County Council - Regular Meeting

Um, in the interest of total transparency, your Greenwood County Council has been in executive session since 400 pm and I'm going to ask the manager to please tell you what the need for that uh executive session was. Mr. Chapel, please. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of county council. We enter into executive session for the following seven matters. Two personnel matters pertaining to the county administration and the planning departments. Four economic development matters pertaining to projects paper trail and Muscogee and one legal matter pertaining to Greenwood County code of ordinances 6-3-122 cluster housing.

Thank you, Mr. Chapel. Before we move into our normal uh agenda procedure, I'm going to talk to you for just one minute about how we how uh we have agreed how we have agreed to conduct a portion of this meeting tonight in regard to um the public hearing. So uh so before we move into that portion of the agenda today, last week, Councilman Templeton and I met with Mr. Mary and Moore and we discussed how we could assure that the opinions and concerns of members of the public in regard to the proposed development on Old Abal Highway were best communicated to our council during our scheduled public hearing. So I'm fully aware as is this council that sometimes it's difficult to say all that you feel that you want to say in three minutes at the podium. Okay. However, in handling one agenda item in which as many as dozens of speakers could come forward and likely mostly restate the same concerns because concerns are what they are and we understand that. Um, we simply felt that a better and more detailed information could be obtained in the manner that I'm about to propose to all of you. At the conclusion of our meeting last week, I agreed to allow extended time at the podium. If those here tonight that have objections to item B under old business, Ordinance 202603 would designate two spokespersons um uh to speak on their behalf in the process. Now, Tina Escalana and I just talked before this and I was told last week that it was going to be two, but Tina has asked that it be four people and I'm going to allow that. And each one of those four are going to be given because I understand that you all have

kind of structured the comments to move through the presentation and I'm going to allow five minutes for each of those four people. So, that's going to be a total of 20 minutes. Okay. So to going back to the agenda folks, and the reason I'm trying to do this as efficiently as possible, if you look at this agenda tonight, if you include district reports, there could be as many as 22 topics to be covered in this meeting. So this is why I want to administer this meeting as efficiently as possible. This is not any attempt to silence anyone or limit uh any receiving of information. Actually, it's just the opposite. So here's what I am going to ask though now of the audience. If there is anyone in attendance here this evening that was not affiliated with the group meeting that that took place last week. I understand there was about 60 people as part of that meeting. But if you have come here this evening with intention of speaking in objection to 20263, what I'm going to ask is that you take the next few minutes right now, go into the lobby with whatever couple of representatives, Tina, you care for it to be. Go into the lobby, speak with the designated speakers and see if you can be agreeable with their representing your position during the public hearing. If you cannot, it's okay because I will give you your three minutes at the end of of this process. Okay? But it would be nice if you know you're going to say the same thing. Let those four representatives speak on your behalf. Uh when you reenter, I'm simply going to ask you if you're in agreement. We will con uh conduct the public hearing as I've described and I'll also allow the same consideration that I'm giving those in opposition to anyone representing the development group if they are here tonight and I don't know if they are or not but does that sound good and fair to everybody?

Okay. So Tina, if you and someone else if if if you executive session, pardon me, session, if if there's anybody in the audience that was going to speak. [clears throat] Okay. Now, I failed the exit executive session, so I'll ask for a motion, council, that we do that. I did the same thing last week. I got to I got to quit getting wound up in these. I'll make a motion that we exe executive session. Motion by Miss Bishop, second mot all all in favor and we're have exited executive session. I apologize for that again.

Miss Miller, I believe you have the invocation tonight. Yes, sir. I do. Please stand with me. My bad. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity to gather today to serve this county. We ask for your guidance and wisdom to make decisions that will promote the welfare, peace, and prosperity of all of our citizens. Help us to work together in harmony and to lead with integrity. We ask for your blessings on this meeting. Amen.

Amen. I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, [snorts] [clears throat] council. I trust that you've had an opportunity to review your minutes from our February 3rd meeting. I'll entertain a motion that we accept those minutes. Motion to approve. Motion by vice chairman, second by Miss Bishop. All in favor Griffin. Oh, sorry, Miss Griffin. [laughter] That's so ordered. Thank you.

We have no presentations tonight, so we'll move directly into old business ordinance 2026 removing parcels from Ferncliff Special Pax purpose district. I have um received word from the county treasurer that there is some negotiation going on and possibly combi combining some parcels of land. Stephanie, I believe that's correct. So, what we're going to do is we're going to hold on that possibly until our next meeting to give the treasurer time to to manage that. If that's agreeable with council, we will uh Is Tina back yet? Not yet.

That's it. Go on to see. You can move along if you want. What' you say? Go to seek. So, you can move along, Mr. Chairman, until I get time.

We're okay. What's the verdict? We have a few um we have two others that want to speak for themselves. They have specific concerns that aren't covered in our m the others I'll speak for. No [snorts] problem. They'll have three minutes at the end of at the end of your presentation. So, council, I'll now ask uh for a motion that we move into public hearing. So, move second.

Mr. Templeton, Miss Teresa, all in favor. And we are now in public hearing. our public hearing now. Uh, as as you all know, I'm sure, ordinance 20263 to amend the Greenwood Counties awning map as and if amended so that two parcels of land totaling approximately 46.48 acres at 615 Old Abbebyville Highway in Greenwood County change from R2 single family residential to MPR master plan residential. Miss Coleman, please ma'am.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, I think you highlighted the uh overview of this. So, currently the smaller parcel at the top is zoned R1, which the minimum lot size in Greenwood County is 15,000 square feet or approximately a third of an acre. The larger parcel down here is zoned R2, where the minimum lot size is about a quarter of an acre or 10,000 square feet. The applicant came in and was interested in doing a unified development plan and we suggested to a master plan residential um in order to get what they were trying to accomplish. They're not asking to reduce the lot size on the majority of the property. They are on the piece the bit up here, but all of this is already in the 10,000 foot lot range. So, this shows the zoning on it. Um current zoning is R1. Everything to the north is R1. Um everything to the west is AG1. that that also allows residential with sewer allows 7,500 foot lots by right. R2 again down here allows 10,000 square foot lots by right. Everything in the lighter shade of yellow is R1. The R2 has was reszoned before I came on board. I'm not quite sure when it happened. Um and then everything over here is commercial. Um C2 which is our general commercial. uh Hunters Creek and some of the information or some of the area over here is all planned development district which is like an NPR. This is customized zoning district and then of course we have a lot of industrial here on the other side of Calhoun Road. So SC DOT has jurisdiction over both Old Abyville Highway and Woodlon Road. So they were sent uh plans on this before it went to planning commission asking for their input on what recommendations they would make if this was to be approved. utilities they have available. Um the developer who's here tonight and can speak to it, they were proposing to bring sewer over from somewhere around

Calhoun Road up to this corner. There is sewer already at Folly Bend up here and previous developers had looked at bringing it across from this residential area into this lot. That has not occurred. So this is old Advil Highway. You can see we post we post all the frontages for uh sub or proposed resoning. So we posted it on Old Aville Highway. You can look in both directions. This is going out of Old A Old Aville Highway. This is looking back towards 72 221 or 72 West. This is the easement that's off of Woodlon Road. This is Lawless Road, which is also off of Woodlon Road, but it kind of backs up to the property a little bit. Um this is looking down Woodlon towards Hunter Creek. These are the proposed amenities that the developer showed that they would they would like to have included which included a pavilion covered pavilion uh a fire pit with a seating area and pickle ball courts. Now currently the comprehensive plan shows this area for lowdensity residential for future development. Every time we get a resoning in we reference the comprehensive plan. Um the maps were established a little over 10 years ago. Some of these haven't changed very much. This one has been pretty consistent. You can see um this here is public. So this is Duke Energy. All of this is single family residential. The golf course is just shown or the old golf course at Hunters Creek is shown in green. But typically where you see green area, there's either natural or some recreation. Everything that's purple is a public public space. Down here in the bottom we have uh Connie Maxwell, for example, and then Emerald High School is over here. Um, so this is low density residential. As you come over here, this is more of a medium density residential. And in this area, it's high density residential. So you see different gradiations of yellow and kind of a

golden rod into a mustardy color, I guess. So this was the original proposal for the development. When they first brought it in for the resoning, they showed 107 lots on 46.48 acres. If you divide the lots by the acreage, so you multiply it out by the square footage of lots, um it comes out to 2.3 dwelling units per acre, that's a little over two, it's a two and a third units per acre based on the layout. Now, they can't develop I take it back. Um they can't develop in the power line easement. He also showed a 20ft buffer around the perimeter. This obviously would probably have to stay protected if it's developed depending on how um Department of Environmental Services looks at it and Army Corps of Engineers if necessary. But they had open space shown um area for amenities and then all of these were residential again. They had an access out to Woodlon and access out Old Lial Highway and a buffer around the entire perimeter. um when he came in for planning commission, by the time he got to planning commission, he'd already reduced the maximum number of lots to 103. I think at that point he was even going down into the 90s. So this was this would be the maximum if it were to be approved and anything that could get approved that maximum could be reduced. So that's how we look at NPRs very much like plan development districts. So everything they ask for they're locked into. It's like its own zoning district. If you have any special or any specific questions, I'll be glad to address them.

