County Council - Regular Meeting

Good to go. [Music] Good evening. Good evening everyone. Thank you for coming out tonight

for our Kershaw County Council meeting, Tuesday, September 23, 2025. We've been called to order and we're going to be on the agenda. To start off tonight, we're going to have the opening prayer and invocation and pledge of allegiance by Councilman Jimmy Jones. Let us stand. Dear gracious heavenly father, we thank you for this opportunity to be here tonight to serve you, to serve the people of Kershaw County. Dear heavenly father, also we we ask that you will help us all show grace and mercy in all our decisions tonight. Help this county council to understand that we're here to serve the people not be served. And dear Lord, I pray also one thing on a personal note, Casey Brazo, who's gone through a procedure. We ask that you be with her and and and help her healing to where she may come and heal a lot quicker. Dear Lord, please let these council members see that um all things are not just directly what they seem to be to to look into it and dig deeper and and keep people first. Dear Lord Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. If I may, I was going to pray that they listen to me, but I knew that wouldn't do any good. You're doing a good job so far. Don't go too far with it. No, seriously, thank you for that prayer, Mr. Jones. Appreciate that very much. That's item number three. We're on to item number four, adoption of the agenda. Do we have a motion? Make a motion we adopt the agenda as presented. Okay. Is there a second? I'll second.

We have a second. Any discussion on the agenda? Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote. All in favor, raise your hand. It's unanimous handed by those who are present and voting with Mr. Brad Brazzle absent. I think he's taking care of a a family matter briefly. That puts us on to item number 5A. It's a proclamation. I make a motion that we uh have this proclamation uh regarding the South Carolina State Guard and any presentations related there too. Is there a second? I'll second. We have a second. Um, do we have those who are participating present tonight? Yes, sir. Please. We'd love to hear from you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, my name is Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Higgs. In my personal life, I get the privilege of serving as the Kadin County Administrator, but tonight um, and throughout this month, we're making our way around South Carolina to thank councils and communities such as yourselves. Um, number one, it's National Preparedness Month. So, we want to make sure everyone knows we remain ready and and trained to the level should you need us. You can feel free to call upon us to help your communities. Um, moreover, we appreciate the recognition that you're providing um to our organization tonight. We're mainly uh volunteers. We're all volunteer force. Um, but we again stand ready to serve as needed. So, again, thank you. And we do have a certificate of appreciation for Kershaw County Council. Um and and thanks for everything you're doing for us.

Appreciate that very much. Um do you have any other members with you here tonight or is it yourself? I stand alone tonight. Well, if you'd like um come up real quick and we'll we'll take a picture with you. This is the proclamation. Yes. We got to read it.

We don't have to appreciate you being here. After the meeting will be best contest between me and Jimmy's got a crawl around his neck. [Applause] Mhm. help fix.

Oh, by the way, I I want to say something about your state guard. When I ran the jail, you guys really helped and uh pulled us through a lot of days when we had the Carolina Cup and special events like that. And I really appreciate the service y'all gave us then. Thank you for that, sir. We're ready. And whenever you need us, give us a call. Thank you. Uh sir, just one moment. Now that we have Councilman Brazzle with us as well, any other comments, um questions, anything else related to the South Carolina State Guard? chairman. Yes, sir. They they would actually send probably 20 people on the Carolina Cub Day and they would work with me at the jail and I really we couldn't have made it without them. So, they really were very important and intricral part of our services that we provided back then. Chairman, this is theirs, right?

Correct. First and foremost, I'd like to apologize. The frame didn't fit the proclamation. So, Lauren and I had to work it into the frame. So, now it's ready. we can present it to you properly if you like and we can get another photo if if anyone's willing or that's up to the chairman.

If you want a a photo for your sake, you're able to. Um but I just wanted to mention for the South Carolina State Guard from the Revolutionary War to now. Um just familiar with your leadership and volunteer efforts in part because uh Tom Mullikin used to be your general and for for many years he headed up those efforts. Whether it was natural disaster, hurricane coming through, somebody needed help. somewhere the South Carolina State Guard would step up. These are folks who have full-time jobs or retired and they show up in South Carolina and in the Hinder parts and in the near parts to uh to help however they can. And so we also want to present you with this. Do you have any desire for another picture? I'm all for it. We're going to put it all on our social media and everything. Now that we got Russell, we'll do that and have you hold this one

before we go down and let's move it to a vote. All in favor? It's unanimous, Miss Hannah. Thank you. There you go. Perfect. Thank you so much.

