City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, all. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for this day, Lord. We thank you for life, health, and strength. We thank you for being God all by yourself. Please guide and direct us in this meeting today and our decisions that we make as well. Control everyone and everything that is in this building today so that we all can have a civil mind to do the things that are right in your holy sin. In Jesus' name, we ask it all. Amen.

America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda. Thank you, Ms. Butler.

Is there a second? Mr. Jordan.

I will second. Ms. Butler's motion.

I will probably second the motion to approve the consent agenda. All in favor, put your hand. Motion carries unanimously.

I am for a special presentation, or a two special presentations. The first of which is Employee Agreement for August 2026. Thank you, counsel. It is my pleasure to recognize Brian Bird, construction inspector and line locator with the public utility department as our employee of the month. Brian has one of those jobs where a good day often goes unnoticed, but a bad day can affect the entire department. His position carries a great deal of responsibility and requires him to work daily with contractors, residents, and fellow employees. What stands out most about Brian is the attitude he brings to work every day. No matter how busy or challenging the day gets, he approaches his job with a smile, a positive attitude, and a willingness to help. He is dependable, hardworking, and takes pride in doing his job the right way. Brian was also recently selected as our public utilities employee of the quarter. which speaks to the respect his co-workers have for him and the example he sets within our department. We are fortunate to have Brian on our team, and I am proud to recognize Brian Bird as the City of Conway's Employee of the Month. We appreciate it. Thank you. I have saved the presentation of .

So, Mayor, City Council, Mr. City Administrator, thank you for allowing myself and Mr. Elliott and also Chief Floyd to be here today to recognize and honor your firefighters for saving a life. My name is Jeff Quinn. I'm a regional sales manager with E.D. Bullard Company. Also, I'm a retired battalion chief from North Carolina with 40 years of service in the fire service. Wally Elliott here is retired from the fire service probably more than 40 years. Chief Billy Floyd behind me with North Myrtle Beach retired recently, earlier this year. Wally's the owner of Wally's Fire and Safety and your distributor for Bullard products. And to Chief Prezant and Conway Fire Department, we thank you for trusting Bullard. every day in the important work that you do as firefighters. Stories like this are what motivate all of us at Bullard to listen to your needs and to make sure we provide the best equipment possible to ensure your safety and the protection of others. Captain Herndon, if you, Firefighter Watts, Firefighter Gleason would come up, Chief Parker, if you'd like to come up too. As I said earlier, we're here today to honor and recognize these firefighters for saving the life of an adult occupant while using a Bullard thermal imager. This is not their imagery, but this is what it looks like, what they used. You're welcome to look at that if you'd like. You can't break it, I promise.

On May 30th, yes, they tried.

On May 30, 2026, at approximately 3.50 a.m., Conway Fire Department responded to a reported structure fire with possible entrapment at 1803 Rue Street. Upon arrival, companies found no visible fire from the front of the apartment building. After conducting a complete size-up of the building, the first arriving officer identified smoke and fire conditions at the rear of apartment A and initiated a fire attack. Ladder 53, staffed by Captain Jeremy Herndon, Firefighter Dallas Watts, and Firefighter Steven Gleason, were assigned to conduct a primary search of the apartment. Entering under extremely hazardous fire conditions and using their Bullard QXT Pro thermal imager, the company quickly located an unconscious victim in the front room of the apartment. Demonstrating exceptional skill, teamwork, and courage, they immediately removed the victim to safety where additional crews initiated advanced life support care. Following the rescue, Ladder 53 personnel re-entered the apartment to complete the primary search and ensure no additional companies remained inside. The victim was subsequently transported to a local hospital and transferred to a burn center for further treatment. The swift actions and decisive efforts of Captain Herndon, Firefighter Watts, and Firefighter Gleason were instrumental in locating and removing the victim from the life-threatening environment and most certainly contributed to the victim's survivability. Their commitment, focus, and dedication reflect the highest traditions and standards of the Conway Fire Department and the fire service profession as a whole. Captain Herndon, Today, I have the pleasure of presenting you with the Bullard Sable Life Award.

We have a certificate and a challenge coin for you.

Here's the certificate. It says to Captain Jeremy Herndon, he's now in the Bullard Sable Life Award. I also have a letter here from our president and CEO of Ellis Bullard.

On behalf of the entire Bullard family, excuse me,

I want to express our heartfelt thanks for your decisive and courageous actions during the recent residential structure fire in Conway. Learning how Captain Herndon and your team quickly located and rescued a trapped resident through the effective use of a Boulder thermal imager was deeply moving. We are truly honored to have played even a small role in that life-saving effort. At Boulder, we often say our mission is to help firefighters return home at the end of their shift. Moments like this remind us that it is your experience, judgment, and commitment that make the difference when conditions are uncertain. Time matters. The tools you carry are important, but it is your training, instincts, and teamwork that turn them into life-saving action. As a fifth-generation CEO of a family-owned company, I grew up understanding that the work you do is not simply a job, it is a calling. And that is the truth. It is a calling to be a firefighter. one that demands clarity under pressure, perseverance in difficult environments, and an unwavering dedication to others. Your response that day reflects the very values we strive to support every day and closes a small token of our appreciation, including a Certificate of Honor, Bullard Tough Patch, and Challenge Coin, recognizing your induction into the Bullard Save-A-Life Club. It is a community we hold in the highest regard, and your story now becomes part of our shared legacy. Thank you for your professionalism and resolve you demonstrated under challenging conditions. Please note, if there's ever anything we can do to help support your work through our products or our people, our team is always listening.

Congratulations.

This certificate is a visual reminder of your heroism of that day and how it impacted the life of an officer. It also signifies you being a member of the Save a Life Club. I also mentioned the challenge coin. For those who don't know what challenge coins are or what they symbolize, they are often issued to commemorate significant events, such as anniversaries of departments, retirements, promotions, or major incidents. Today, this challenge coin is to recognize a significant event.

Y'all saved a life. A woman is alive today because of you three guys, okay?

And in the process, you did your fire department and the city proud, okay? So here we have challenge points. Again, Mayor, City Council, Mr. City Administrator, thank you again for allowing us to be here.

Chief Brazan, Wally Gardner, anything?

I just want to express how deeply proud we are of you guys. Great job. And thank you very much for representing us well.

Just real quick, I'm Wally Elliott, and my grandparents came from Horry County. I pronounce it that way, Horry County, because that's the way they pronounced it, and for the sake of heritage, that's the way I pronounce it as well. But we're headquartered in Mullins. We cover all of South Carolina and southeastern North Carolina. We're very appreciative of the city of Conway for many years of loyal service to Wally's Fire. We do really appreciate that. and real quick i'd just like to say that this is just a tool it's it's no more than an axe on a fire truck unless you put it in the hands of brave and courageous trained firefighters it's worthless so it's got to be there that's one thing the other thing is municipal governments county governments governing agencies had to provide fire departments with that funding or they would not be able to have these tools we hope you see the uh have seen the effects of it and uh just to let you know if it were smut black in here you couldn't see your hand in front of your face you would see that same image So that's the advantage in thermal imaging. So thank you very much all. Congratulations, fellows. Thank you on behalf of those that are here today because of you.

We also have a certificate here that can be hung in Headquarters Station, and we have a Taylor's Tens plaque that shows the induction in the Bullard Hall of Fame. Excuse me, the Bullard Save-A-Life Club. Also, in manufacturing in Cynthiana, their name, Conway Fire Department, will be on the wall next to Florence five times. Florence has done this five times with a Bullard imager. that way when the employees manufacturing employees go in they know why they're building what they build and how it affects others okay again as a firefighter for 40 years i've been doing this job for five years they truly care at bullard what they do for you so thank you for allowing us to be here

I need that back. You can't keep that.

Hey, we got Halloween coming up. And that's a big part of our celebration here. So I got an idea. This has obviously been in the fire. It smells like smoke. Okay. Okay. So am I looking at... So when I look at Larry, when I point... So I keep seeing the red square. Is that the hottest... So that's showing 90 degrees. What's the red box? Okay, because every time Mr. White opens his mouth, the box goes to this one over here.

All right, okay.

Here, you better take that back. I get in trouble with that. going to talk about flock cameras later and i just between that oh thank you thank you so much and the citizens are the one that fund that

It is not unusual that I transpose

On our agenda, I accidentally skipped item B, but under the circumstances, I'm happy I did. Item B is a presentation of a proclamation, America the Entrepreneurial. Since there's no one coming to receive this, I'll just read it from my seat. Proclamation from the Office of the Mayor, Calumet, South Carolina, America the Entrepreneurial. Whereas we celebrate America's 250 years of growth and prosperity, acknowledging this could not be without the entrepreneurial spirit of her people. Dreamers acting on their dreams through learning, creating, and risk-taking built this nation. They connect people in cities, providing conveniences, specialty goods, and amenities that foster economic and social health. And whereas, entrepreneurs create local jobs, generate wealth, diversify services, and provide for many human needs. People with vision, hope, and bravery made and sustained our country, as they did for the city of Conway, South Carolina. It is our duty to encourage and feed their hope, their energy, and their continuation. And whereas, it is also our duty to consider the value of entrepreneurs in our city. In so doing, we will assure an environment that fosters, welcomes, and supports new, usually small and independently owned businesses. Therefore, as Mayor of the City of Conway, South Carolina, I hereby proclaim that the City of Conway joins America the Entrepreneurial and celebration of entrepreneurship in our nation. I further proclaim that this day, August 17th, 2026, is Entrepreneurial Day in the City of Conway, and witness whereof I've set my hand and caused the sale of the City of Conway, South Carolina to be affixed the 17th day of August, 2026. It is attested to by our clerk, Miss Alicia Shelly. Item D is a discussion of a request to rezone approximately 67 1⁄2 acres of property located on Mill Pond Road, Church Street, Camelot Street, Carolyn Street, and Lockwood Lane to a planned development district and consider a proposed development agreement for commercial and multifamily residential development. Ms. Hux.