Thank you, Carol. That's pretty thorough. Council, before she sits down, any questions? Mr. Chairman, [clears throat] Miss Carol, what was the recommendation from your staff and then the zoning board? Um, planning commission recommended approval and I'm going to make sure because I don't want to misquote. Um the recommendation from from planning commission planning staff recommended approval. Planning commission voted 8 to two to deny. Correct. Two to deny. Thank you.

I have one other question please Mr. Chairman for Miss Coleman. Thank you.

Um could you elaborate slightly? I'm also thinking correct me if I'm wrong that the developer has asked for a reduction in the setbacks. That is that's the other thing that was and I should have covered that. I apologize. So, and I'll let him address that if you want to. His idea was that if they had a larger building envelope, they could put a bigger house on the property. So, I think his his format was looking at 2200 to 2900 square ft heated. In order to put a house that size on 10,000 ft, they wanted more flexibility in where they put it. I don't think a house would go like setback line to set back line, but it gives them the flexibility to put it on a lot such as that. [clears throat]

So, for example, the 40 foot currently in NPR setback from the front, he's requesting a 20 foot setback, right? If I'm reading it correctly, right, that's an example. Okay, thank you. And he did state that he would have twocar garages with at least with parking for at least two cars on the parking pad. Mr. Tim, excuse me, Vice Chairman.

Yeah, I'll go next. Yeah, just one question. The um current zoning, I think we talked about this last time. I just want to make sure I'm correct on this. Didn't What was the total number of lots, let's say, on a denial? What would the developer be able to do under current zoning? Well, I think the number that I put out there was strictly based on mathematics. So, you have to be reasonable in that what I did was I took the 46.48 acres, multiplied it by 43,560 ft, took out about 25% which is what you would expect for rights of way um utilities and then took that leftover number and divided it by the minimum lot area. So, that number that I came up with was not a reasonable number. Um, I did take out area for the wetlands or the wet area and I'm trying to think if there was anything else that I took out. Oh, the the power line easement. I did remove that as well. So, I didn't count that towards it. Um, but that number, like I said, is not a realistic number. with it being the minimum lot size on the majority of it being 10,000 square ft and the minimum lot size on the balance of it being 15,000 square ft. Um depending on how they laid it out, they could conceivably get 107 lots. I don't think it's realistic to assume that, but mathematically it would work. But you never know until you start working with a piece of property what it's going to yield. You don't know. We don't know the fall of the property. We don't know the topography of the property. So, it's it's not until the engineering is actually done on a property that they're going to get a realistic idea of how much they're going to be able to get. Typically, they want to try and hedge your bets and get a number where they can kind of shoot for it. So, I think that's where he was coming from. I cannot speak for the developer, but that's the way I would interpret it.

Okay. Thank you. So, basically what you said is [clears throat] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Basically what you said is whether we reszone it or not 107 is the number. Is that what you what you were saying? I think I think 107 is a possibility. I mean it may be closer to you know 95 to 100. That's if they if everything lines up. Yes ma'am. So that would be that would be their absolute pinnacle I would say. Any other questions comments council before we ask for public comment? Thank you, Carol. Thank you.

So, now I'll ask that anyone here uh the there's four we have four representatives initially. So, and Tina in whatever order as you come forward, please to help Miss McIntyre, spell your last, not just yours, but I want everyone to state your name clearly and spell your last name if Miss McIntyre needs that.

Sure. Tina Escalona. E S C A L O N A. 818 John's Creek Road, Haja, South Carolina. And my family owns a cottage on Woodlon Road. That's how I became involved in with the group. I'm here tonight representing um Greenwood County residents for managed growth. We want to um advocate for more controls. We understand that around us. You can look at any of the different communities um surrounding Greenwood County and they have had explosive growth. Now you're starting to see moratoriums and that that's where we believe that we should be right now based on our group meetings and the harm that so many people have started to incur from this fast growth in Greenwood County. We feel like um I'm going to start with our asks first in case I run out of time. Our immediate request tonight is that you would delay the approval of Beasley Home Project um because we don't feel that you guys have had the opportunity to gather all of the data and to review all of the data not to not allow them to cause harm to the surrounding district. We feel very strongly that given prior um reports of significant harm done through similar types of construction in the area that there's a high probability that um our properties around that area can incur harm and so we would like for um you to delay that. We are looking at um the approval for the once you have all of the data we understand the NPR but we would if you approve that NPR we want you to add conditions to that. Other counties are doing that. They're looking um look, each piece and each parcel that is going to be developed has its own unique characteristics and its own potential for harm for the residents around it. As we talked with builders

dur during our community meeting, they pointed out things like no, you know, this particular property will require a burm with vegetation because if they only put fencing, there would be um certain things that would damage properties. Erosion control is a big concern. And you can look at um we have other people that have spoken specifically to ponds being um silt running into the ponds causing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage. We can't just allow developers to do what they want with their property without conditionally looking at the um probability that it's going to create some harm. And we're not only talking about the environmental harm. We're talking about um asking you to look at the school loading, of course, the traffic and the safety um all of the roads, the things that are related to infrastructure. Um as you need to support these developments with infrastructure, how's that going to impact us as taxpayers? That's been a primary concern that's come up that, you know, are we going to have to pay more to support the needs to to service these new developments? So, I think that one thing that you guys do really well, you have a great um a great video program where you explain some complicated issues, how you're taking a problem and what you're looking at, and we need more information. As we sat in the room, as we've had conversations, this group is 600 strong already in less than a week. um one video. We were going to shoot five videos with the separate parts and the problems that people have been encountering, but with one video we had nearly 50,000 um views with that one video, and we stopped because we did not want to incite people. Um, we know that a lot of us, me included, we don't have all of the the information and the answers, but we know that we've got the questions that need to be answered and the questions that we believe you should be answering and asking to make sure that you have the resources you need to make

the right decisions. Um, one proposal from Mr. Moore who is one of the ones who has been most harmed through all of this was um a committee approach helping you guys working alongside with um you guys with local builders who have encountered a lot of these issues in advance. They can help you develop some standards and some processes from the top down that you will rather than having a checklist of three items which was suggested before and letting a builder have you know free reign. you're looking at more of your data and we're talking about the infrastructure, we're talking about the roads, we're talking about the school, we're talking the electrical grid was another thing just because of recent, you know, our recent cutbacks and request to cut back. That was a primary concern for people. So, we want you to delay making a call on this particular zoning request, evaluate all of the data, making sure that you have um measure all the components, and that you prevent harm. Because look guys, we all know that we've got halfbuilt developments that um they'll build out, they'll leave, the mud is washing. You know, we have things that are not controlled there that are causing harm and we need to we need to mitigate that and we need to explain that to the citizens what we're doing to protect them because we're all for growth. We start in our first um discussions with you guys and in the community we said we are for positive managed growth. We understand we needed to grow the tax base. We understand that we need to take care of community needs. But the last thing Mr. Moore who could not be with me tonight asked me to communicate to you guys is take a look at um counties our size that have not controlled their growth. they haven't stipulated um added stipulations to the ordinances and look how badly that has gone. Look how they're retracting and trying to work back from all of the problems that they're having to pay for now. Um and he

wanted me to leave you guys with that. Thank you, Tina. Let me ask for my notes. I think you started your comments saying though that there were what were the what was the list of things you wanted us consider to add? We wanted you to um we want to work by committee. Um Mr. that coming later in these comments.

Yeah. Yeah. Um we wanted to delay the approval of this particular um request until you have all of the information regarding our um hang regarding an environmental review um the retention ponds to make sure that we weren't going to have any issues with those that we are looking at. We've had requests to consider the school loading um what that's going to do. Obviously the traffic and the safety was a primary concern and then infrastructure um who's going to pay for that infrastructure is that going to be a burden for the taxpayers and you know how much of that can you will you shift to the developer and also green space the character of the space that needs to be retained because when people buy in the country you know there is a certain character to Greenwood there's a certain character to each neighborhood and rather than clear cutting all of the trees which that's come up um so significantly there. What can you do with standards to um to enforce a certain maintenance of that character?

Okay. Thank you. Who's next speaker? All right. I am not a public speaker. That's right. Forgive me. State your name clearly for Susan. I'm Jan Johnson and I live on Woodlong Road. So this directly affects me as well. Yes, ma'am.

Um there's times when I can't Oh, Johnson. JL HN. You got me. Okay. There's times when I can't get out of my driveway now on certain times a day because of the traffic because it's a cut through. My main concern of this with the all the development all over Greenwood, not just this one in particular, is the concern that I have is all the burden that it's going to add to law enforcement, fire department, and especially Greenwood EMS who are already overworked, understaffed, and and over not paid enough for their job. When I went to work for Greenwood EMS, I retired as a paramedic. In the 1990s, we had less population, but we had more ambulances. We had more crews. We had more rescue trucks, and we were able to cover the county and take care of everybody that needed us. Over the years, the call volume increased, but our staff decreased. There's times now, uh, like I said before, I've retired in the 24-hour shifts that we had. I have had been on a truck the whole entire 24 hours, never seeing my station. It had gotten so bad that we were so overworked, we could not do our patient run reports on duty. We had to the county worked it out where we had a computer system where we went home on our free time unpaid and did all of our reports there. When you've got 17 to 18 reports to do and you can't get it done while you worked, we got to go home and do it for free. So, this adds, this development adds that much more to an already overworked system that includes all of these people that we need for public safety. Um, we had hoped things

would get better and there was times when our director asked us, "What do we need to make it easier for us to work?" And when we told them what we needed, they told them we couldn't afford it, but yet a county employee gets a brand new car in a raise. So that kind of hurt, you know. I mean, that really hurt us hard because we're asking for these things to take care of the community and take care of Greenwood County. The ER is overstaffed already, understaffed and overworked already because all of the EMS services from all the surrounding area come into Greenwood to the ER. And that doesn't include their work, the workins that walk in the door. Some of our EMS patients are having to wait for over an hour and sometimes two hours, the EMS crew, before the ER can find them a bed to put them in so they can go on another call. Calls are being held because there's not an ambulance available because they're all tied up. If you add the shootings in Greenwood or a major wreck or something happens, sometimes that takes the majority of the units that they have in place that day. Um what I what I know for a fact and it happened before I left. Um most shifts there is only five ambulances available for this entire county. Meditate 30 covers all the way to Saluda. Well, it's not Medic 30 now, but they cover all the way to Saluda. Edgewood County line. The one up there at the Abyville uh highway pass or there at Rice Church covers all the way to Troy. There every the Greenwood has a lot of coverage area that takes a long time to get to it. And sometimes they have five units, but on most days they only have four. Most of the crews there that are on these ambulances are only EMTs and advanced EMTs because they don't have enough paramedics to go

around. So, what I'm seeing is the systems already broken, but we're going to add all these extra houses, developments in here to Greenwood, and the the situations and parts of this county that need to be fixed need to be fixed before we do this. [snorts]

Um, there is over 20 paramedics that live within Greenwood County and they work for other services. I mean, I know what it's like. I promise you from experience, I know what it's like to work a entire 24-hour shift, never eating breakfast, lunch, or supper. And if we were lucky, we got to go to the bathroom. We've thrown out more food for the birds on the way to calls than we ever consumed. They're stressed already. And Greenwood is talking about developing and adding more people to this situation. And the the hard part about this is that's kind of what we're asking is stop slow down. Nobody on our committee or no but it was on Woodong Road is against development. But this is all of Greenwood. If you look, you drive around Greenwood, you know what's going on. There's houses going up everywhere, but the things that are happening here in Greenwood County that need to be fixed are still broken. So, that's what we're asking is stop. Take the time. Consider what this train puts on everybody else because I can promise you we had a wreck at at Calhoun Road in 2024. We waited 16 minutes They held the call for over seven minutes before it was ever dispatched because they didn't have a truck to come.

Thank you, Miss Johnson. Thank you. Appreciate you. [clears throat]

Walter Kimble, Kim BL. Good evening friends, neighbors, our esteemed committeemen and council people. About a year ago, almost to the date, my wife and I signed the ownership documents to move from the Charlotte area to Greenwood. We looked at the character, the locality, looked at a lot of other places around here, almost came close to putting a uh an offer in on another home until we uh ended up settling in the Heathwood development. And earlier we we talked about character and loved it. And let's u rewind a minute. We lived um just about 18 years right outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. We liked it there. Loved it when we moved in. And what were we beset with? Within the last year and a half, almost 4,000 housing units put in within a fivemile radius of our home. No new roads, a law enforcement agency, and I'm I'm a retired police chief, uh director of emergency management, and I do uh consulting now. Um at least at least 20 officers short. We have uh we had to put up in the process of putting up a new school. There's talk of a new fire station and we heard from developers that all of this was going to be with the additional tax revenue be taken care of. Guess what happened 18 months ago? My taxes doubled despite all of those developments. when we look at this particular one and

we were a little dismayed when we saw the uh the hearing notice signs going up uh in and some of the other folks here that had concerns uh slow down. Let's take a look at a very good traffic impact study. uh how many officers and and this is this is important folks and I do some consulting in this not just for this development but as my predecessor just talked about the cumulative effect of a development here, a development here and a development here which is all going to be a a stacking effect on your uh public safety staffing, your uh electrical grid. Okay. um traffic congestion. Okay. Not to mention that there's a school right around the corner and we're also looking at some other things. And I think you know I was also and I will say this I was also an elected official where we uh where we lived and the city council and I very much uh understand what you're going through. Okay. Um but I would say this from that knowledge we have I think a unique uh a unique um opportunity here to start to as Marian who couldn't be here tonight said to start to establish some parameters on not just this development but on other ones where we have a a checklist so to speak. Will this check the boxes? what is the impact going to do on public safety, EMS, your roads, uh to look at a a a predominant traffic study that's going to start to take this uh into effect. Um and and I want to end with this. Um I don't think that I speak for the majority of folks from all these different meetings we've been at that nobody's against other

folks coming down and enjoying the life that we've adopted here in in Greenwood. Not at all. Okay. But overbuilding the that that benefits no one. Okay. We start to turn into neighbors that don't get along with one another. Everybody's mad because they're sitting in traffic and where we came from. A 9-minute commute is 40 to 45 minutes. Now, do you know what they're doing now? They're doing a traffic study on how can we fix this? But we don't have any roads. roads take years. So anyway, you know, I don't want to belabor some of the earlier points, but I'll leave you with this. Um, I just recently uh watched a WBTV, that's the one of the Charlotte stations, a uh Huntersville Police Department is struggling with what they called explosive growth and they need to hire right now 20 to 25 police officers. the police chief there, and I actually happen to know him from some of the the work that I've done. This is what he's wrestling with right now. Taking SRO's out of the school system to reduce response times or leaving the SRO's, which I am a big proponent of the SRO programs as well as there, or leaving them. And now it's going to take longer to get officers to major events and response times with all of the traffic. But we have the ability right now to go into this with our eyes open and we don't have to walk those walks. We can rightsize some of these projects going into it with the knowledge necessary that it will meld well within our community. And I implore you as many of the other folks

that are here patiently sitting um say the same thing that we're not against development. We're against what we're for is right sizing. We're against the um the mistakes, the missteps that some of our surrounding areas are trying to pull back from that. All right, Mr. Walter, I'm going to cut you off. You've exceeded your time. I've been kind of generous. Please try to stay within your time frames if you can. I appreciate your comments. Welcome Greenwood. By the way, folks, we're not at a concert. I don't need applause. Yes, sir. Name and Good afternoon.

My name is Dan. Last name Healey. H E A L Y. At 310 Plantation Drive here in Greenwood. Well, first of all, I'd like to uh thank the the board for the opportunity for us to tell you uh what our concerns are and for your service to the Hana Greenwood. [clears throat] I'll be brief, but despite the fact I'll be brief, I think the message that I have to give you is an very very important one. I'm a 30-year retiree from Capsael along with with Kathy and then taught for about five years at Lander teaching a marketing class and as you have already heard our concerns will be somewhat different than those of the typical nimbies and those of the not in my backyards. I'm sure you probably heard that term once or twice. [clears throat] We are not selling the usual thing. We are not against healthy growth in Greenwood. And on the contrary, we support growth and change. You cannot have growth without change. We all know that. But change does not guarantee growth. And that's my concern. Now, as a group, we are trying to sell insurance here. We want to ensure that growth in Greenwood is protected as well as possible from the risks associated with the changes that growth requires. And one of them that came up a little earlier was the fact that the response time from the, you know, emergency services could cost lives. It could be that much of a difference if it's a five or 10 minute difference because of the addition of these numbers of people coming to Greenwood that that potentially could cost a life. [clears throat] We're all at risk if the change review and approval process does not include

wellthoughtout and researched insuranceances. From this standpoint, we're all nimbies. This is our backyard for everyone here in this room, not just the people that live in the this particular area. It's everyone's backyard. I don't live near it, but it is still my hometown and it'll affect me at some level and even more importantly, my grandkids and great grandkids at some level. It'll it'll affect them. So, please protect us all by ensuring that the necessary due diligence is complete before changes are approved. And finally, please ensure that enough time is included this important process, not for just for this situation, but for all of those that follow. All we're asking for is time. So, thank you very much for listening. And I'm under five minutes.

Thank you, sir. You did a great job. Thank you. Don't need applause, folks. Do not need applause, please. Okay. Now, there are some other people I know in the audience that that are here to speak. For those of you, these spokespersons represented large numbers of people. So, if there's someone else in the audience now to speak, you will have three minutes. Please stay within your time frame. I'll beat that. Either one of you doesn't matter. I just have a couple questions. Name?

Oh, sorry. Glenn Coen. I live at 119 Metobrook. I don't live anywhere near it either, but I like like him. I'm worried about the whole town. Um I have just a couple questions. Does the builder already own the property? Yes. Okay. So, he bought it knowing it was owned R1 and R2.

So, this this corporation invested in a property knowing how it was zoned. So, they already know that they're going to make money on it how it's sown. So, to me, it just seems they want to cram a few extra units in there to make a little extra money. So, you buy it zoned R1, R2. It should remain R1 R2 because that's the way he bought it. Do you agree? Let Let me say this is a hearing. We're not here to answer questions. [laughter] So, but but if that's your opinion,

okay, well, you know, he said that he was from New York and this was designed to be like New York style houses and this is Greenwood. So, let's keep it Greenwood. That's all I'm saying. Appreciate you coming. Thank you.

You coming up? Okay, we ain't doing questions.

First off, I'm James Hollensworth, Roger Hollensworth. I go by both. Some people call me by either one, but I live up at Hodgeges. I don't live on Aaho Road, but I see a lot of things. 108 West Townsen Road. I see a lot of things going on on in Greenwood here lately that's bothering me. You ride around in Greenwood anywhere you want to and they're clearcutting 40, 50, 60, 70 acres. No silk fence, no set ponds or nothing. And then the land sits there for five, six, seven years. All that silks got to be going somewhere. I worked construction all my life. Theo knows who Fluer is. We had to do silk control. I mean, like it's supposed to be done. Dehack in Greenwood. I'm telling you, evidently they don't ride around and look at nothing up there on Calhoun Road where they Mr. Benny son been pitching the field about all that silk in that pond. I was raised over I've been all over them woods. That was one of the prettiest creeks. had one bricked up spring up there. That was some of the best water you ever tasted. Go over there and ride around and look at that site. Low spots in there don't have nothing. They got a silt fence around the whole perimeter of the place. But that's it. All that sill going in this pond. I mean, it it's it's crazy. Do any of y'all go out and check on anything? [clears throat] the dehack.

I called them about the air quality the other day. You know, they don't even have a air quality meter. They can't tell you what the air quality in Greenwood is. I bought one three years ago. I mean, what's going on in Greenwood? I I just don't understand. I'm old and I might be gripy, but I'm telling you, something needs to change somewhere. I mean, all these houses y'all putting up, they not houses. Them dad blame duplexes stop on top of each other

and they could put up signs were houses that they built up on Calhoun Road a couple years ago. Had big flags up out there. Houses for sale. Well, them duplexes or what I call a duplex. It ain't a house like that right there. They going to put up two houses per acre. I can remember when you couldn't put a house on under two acres just like right here in Greenwood, which I've asked you about it before. The last time I talked to sheriff down there, they got seven men per shift. There's over 70,000 people in Greenwood. How in the world them seven people going? We had that many when I was a teenager. Believe me, I kept them busy sometime. [laughter] I mean, serious, why are we not adding on to our public safety? I just I don't get it. That's all I got.

Thank you. Appreciate you, folks. I don't want comments from the audience and I don't need applause.

Thank you. State your name, sir. Stephen Burton, 219 Ammonwood Drive. Um, as my concerns go, um, me and my father run a, um, construction business, Burton Builders, and I just see no benefit, um, to continuing to let stuff like this happen. Um, as you see, I mean, these houses are packed in on half an acre almost. Um, I mean, are we looking to make our whole town look like that? Because like the fellow just said, I mean, there was houses I mean, I remember growing up, every house I've ever lived in had over at least eight, you know, 1.5 acres. And most of the houses in the neighborhood were were uh the lots were cut off that way. And now we're just slamming houses side by side. No yards. I mean, nowhere to do anything. And I don't get how it benefits people like me. 107 lots. I mean, that's a lot of houses that these people come in with these deep pockets and can build. And uh it's just hard for people like us to continue to compete with this. Over the past five years, I mean, I can just think of at least four to five developments in or around the area. And I mean, that's hundreds and hundreds of houses. And I just see it as that's just taken away a little part of this economy in this town. builders like me and my father and my grandfather before him. When we make our money, we put it back into the community. We, you know, buy things from the community, clo, you know, anything. But these people come from out of town. They don't care about this community like we do. They come in and throw these houses up and leave. And they don't care what it looks like in 10 years. They don't care if that if like they don't care if they make that much money on these houses. Like me and my father have to make a profit on houses. They can lose and just still get away. They don't care. they can come in and destroy these these small towns and leave like they were never here. And um you know, I just don't see how it helps any kind of bluecollar small business.

And I feel like that's what this uh this town and this county is mainly of is just small bluecollar men and women trying to make a living in this town. You know, give their kids a good life, you know, go to a good school. And I just don't really see how this benefits anyone of my, you know, my stature in this town. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone [applause] else? Come forward, please. [clears throat]

Say the same thing she always says.

Please state your name and address for the record. Bonnie Granelli, 246 North in Greenwood, South Carolina. I spoke before when they were doing the Aldi thing and I just wanted to reiterize that what these people have said is really what ought to be rolling around in your minds up there due to the fact that uh Greenwood is growing far too fast. Um far too much is going on. Far too many people are coming in with no consequences of what the end result will be. I mean, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand what's going on. I mean, if I can figure it out, a lot of people ought to be able to, but they they it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure what's going on. On the first meeting I came to, there was 787 houses being built in various places as subdivisions and I think they nixed a few of them. But for the sake of the people who live here, who uh want a comfortable town to live in, not a Charlotte, not a Charleston, not a Lexington. They want Greenwood, South Carolina. small southern town with uh slow growth. And that's all I have to say.

Thank you, ma'am. [clears throat]

Name and address, please, sir. My name is Jimmy Faulner and my wife and I own 18 acres that are adjacent to I think it's 1905 Cahoun Road. Jamie, before you go on, what's your address, please, for Miss McIntyre, 240 Pine Tree Drive.

Thank you, sir. But we have the 18 acres there around that new development that I don't know seems to be really confused. Uh one of the first things that I discovered uh I've been kind of back and forth a good bit with Marian Moore that we all know. uh because he's kind of pointed some of these things out to me and and it's just pitiful for mother nature to go through what mother nature's going through with that development. The first thing that I saw with them was a silk fence going across a creek. That's a fact. And then they got so out of control with their drainage, they dumped uh rip wrap on my land in the creek bed to try to help them from what they had lost control of. Uh I have a creek basin this deep. It's it's deep as that. It's deeper than that desk right there. And we had so much mud and water silt coming through there, it bubbled over the creek bed right down towards Mary Moore's pond. Jay Burch is between the two of us. And I'm telling you what's the truth. We have been assaulted. I'd say it mother nature has been assaulted by this development. And I don't know what the magic trick is to get it fixed, but my son-in-law and my youngest daughter bought 18 acres there at the corner of Pine uh and Pine Tree, which would be on the other side of the dam that Mary and Moore has. And they've got muddy water, too. It's that far down. It's able to go

all the way to Clark Hill. It it's an amazing that property is a bowl if you look at it like it was GPS or something like that. It it it's all shaped like a bowl. And we've we've really suffered from it after them botching that job. And I don't know where it's uh headed from here, but man, I was taking my grandkids down there. I got a 5-year-old and a nineyear-old and I take it down take them down to Marian's pond and we'd catch fish. I'd ask Sid. We'd go down there and fish. And you've seen kids catch fish. It's special. Well, it it'll be years before I'm catching fish out of Marian's pond because it's red. It is as it is as polluted as it can possibly be. And uh I hope that y'all can make things happen and make things right.

Thank you, Mr. Fer. Appreciate it. Yes, sir. Y'all have a good night. Mr. Chairman, I don't want to be a bad guy here, but we're supposed to be talking about the specific agenda item of Old Abbyville Highway and Woodlong Road, and we have morphed into Aldi and the one in the city on Calhoun Road. And I realize all of those have their own issues, but we need to stick to the agenda item of um Old Aville Highway and Woodlon Road. Please, sir.

I'm I'm being very generous and Councilman's absolutely right. Uh, I was told earlier today that I needed to be nicer. So, I'm trying to be nice, but please, to that point, if we can please stay on topic, is there anyone else here tonight that wishes to speak in opposition? Seeing none, is there anyone here that cares to speak in support of this ordinance? Come forward, please, or state your name and address. [snorts] Ma'am, is anyone here representing the developer? That's me. That's you. What's your name, sir?

My name is Joe Galino. I'm vice president of development. Okay. You're going to be given some pretty significant time. Judge, not all night, but I'll try because in fairness. Okay. And you probably heard a lot of things expressed tonight that you'll be able to to address. Thank you. Go ahead. Okay. My address is 7009 Evanstown Center Boulevard in Evans, Georgia. That's my office number. That's not my home. What's his name?

Joe or Joseph Galino. Gu. No problem. All right. I appreciate you taking the [snorts] time to listen to me. I do appreciate the comments coming from the audience. I I really do. Uh, one thing I definitely want to address is I want you to know my company. I heard the gentleman talk about construction and I understand where he comes from. We are not a large mega corporate company like some of the ones that are around here and I'm not going to mention their names. We are a family-owned business. Mr. Bill Beasley's been in the business for 50 years. His son Steven runs it. I've been with the company 23 years. That's the longest I have done anything in my life. I haven't even been married for 23 years. So, I mean, I'm usually [snorts] about four years and I leave and as you can tell, I'm not from here. So, I have come down. [clears throat] Excuse me. Anyway, I've listened to a few things and I think Miss Carol presented what we want to do very well. I don't really think I need to add too much to it. Uh, I didn't see the type of houses we're going to build. That's I can present that to you. Um, 22 2900 square ft. a little bit more than that maybe. Uh we're looking at stone front, stone, hardy plank, brick or combination thereof on the front, three sides of Hardy Plank. It's [clears throat] not a starter home. It's basically a move up home. I listened to one lady talk about environmental. It sounds like there are environmental issues here. I didn't cause those, but I understand what they're talking about. We have to by with environment, I will be providing the silk ponds that need to be there. We will provide all the sil fence. My engineer will engineer what they call a soil erosion plan or a swip that's what it's called. And it'll have the initial the intermediate and the final BMPPS

that need to happen. And a BMP is a best management practice. It is a procedures that I have to follow in order to present keep silt on my property not on anybody else's property. my property. I am certified. My director of construction is certified. My field manager is certified. So that means through DHECK, South Carolina Department of Well, now it's Department of Health and Environmental Services. We are all certified for soil erosion. My engineers are certified as designers. We will be presenting these plans to Greenwood to Miss Carol and your engineering department to overlook them. If there's something else they want, we will be required to do that. As far as traffic, they have talked about traffic studies. We will be required to present a draft a traffic study with our submission. I haven't uh had my engineer go ahead and contract that yet because I'm not sure the number of lots I will have right at this moment. Once that part of it, part of my submission, my engineering, my de whatever it's called, pre-development plans, all of that will have that traffic study included. It'll tell me what I may have to do at Abby, old Abeville Road. It will tell me what I might have to do at Woodland Road. It could be del lane. It could be a suicide lane that, you know, that middle lane or it could be a traffic light. We don't know. And I won't know until that time. Excuse [clears throat] me again. Um the one gentleman talked about the R1 and the R2. All right, Miss [snorts] Carol, this is the plan that we put in at 107. I've done some recalculations looking some layout. We think it's going to run around 104 103. I also did a plan which I have not shown Miss Carol on

[snorts] the R1 and the R2. I can get comfortably 99 lots. If I push the envelope, I probably can get it to 103. What I'm basically saying is that whether it's the MPR or the other one, it's going to come in at about 10 and some lots. This is a better plan than the R1 and the R2. With the R1 or the R2, I don't have to provide a buffer. It's not required. There's no requirement for open space. I'm providing 10 acres of out of 46 acres of open space. Now, of course, the wetlands will have to maintain open space, but you see some of those areas we be able to put lots in. We don't want to do that. I want the NPR cuz I want to stay within the consistency of the 10,500 square ft. That's what we would be hoping for. Now, the density was mentioned at 2.3. I [clears throat] roughly and I did it off the GIS and that's how Folly Bend next door. Their density is 2.0 per acre and that's off the GIS. So yeah, not as accurate as you would want, but off the GIS just to compare that. I could not do Hunter Glenn because it's got the golf course and a few others. There was another neighborhood um I think it might have been Heathwood that was about 1.9 acre uh lots per acre. So the density in my opinion is within

at least

where it is. Um again like I said we don't have to do the buffers. Now clear cutting is another one that I heard. Understand how clearcut works. They call it mass grading. this site, the grades fall from old Abbebyville back toward the back of the property. This the end down side of it. Okay? So, all water will flow that way naturally. That's called the pre-development flow. It all flow from Abyville Road down to the property below me. When you mass grade, what I can do is take property that does that and make it do that. And what that does, it takes storm water and it runs it to structures in the street. We try to grade all our lots to go to the street. That's where the storm structures are. That's where you can control storm water to filter it to the separate detention ponds instead of letting it flow. The the the rate is still the same. It's still the same amount of water. It's easier to control it that way when you mass grade. And that's one of the reasons. But when we masquerade this, you're going to have a lot of open space in it. It's just not going to be one giant desert. And the other thing I want to mention is if I cut the first tree down there, we're going to finish the job. I'm not coming in here and just I don't want to say half. You know what, but we're not doing that. We're going to We spent some money. We bought the property. We want to be part of your community. We're not coming in and leaving it desolate. We're going to come in. We're going to build our houses. They're good houses. Anybody's welcome to go on site, look us up on the website. You can see what we build. We're not box on box. We're not blowing go. It's not that. We are I hate I'm not using anybody else's name. We're not the big builders all over the place that do come and go. We don't like them as much as that gentleman don't like

them. So, I think I may have covered everything. I appreciate your time. I do appreciate their time. And uh it's a long ride up here. Do you have any questions? I'd be more than happy to answer them for you. I I do have a question. When you talked about 10 acres of open space within the development? Yes, sir. Does Does that include the uh transmission electrical rightway?

That does because it is we would probably use that and try to turn that into some type of uh walking type trail. Put that around there because I've done that in a couple of other uh municipalities. One of them has a walking trail. another one where closer to where I live actually has horses on it and they do um the horse jumping stuff. I don't know what they call it. You you're you're limited by what you can do on an overhead power line. They get a little touchy about certain things, but uh it is our property. We can decorate it. We probably will have some decoration plantings on both sides of the crossings and then probably create some type of walking. Maybe it's a bicycle path where you can go ride your bicycle and get a a mile in or whatever that distance is.

What is there a is there a community in close proximity to us that you all have done a development in prior? Um Aken is probably the closest here. Um I can provide you with some names and things. Uh, I can actually send you up some marketing stuff if you wanted me to from our real estate people or you can go on to Birkshshire Hathaway Home Services, Beasley Realators. That's our real estate company. They'll have some marketing of what we do or I'm more than happy to provide it. I would I would encourage you when we're done here tonight, if some of the folks in the audience might like to speak with you, I would encourage you to do that if you have the time to do that. Um, you done now? Uh, yeah.

Okay. I appreciate y'all. I really do. Okay. Thank you for being here with us. Council, before he sits down, any questions or comments from council? Okay. I'm going to close the public hearing, vice chairman, I'll get you. So, if there's no one else here tonight that cares to speak, I'm going to ask a motion that we close the public hearing. So, moved. Second, Mr. Templeton, second by Miss Teresa. All in favor? Public hearing is now closed. And I believe uh in a previous conversation, vice chairman, you wanted to make a comment before we move into the next hearing.

Yeah, I'll just just about developments in general. Um you know, I think it's great that we have our constituents come out to a meeting and have passion about the things on our agenda, things that are being discussed. And um and I I understand also, you know, I'm trying to read some of the comments and understand some of the the um concerns, you know, that you guys are the ones that elect us to represent you. [clears throat] Um and that I take this role very very seriously, personally and seriously, and I try to do my research on anything that I vote on. But having said that, I just wanted to share a few thoughts of mine that put together over the month concerning developments. I've had a ton of conversations with constituents, including 20 or so with Mr. Templeton, about half as many with Mr. Allison, and um we we all care what happens in Greenwood County, but I think it's also important for our constituents to know where we stand on issues. That's why I'm discussing it out loud here. Um, as council members, when it comes to a vote, we have two options. Vote yes or vote no. And you know, understand that every square inch of property in Greenwood County is zoned for something. Um, [snorts] but understand that a no vote does not mean that the owner can't do anything to the property. [snorts] It just means that they can still do what it's currently zoned for. If a property is approved for their application, then that does give the approving entity, the opery, which in this case, if it's a county project, for us to add things like traffic studies, buffers, it

gives us an but the current zoning, we can't. Um, so to understand how these requests start, we're we're standing up here taking a lot of fire, but these aren't my neighbors selling that property. These are people that live around you, and you have to go back and say, why are they selling it? Are people's children's inheriting property and getting rid of it? Are they stripping the property before they sell it? I don't know. I don't know those statistics, but somebody's selling property to developers, which cause us to be in this situation. Um but anyway, while the county might be able to um discuss options for developers for leaving trees or green space, I'm pretty sure we can't tell you current land owners what to do with your property. So, um it it brings me to two questions for the county manager because I know some people have made comments to this. Uh Mr. manager. Does Greenwood County have a department or even a single employee that is actively recruiting new resident residential developers to Greenwood County?

No. Does Greenwood County offer any incentives to builders or developers for building in Greenwood County for residential building? Residential builders.

Okay. I just wanted to clarify that for the audience that thought we might be recruiting. We are however, I don't know if Mr. Baitman's still in here, uh, recruiting industrial development and we do offer incentives for jobs and investment in Greenwood County. I think that's important to note. We are actively trying to do that. So, having said all that, and I appreciate council, and I appreciate the audience for indulging me, for having my moment on my soapbox, um it has been five years since we've reviewed our comprehensive plan. And I think it's time we start that process. And in doing so, I believe we do need community input, which would be invaluable. But I also think we need to hear from developers and builders as well and understand all sides of the process. and include with that utilities. Someone brought up schools, school districts, [clears throat] and um public safety.

Thank you. Public safety. I appreciate that. Appreciate your uh indulgence and allowing me to share my opinions, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Puit. All right. I'm going to move on now, folks. Uh item C um will also require public hearing. Is this is second reading ordinance 202604 to amend the Greenwood County zoning map as and if amended so that one parcel of land totaling approximately 1.01 01 acres or Mr. We're going to vote to go back. So we got out of we went we went out of public hearing. So while we were vote for this one we went out of public hearing.

Did I not ask for closed public hearing? Well yeah you did and we did but I didn't we probably should have Well, doesn't matter.

Since [snorts] we're out of public hearing, why don't we vote on the one we just had and then you can reopen it for the next one. Okay. So, on that note, since we're out of public hearing and we um since we came out of public hearing and we're ready to vote on the one we just talked about, [snorts] um after talking with um several of the folks from the Greenwood County residents for managed growth and Marian and others, um my recommendation is my motion is going to be that we delay voting on this particular issue until traffic study and some of those other environmental issues can be answered. That's my motion. So,

Mr. Temple has put forward a motion that that we that we amend this to delay, not amend, just delay to delay until such time that further information is gathered. And I do want to say, as I've told some of the people I talked to over the week, that the traffic study will provide obviously valuable information, but do not expect that to stall the project. That's not the way it works. DOT is going to tell you there's plenty of capacity on that road. They're going to say that you have to do some safety uh some traffic calming issues like uh turn lanes or traffic signal or whatever, but don't if your expectation is that the traffic study will stop the project, that would be incorrect. But that is my motion and hopefully I'll get a second.

Is it to delay for the traffic study? Is that what you said? Yes. Okay. Well, I'll second that. All right. You've heard that. We have a motion from Mr. Templeton. We have a second from Mr. Puit. So, all in favor of voting to delay this until a traffic study is conducted, signify by raising your hand, please. Okay, I'm voting against that. But that's 61 in favor. So, that passes as as presented. Thank you very much. I'm sorry, what?

Well, do Let everybody clear out before we move in because now we can go to the rest of the stuff and all these people are gone.

They asked for it. So hold on, man. Careful. I don't know.

Well, you heard me suggest that he talk. Always try to support somebody in your district. He got a bill, but [laughter] I know how it is. This actually worked out better because it cleared the room. That's right. You want to consider maybe taking a fivem minute recess and let everybody clear out? Well, I'm kind of recessing by just sitting here. Well, let's go. Just a thought. Huh? Just a thought. Mr. Chairman, let's go ahead and keep this thing moving. Please, sir. They'll be out in just a moment. Do you need a bathroom break manager? Is that why you ask me? [laughter]

No, I'm I'm here for long. Right. You ready? We got We got [laughter] it. No, I'm read it first. That'd be great. [clears throat] Yeah, I will. All right, council. We're going to move now to item B. We have need for for another public hearing uh in regard to ordinance 2026. Excuse me. I'm sorry. Got to move forward. Go into the public hearing. Mr. Second

2604. Have a motion by Mr. Alson, second by Mr. Temple. All in favor of entering public hearing. That's unanimous. So ordered. Ordinance. It's 20264 to amend the Greenwood County zoning map as and if amended so that one parcel of land totaling approximately 1.01 01 acres at 9:15 Salom Church Salom Church Road, Greenwood County changes from RDD Rural Development District to neighborhood commercial. Miss Coleman, please. I see one. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, you just gave me the overview of it. So, this is the property itself. Um, the piece on the right that's outlined in red is the property that currently has a mobile home on it. All of the property surrounding it, um, from which it was originally cut out of is all RDD. This is RDD. Um, this is AG1 and I think this is maybe AG2 that real quick. So, um, just to give you an idea, you see where it is. If we go back, you can see there's residential around it. There's actually this is actually a commercial use. This is a meat processor. Um, this is commercial. This is the county shop. So, this is where the landfill property starts. Um there is a restaurant over here on the other side of the road. Um everything else around here in this area is is residential. So the applicant came in and her goal was to she also owns this what I refer to as a flag lot. This is the flag pole. She owns the property back here also is to move the mobile home off to allow for the development of a community store. Now she specifically named Dollar General. I don't know if that's a possibility or not, but simply speaking, RDD allows almost every use we have um available to to anyone. So, currently the road ownership is actually state road. Um and then over here, you can see that they do have some utilities. They have um gas there. No water sewer at this point. Um this is the mobile home on the property. This shows the sign for the meat processor that's been out there for a lot of years. I worked at the landfill in the 90s and it was back there then. Um, this is adjacent property over here. This is a property across the street where the house is burned. Um, it has been like that for a long time. This is looking up Sylum Church Road towards the landfill. And here we are with the overview again over right here.

So the proposal um is to allow for the development of a commercial property. Just to remind you, RDD does allow almost every use. The key is residential uses are allowed on one acre or more. Um if it's a legal lot of record, you can do residential uses on less than an acre, but commercial uses require a minimum of two acres. So she didn't have enough property to do a 2acre commercial parcel right there. So, she came in and asked if she could change the zoning. The least intense zoning that was available to us was neighborhood commercial. That would still allow her to have a community store. She is here tonight if you want to ask her any of these questions. You can see future land use does show this future land use as um low density residential. And of course, this is all purple is public. So, this is all the landfill property over here. Um, when this went through planning commission, I think the planning commission supported it because it was seemed a reasonable request and the fact that RDD does allow commercial uses if you have enough acreage. Um, staff opposed it for the simple reason that the future land use did not support it. Same as the future land use on the last one did support it. So, it's it's just playing with numbers right there. Um, if you have any specific questions, I'll be glad to address them. Again, the applicant is here if you would like to ask her anything specifically, but she um has a strong desire to do this and she came in and made the application, so we brought it forward.

Thank you, Carol. So, we're now in public hearing. Anyone uh that might want to speak in opposition this ordinance, please come forward. Seeing none, I'll ask anyone here and speak in support of this ordinance, please come forward. land owner, you don't want to come forward, I would encourage you to come forward.

Statue name, address, please, from Miss McIntyre. Good evening. My name is Galina Repka. I moved from Pennsylvania and I've been living there in rural area too. And I think you probably need you probably need to restate your name slowly and let Miss Ma and you may have to spell it for Susan. G A L Y N A R E P K O. Thank you. Step closer to the microphone if you can, please.

Yes. And um when I moved here and I realized this is rural rural area too. I I lived in rural area in Pennsylvania, but we had much more convenience stores and Dollar General and Family Dollar in recently, you know, that they all knew and it was very supportive for the neighbor when the weather conditions were bad, you know, because lots of elderly, lots lots of people don't have cars and it just was very convenient to go to the store next door or whatever and that's why I uh come with the idea to maybe do something in this area because my neighbors elderly too they don't have car and every time they're asking me to bring them somewhere you know because and we had a you know weather condition bad at this time and always something happen like pipe frozen whatever you know it's something supportive need to be and and I thought it just will be helpful in the area.

Okay. Yeah. And and um yeah, I I have my neighbor. He would come here, but he is bad health condition now. So, okay. All right. Well, thank you, ma'am, for being here. Is there anyone else who wants to speak in favor of this? Seeing none, go ahead, Carol. Mr. Chairman, I neglected to mention, I'm sorry, that the planning commission did vote unanimously to approve this. They voted unanimously to approve 10 to zero. I was going to ask you that. Thank you very much. Um, council, any comments or questions in regard to this? If not, I'll entertain a motion. What's your pleasure? I'll make a motion. We come out of Well, we've got to come out of executive session.