Guess I got to pass you. Thank you, council members. We're back on the agenda. This brings us to item number six, Mr. Deose, for public comments. Mr. Chair, members of council, we have 11 speakers signed up tonight. Um I believe it has a program that will equally divide the 30 minutes. Okay. Um first speaker is Dwayne Gary, mobile home intake. Okay, great. just remind uh the public this is a time to hear from the public from council. It's not a question and answer and we look forward to hearing from Mr. uh Dwayne Gary. Come on up Duke.

How's everyone doing? Good evening. Good.

Thank you all for giving me the chance to talk tonight. Um, I want to talk to you all about a mobile intake that the South Carolina Office of Resilience is having in Kershaw County on October the 9th and Elgen at their community center. Um, we're taking over intakes for families who has had damage to their home because of Hurricane Helen. Um, we're working with families to help make them whole again, whether it be financially, but we don't give money. Um, we just help build, we give resources, and we work with a lot of state agencies and, uh, other people, and we have a three-step program that we uh, enroll people in to help become whole again because of the hurricane. So again, we having it on October the 9th from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. in Elgen, South Carolina at the community center. So if you know anyone or you yourself need help from

What time was that again, please? It's from 10 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Thank you. So, if you know anyone that needs any type of help or you yourself need help, please come out uh fill out an intake application and one of our disaster case managers will get in touch with you and we will help you on your road to recovery.

Yeah. M Mr. Gary, you have a minute and 20 seconds left. Can you please explain the type of citizens that you're looking for real quick and what the process will take for coming in? The type of citizens that we are looking for are low to moderate income families that do not have the means to financially rebuild themselves from the hurricane. And um we would need thing they have to be home owners. Um we have different categories. We have four tiers. The most serious tier is a destroyed home and I am in charge of destroyed home. So, every application that goes through the score program goes through me first and I send it up the chain.

Thanks so much for the information tonight. All right. So, um hopefully we'll see you all out there. Tell someone and we will be waiting for you. Thank you. Thank you, Duke. Thank you. Thank you, Duke. Mr. Bose, next speaker is Zakiyia Mikl, zoning data center. Miss Sure. What's the next name on the list? Miss Mickel uh yields, I guess. Got it. Okay. Next speaker is Benjamin Mingo, Zoning Data Center. Mr. Mingo. Mr. Chairman,

members of the council, I stand before you today. Um, I just wanted to make some comments in reference to the proposed data center that is coming to Kershaw County. I just wanted to ask the council, have you considered have you considered the ecosystem that would be affected by this? Have you considered the environment that would be cons affected by this data center? Have you considered the economic impact that the status center would bring and have in our county? Have you considered how it's going to uh affect the citizens of Kershaw County? Uh have you considered if the benefits of this data center will outweigh the burdens that it potentially could bring? I also Miss Mikl I would like to just introduce her. She's from the NA NAACP South Carolina state conference and she's want to share some more information with the the public and with the council how this can bring uh negative impact to our county. So, if you haven't considered those uh things, we ask that you please and I pray that you consider uh and look at all of the detail before a decision would be made. Thank you, sir. Miss Mickel, was it?

Yes. Yes, sir. Mr. Deose. Yes, ma'am. Go ahead. Um let's uh stop one moment so the public can hear. Do we have a cell phone or something going off? Thank you. Go ahead, Miss Mickel.