Yes, this item is just for discussion of the proposed redevelopment of approximately 67 and a half acres of property on Mill Pond Road, Highway 501, Camelot Street, Carolyn Street, and Lockwood Lane. The properties are currently zoned Highway Commercial and Low to Medium Density Residential, or R1. The applicant is proposing to rezone the properties to a planned development district to allow for a coordinated mixed-use redevelopment of the site. The proposal includes a fairly significant commercial component along with multifamily residential development. The commercial areas on the conceptual site plan are shown primarily in purple and salmon or orange, while the residential area is shown in pink and the open space or common areas are shown in green on the site plan. A development agreement is also being proposed in conjunction with the PD. That agreement is still in the draft form and it's intended to address the development parameters, infrastructure responsibilities, public improvements and other obligations and public benefits associated with redevelopment of the property. No approvals are being considered tonight. This is being brought before you as an early discussion item so that council has an opportunity to see the overall concept and provide any feedback you may have before the request moves further through the formal review and public hearing process. Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on both the proposed planned development district and the development agreement on September 3rd, and assuming they make a recommendation, the items would come back to Council on September 21st. Additionally, while not part of Planning and Development's review, I do want to mention that the applicant has indicated They intend to pursue a TIF district and a municipal improvement district or a MID in connection with the project. Those will be evaluated separately, but they are part of the applicant's overall redevelopment proposal. With that, I'll be happy to try and answer any questions that you have.

Thank you so much, Ms. Oaks. Does anyone have questions? I will ask, just for the sake of the public, would you point...

So the green portion that you see, those are going to be common areas or open space areas and the larger greener portion on the other side of Lockwood Lane, that is proposed to just be used as conservation area because of the wetlands. Thank you. Assuming there will be a wetlands delineation done to show exact locations of any wetlands at the development phase.

And I can't find my map quickly enough, but looking at the bottom, those that appear in pink and you've got smaller parcels, one of the questions that's going to be raised in the community is what is going to be in those parcels? Do we have any way of knowing?

No, we do not. Not until they submit official plans would we know what all the tenants are. And a lot of times developers will just develop the building and then people will come in and get up fits and they'll put, you know, something in at that time. So the building may be there, but we don't know who the tenant will be.

Thank you. I assumed an out lot was for that purpose.

Mr. Goldfinch, I'm sorry.

No, no, thank you, Mayor. Just piggybacking on Mayor's comments, I think when City years and years ago built Mill Pond Road, it was built elevated relative to a great deal of the surrounding topography, and it lends itself to perhaps make people believe that the areas adjacent to it are more wet. That's some of the feedback I've gotten. Gotcha. And I think it's just it looks that way. And that's sort of how I've been explaining it. So maybe maybe that would help if the if the mid or the TIF doesn't work or we can't go that route, but we look at a multi-county business park.

I'll leave that to Mr. Emmerich.

A multi-county business park would require the county to initiate that procedure. And our talks on some other issues, they're a little reluctant to do that for straight retail. Usually they look for bigger industrial projects to do those with. So we're hopeful that we're able to make it work with some of the other financing tools that they're looking at.

I would hope that we can perhaps convince them that a big retail project is in fact industrious for Conway and industrial in nature.

I think we would agree on that.

Yeah.

And we also have more than commerce. We've got residential, multifamily residential coming there. That's really important for us. Anyone else? Questions or comments? Mr. White.

And on that part about the residential, Could we make certain or ask that a certain percentage of the homes be for workforce housing?

We cannot do that under our ordinance, but we can put a bug in their ear.

Can we change the ordinance?

Not before this gets through.

I knew that answer. That's it. Thank you.

Anyone else? Ms. Huxley, you've explained it very well. Thank you so very much. Alright. We'll hear more soon. Item 5A, these are public hearings and first reading. A is public hearing and first reading award, ZA-2026-0908H, granting a non-exclusive franchise agreement to Blackwater Bites mobile food truck to operate at the marina for Elm Street. Ms. Wilkerson, how are you?

Good afternoon, counsel. It's actually Backwater Bites.

Backwater.

not black water right it's back water okay it's misspelled here mr. Eric Jordan operating as Conway outpost LLC holds a lease agreement with the city of Conway to maintain the marina building parking lot and immediate grounds the lease outlines the the leases intent and to introduce a rotation of food trucks to diversify the marina store's offerings. Per the agreement, all food trucks must comply with current city requirements, including proper location licensing and inspection. Mr. Jordan is requesting authorization to operate a mobile food truck Backwater Bites, seven days a week at 4 Elm Street. In alignment with Section 5A of the lease agreement, the applicant acknowledges that food trucks will not be permitted to operate during any approved special events in the area.

Thank you so much. No problem. This is first a public hearing. Is there anyone present who would like to speak either in favor of or against this ordinance? There being no one, do we have to close public hearing on each one? Ms. White?

May I close public hearing?

I second your motion. All in favor, please show your hand. Motion carries unanimously. And now, relative to first reading, Mr. Goldfinch.

Thank you, Mayor. Mayor, I would move that we welcome Backwater Bites to the City of Conway.

Thank you so much. Is there a second?

I'm sorry, Mr. Jordan.

We have a properly seconded motion to approve first reading of this ordinance. Are there questions or other comments? Ms. Butler.

I just have a quick question. Is this the first food truck that's in this area? Because I know that we have, did we not have an agreement with another food truck that was like on a little further down?

There's one for the tennis center area.

Yeah, okay, okay.

Thank you. Anyone else? There being no further comments or questions, I'll call the vote. All in favor, please show your hand. Motion carries unanimously. Item B. Public hearing and first reading award is ZA-2026-0908I, approving a development agreement for approximately 121 acres of property located along Highway 378 in connection with annexation and rezoning of the property into the city of Conway. Ms. Hooks.

The proposed development agreement is being considered in conjunction with the annexation and zoning upon annexation of the property, which is the following item on the agenda to be considered. Just as a brief overview, a development agreement is authorized under state law and establishes certain rights and obligations of the city and developer associated with development of the property. In this case, the proposed agreement would provide certain vested development rights for an initial five-year term while also establishing infrastructure responsibilities, environmental protections, public improvements, and negotiated public benefits. The current draft of the agreement addresses a number of those items. Some of the more significant provisions include the conveyance of approximately 21 acres to the city for park and trail purposes, Go to that. Including construction of approximately 2,600 linear feet of an eight-foot-wide paved multi-use trail, roadway and utility connections to adjacent properties, transportation improvements that may be required as a result of this traffic study, which we have not yet received, SCDOT or the city, protection of environmentally sensitive areas, and negotiated treatment of the city's tree preservation and mitigation requirements. I do want to emphasize that the agreement before council tonight remains a working document. The developer recently provided a revised draft and staff in the city's legal council have reviewed it and provided a list of comments and suggested revisions. Several substantive matters still need to be finalized before final consideration. These include the timing and financial assurance for transportation and other required improvements, timing and conditions associated with the park property and trail improvements, the extent of the proposed tree mitigation relief and how future changes to the master plan would affect that relief, and several environmental infrastructure assignment and enforcement provisions. The traffic impact analysis has also not yet been provided, so the specific transportation improvements that may ultimately be required as a result of the development are not yet known. Planning Commission held the first required public hearing on August 6th and recommended approval of the proposed development agreement with the understanding that the details of the agreement would ultimately be negotiated between the developer and council. Tonight is Council's required public hearing and consideration of first reading. Staff recommends that Council conduct the public hearing and consider first reading with the understanding that the agreement remains subject to continued review and final revisions before it is presented for final consideration. The applicant or their representative may also be present if Council has any specific questions for them, but I'm also happy to answer any questions that you have.

Thank you, Ms. Hicks. Before we get into the public hearing, I have single question and it speaks to a statement that you just repeated that several substantive matters remain unresolved is there a rush I just wonder there have been some weeks that have passed between our contacts and making some things apparent to the proposed development and to the developer and if those things haven't been cleared is there a reason why we need to do first reading today

Well, it would not be able to move forward for final reading until those changes, and most of them are administrative in nature. We have had discussions with legal counsel who has looked at this, and he is discussing it with their legal counsel. I've not received a revised or updated version, but before it would be submitted for final reading, it would have to address all of the comments to staff's satisfaction and TRC's satisfaction as well.

okay um but as far as there being a rush i would have to defer to the applicant on on that okay i understand mr goldman i just was going to piggyback on your point mayor i mean to that to mayor's point is there so this would come for final reading in two weeks okay okay so that is applicant is that is that substantial is that meaningful time to work out the the the details.

I definitely think it's enough time to work out the details. I'm not really concerned with that. The only concern that staff would have is that maybe there are some specific things that they're not wanting to revise and I have not had those discussions with the developer themselves to either confirm that whether or not they are going to make those changes. Just to give you an example of one of the things that staff had provided to the applicant, they're going to construct 2,600 linear feet of a trail and convey 21 acres of property to the city. Their proposal is to convey that property 90 days after they obtain ownership. But it also does not address the timing of the installation of the trail. So we need to finalize the timing of the trail construction and land conveyance and the required financial guarantees, should there be any required, and make sure that the city's future use of the property isn't unnecessarily restricted.

So the land conveyance is meaningless without the improved trail. So really, that's a moot point. This comes down to, you know, give us the time. Like, you know, if you're building 120 houses, whatever phase, we want this. And that's common. We've done that many times before where, you know, you can't wait five years after the neighborhood is done to put the park in.

Yeah, whether that's going to be at construction plan approval, final plan approval, or after so many building permits have been issued, that's the part that we've not finalized.

Well, and all I'd say in response to that is absent a rush, it just seems like we'd be closer to an agreement before. I understand that first reading precedes the final reading, obviously. I don't know what value, what benefit there is to having first reading done today as far away from an agreement as we seem to be. Mr. White.

Could we, what would happen if we denied first reading now?

If you deny for screening, then it would not be annexed into the school. If you deny the development agreement, the annexation could still proceed, and they could still get the rezoning, but then all of the agreements or all of the things that are in the development agreement would not move forward. So it's possible that it could be annexed and rezoned, but then you wouldn't have the public benefits associated with the development agreement.

Mr. Goldfinch. Thank you. So if we go ahead and pass first reading tonight, we're not, this is not, the ink's not dry. This is just allowing the process to continue. This is just allowing staff to continue to work with the applicant to move things along. So here's my procedural question. If on September 21st, we're to impasse. And you guys aren't happy. The applicant's not happy. We're not there yet. We've already passed first reading. We can defer second reading without a problem until everybody's on the same page, right?

Absolutely.

OK. And I believe that would be staff's recommendation.

Yes.

All right. In that case, the person who asked all the questions, a couple of those questions will move that we approve first reading. Oh, I'm so sorry. It's too early for that. We have not had our public hearing. I just wanted to get those questions out first. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing to determine whether or not the city council should follow through with first reading on this proposed ordinance. Is there anyone here who is prepared to speak either in favor of or against the ordinance? We'd like to hear from you now. There seems to be no one, so I move that we close the public hearing. Ms. Dwight?

I'll second.

All in favor, please show your hand. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Ms. Huss. And now I will move that we proceed with the approval of first reading. Is there a second? Ms. Butler?

I second that motion.

There will probably be a seconded motion to approve first reading of this ordinance. Are there any remaining questions or concerns? There being none, we'll call a vote. All in favor, please show your hand. Motion carries unanimously. Item six, first reading. Aborned at Z8-2026-0908J to rezone approximately 121 acres of property located along Highway 378 from Orea County Commercial Forest Agriculture. CFA district to the city of common medium density residential and conservation preservation districts as hugs

Yes, so this item is related to the annexation and zoning request for the Harrison tract or the development agreement for the Harrison tract that was just discussed. The property consists of 120.7 acres located along Highway 378. The current zoning is Horry County Commercial Forest Agriculture. The proposed zoning upon annexation is medium density residential and conservation preservation. Council approved first reading of an ordinance annexing the subject property on May 4th. Planning Commission held the public hearing on the proposed zoning upon annexation at its August 6th meeting, recommending approval of medium density residential, or R2, and conservation and preservation zoning for the AE flood zone areas as proposed. The breakdown of the zoning would be approximately 86.4 acres zoned R2 and 32.3 acres zoned conservation preservation upon annexation. The proposed zoning is intended to work in conjunction with the development agreement that was just considered, so this would not move forward without the development agreement.

Thank you, Ms. Huggs. What is the wish of the council? Mr. Goldfecht.

Mayor, I move that we approve first reading of settlements.

Thank you. Is there a second?

Mr. White?

I'll second.

We have a properly seconded motion to approve first reading of this ordinance. Are there questions or comments? There being none, we'll call a vote. All in favor, please show your hand. Motion carries unanimously. Item C, first reading of Ordinance ZA202060908L to rezone approximately nine and a half acres of property at 2899 East Highway 501 from Horry County Highway Commercial District to City of Conway Commercial District. Ms. Alex.

Yes, this would be, this ordinance is for the proposed zoning upon annexation for 124 Quail Run within the Quail Creek Village subdivision. Council approved first reading of the ordinance annexing the property on July 20th. The property contains an existing single family residence and it's currently zoned Horry County SF 10. The proposed zoning is low to medium density residential, or R1, which is consistent with the zoning applied to other properties within this subdivision that have been annexed into the city. Planning Commission held the required public hearing on August 6th and recommended approval, and staff also recommends approval.

Thank you so much, Ms. Huggs. Who's ready to make a motion? Mr. White.

I move that we approve first reading.

Thank you, Ms. Helms.

Second the motion.

Properly seconded motion to approve first reading of this ordinance. Are there questions or comments? For being none, we'll call a vote. All in favor, please show your hand. Motion carries unanimously. Item D is first reading of ZA-2026-0901. Mayor, I think we're on C. C?

Yes, ma'am. C?

But actually, with council's permission, this item, 6C and 6D, they are related and could be presented together if that is something you'd like to consider.

Can I find 6C? Just one second, please. I think I'm missing a page. All right. This one. 0908L. JK. We are on H-A-L-C. Okay. Wonderful. I found it. Thank you. First reading ordinance. Pardon me, please, everyone. First reading ordinance Z-A-2026-0908-L to rezone approximately 10 acres of property at 2899 East Highway 501 from Horry County Highway Commercial District to City of Conway Highway Commercial District. Just read that? Is that the right one now?

That is the right one. You skipped B originally.

It was presented and voted on B. I see.

But B was presented and voted on.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So are we doing B or C?

so this is um yeah okay so i read the right one okay wonderful thank you so much and this one in the next item on the agenda 6d um they do involve separate ordinances because not all the properties are contiguous with one another but they do have the same applicant and they are associated with the same potential future development project if council would like to absolutely absolutely let's do that um i'll also add

Item D, first reading ordinance Z-2026-0908M, to rezone approximately one and 74 one hundredths of an acre of property on Highway 501 and Gardner-Lacey Road, including properties at 101 and 103 Gardner-Lacey Road from Horry County Limited Industrial and Highway Commercial Districts to City of Conway Highway Commercial District. Ms. Huggs.

Yes, ma'am. Together, these requests involve approximately 11.23 acres along Highway 501 and Garner Lacey Road. Council approved first reading of the ordinances annexing the subject properties on July 20th. The applicant is now requesting the properties be zoned highway commercial upon annexation. The larger property is approximately 9.49 acres, and it's currently zoned Horry County Highway Commercial. The proposed zoning of Highway Commercial is also consistent with the city's future land use map. The second group of properties consist of 1.74 acres along Highway 501 and Gardner-Lacey Road. These properties are currently zoned Horry County Highway Commercial and Limited Industrial. The City's Future Land Use Map designates the properties as industrial, so the requested zoning of Highway Commercial is not directly consistent with the Future Land Use Map. However, the properties are located within an established commercial and light industrial area along the 501 corridor, and staff believes how a commercial is compatible with the existing development and zoning pattern in the area. The properties are being assembled as part of a future commercial redevelopment involving several surrounding properties. At this time, however, no site redevelopment plans have been submitted for review. Planning Commission held the public hearing on both items at their August 6th meeting and recommended approval of the highway commercial zoning of the properties upon annexation, and staff recommends approval for both items

on the agenda as well thank you so much uh i move that we approve item c andy is it That's right. Thank you very properly seconded motion to to do just that are the questions or comments before we move forward There being none. We'll call a vote all in favor. Please show your hand motion carries unanimously I don't eat first reading of Ornette Z 2026 0 9 0 8 in to rezone approximately two and a half acres of property located on Highway 501 across from Sioux Swamp Drive from Horry County Commercial Forest Agriculture and Highway Commercial Districts to the City of Conway Highway Commercial District.

Council approved first reading of the ordinance annexing the subject property on July 20th. The property is currently vacant and zoned a combination of Horry County Commercial Forest Agriculture and Howie Commercial. The requested city zoning upon annexation is Howie Commercial. This annexation is being requested primarily to facilitate the future construction of a public right-of-way through the property that would provide access to adjacent properties previously annexed into the city. No site development plans have been submitted at this time. The future land use map designates the Highway 501 frontage of the property as highway commercial and the remainder as low to medium density residential. While the requested zoning is not entirely consistent with the future land use map, it is consistent with the Highway 501 frontage and existing zoning pattern in the area. Planning Commission held a required public hearing on August 6th and recommended approval, and staff also recommends approval.

Thank you, Ms. Hux. What is the will of the council?

May I approve fresh reading?

Thank you. Is there a second? Mr. Goldfinch.

I'll second Mr. White's motion, please.

We'll have a property seconded motion to approve first reading of this ordinance. Questions or comments? There being none, all in favor, please show your hand. Motion carries unanimously. Item F, first reading of Ordinance ZA-2026-1005A to annex approximately 27 acres of property located at 605 Century Circle. Ms. Hubs.

Yes, the applicant is requesting annexation in conjunction with the proposed track and field complex for Coastal Carolina University Athletics. Upon annexation, the proposed city zoning is institutional, which is consistent with the city's future land use map, designation for the property, and with the proposed university athletic use. If Council approves first reading of the ordinance annexing the property, Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the proposed zoning of the property at their September 3rd meeting. Staff does recommend approval of first reading of the ordinance to annex the subject property.

Thank you, Ms. Hawks. I move we approve. Is there a second? Ms. Butler.

I second that motion.

Thank you, Ms. Butler. Are there questions or comments? In that case, we'll call a vote. All in favor, please show your hand. Motion carries unanimously. Item G, is for first reading of Ordinance Z, 2026, pardon me, 1005B, to annex approximately two and a quarter acres of property located at 1643 Weldon Lane, Ms. Huggs.

Yes, this would be the first property along this portion of Weldon Lane to be annexed, and most of the surrounding property remains in the county, is largely wooded and undeveloped. Although Weldon Lane is a public road, the public roadway does not extend to this property. Access is provided via a 50-foot right-of-way or easement crossing privately owned properties, so the property does not have direct frontage on a public road. Additionally, a significant amount of the property is within the AE flood zone and the city's future land use map designates the property as conservation preservation. The requested zoning of R1 upon annexation is not consistent with that designation. Due to limited access, location relative to existing city development pattern, environmental constraints and the potential challenges associated with extending city services and regulatory responsibilities, staff does recommend disapproval of the requested annexation.

Thank you, Ms. Fox. I move we disapprove. Is there a second? Mr. Jordan. Second. I'll probably second that motion to follow staff's recommendation in not approving this ordinance. Are there questions or comments? If there have been none, all in favor, please show your hand. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you so much, Ms. Alex. Item 7 is public input. Many of you have waited a long time for this. We will hear from you in this order, Mr. Travis Todd, Ms. Sarah Rich, and Ms. Fran Rickenbacker. There are just a couple of Things I'll tell you about public input, you're limited to three minutes. There are monitors everywhere so that you can gauge your time. I'll probably let you finish the sentence, but I'm pretty strict about the three minutes. I appreciate you being ready. We can discuss anything but an individual employee. That would need to be taken up in a more private venue. And public input is not interactive. We probably won't answer your questions or fix anything today, but just know that you're being heard, and we'll follow up on what you brought to us. Mr. Todd, welcome.

Thank you, Mayor and Council and staff. I appreciate y'all having me out today. My name is Travis Todd. I reside at 901 12th Avenue. The reason I'm coming here, many of y'all have supported me and prayed for me and my son over time. Last year, we had to make a decision to amputate his left foot. And he's eight years old, just turned eight last week. And it made me realize how people with disabilities struggle. And it started when I took him out in his wheelchair for the first time and I noticed that I couldn't get down the street in front of my house because it was covered with trash from citizens putting the trash on the sidewalk. And then it was the amount of sediment that was on our streets in Conway. And then as I noticed, there was no ADA tactile pads. And I began to read and do some research in ADA departments and there was a lot of things missing in the city of Conway. And there's things that are being done, new construction, For instance, there's valve doors that are above grade on our sidewalks. There's stormwater drains that are in the middle of sidewalks. We did a project on Louisville Street, and from there, we're missing the ADA tech house pads after we changed it out. Built a bridge for the marina at the border wall. There's no way anybody in Washington can access it, get over it. And we have food trucks that are at different events, and they always park in the handicapped spots. We have live music at the marina, and they set up the bands in the old handicapped parking spots. So I begin to look around at some of the homes where the city doesn't see. And another issue I have is on 12th Avenue, everyday parents park on the road to pick up their kids. The kids run across traffic to get to Mom and Daddy's car, blocking the sidewalks. And then also, Colling High School, if you look across on Church Street, to occur, the sidewalk crossing does. So I would just ask if the city would be willing to put together a board or a commission, take in people's input, to see what we can do to improve. You know, I go to the south side of town, Fort James Town, everything's covered in sediment. 12th Avenue, we have it scraped through the roads, the sidewalks are loose. The McDonald's, there's no sidewalk in front of the McDonald's, but there is on every other portion there. We have a building taken out there on College Jolly, are not accessible for those with disabilities. There's just multiple of them. So I would say as we grow, we build commonly. We want to build better. And we want to make sure that we're getting, just look through the lens of somebody with a disability. There's 1 in 27 people, 27% of the population in the U.S. has a disability. So I would just ask for y'all to look at that as we go.

We thank you for your conscientiousness. We thank you for your advocacy for people in wheelchairs and on crutches. And we will continue to try to catch up and to rectify those issues. I promise you. Thank you. But thank you for bringing them to our attention. Thank you. Ms. Sarah Rich. How are you?

Good evening, Mayor, Council. Nice to be up here again. I'm not here with any complaints or anything like that. It's more of an informative reason for me being here. Also, Sarah Rich, 1504 McKeithen Street, and I'm also with the Coastal Conservation League. um i uh and my team at the league are really excited to see conway moving forward with transportation connectivity and trails and things like that with the horry county industrial corridors overlay going through its first reading tomorrow night it seems especially imperative to think strategically and act quickly about matters related to industry and its impacts on transportation and on communities and on our natural environment, of course. So at the Coastal Conservation League, we've been hearing a lot from the members of the public about concerns about data centers that are moving into neighboring counties, here on the North Coast especially. Most recently, these data centers are not the hyperscale type that everyone knows about, but they're these sort of smaller, modular things that work a little bit differently. But these companies that are moving in, again, to our neighboring counties are not really disclosing a lot of relevant information. And so there are some outstanding concerns. Like many counties, Horry is not in a position right now, sees no need for any kind of moratorium. which is why municipalities around the country are adopting their own. In fact, my hometown before Conway, which is Boone, North Carolina, just adopted a one-year data center moratorium earlier this spring. So I drafted along with a few of my CCL colleagues and some of our partner institutions like Skelp, a model data center moratorium that we're sharing with counties and municipalities along the coast to try to make sure that communities are protected while local government starts to put in guardrails for this new kind of tech-based industry. So basically what the moratorium does is it buys time to learn about the unintended and unanticipated effects on, again, natural environments and our neighborhoods, where we live and where we work. Additionally, if, for example, the city of Conway were considering a wetlands ordinance, then a moratorium would allow time to build in protections like buffers for potentially threatened ecosystems. It would allow time to gather comparative data from other areas and also to craft compatible ordinances that are informed by responsible science and good community values. So we will have this available on our website or possibly on Skelp's website imminently, but I wanted to go ahead and just bring paper copies for your review.

I'd be very interested in seeing what you have. Thank you. And the final, no, no, I'm sorry. We have two more people. Ms. Fran Rickenbacker, if you'd come forward, please. Hey, how are you?

Thank you. My name is Rand Rickenbaker and I live on 10th Avenue. I've come before council because of a safety issue. For those of you not familiar with our part of 10th Avenue, it is a divided neighborhood street with a grassy median. Each lane is meant for one car going in one direction. In May, Rick and I were coming home from a city event down Lakeside to turn onto 10th when a car came down the wrong way. We narrowly avoided a head-on collision. The city put up directional arrows in the appropriate areas to protect everyone. We have a lot of new people in Conway and I don't think they're familiar with our street. Unfortunately, we have seen cars going the wrong way many times. On August 4th, the city workers removed the arrows because there were some complaints because of the way they looked. over them making our streets safer i do think they were working but since they have been taken down we have seen cars going the wrong way i love my neighborhood but i am scared that someone is going to get hurt we have a lots of walkers not on sidewalks because the sidewalk only runs down one side of the street kids on bikes and scooters runners dog walkers and they should not have to worry about vehicles traveling the wrong way We don't have any signage or directional arrows or anything to help the problem. Our aesthetics worth more than the safety of our children, citizens, pets, and law-abiding motorists. If you don't drive on 10th, you may not be aware or notice a problem. Someone is going to get hurt and I don't want that. Thank you for taking up this issue under consideration and I would like to be included in the decision for the solution to the problem.

Thank you so very much. Thank you. We will remember your words. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. George DeBusk.

Madam Mayor, this may be a bit of a rerun for council as I've brought this up before last meeting. of two ditches. The first ditch was at Rayham and Long Roads. The developer came in there to accommodate the development. They dug out a ditch and placed a drainage tile for new development. Within six weeks, a remediation plan had been completed. The concrete driveways that were cut out were replaced with Newport concrete. The fill over the former ditch was graded and replaced with sod, matching the kind of grass that grew in the yards adjoining. There was a drain grate in every yard, so water didn't accumulate. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the standard of the industry. Let me tell you about another ditch. This ditch is at the corner of Country Club and Gray. That ditch was also dug out for the placement of a tile to accommodate new development. After the tile was placed, the fill was dumped on top of the tile and left. The driveways were cut out. They were replaced with coquina gravel. That was 13 months ago. It remains so today. The only thing they did was come in with machinery, bobcats, and try to grade the ditches. What they did was damage the remaining portion of my driveway even further, and they left the right-of-way in such a condition that water now accumulates every time it rains hard. I've called it Lake Beverly. There are, within the right of way, random pipes and cables and conduits sticking up. I don't know, even if I could get a mower over that poorly graded area, I don't know if I would relectipute myself because of these random pipes and cables sticking up. The centipede turf that was removed to do that project was replaced with pasture grass. They hydro-seeded in pasture grass. I can't mow that with my equipment. I would need a bush hog to mow that grass. Insufficient drainage plates were great to replace because now water accumulates. Again, Lake Beverly, right there in my front yard. I've got waterfront property courtesy of the new development. And the terrible appearance of the right-of-way, it ruins the resale value of my house, but it also is a black eye for the city economy. One of the main thoroughfares of this fine city looks like a third world slum. Is that the image we want to present to the rest of the world? I propose an ordinance to require remediation for any work done in rights of way. That where turf or landscaping is disturbed, that it be replaced with like turf or landscaping. That where driveways or paved areas are removed, they would be repaved with the same kind of pavement that was there before, concrete for concrete. And that where drainage altering, new drainage pattern should not allow standing water or perpetually wet soils where they did not exist before. and that such a remediation clause should be part of any plan that affects a right-of-way in a residential neighborhood in the city of Conway. It should be required in that plan as a portion of it. And there should be time limits on how soon that is done, and those should be enforceable by fines. I've given you pictures and a proposed list of features for this proposed ordinance of mine, and I thank you for hearing me yet again.

Thank you, Mr. DeBusk. I just want you to know that we heard you last time and this time, and there's work underway. There are three or four factions involved, but I promise you, it is underway. Hopefully, you won't wait another year.

Madam Mayor, I've begun to despair of my situation being approved. The developer doesn't care. But the next person that faces this situation in the right way in front of their house should not be so inconvenienced.

That's right.

And that's something that city council can ameliorate. It would be governmental malfeasance not to do something to stop these irresponsible developers from doing such damage. Thank you.

Pictures says all. Pictures say all. Thank you so much. I move that we close public input at this time. Is there a second? Ms. Helms? Second. All in favor, show your hand, please. Motion carries unanimously. Item 8 is the City Administrator's Report. Mr. Emmerich.

Good afternoon. I want to start my report with some great news that all of you are already aware of. The county has been declared by the Hallmark Channel one of the 25 merriest cities in the United States. And we should be very, very proud of this. But there's still a chance that we could be declared the merriest and win a chance to have a future Hallmark movie filmed here. So I'm imploring you all to vote every day for the next several weeks. Vote for Conway. Do it every day. The votes, along with a scoring matrix, will determine who is the merriest city in America. And I think we all would agree it's Conway. So let's try to make it happen.

Would you also mention that if an individual has multiple email addresses they can use?

I will not, because that might be a violation of the rules. So one person, one vote every day.

Oh. But thank you, though. I said it.

OK.

The drought conditions have improved dramatically over the last month, which has allowed us to reopen the splash pad. It has been very popular as the temperatures have exceeded 100 with the heat index multiple times over the summer. So we're excited to be able to reopen it. I know there's a lot of disappointed kids for a lot of the summer, but at least we're able to get it in before school starts. was one of the many cities eligible for funding from settlements from the pharmaceutical companies over their opioid policies. I think a year and a half ago or two years ago we pledged to partner with Horry County in utilizing our opioid funds and they've put together a whole response team to people that are in crisis. And the results of that are very good. We received the annual report last week. It detailed some of the successes that have been made over the last two years. So since the beginning of the program, emergency responses to overdose incidents has fallen by 28%. The number of opioid-related overdose deaths in Conway have fallen by 52%, which is an astounding improvement. So I'd like to thank the Horry County team that leads and operates these efforts for a job well done. And we hope to see continued improvement on that as well. The World War II Memorial at Collins Park is progressing. We're shooting for a ribbon cutting near Veterans Day. So if you've seen construction going on in Collins Park, that is what's going on there. And I have a very short report tonight because we have a host of workshops tonight, including discussions about the celebration of lights, parking downtown, a request from Pedal Pub, and a discussion of a new development at Copperhead Road and Pitch Landing Road. We also have two executive sessions, one to discuss a contract for riverfront development and a second about appointment supports and commissions. Happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Mr. Emmerich. Mr. Goldfinch.

Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Emmerich. Just want to throw this out there. This is probably going to be more rhetorical. A rhetorical statement is soliciting any response, although feel free to jump in. And it's a bigger issue. It's a fundamental issue, but it ties in to what Mr. DeBusk was just explaining. You know, I don't know how long he's lived there. I know he's been there a long time. And development comes in. We know we live in a growing community. But I just saw the pictures. And by the way, I happened to ride by his house, I don't know, at the end of last week. And I was stopped at the stop sign waiting. There was traffic. And I looked down, and I'm thinking to myself, you ain't running my lawnmower over that ditch because of the rocks. It'd kill your blades anyway. All that to say this. I don't know who's right or wrong or what should have been done or what shouldn't have been done, but I thought he made a great point, and that was that, you know, look, I've resigned to the fact this has happened to me. I don't want this to happen to the next guy. And I'm looking at these pictures and I'm like, what's it gonna take to fix this? And the answer's M-O-N-E-Y, that we don't have. And it takes me back to this fundamental question that we fight, and I'm gonna say a bad word, but it's called an impact fee. And I know that state law handcuffs our ability to utilize that impact fee. And I think it's long overdue that we take that fight to the state house and say, team, delegation, ORE, we need your help. OK? Because we can't. The people, and you read the articles, Mr. Emmer, you read the Facebook stuff like just the rest of us do, and we're taxing everybody, and I pay my taxes, and the reality is people move down here and they take an 80 to 90% tax cut on their property taxes, and they don't pay an impact fee, and they lean on the people that have been here for generations or their entire life to subsidize this growth. I'm not saying close the door. But I'm saying smart development is let the people that are moving here that have never contributed financially to this environment share in that burden. Let them have some skin in the game. And I know we can't do that. So I'm saying let's go to the Columbia and let's tackle that. Now, you've got a better way to do this than I do. I just get frustrated like the rest of us do.

While it was rhetorical, I'm going to answer anyway, at least try to. Thank you. In this particular case, impact fee is the wrong tool. OK. Because you have a developer who has taken something that was in good condition and they've ruined it. They're obligated to fix it. The problem is what they've ruined is not on our property or in our right of way. It's on Department of Transportation's. And there's a financial guarantee that they've put up that they will fix it. But DOT has not required them to do so, nor have they taken that money and said, we're going to fix it. So you've got that issue here, whereas the impact fee would be to make improvements because of the development, not to fix things they've broken. So we agree on the impact V needs. We totally agree that if that subdivision adds 200 homes, 400 cars, all of a sudden we have a major traffic problem at the intersection of Country Club and Long Avenue, and we need to put a traffic light in there or a roundabout in there, we don't have any funding to do that either. And an impact fee could provide the funding needed to do that. It would be an appropriate use of that funding.

It could. That's a very good point and point well received. Thank you.

Except that an impact fee on 200 homes would generate this much money when you need this much money to do that project, which is why we can't do it.

But an impact fee on 200 homes would put a million dollars on our balance sheet today that doesn't, at $5,000 a home, that doesn't exist, right? Yeah. That doesn't exist today. And so you're 100% right. My only point is if we had an extra million dollars on our balance sheet, I'm more inclined to say, Team Conway, go out there and fix this ditch. We can do it. But you can't spend impact funding on that.

You could put a sidewalk in, and it would pay for one mile of sidewalk.

one one million dollar space you know but you know where i'm going my point is is that a lot of the a lot of the issues that we're facing whether it's our issue or not and i understand it's a state road but it's still the city account but i think you've identified the problem is our hands are so tied on what we can use impact money for right now that we can't use impact fee money correct so that we do need legislative change that needs to be the story

And the speed with which we can use that money. Yes. Thank you. Were you done? I'm done. Oh, yes, sir. You can go. Thank you. Thank you so much. Item nine is council input. I did not mention that we have a council member who's not here this evening. Julie Hardwick is involved in all things preparation for the beginning of school year at work, and she wasn't able to be here. So in her absence, Mr. Jordan, you get to go first tonight.

Thank you, Mayor. On that note, school's back in session Wednesday. William's smiling. I think he may be ready to get rid of two boys at home. But remember our kids, our teachers, our parents, as we know. traffic's gonna be heavy as we get back into the school swing of things but yeah miss Butler we've been thinking about you I am one father that's ready to get one back in school I'm one father that's not ready to move one to college but here we are so that's all out there thank you so much Mr. Doran Mr. Goldhunt

Thank you, Mayor. I'll just echo Mr. Jordan's sentiments. Let's remember our educators, our support staff, our teachers, our parents. Let's remember everybody and pray for a safe and happy and productive school year. And we've got some parents in the crowd that have already sent some off to school. I remember watching my mom drop me off and drive away. And anyway, she looked happy. I'm told she wasn't. But anyway, seriously, I'm as excited about Conway High School as I've been in a long time, and I hope you all will get excited with me. I think a lot of great things to come. I just want to share one quick, this struck me, and this was a quote a good friend of mine shared with me, and it's in line with what I just said about impact fees, but it's more about who we are, And I think what's happened in the last 20, 25 years is a lot of things has just slipped by us, right? I mean, I grew up driving on dirt roads. There are no dirt roads anymore. I mean, these things just sort of evaporated in front of our eyes. And this friend said this. He said, we are selling our way of life here. We only get one chance to sell it, so we better sell it for what it's worth. And I would just go back to that point. Y'all, all about taking care of people that are here. and doing the right thing. That's what we're called to do. But I also think that sometimes let's just slow down and let's get this right. And if it means we have to wait to Mr. White's point to do something or, you know, let's get this right. We got a chance here. I think the second wave growth is upon us. We're seeing it. And let's be a part of the solution. Let's 20 years from now, let's look back and say, you know, we were we What's the thing about the tree? The best day to plant a tree was 20 years ago. Second best day is today. We got a chance, guys. We really do. That's all I got, Mayor. Thank you for listening to me. Thank you. Mr. White?

Two items, please, Chief. excuse me the license plate readers it's been a lot of news about how it's being used how long we keep the information I agree.

We thought because we were under the original system to study, that we are getting ready to revise and get our best practice standard.

We're still allowed to maintain 30 because we're right by the limit. Why not? But their best practice is to put that in 7.4.

Is this a particular person or?

Every police officer has logging credentials that are unique to them. For example, if you're holidaying, you run holiday reports every week. Interim as well as they have an intro from the program. And also, the system itself has built in all the information.

Thank you, sir. The second issue is about that bridge at Coastal Carolina University, their proposed bridge. I think whenever I first got on council, we were talking about that because someone had an accident or was killed on 501 crossing the highway. and I'm glad that they're finally getting to thinking about doing something about it because that 544 and also 501 is a dangerous place for our kids to be trying to get across and not that they have to go across 501 to go to classes there I think we need to help push that that that ball down the road to make it get happen whatever we can do I would like to encourage us to say something rather than just wait on just them doing it because we have to do something about these kids safety and I'll stop right there thank you you don't have to thank you Mr. White Ms. Butler

thank you I actually had two things tonight one of course back to school school will start on Wednesday I definitely want to thank a lot of the community organizations that did back to school drives to help families in the area with school supplies As a community, of course, all of our Conway area schools will continue to need your help and your assistance. We make our children better if we work together. But I did want to make sure that I mentioned that Conway High School actually has a new app that you can download on your phone for Conway High School athletics. That's one way that we can support our high school, support our kids, make sure we show up for them in the biggest way possible. There's been a lot of changes at Conway High School, so definitely want to continue to support our students as well as our teachers as they start the new school year. Second thing that I wanted to mention, and it's interesting Mr. Todd was here, I definitely know that the holiday season is coming, and I really am concerned about accessibility for all of our citizens. I know we talked about it last year. We talked about it a couple times, but I just want to know, not really know, but I just want to encourage our staff to make sure that We are making things accessible for all of our citizens. One of the things that I really appreciate is the last couple years we've made sure that our individuals with deaf and hard of hearing, that we're interpreters at our events and everything, which is huge. And so I just want to make sure that we continue to make all of our holiday activities accessible to all of our citizens. That's it.

Thank you, Ms. Butler. Ms. Helms?

Y'all have covered everything, the students, the teachers. I'm going to look over there at Mary Catherine, and I can remember being dropped off myself, but I don't remember my parents. They were crying, so I don't know what I was saying about you. I do want to say I appreciate the staff. It's really, really been hot. And thus, we have a lot of people that work outside to make this place a beautiful thing. Thanks to Jessica , she runs our meeting. She talks at least 55 of our 60 minutes. So I do appreciate her and her staff. Yes, she does. As I've been absent a little bit, my mom is in hospice care. But I want to remember the elderly. It is a sad time when you have aging parents and they can't get out. And I just want to make sure that we make sure we take care of the old people too. That's all I have.

thank you so much sure and I do apologize I did have something else autistic children parents in general of parents of autistic children we can we develop a sign to go on a card for example if they're nonverbal because sometimes if you were to stop she from throwing this back at you again but to all of us if you have an autistic challenge and it's nonverbal and they to try to create something to go on the

First of all, you can get a tag that is very specialized. And then there are also the houses stickers that are placed on vehicles that we approve. So you can either know what those are. Those are our offices. There will be times that people have those on their doors or put them by the front door so they can be approved. We understand that we are. and she doesn't it isn't it true that

that your staff has received specialized training for people with various disabilities.

That's a really hard question. I didn't ask that. Yes, we use , which is the national to do annual training and recertification every year for everyone.

wonderful thank you I want everybody to know that and then where do we get these speakers do we have them in house?

no that's not something that we provide that is generally if you're that family and you know they get them I bet Patsy Baker would know

I just saw that a little town, Chester or something, they had something with their city of Chester or city of whatever, you know, something like that. Thank you.

Thank you. And the only thing I need to bring up is the fact that we need some WD-40 for that back door. I think it'll be a lot more pleasant for all of us at this time. I believe we've heard from everyone on the council. We're going to go into the workshops that Mr. Emmerich spoke of, after which time we'll go into executive session. And should we... decide that any decisions will be made in the executive session, we'll reconvene and do those in public if anybody is still here. You're certainly welcome to take part in the workshop section. Mr. Emmerich, are we going to do them here or in the conference room? Anybody who is willing to stay and participate, we're going to go just a few steps behind us into the conference room. Please do. And if you choose to go home, stay...

She's here. The first is a discussion of the celebration of lights, and I want Ashley to come up while I introduce it.

We know that there's a lot of people that enjoy the celebration of lights. It's really not the question. The question is, how do we continue to do it, or do we continue to do it? And knowing that there's development on the horizon that's going to impact the ability to do it, and knowing that our time is becoming more and more truncated on being able to set up for it, and that we've not invested in additional celebration of lights materials for the last 10 years. $2 a person or $5 a car, we will alternate it back and forth. And I've often spent on record saying that's what it's worth. And anything that's worth $5 a car is probably not worth doing unless it's worth doing. And it's not our decision to make, it's yours. And that's sort of why we wanted to bring it to you. Ashley, if you want to go, and I'll jump in if there's anything.

OK. We came up with three options that we could use. We could keep it at current location as it is. Cons of that is our setup wouldn't begin until November 1st. In the past, we've done it about September the 20th, so we're gonna lose a little bit of time. We can still do it, but it'll be really tough for our staff to get it put up right after Halloween. Option two is to put our displays to the parks. I think Tim came up with the idea of one year. I'm putting it at St. John's, Collins Park, all of our parks. then you can spread out downtown to where it extends and it's not so congested down there. And the one that I really like that we may have to do next year would be at Cypress Basin Park. We have the electricity out there. We have everything that we need. It'll be a walk-through park. The problem with that would be parking, but that could be taken care of within the year. The other part of Dallas, the current location of doing it, starting November 1st. We do have our under the lights 5K. We have 160 people already signed up, so we'd have to cancel that event. So it's gonna be tough to do, but it is doable. We had a meeting today, we would start, on the other side of the moraine drive ashpond road and come back i would probably want to be able to use the sanfee cooper lot that we took over last year and try to piece it together i think i think one of the things we left out is the reason that we

are struggling with time this year is because we're trying to solve the parking issue from Halloween last year by utilizing the Santee Cooper lot for parking and then shuttling from there to downtown. That lot can accommodate a lot of people, but that means you can't put anything on Marina Drive or in the Santee Cooper lot in the meantime, or you're going to have risk, trip hazards, electrical issues, all those sort of things, which last year we tried. place where they needed to go and then we were trying to get people to park in the middle and it didn't work last year this year it's going to have to work but it limits the ability to use marina drive at all for the whole month of october well can i say something uh i haven't been impressed with our celebration of life since the first

The first year was pretty cool. It was a real decent beginning. We haven't grown it. It hasn't expanded. It hasn't become anything that's of great interest, I don't think, even to our own residents. I don't know numbers just in terms of how many people actually drive through. I think it's tradition that where there are lights, that that's what families do, just as they do through neighborhoods. But to see the same thing 10 years, I don't know that it adds to who we, to our being the merriest Christmas town.

But I've known that the Cypress Basin would be a new look for everybody, and it would be spread out to where, you know, it would be a, like I said, a whole new look to where the only problem is the The residents there may have an issue with the lights shining at their house. But I went to the mayor. We haven't had anything. We haven't budgeted any money to add to it. And we always get the complaints as the same show. When we did it for free during COVID, it was really good. And then when we started charging $2 and $5, then you start getting complaints. You start people wanting more. A lot of congestion downtown, right where the cargo is, and trying to get out and try to find parking.

so that's the big negative about keeping it like this and even this would be the last year that we would be able to do it there anyway because of the development and stuff that may become i would i would just as one member of this group um be interested in it being taken to the various parts i think it would make a real difference if we did that is there a way to coordinate um

lighting or decorations at the parks to make it if someone wanted to make an experience like if I want to come to Conway and I can go to Collins Park and then look at my little app and it gives me directions to go to Sherwood Park and then I look at my app and it gives me directions from Sherwood Park to Smith Jones Park I mean to make it shorter

So we'll have different stuff going on. Say that fast three times. So to your question, yes. get the app, put everything all in one, and make sure you have the settings to coordinate. Not a strong thing.

I can't have the app work this year, but it'll be, it's in the works.

App, what do you, but you, right, I'm not saying app. I'm just saying, instead of saying, hey, you can go over here and make it part of an experience where you don't just go, to Sherwood you want to go to Sherwood and then after Sherwood you go to the next section and then after that I'm just thinking out loud would it be worth and this is a budget discussion but like revisiting and studying our hospitality budget again and the reason I ask is because this is obviously a hospitality bucket that's going to come out of and I don't think we need to I think

It's too late for this year to be able to even buy a new piece, but I think for what we're talking about, spreading it out, it'll probably cost less money than it will normally. Normally, we make $37,000, but we probably spend that on part-time health to do it.

You're right, but where I was going with that is we seem to be amassing and accumulating surplus hospitality funds that perhaps were not.

I think the surplus hospitality funds are about to go to the ash funds to fund the TIF as a gap. One that we had talked about in the past too, if we go this route, is wrapping some of the trees in the parks with more colorful lights and make them more whimsical and we never had the time to do that because we spent setting up for celebration lights this might free up some time maybe we'll even go bigger in the parks and make it a place if you want to drive it that way instead of driving down an old industrial road to push more traffic into our parks so people that normally don't visit central or normally don't visit the conspart have a trail like

why couldn't you do a drive through smith jones i mean there's plenty of there's plenty of space to drive through right pretty sure but you can make so here's where i was going with that if we have to deploy outside our third party resources november 1st because our resources as they should be busy are busy with halloween take down from halloween then we have the christmas rush you know would it be more maybe the money's not there and this is why i went back to that the budget question like but you know if we took a little piece and hired third party to come in and subsidize our our work effort to get that i'm just asking i'm not insinuating i'm not insinuating i'm just asking questions i don't think it's necessary okay yeah the things that are done in the holidays now are really going to be hard to outsource

because we do it better than anyone we could hire. We've just been more experienced in doing it over the last few years. I don't think I would trust someone else, a third party, to put up the celebration lights and have it done in a shorter amount of time than we could do it internally, just because we've done it enough times to make it done. Even if we had extra help, it would still I think we'd still be chasing our family.

I think because if we move most of these displays into our parks, they're going to be a lot more impactful because they're in a much smaller space. You take a Smith-Jones and you've got five of those large displays that's going to change the appearance. It turns into something worth seeing. and do that in various parks, maybe that will help us to spread, I think somebody already said that, spread Christmas around the town as opposed to having all of it downtown.

Yeah, I mean, if I'm hearing what you're saying, y'all would like to have it in each individual park.

Well, I've got to invest in some parks. I don't know if everyone, if that's practical. I don't really know. The only thing they would have to have would be electricity. Certainly on major parks.

Electricity. Some of the places would need electricity. Other places. And we can do that. That's very good.

And on the under lights, you said you, I mean, what kind of impact are you... Well, I think it's early enough to where everybody can be refunded the money.

We said how many in French? 160. You typically have... 600. Now, with that being said, we don't get the money from that. We're hosting the under the lights. So we're not losing any money from that. The race company might not be happy if they get a phone call, but. Maybe we can tell them an alternative. Yeah, there's other ways, Mr. Andrew. And Ms. Harmon was telling me about doing different things, different routes, and trying to get some lights up in Laurel Street or different areas that we could maybe possibly bring it to downtown or past downtown where we're on our own.

You think Cypress Basin would be an option for that?

The problem being parking, 600 people parking, or probably at least 300 cars there. It's a mile and a half, well, a mile and then half the apartment, so you'd have to go around, and a lot of runners like to go through neighborhoods. That's definitely an option. That's an option. We can look at that further. We've got time, yeah.

Thank you. I don't think anybody's terribly upset.

The next issue is a discussion of some of the parking issues downtown. We have two separate parking requests before us, and they kind of move us in opposite directions. The first comes from some downtown residents who live in downtown, and they live near two-hour parking places. They would like a residential pass allowing them to leave their vehicles in those spaces throughout the day. Second request comes from several businesses that are planting on a large public parking lot with no time restrictions, and they've asked us to put time restrictions on one of the two rows so that two-hour parking would turn the cars over faster and give the customers a better chance of finding a nearby space. Before we consider either one, I think council kind of needs to determine what the intent of the two-hour parking is and what the intent of the lot is. Because the theory behind two-hour parking is you want turnover. You want people to be able to constantly move in and out of the parking space so that businesses have the greatest chance of success. What you don't want is someone parking in front of someone else's business for a day straight or two days straight or three days straight. Because then those customers have to park somewhere else. And if you have a residential building that has multiple units, then you theoretically could have an entire street parked full all the time, every day, all day. Which would completely block the businesses on that street from having If you use the Groucho's building for an example, you've got a Groucho's with a tenant downstairs, and you've got two units upstairs. If each of those units had two parking passes, so you have four passes, then there'd be zero parks for the Groucho's folks. So the people that are shopping or eating at Groucho's then would need to find a different parking place, meaning they would probably locate across the street, and you'd lock off a bunch. And then their folks have to move down the street. except hot clutches across the street from the Mustard Seed Building, which has several residential units in it as well. If you give them parking passes, then you've theoretically blocked two restaurants, and you have no turnover. And all of a sudden, the parking problem that we've always perceived is there. Conversely, if we take parking lots that we've been telling all the business owners and residents to park in because there's been time restrictions, and we add time restrictions, then we're we're telling those business owners that we have no place for them to park. Specifically when we redid Jerry Cox and we extended two hour parking down Third Avenue and we started enforcing it, we had a lot of, we had a learning curve with a lot of business owners. And I think you've heard from a lot of those business owners that wanted to park in front of their stores, wanted to park in front of their restaurants, and were not happy with the enforcement of it. But over time they've learned and they've moved to lots that are being requested. if we now tell them they can no longer park in those lots because we're converting for two hour then we're sending a new message to them that they're and i don't know what that message is but we're sending a message so as as hard as it is for us to tell people now by our recommendation will be to keep things status quo but i know this conversation has nothing to do with staff it's policy so

Even the request that we limit the parking on, what is that, Kingston Street?

On Kingston Street, it eventually will be two hour parking. Okay. It is the parking lots that are. That's what I'm talking about. Are you suggesting that we not honor that request? That's what staff's recommendation is.

I mean, haven't we kind of pushed every business owner to park there? Yes. Yeah. Or to park in a parking lot. Now you're going to send a message that, well, I got the ticket. I was in the parking lot. But you were in the wrong parking lot. No. I think you still park in lots and you differentiate yourself by parking lot.

Now, when the hotel comes in, it will change the... Scenario there perhaps and I think we evaluate this then that we need to change it needs to change We don't want the hotel people that are staying in hotel parking department all day either. That's not the intent So I think that will value want to evaluate that what happens I? Understand that the request for turnover in two hours is why we have to our market It just I can't I can't we've taken up a lot of

Do we have an exact number of how many residents actually live downtown?

Hillary, do you have any units there right now?

There's 13 residential units downtown right now. You could say we want to do an average of 1.5 vehicles per unit. Some of those are studios, one bedroom, two bedroom. So what's that? 13, 20 potential on the low end, 20 cars?

My problem with that is now, put a price tag on a parking spot downtown.

I think it's $376,000.

Times 1.5. You just added $600,000 to the value of that unit if we designate them 1.5 parking spaces. Why don't you tell me this a few minutes ago? I want some units. I'm just kidding. I'm being facetious, but that's my point. Nobody's ever bought a unit downtown that came with a guaranteed parking space. Yes, sir.

If I may, you know, we're developing new downtown residential units. I can see this conversation making a lot more sense but these units have existed for a decade or more with the exception of those above Mustard Seed and those units to my knowledge were rented with the knowledge that they did not come with on street parking yeah we're not changing the rules on anyone and I would say when the hotel comes in there is no self parking it's mandatory valet

And hopefully we'll be pursuing a parking garage in my lifetime.

I can have one more question. Go ahead. Mr. White. I just wanted to ask, do we have a partnership with the county to use that parking lot? Well, the county owns all the parking lots. Meaning they're about to park in town. That's your fault. Yeah. First call for a service. The residents that live on the second floor, could we not give them a pass to a parking lot?

Well, we can't issue a pass for someone else's property, and neither could the county give a pass unless they have a franchise agreement or a license or something like that. But there's nothing stopping those residents from parking there now, except that they're pretty far away. I'm so sorry.

Didn't we have a study last year, not so scientific, but a study that showed us that typically there are always parks available.

It wasn't last year, but it's been a few years, but typically it's 30% full. And we had another study done that at this point, until we add more buildings, we don't need to add more parking. We are adequately parked for the size we have with the building space we have and the square footage of retail and restaurant next. And if we start building more buildings, then that changes the equation. But that study has not changed because we've not added more buildings since that study.

Well, and that wasn't part of my real study, but rather, I was just counting a few times a day. You remember? Was that not last year? That was, no, not last year. Somebody was trying to say something.

I was also going to mention, you do have several churches as well as an independent that now have QR code paid to park. When we have employees downtown that have complained about parking, we have encouraged them to reach out because all of those units will offer them a parking pass for purchase. Perhaps it's time that the existing landlords avail themselves of those opportunities to provide those parking passes for their residents.

Do we see this in the future as being a potential issue?

Is the goal to have more people actually live downtown? Yes.

so in the next i would say maybe what five to ten years this could potentially be a huge problem yes and there are several solutions that could happen the role we get a parking deck and when the new residential units are built they release a parking space from us and that makes sense yeah um the second one is we go to paid parking and we don't care where you park or how long you park if you're willing to pay for the protection

We'll talk about that. Hey, I got four prints in my office of old downtown Conway with parking meters. Yeah, me too.

I didn't say meters. Alright, the next is a request from the Pedal Pub to allow its passengers to bring beer or wine into its vehicles. Pedal Pub currently has a franchise agreement with the city to operate within downtown. Under that agreement, alcohol is not permitted on board. Pedal Pub cannot sell alcohol and its passengers cannot bring their own alcohol. The company has asked the city to consider changing that restriction to permit BYOB beer and wine. Not quite as easy as just amending the franchise agreement, though, because to allow alcohol to be consumed while the vehicle travels on public streets, we would need to have an underlying entertainment zone of some sort, which we've reviewed and turned down before. So it's a broader policy decision for council, and it would require us to consider the boundaries of the zone, days and hours would apply, and those kind of things. Are there no state restrictions? Well, Chief and I have talked about it. It's walking the fine line because the pedal pump itself is not technically a vehicle. It's more of a bicycle that has multiple pedals and an engine and a motor. But what I would like to do is let the pedal rest on a lot of horse.

It's hard to believe it's been a year.

We've been operating for almost a year now at Conway. I know it was a new concept when we came to you last year

We've had a successful year. We've been very happy here in Conway. Our guests have loved it, and actually our pilots love it. Since we opened here, we did open in Myrtle Beach, but everybody wants to work in Conway. It's just a really unique and fun experience as well to be here in Conway. And so we're here today to just talk about this concept of BYOB. It's very common in almost all pedal pump markets across the country that they have BYOB. We wouldn't want to sell alcohol, but the guests would bring alcohol on board, just beer and wine, no glass. We could limit the alcohol by volume content. It would be required to show ID. And if there is a 21 and up passenger bringing alcohol, then no 121 would be allowed on board. We would maintain our same behavior agreement. They'd have to sign a waiver, all of those things. I think there might be a mechanism to do an ordinance to allow it specifically on the Pellet Club, but I would encourage the city to look at that greater entertainment zone. I think it's really good for the city, and when I've researched other towns that have implemented it, it has helped their own economy having an entertainment zone. And the Pellet Club is, it's not a motor vehicle. That's why it's this weird distinction where I think is why we could work that specific ordinance as well as Pelopon, but I just wanted to make a request to ask. I think we've had a successful year. We've kind of proven how we operate and how seriously we take safety. It's come to be an expectation for Pelopon that you can drink on it and it has hindered us and our guest experience. We haven't allowed it, we would never, but it's just a request we'd like to make in order to do that.

I'd be more inclined to consider that for a pedal-pub operation than I would for there to be just multiple blocks on which people just sort of walk around and pretend. And that's just one vote, but Mr. Goldfinger.

Thank you, Mayor. What's the difference with like a limousine service or a party bus or I guess you're inside, you're a little more confined, but you know, that's legal, right? It's separation.

The total separation for the driver to... compartments let's call those compartments yeah you're in a passenger compartment or you're in the driver's area so do you think going i will put you on the spot sheet way back when when the authors of this law wrote this they said we don't care what the passengers do we want to make sure that driver is not going back there in the well and then driving right i mean that's is that fair is that a fair assumption i think that's probably a good fair assessment it used to be illegal to drink and drive right but not drive under an influence ever. And then they came up and they said, we're creating too much of a problem if we allow a driver to drink legally and drive down the road. So they said, in order to combat that, the driver can't just hand it to the passenger and say, it's not mine. So they banned it in the car in total. in the passenger area where that driver, you know, within that span of control they can reach and get to and hand and things like that.

So if we were to create an entertainment zone and folks were to come, Beth can I grab your drink? And, you know, someone walks up with this cup and they're behaving themselves, even right now, you know, if you don't have any reason to believe there's anything but, what is it, Coca-Cola, Cherry Coke in here, you're not going to question it. You're not going to question. So what's the difference in us just being formal about it and saying, let's do it? And I carry my cup up there, and I behave myself. Is there really any difference other than we're just saying we allow it versus before you had to be under the radar? Question.

Well, I would never want to operate under the radar. I understand. I understand. So whatever legal mechanism you would have to do to allow us is what I'm asking. Your liability would not increase.

Oh, yes. Yeah. What state are you operating in that this is allowed?

It's in Dallas, Texas, Nashville, Tennessee, Louisiana, Minneapolis. 90% of the public locations have B1.

So nothing in South Carolina?

No.

And that's the reason is because our South Carolina law is written in such a way that it's not allowed in public and that we actually have city ordinance as well that would have to come to play. talking with some of my peers around the state that have already entertainment zones they are trying to protect their brick and mortar so they don't allow any byb you have to buy it from that licensed coppers places like that they don't allow the byb because they're protecting their and they have the license already and things like that and the next issue is i know you It's a very small window of time, but you're also looking at people that work in these alcohol establishments that are trained. They have training on not over serving and recognizing it and cutting people off. and that would be a concern is would that person have that even, well we didn't give them alcohol, we have no duty. Do they have a duty to monitor or to even watch that? So there's a lot of, yeah, would the operator of that have that responsibility or any duty at all? It does have a motor, so it's just a matter of if it's less than 750 watts, it doesn't make vehicle. If it's 750 or more, it is a vehicle. You can have an e-bike, so an e-bike is generally less than 750. I just don't know that the motor on that pedal pump is strong enough at 750 to do what it does. So that's just a very technical issue of What size is that voter in? Does it meet the South Carolina state requirement? But that is a state statute. It is a state statute that I'm concerned about.

As are we. That's why it was questionable the first time. We're still walking.

That's why I said it's very, you know. And it sounds like these definitions have not been determined. Nobody's challenged it in the courts to say that a pedal club is not a vehicle, does not have to have by the standards set forth by the state of South Carolina, et cetera, et cetera.

that's only one of about three of the gray areas that i see one is is it a vehicular and that's just up for debate the second is again sled doesn't recognize that byb at any public function you can't go to a bar and take your own we don't have any provision in south carolina unless you go to a very a private place I think the word's corkridge, where you can carry your own stuff in there and they serve it to you. That's not allowed. And then our own city ordinance that does not allow any public display unless it's at a special event approved that has the designated zones, times, and it's narrow. It's not like all the time.

I say let somebody else be first.

Not disrespect. If I can sum it up, I think what we're hearing is that in as much as we would probably be open-minded in the sense that what you offer is different from anything else, our uncertainty about how state law applies and our uncertainty leans in the wrong direction. I'm afraid that, and I think the chief is afraid, that existing state laws would preclude us from allowing you to do that. And that's just South Carolina.

I could do some more research to say, not to be the first, there probably is another state that has no open container that this is happening on, so I could do some research to say if that's the case. Or I could go to the state law.

I just want to say, and it sounds like we're sort of on the same page, not quite. There's maybe two issues. There's a state legal issue that's in question. And then perhaps the elephant in the room is a moral issue. And I'm past that. I'm being respectful. I'm being very respectful. I don't see it as any different than going to Riverfest. I mean, if it can be regulated and we make sure it's done right and there's no issues on the state level and you get passed, those hurdles, you have my support.

We're asking for adults to bring a limited quantity of beer and wine in a controlled environment on a supervised tour. They sign a waiver, we check their ID.

And even if it's like I thought, gee, I don't know if this was your idea or you were just thinking out loud, but I liked it. In either case, it was, hey, we got six stops or three stops on this tour. We're Places, local places, brick and mortar places. You have 10 minutes to go into this establishment, then we're gonna ride for 20. You got 10 minutes to go, and then you can carry it out. I don't know. Y'all figure that out. You have my support. We all can get past the logistics.

Is that a preference? Because there's two different ways of doing this. There's a benefit to a lot of places out there where alcohol never leaves the bike. So you're not walking from the bike into an establishment. The alcohol never leaves. So in a lot of locations, that's why it's BYOB. It's contained on the bike and it doesn't.

i just got to think over the last year you've had a lot of people that have carried cups on there like that that have been and i must i've not heard of any issues and you've proven yourself to you came here to prove yourself and i think y'all done a great job doing that and just again i'll say for me if you can get past the logistics of of what may be a state law issue let's let's i'd like to keep talking thanks

All right, the last workshop of the day is a discussion of a new proposed development of Copperhead and Ditchland Road. And Jessica's going to introduce it and then turn it over to Franklin and the team.

So the warden's station property, which was annexed, is what's making this particular property contiguous. The parent parcel is contiguous by way of the station. So that is why it's different than typical annexation. We would not be providing any utility services to the site, with the exception of sanitation. If annexed, the city would assume land use jurisdiction and other responsibilities for the property. They did submit a preliminary site plan that shows 129 things that are lost. Jamie, you can put it on the next slide. And the plan identifies 39.7 acres of wetlands and 27.2 acres of open space. The applicant did indicate that the areas that are flood zones would be zoned conservation preservation upon annexation and the remainder portions that would be residential would request R2 or medium density. And then the front here, where it says excluded, all the way to the far left, that's actually the piece that would be contiguous. It's all one parcel right now, but that would be a commercial component. Likely to happen to be commercial. The applicant is here for more detail, but the main reason is to determine whether council was receptive to considering a formal annexation, and if so, what information and commitments would be expected before the request to move forward, like infrastructure requirements, development agreements, or anything else that would mean to the part of annexation. With that, I will turn it over to the applicant, whoever would like to come up.

Don't worry, we've got three of us here with us. I'm Franklin Daniels, I'm a professional worker, and we've got some friends here.

This is Charles from G3. This is Amy and Melissa with Sam and Martin.

You covered it, Jessica, this project was before y'all in the past and went through it. We had a call or two that we've had with Jessica where we talked about the environmental nature of it, where you can see the amenities being put in. We talked about the commercial component in the front piece. Went through a lot of those issues, made some changes to it. The density went down from what was allowed. But obviously, I'm willing to answer any specific questions that are charged with that. And Melissa, if we can go through anything, I'd like to talk about it.

And just to add right now, it's currently zoned. There's three different zoning districts, SF20, closer to 701, and SF40, but then the back is CFA. So in the county, it is developable now. And they could develop that entire parcel of CFA half acre lots. so they are proposing to bring that in as conservation preservation which would be a tangible benefit to the city the question is whether the city could secure a better development outcome and meaningful public benefits through annexation then would likely occur if it were to stay in the county so that's really the question

I think in our original discussions, too, we talked about it. We're implementable to a development agreement. But then we talked about it at the beginning because of the city services that you have there that we didn't end up seeing their need for a development agreement there. But we're happy to talk about it.

Why is it that there won't be full city services? It's not with the water steward service area. Wasn't it in Buck's Court? Yeah.

um frankly you mentioned commercial what where am i missing that where show is excluded that's okay approximately 17 acres would be retained at the corner And that would be zone highway commercial XDG, right? You know what that stands for? Yes, sir. Excluding the highway commercial.

No, DGX.

They're all the flood zones in the CP area. Yes, sir.

Even if I do, it would be designated.

These are his own.

Where's Mike? And it's probably two-thirds of the overall track, about 65 acres that would, you know, from a zoning standpoint, be placed under conservation to the degree. Did you say around a third?

Two-thirds. Two-thirds. Yes, ma'am. Wow. Well, y'all had me at commercial, but you did that. They made sure they said it was up. Those people don't need to get on 701. They need to be able to go to the corner and get what they need to go home without adding. It makes a ton of sense, yeah.

So really the question is moving forward with the annexation request and rezoning request is whether or not council wanted to see a development agreement in addition to those because that would be required at the time of submittal and what types of conditions they would like to include.

Okay. Question on the water service. If we're not providing water and sewer, before the break, if we got everybody at the table, if we got Allison and you and everybody at the table and we're looking at this, and we say, all right, so we're not collecting water and sewer, what does that do to our I mean, I hate to say this, but what does that do to our bottom line? If we're not making anything on water and sewer, do we need to subsidize that with the development agreement and ask for some other things?

No, because water and sewer stays in the water and sewer fund. They don't come in and fund the sewer. We're not paying into a lease or anything like that.

I understand that, but still. And storm water, please. And that has to be collected for some mechanism, which we typically do because it's a utility service, whether water or sewer. That's my question. And now, they wouldn't get a bill for that, just sanitation. How that would be collected would... And I think there was something that they did with the station at Bucksport.

They turned us a small fee to do the collection, but that fee right there is the only thing we would not care about.

Because aren't we pretty much nonprofit when it comes to water and sewer? Yeah. Or as many of us as well, at best. At best. Well, we'd rather it be in the city.

number one there's there's not i mean unless you say there's a reason to do a development agreement there's you can do a straight zoning and get it done but the same result yeah

That was the idea. It's a different project.

Is there any advantage that we're missing out on by not requiring a development agreement?

um just that you know with the ordinance that was adopted that gave council the leeway to require a development agreement regardless of the number of lots whether there was infrastructure needs there um the good news with this is that the residential will not front 701 south it will be commercial um and i believe they wrote something out with the plan to take less traffic off of pitch landing road than originally unproposed and most of the lots have frontage on Copperhead Road so they'll have to turn on Copperhead Road and that's it which already exists so the lots will you know be you can have the access on Copperhead Road to get into the internal part of the development and not utilize pitch from the road or 701 south so that is a plus too but to the city the benefit of having the flood the flood areas conservation preservation the density layout and applying zoning and development standards is a is a positive would the county have

Required any conservation designation?

It's already zoned in the county so they could request to rezone the property.

But it's not zoned that way now.

Right, but they could develop the property now under the current zoning of CFA SF 20 and SF 40 residential and do it within flood zones. They're proposing to come into the city and develop only the portions outside of the flood zone.

It'd be a higher density number if you did it just based on what the county would allow people to start on.

It is entitled to townhomes as well under county ordinance. Yes. Yes. Mr. White. And would a percentage of these homes be for workforce people?

so right now it is dependent on market pricing um however we do anticipate these to be you know not our down and dirty line but more affordable um in our mind no we're not anticipating coming out here and building you know four five hundred thousand dollar homes we want them to be affordable uh to the market and i think that is currently very focused on

And I keep harping on this because we have staff and teachers and so forth that need, you know, a house, a apartment, et cetera, that can't afford it. So that would be affordable to me who need to be thrown out the window because what's affordable to Tom is not affordable for Susan. So that's my reason for asking that question, or me.

I'm going to say one more thing, and then I promise I'm going to be quiet. It stems from a previous discussion where I think it was perceived that perhaps I was in favor of ditching an existing well-established city ordinance. I'm not. But this is a great example of where that ordinance cannot be applied uniformly to a developed model. This is already cleared. And that's why I was making the point last time, and I'm just going to say this. I'm not advocating. I guess I am advocating. But this is where, you know, if we come in and we say, look, guys, you know, an enhancement fee per lot, you can make that uniformly equitable to every single development that comes into the city of Gunwick. You can. And whether we spend that fixing state roads where people's shoulder and curb and ditch got torn up or what we use it to hire police officers doesn't matter it gives it adds uh it keeps us from raising your taxes to fix things that people have never paid a dime in taxes here that that's just my point now thank you all for listening all right i think uh uh you've spoken i think uh we've spoken

Are we clear? Yes, ma'am. I think so. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you, guys.

Mayor, that concludes the workshop and I'm ready to go to the next highway commercial DGX.

Hey, go back and tell Felix. Go back and tell Felix that we've come up with a new zoning.

We're going to start in the city and we're going to wrap it up. DGX.

I think it's the heat that got me. My dad's got me still. That traumatic experience.

we need to I'm going to extend their contract for a river a year okay and the storage

Bill.

Temporary zone. Temporary zone. Good. And I'll second that. OK. I'll invite everybody to show your hands, please. Mr. Anonymous. And I'll move. That we appoint Dr. Greene as a member of the Water Quality Commission. Second. All in favor? It's unanimous. Move to be adjourned. Second? Second.