Public hearing motion. Public hearing. Second by Mr. Templeton. All in favor? Mr. Chairman, I've missteped about five different times tonight. I have a motion to approve. Second. Motion to approve by Mr. Allison, a second by the vice chairman. All in favor of approval signifying that's unanimous and so ordered. Thank you. No, I'm I'm Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah,

that's 61 to approve. Thank you. Item D. Well, we Yeah. Item D, the lease of hangers at the Greenwood County Airport lease and the designated hanger specified in in the table below that you have in front of you. Rat Templeton, please tell us about that. Yes, sir. You know, part of our um revenues at the airport is leasing hangers. And as we lease hangers, we come to get your approval for the ones listed because we have six hangers tonight that we'd like to get approval to lease to the individuals listed in this table. Mr. Chairman, can I ask a question?

Certainly. I noticed that on our agenda after this item, it says end of public hearing. Do we have to have a public hearing on these hangers? So, we got to go back to Oh, I apologize. I didn't think that we did. I thought we were just I thought there was straight voters. I make a motion we have a public hearing. Second motion to enter public hearing in a second. All in favor, please. Rick, go ahead. you've that's all you need to tell us about this. That's all I need to tell you. Is there anyone here in the audience that's here to speak in favor of this tonight? Seeing none, anyone here to speak in opposition this tonight? If not, I'll ask for a motion to close public hearing. So move, Mr. Allison. Second.

Second by Miss Miller. All in favor? Public hearing is closed. A motion to approve.

Have a motion to approve as presented. Second by Miss Bishop. All in favor of approval. That's unanimous and so order. Thank you. Moving now into new business. [snorts] And let me get my notes in order here. Excuse me for just one quick minute. Got too many documents in front of me. Item A, consideration of the appointment of special tax district commissioners for the following subdivisions. Chinkapin, Winding Creek, and Idlewood. Our treasurer, Miss Dorne.

Uh, Chinkapin is to appoint April Prince. She will be replacing David Doherty. Uh the Winding Creek subdivision is to appoint Miller Murphy who will be replacing Amy Bots and in Idlewood to appoint John Hastings who will [clears throat] be replacing Tony Booth. These have all been signed properly by the current commissioners and we would recommend approval. Offer you a motion to approve, Mr. Chairman. Have a motion by Mr. Puit and I have a second by Miss Bishop. All in favor? Thank you.

That's unanimous and so ordered. Thank you. Item B, consideration of public safety training center design proposal from Steuart Cook renewal architects and Davidson Floyd Engineering. Mr. Skinner, please.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Council. The clicker up here. issue under consideration this evening is a design site design proposal from Stuart Coop Stuart Cooper New Architects and Davis employee for the public safety training center. Uh this is item this comes under item number five of the 2016 capital project uh sales tax m uh fire master plan um which includes the construction of a public safety training center. A quick look at our uh budget for that item. Uh 14.2 million originally after 14 fire trucks, six new fire stations, and some concrete driveways. We're left with 4.2 million for the public safety training center. And of course, in 2024, there's another 13.8 million for the the rest of the buildout. Uh back in 2023, we selected Stuart Cooper Newell uh as the lead architect for the project. They partnered with Davis and Floyd to do uh Davis and Floyd is doing most of the engineering work, a lot of the site work. Uh phase one contract included programming and master planning. So most of 2024 uh they met with city and county uh law enforcement, city and county fire and then the emergency services to ask them what they wanted, what they needed at this training center. Uh that that uh total cost of that contract was 64,900 and we completed that in March of 2025. Uh we also uh completed the the master plan which you see here. This is very conceptual, very early, subject to change, but the site that was selected was at the current uh airport annex site which Greenwood County owns. You see the

uh the old church building here, the old church gym in here. The master plan proposal has a uh new fire station uh right off Airport Road. You see a a large driving pad for driver training off North Side Drive with the entrance off North Side Drive. You have the uh fourstory um drill tower. You have the a burn building and uh some extraction training pads to train [snorts] getting people out of cars and things like that. There was a shooting range on site uh but FAA South Carolina Aeronautics didn't like the shooting range right at the end of the runway. So we have decided to move that and are looking at other uh sites at this at this moment. So, the current proposal is just to design and permit this area here and go ahead and bid out the driving the the driver's training pad which will fit within our $4.2 million budget. Um, you'll see what's included in the proposal. surveying and geotechnical services. The site design which is grading storm water management which is the the main permit we need to get first and then the design and build building of the driver training path. Total propos proposal cost $364,35. And we're recommending approval of this once the uh county manager and county attorney get to look at the actual proposal documents.

All right, council. That's it for you, Josh? Yeah. Any questions? Any questions, comments, council? Is the only thing missing then right now the shooting range? That's right. That's right. Yes. Everything else kind of on the wish list I guess for this compound has been covered. Is in the the master plan uh whether or fall in the budget. We'll see. But but yes. Okay. It's all in there. Thank you. I have one question. Is there not a possibility of putting the shoot range under roof and it be

That was looked at uh in indoor shooting range. The cost are astronomical. I think it was uh it's in here, but I think it was 15 to 20 million just for indoor shooting range. Yeah. So, the FAA is frowning on shooting around the airport, huh? I got Yeah. Yeah. Good lord. $20 million. Thought you could take a metal building and build a real thick wall at the back of it and solve that problem. We might want to get in the shooting range business. We can try. All right. Council, what's your pleasure? I'm going to make a motion to approve, please. Second. Have a motion by Miss Miller, second by Miss Bishop. I'll yield to Miss Bishop. Okay. All in favor? That's approved and so ordered. Thank you, Josh.

Thank you. [snorts] Item C and the remaining items I think through. Let me look how far down we go here because we got a lot of these. First, first reading in title only through Yeah. through H. So, Miss Dorne, uh, item C, ordinance 202605, dissolving the Penssonville special purpose tax district, first reading and title only.

So, I I will address all of the items C through H because they are all similar. Uh, this is uh the same as we brought to you about two months ago where we brought six different special tax districts that had not been used in many years. And so we uh have taken this next six, this is the last six um that we currently have that are are not active uh and would like for you to consider dissolving these. We excuse [clears throat] me, we sent out letters to all of the property owners last week notifying them of the process and notifying them of when the uh public hearing would be held on these if they would like to speak. The Penssonville Tax District has no funds on hand. Orchard Park has $1462. Spring Lake has no funds on hand. Emerald Place has $116.35. Harborside has $20018 and Timberlake has no funds on hand. We have notified those three that have funds on hand that if they have a purpose that fits within our definition of of allowable expenses and would like to spend those funds, they would need to bring forth three commissioners. Otherwise, it would go through the same process um as we've talked about before where you as council would decide on any nonprofits that the funds would be donated to. What we intend to do is when the they have 365 days to do that after third reading and we will bring all 12 any balances in the 12 districts that are dissolved forward at the same time so that those monies can be combined for your consideration. Happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Any questions council? Thank you Stephanie. And you probably need to read the rest D through H into record.

Yeah, just for the record, item D, 202606, that's item E, excuse me.

Item E, ordinance 202607 is Spring Lake. Item F, ordinance 202608, Emerald Place. Item G, ordinance 202609, Harborside. And item H, 202610, Timberlake. We'll move to item I. Um, this first reading. Now, we we're going to Didn't we say that we want to to delay this one or remove this one or amend this one? How are we going to do this? I think D I think this vice the vice chairman's got a motion. Mr. Chairman.

Yeah, Mr. Chairman, I'll move to send section 3.6.3.122 of the Greenwood County Zoning Ordinance to the Greenwood County Planning Commission so the commission may consider revisions to this cluster development section of the ordinance. [snorts] Okay. The motion is for this go back to planning commission for revision. Not go back, just go to go to them too. Excuse me. Yes. to go to them. I'll second.

Um have a have a motion by vice chairman, second by Miss Miller. Any comments or questions before we vote on this? All in favor? And that's unanimous. Thank you. Resolution 2020 2026 regarding exceptions to Greenwood County policy 5.4 immediately following winter storm firm. County manager, please tell us what our intention is on this.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh as you will see in the resolution itself, the resolution outlines how the county will how county will address individuals did or did not work during wintertorm fern. Uh it deals with how they will be compensated, flex time, comp time, etc. and how individuals that did not work on the Monday that county operations were suspended, how they will be treated. So, it's one resolution that deals with all the different groups and outlines how each of them will be covered, which will be a one-time exception to policy 5.4.