All right. Thank you. Good evening members of the council. I'm Zakia Mikl the environmental justice chair for the SC NAACP state conference. I first like I first like to thank take a moment to recognize the leadership of President Murphy of the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and President Mingo of the Kershaw County branch of the NAACP for standing with this community in the fight for environmental justice. I'm proud to stand alongside them. I am not a Kershaw County resident, but I do have strong ties to this community. My parents bought a home in Kershaw County where they still reside when I was in middle school. And I often joke and say we only slept here as my mother is an educator and we were able to continue to go to school in the districts where she taught for her convenience. I spent most of my days in Richland County for school, sports, and family time. But I returned home every evening to the quiet serenity that Kershaw County offers its residents. The more I think about it, the more I realize it's not true that we only slept in Kershaw. We engaged our community attending many events like the likes of Lugoff, the Elgen catfish stump, and I even remember when Lugoff only had the IG. In the interest of time and an abundance of respect for the agenda, I'll try to be brief. Today, we're here to be sure that the council was positioned to make an informed decision about the reasonzoning of the 162 acre parcel of land located at 771 Park Road. Currently zoned residential, the land is being targeted by a Charlotte based developer pushing to resone it industrial for a massive data center project. I'm sure we have some Carolina and Clemson fans here. We won't get into the particulars about how the season is going for either team at this time. This is just a demonstration, a point of reference in case you're having a hard time like I did imagining just how large 162 acres of land is. This parcel is equivalent to 123 football fields. A data center that would occupy that much land is massive. I want to be sure that I'm clear about all the negative impacts any data center would bring to Kershaw County, but especially one of this magnitude. I'm going to speed up. I'm running out of time. Let's start with the environmental impacts. Clearing 162 acres of land will displace birds, animals, and other wildlife, while noise and constant light

will drive them further away. Data centers operate 24 hours a day and require heavy cooling systems and backup generators that create constant noise. They also rely on large scale lighting and security systems that produce steady light pollution. These effects harm wildlife and disturb the people who live near the site. Data centers rely on large diesel backup generators that must be tested daily or weekly. These tests release harmful gases including nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and carbon monoxide. Exposure to these pollutants is linked to asthma, lung detection, heart disease, and increased risk of cancer. Children, the elderly, and people with existing health conditions are especially vulnerable. The site is less than 10 minutes away from Jackson Elementary School. And I'm going to speed up a bit about to energy and cost to residents. Data centers are energy hogs, using large amounts of electricity to run their servers and to power cooling systems that prevent overheating. Utilities often pass the cost of this increased demand on to all rateayers, which means everyday residents in Kershaw County will likely see even higher bills. I respect the space, so I don't want to continue to speak, but I have about two more minutes of remarks. Do I have the the grace to continue?

It would require a motion from the council to extend the time period if they wanted to. I would like to extend that because Reverend Mango had a minute and 45 left on his time if I may. Okay, you got a motion. Is there a second? Second. There's a second. All in favor extending the time period for Miss ML by two minutes, raise your hand. I appreciate it. It's extended. I'm voting against the data center anyway. It doesn't matter.

Appreciate it. A data center this size will drive up resident bills as utilities pass on the cost of new power infrastructure and it will strain the grid for homes and small businesses, leaving Kershaw County less resilient during peak demand or extreme weather. Let's examine the economic claims behind this project. When we hear development, we think new jobs, but this project will create only about 15 highly specialized positions unlikely to go to Kershaw residents along with temporary construction work that leaves permanent pollution behind. Finally, water system concerns. People living near existing data centers and other locations report sediment in their water and decreased water pressure so severe that they cannot flush their toilets. These issues raise serious concerns about what could happen to residents near this proposed data center site. It's important to note that this community is already the victim of um existing environmental injustice being that they're located right across the street from the landfill which pro promotes similar uh disparity. During the zoning and planning commission hearing, the developers and their zoning attorney told the commission that this project would have a small footprint and would be tucked away. It was only after that testimony that one commissioner described it as a clean industry. And another reinforced it by calling it very clean before saying, "All right, we're trusting y'all on that. But you cannot tuck away 123 football fields worth of land, and that is the size of this small project. Trust is not a substitute for due diligence, and this community deserves facts, not just promises. You've heard all the risk and harm that a data center would bring to Kershaw County. Now, it's up to up to you to be sure that you are protecting your constituents from experiencing the aforementioned. Given all the information that we shared above, we'd ask that the Kershaw County Council deny the reasonzoning request because a data center will raise energy costs, harm the environment, create an increase in health disparities, put additional strain on the water system, and potentially compromise the resilience of and put added burdens on nearby residents and schools. If for some reason the council is not inclined to immediately deny the resoning, we would ask that the council request that the South Carolina Office of Resilience

conduct a community impact assessment and a resilience assessment and share the results of these assessments with the community before moving forward. This is a vulnerable rural community already facing environmental harms. Kershaw County cannot responsibly move forward until it is clear and transparent about the impacts of a facility of this magnitude on residents in the environment. Thank you for your time and attention to this pressing matter. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Ner. Mr. Deose, who do we have next? Linda. Linda Canater. Public hearing is the subject. Miss Conat now. [Music]

Would y'all please look at her?

Bless you. