One comment was received from Anthony Bryant which was sent to council in full. One letter was received from the Coastal Conservation League against the ban on ebikes for multi-use paths and in favor of resolving the King Street bicycle parking situation. One letter was received from Brian Helman requesting def um that council not approve the mediated settlement agreement under item E2. And those are that's a summary of the comments that we have received online. Everything in full was sent to council before the meeting.

You madam clerk. Okay. Moving on now to petitions and communications. We have one appointment to the resiliency and sustainability advisory committee. One Jacob Gamble who will represent the Chamber of Commerce position. Can I get a motion? Move for approval. Motion made, properly seconded. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Eyes have it. Uh, next up we have the approval of a BZA mediated settlement for 657 King Street. We have uh Miss Creech, you have uh anything to present on this, but can I get a motion on this? Uh to get on a move for approval, me. Motion made, properly seconded. Justel,

just want to note for the record that I'm recusing myself on this one. Thank you. Okay, so we have a motion made properly seconded for approval of the settlement agreement. Mere, good evening, mayor and council members. The unique facts of this case brought to light internal inconsistencies in the city's development process. This proposed settlement brings clarity and consistency to that process and acknowledges the B's conceptual approval of a hotel design that it found suitable and appropriate for this site. We believe the settlement is in the best interest of the city and would ask that you approve it for that reason and I'll be happy to answer any questions that you might have about it.

Any questions, comments, thoughts on this? If not, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed.

Eyes have it. Okay. We are now on to my presentation. So, um I wanted to give you all just a brief update on where things stand with project 3500. We are looking to move towards a design phase for um this opportunity, this initiative to bring affordable housing units to the peninsula, but really all across the peninsula, all all across the city, but this is primarily focused downtown. And so as you all if we've discussed the idea here is for the city to kind of initially lead the design process and uh and and take away a lot of the entitlement and um pursuit cost risk that developers face when they come into uh the city of Charleston. Uh ultimately the private sector will be involved with this, but uh to get this off the ground, we would expect uh some capital for hiring um local design firms to help on the architecture, the civil, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, engineering, and structural. And so we would put out an RFQ uh much like we do for any solicitation um for this effort. And we need to make sure that we have potential funding sources to allow this to happen. Because two of these properties or areas fall within existing tiff districts, the proposal is uh that we would fund them uh for from those tiff districts. And we're not voting on anything tonight. I just wanted to highlight the idea that this is a kind of a a general Can we zoom in a little bit? Maybe I'm sure y'all can read that pretty well. Right. This was all included in your package, but this is basically a a a budget of what we think. This is the wrong slide.

That's what we're looking for. Yeah, there we go. So to taking it, you know, breaking it down based on engineering and architecture, these numbers will probably move around a little bit, but bottom line is we're looking at about $5 million that would be coming from the Cooper River Bridge TIFF, adding to that the $18 million for the purchase of the Long Shoreman property. So it's five million plus u that eight eight 18 million gets you up to the 24 I guess five and then there would be a much smaller amount for the central properties than those maps that you've seen in project 3500 because that largely will come at probably at a later phase and it doesn't have a tip district um uh associated with it and so the the balance would be on the west side which is falls within the horizon tip or the edge area. So, what we're proposing is that this would be a loose budget for us to go off of and submit the RFQS to get these design firms on board and starting work. And once we get those contracts, we would be coming back to council for approval of um those contracts with this being the funding source. So, again, nothing to vote on tonight. Just wanted to lay out how we're proposing to pay for this because these are very real expenditures. And for clarity, assuming we do spend this money, when we go to the private sector and we do this joint venture hopefully with the housing authority, um it will be this will be count towards our equity contribution as well as the land that we would be putting in. So it would be a dollar for-doll equity contribution into the joint venture. Uh so again, nothing to go over, nothing to vote on tonight, but I'm happy to answer any questions. Just wanted to highlight before we got too far ahead where we're proposing uh the

funding to come from. So, any questions that I can answer on this front? Mr. Mayor, I have a question. Kevin Pick,

is it your uh Thank you. Is it your intention for this to uh proceed through the community development committee or to come back directly to council um after opportunity review? uh the whole process will likely be going through uh community development uh as we move forward on the design and of course the contracts themselves will be going through not only community development but ways of means as well. Thank you. Yeah. And if there's any interest too just as an FYI as we start establishing the uh procurement um groups that would be reviewing these applications uh would certainly be open to that. I do think members uh of the districts in which they lie should be uh participating on that and perhaps um uh chairman of community development. Councilman Wear,

that was more my question. Uh when you put together these ad hoc committees, you know, for to kind of go through the applicants for RFQS, um what's that process going to look like? Have we worked that out yet? In other words, a number of them up there. I mean we go

the but three there would be three total. Um I mean so so the idea would be to secure first a design firm usually in these scenarios uh the structural the the the civil ultimately come in under the architect right but we would start with the design firm first and then build it from there. Uh so it may be that um uh we could we could give an umbrella approval to the design team and then uh uh make sure that their ultimate contract falls within this boundary. Um because we don't really necessarily want to be picking and choosing who every one that they work with and micromanaging that but we do want to be really focused on the design team. itself. So in terms of the makeup of the committee that would be reviewing and approving each of these RFQS, again my idea is that member of the district in which uh this would fall in would be a member of that as well as community development. And then I think in this case because this is such a large initiative and there's so many moving parts if anybody wants to participate I'm certainly open to having um more than what we normally have in uh a procurement uh review process.

Thank you for that Mr. Mayor because obviously the majority of these units going to be on the peninsula as you said. Yeah. Obviously um I'm way out in the woods in West Ashley. I'm very interested in this project. as my colleagues are from west of Ashley. So, thank you. Okay. Um well, no further questions. Uh we can move on or and then so there's no motion there though. No sir, there's no action needed.

Okay. Um, so we've got next on the agenda, we've got authorization for me to execute on behalf of the city of Charleston a combined subdivision participation and release form to allow the city's inclusion um on the opioid settlement. So, uh, Miss Copelan, as I was reading that, I was trying to remember what exactly it is, but I do remember now very well. Apologies. Let you give a little bit more information on this. No problem at all. So, the city has been participating in the opioid litigation for several years now, and in fact, we've been benefiting from some of the settlements um through programs uh three-year programs that we have implemented here at the city. Um this is six remaining remnant defendants is what they're calling them. Uh so, we can participate in the settlement with these six remaining defendants or we can keep pursuing it on our own. Um, generally we would suggest through our outside counsel that we go ahead and join the settlement and um, reap the benefits of that. I don't have an amount yet, but I can certainly provide that when I get it. Any further discussion on this or questions for Miss Copelan? If not, can I entertain a motion? Motion made. Probably second. If no further discussion, all those in favor, please signify by saying I.

I. Opposed? Eyes have it. We are now on to committee reports. Committee on ways and means with a with amendments. Right. Oh yeah. With with the added to motion made as amended properly seconded for ways and means. Any further discussion on this? If not all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Eyes have it. We have seven bills up for second reading. Move one through seven for second reading.

We have a motion to take all three all seven together for approval. If that and I have a second on that. Okay. Um any further discussion on these, Mr. Mayor? Yes.

Uh briefly, I just would like to express my uh appreciation to Mr. Martin in particular uh for all of the hard work that he uh engaged in uh to bring this uh number two number one the MU3 ordinance um uh to a point in which I'm very proud of it. Uh at our last council meeting, I mentioned uh it was important uh that there be a uh a section in the ordinance that spoke specifically um to um public housing residents and and allowed folks to see themselves in the ordinance regardless of where their protections might lie. Uh there were questions about that that um a lot of people uh surfaced. Um and we accomplished that and I'm very grateful for it. I'm very grateful to Mr. Martin. I'm also very grateful to you, Mr. Merit, I look forward uh to uh continued good faith progress with this effort. Thank you.

Yep. Thank you, Council P. And and thank you for all your interest in this and hard work on this too because I know you've really leaned in on this something you're very passionate about as we all are, but appreciate the oversight and uh thoughts and ideas and I think we have a better um ordinance for it. So, we have a motion made, properly seconded. If no further discussion on this for all seven items, all in favor, please signify by saying I. I opposed. Eyes have it. Move for third reading. Move third reading on all seven items. Any further discussion? If none, all those in favor signify by saying I.

Opposed? Eyes have it. We now have three bills up for first reading. N1 is the ordinance relating to ebikes which has been amended. Can we take that one separately from the other two, Mr. Mayor? Okay. So, can I get a motion on the

would move for approval of item number one with the following three amendments from the packet that you got today with the drafted ordinance. One is that the prohibition of ebikes on multi-use and shared use paths be limited to Daniel Island only and that it be effectively a pilot program that will run through the end of the year with us getting reports back from both um the residents and the police department on the effectiveness of that ordinance. The second um amendment is to strike what was struck on in terms of parking so that we can make sure that we provide parking in all areas of the city before we enforce um parking restrictions on bikes in areas that don't currently have um extensive bike parking opportunities. And the last amendment relates only to um scooters and that is that scooters will be allowed on um our road facilities in the city on streets with speed limits of 25 miles per hour or less as opposed to 35 miles an hour. And if you are interested in the reasoning for that, there are a number of streets, particularly on the peninsula that are 35 mph streets where it would just simply be dangerous to intersect scooters with cars. Examples I can think of off the top of my head are Calhoun Street, East Bay Street, portions of Lockwood Boulevard. So that's the motion as amended to approve first reading.

So we have a motion made, properly seconded. I do have one just point of clarification as it relates to the quote pilot program. Uh as I understand it and just want to be make sure that the committee is is in agreement here that the pilot program is really to determine whether or not this would be something that we would expand to other parts of the city. This is not a pilot program for Daniel Island. The intent is to keep it in place on Daniel Island. This is to test what happen might happen on the rest of the city. That is correct. Okay. Any further discussion? Uh, Councilman Bell,

thanks. And and I wasn't at the TNT committee, but I appreciate everybody's thoughtful consideration on that. I know this is um been been causing a little bit of uh anxiety for those of us who are not on Daniel Island. Um, but I do um, you know, while we're taking a look at this and how it works on on Daniel Island, I would kind of encourage us to maybe move a little bit faster than the end of the year. Um, I know I'm getting a lot of calls not about this precise issue of um, ebikes and emotos on shared use pass. It's it's really more on um, like neighborhood streets uh, has has been kind of more of a concern, but certainly where those paths uh intersect with u neighborhood streets has has become an issue. Um, but it's it's a it's an issue of great concern across the city. uh as it is I guess come to a head a little bit faster on Daniel Island than for most of us. But um I I do I would love to see a little bit faster movement than than the end of the year. Um and and then um you know I just I just want to point out that as we were talking about this uh kind sort of allowed me to think a little bit in the future about what outer west outer west ash is going to look like um as long savannah builds out and it's it's many more miles of um of paths really through you know sort of pristine environment that's going to be conserved out there. Um it's going to provide a lot of new opportunities for people to get around that I think has got to be part of our plan for that area. Um, and so, uh, I don't want to, as we're thinking about this in the future, I just don't want to do anything that discourages people from utilizing those new opportunities to get around knowing the congestion that exists already and is coming, particularly as some new commercial space comes online.

Thank you, Councilman B. I will just add to that that um part of this effort the the police department along with the school district has uh been pushing an educational uh component of this just letting people know um that you know what the rules are because a lot of what uh we get complaints about are people that are doing things on emotes or even bicycles that are illegal already uh on city streets or state stateowned streets. So, uh, we're going to be looking at continuing that education component. Also pushing for, um, more awareness of bike safety and pedestrian safety initiatives that are ongoing, particularly with DOT downtown, but really all over the city, like telling people that you're supposed to stop at a crosswalk, um, when there's a flashing light. I mean, just things that some people don't know. Uh, so there's a huge education component. And following up on that, uh, and related to that is enforcement. Uh, this is something that, u needs to be, uh, pushed and I think we're we're well aware of that and we're working with the police department on that as well. So, you have a follow-up? Yep.

Yeah. Just if if maybe we could, um, consider adding to the city's lobbyist portfolio asking our legislators to impose an insurance requirement on these things. I mean, it's, you know, the reality is as much regulation as we put in place or they put in place, um, you know, accidents are going to happen and, you know, they're called accidents for a reason. And so, uh, insurance would be an outstanding thing to make sure that people are protected if they do get hurt. Um, accidents involving these things. Council Ziggins,

just really briefly just um thank you to staff, to the public, and to this council for really leaning in on this conversation and debate. Um we'll see how it works. I Council Member Bowen, um I think that the end of the year is probably right. It's eight, my count it's eight months. We would normally do six months on something like this anyway to gather enough data and we'll keep an eye on it. We'll keep talking to the police department. We'll hear a lot from Daniel Island. Um and we'll uh we'll report out. So, we have a motion made uh seconded on this. Councilman Scarden, I'm sorry. Let me I think you were first and then I'll come to you. Is that

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thank you. Um, council member Seekings, just one clarification. The second amendment council member Seekings proposed is to reinstate the language in section 1912 A1 and A2 regarding King Street between Spring Street and Market Street. Great. Thank you. And yeah, I just want to understand the there make sure there is no sunset clause on Daniel Island for any of this. So all we're we're we're respectfully and I don't think there's anything that's going to be in the ordinance that says we revisit this in December, but we're just agreeing that we're going to look at this ordinance again in December and see if we want to apply it to other parts of the city. Is that correct? There is no sunset for Danielle.

Thank you. Just wanted to make sure. Okay. Motion made probably second. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying I. Opposed? Eyes have it. We've got two more bills for uh on the agenda for first reading. Can I entertain a motion? I'm sorry. We have a motion made for approval on taking two and three together and approving them. We have a second. Any further discussion on those two items? If not, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I

opposed. Eyes have it. Okay. Uh, next final agenda item is uh a brief executive session uh to discuss negotiations on a proposed contract agreement on the purchase of property. Uh, can I entertain a motion to go into executive session? A motion made, probably seconded. We will just go over to my office. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. Opposed. Eyes have it. We

I entertain a motion to come out of executive session. Motion made property second to come out of executive session. All those in favor signify by saying I oppose. Eyes have it. We are out of executive session where we uh discuss the items as defined. No actions were taken. Uh there's no further action for this committee. This