Okay. So, um do do you want to do you want to speak specifically to how some of those are going to be covered or we don't need to do that? I think it's pretty Mr. Chairman just authorizing you all. I'll second that. I have a motion to approve by Mr. Allison and a second by Mr. Templeton. All in favor? That's unanimous and so ordered. Thank you. Last item K, resolution 202607 to approve a reorganization in the Greenwood County Administration Department and other ma matters related there too. County manager.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Since the drafting of the FY26 budget last summer, there have been ongoing discussions between myself and council about the position of a deputy county manager. We've looked at several different options as to what this position could or could or should look like. Chairman Lane and I have worked at a version that we believe reaches the goals and does not create a new deputy county manager employee. These positions will be filled via promotions from current staff. There are several goals reorganization including succession planning, more even distribution of direct reports and the upcoming strategic plan which I will be the point person for. In your packet, you have detailed documents of this reorganization. Uh, and I'll answer any questions y'all have.

Council, any questions or discussion? I think we've talked about this several times. I'll motion to approve it. Second. A motion approved by Mr. Alson, a second by Miss Bishop. All in favor of approving as presented. Question.

Yeah. Questions or discussion? Uh, no. I just going to say I while I do respect the opinions of my council members and [clears throat] the all the hard work put into this, you know, I'm going I'm going to maintain my position. I feel like that should be a standalone position. Um, we talked about secession uh have if the county manager was uh not able to perform duties, what would happen in that regard? And we've created two for that. So, um I will be voting in opposition because of my belief on that. Thank you.

Thanks, sir. Any other comments? If not, we have a motion, a second before us. I'll ask you if you're in favor of approval of this, please signify. That would be six in favor, one opposed. Thank you. And that's so ordered. I'm going, if council will allow me to, uh, as we move into, uh, we have, we have no further pending items. Um, before we move into district report, so I'm going to ask you to let me do mine first. Trip Padet has been sitting and waiting very patiently all night. He had asked to he had asked to be allowed to speak to council. I wanted to allow him to speak to council, but [laughter] but uh, it wasn't on the agenda. So, Trip, I'm sorry you lost your audience because you had a really nice audience. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of council. And I was hoping that I would be able to uh inform those people, too. But as as you know, um I'm I'm a lawyer here. I've got a general practice. I touch a lot of different areas of the law. One of them is real estate, and I ran into a situation last week where I spoke to the individual uh who had a you can call it a sham lean or a a fraudulent lean filed against his his house. And he said, "No, nobody served me with this." And I said, "They don't have to." He said, 'Well, nobody um mailed it to me. They don't have to. All they have to do is record it in the courthouse. And he said, 'Well, I wish there was something that I would have known about this because it was back in October, and I was just searching the title um a week ago.

Well, there's something that the county has available for your constituents. Uh, I would I would like the index to to to get the people of Greenwood County to know about it, your constituents to know about it. Your clerk, and I'll give you some compliments, you've got a great clerk and a great staff in the courthouse. The the the clerks in the uh uh that deal with real estate know their stuff. Very good. But Chasty has a software that has a plugin that you already pay for. So your citizens only have to go in and click fraud sleuth. And if you if you sign up for fraud sleuth, you will find out the next day because the system updates at midnight every night. You will find out next day if a variation of your name that you put in like it would be Trip Padet Pageant Trip James Padet Pageant James whatever all my variations. If something is recorded that is your variation, you will get an email saying something's been recorded. You go look this fell who had this lean filed against his house that is problematic. I think it's fraudulent, but it's still problematic. If he would have known about it 6 months ago, he might have been able to have dealt with it and it not be a problem now. But if anyone has an interest in real estate in Greenwood County, we have wonderful technology for the good guys. Unfortunately, it's a wonderful technology for the bad guys, too. They can see our stuff. The only thing you can do you can't prevent what's filed, but you can see next day if something is filed that affects you. So, let your constituents know. Put that on on your Facebook pages. Hopefully the index will uh inform the community that there is a free, it's not free, it's already paid for. It's on the county website. It's called Fraud Sleuth. It's under the clerk's um um what do you call

it on the website? It's on the clerk's web page. So, Fraud Sleuth, you register, username, password, put in your name variations. It's not going to fix anything for you, but it will tell you if something happens. Trip, let me ask a quick question. the timeliness of knowing how how does that significantly help you the first day versus three months from now.

It it's just lead time. It gives you a chance to uh to deal with it quicker because if you if you get in a contract and you're supposed to sell something and we have a short time to search and it's supposed to close in 3 weeks, you can't fix much of anything in three weeks. But if you have six months, you might be able to deal with it. Um, so if if someone forges your deed, if someone does file a lean, if someone u records an easement or something that you didn't consent to and it's a fraudulent thing, this is just a service that you already pay for that the clerk has to alert your constituents. That's all you can see. People care about their land. This room was filled up. Sure.

So, this is just something that you already pay for for your constituents to have to give them more information as quickly as possible. So, Abby, I would ask you if there's a way that we can help promote to spread this information. We have before, but it's been a while. We'll we'll do it again. Okay. And you can get the details from Trip as to what that needs to look like. Okay. Thank you, Trip. And I appreciate your patience. Sorry you had to wait all night. Okay. It's just it's something that folks need. Yeah. Is it? Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Mr. For me. Uh I was going to ask is there any way to put it on the county's website? It it's already there.

I mean, is it is it it's fraud? What? Sleuth. Sleuth like a investigator. Um Okay. Yeah. Now, uh how you go to the clerk of courts website? No. So, it's the county website. You go to the three lines on the top right. It opens up Dropbox, departments, clerk's office, registered deeds, and then fraud salute. You got to scroll down. It's kind of in the middle of the page. It It's a little bit of work to get to it, but it's easy sign up and you have given yourself every opportunity to know if something is is um is recorded in the deed books or mortgage books against your property.

Yeah. My question was could it be made easier on our website to where there's something front page front p right on the front page that says fraud or something you if you think you just just because like you say people don't know it's there. I didn't know it was there. Well, you can publicize that to your constituents too. Um on on your on your it just gives them added lead time. So and as a realtor this is becoming a problem in other parts of the country. It's more of a problem. Yeah. Um we are very fortunate that our records are online and very well organized and easy to get to.

At the same time, we become a target because of that. And you can see with the folks coming into Greenwood, we're found now. We're not Addyville doesn't have their records online. McCormack doesn't have their records online. We do. Six. There's more coming. There's I found another nine of these. Wow. So, if somebody files a lean, like when I was building my house, I think the somebody filed a lean against my contractor, but it went on my home and I didn't realize that till later. Is that

that type of lean is filed against the property? So, yeah, it if it it would have that's a different one. That's that's a mechanic's lean that's filed in a different set of books. Okay. Just checking. Uh this is in um th this service affects mortgage books and DBooks um where the majority of stuff is. What you're talking about is online, but I don't know of a of a service that would that would alert you to what you're talking about. Okay. But he has to be served that. That is correct. You would have to be served with that particular one because I know that because you would be served that. This you're not served. Your stuff would be in common please court. This stuff is just mortgage book deed book with no service. No mailing, no no nothing. So,

okay. Thank you. Thank you, T. Good [clears throat] information. Um, man, you have anything any report from you? Madam Attorney, I will forgo my district uh report time. Uh, Miss uh Teresa, District One.

Um, thank you, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to say um good evening to everyone. Um all is well in um District 1, but I would like to announce that they are having a um Promised Land Association is having a fish fry on March the 7th from 11:00 a.m. until they sell out. And this is going to be held at the Promised Land Fire Department um on McCormic Highway. And last but not least, a shout out to my oldest nephew today who his who is his birthday today um Brian Allen. And that so ends my report. Thank you, Miss Griffin. District two, Mr. Allison. Mr. Chairman, all is well in District 2 tonight. Good to hear, Mr. Alison. Miss Bishop, District Three.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank everybody for coming and I hope everybody has a good evening. That ends my report. Thank you, ma'am. District four, Miss Miller. No report, Mr. Chairman. No report. District five through it. You know I have one. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. No, you do.

Uh just a couple of quotes I thought were pretty interesting considering the meeting we have. Um be the change you wish to see in the world. Uh Mahatma Gandhi and the only thing constant in life is change. Um my Bible verse for tonight is Romans 12:2. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is. His good, pleasing, and perfect will. That ends my report, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, couple of things. One, um, I want to thank law enforcement for being here tonight. Appreciate that. Thank y'all for being here. Um, I want to thank my man Carter in the back with Davis and Floyd for bringing us some food for the food drive, which leads me into the food drive. weighin will be the 25th. So, we still have time to gather more food. The um the mayor has thrown down the gauntlet says he's taking us down. I don't believe we're going to let that happen. As we were sitting in this meeting, the great folks at the um Cokeberry Hodgees Fire Department just delivered 35 cases of food. Wow.

Uh to be weighed next week. So, thanks to them and y'all um mine is down front and that's my that's my second donation and I'm going to keep going. So I encourage all of y'all to do the same. That is my report, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you.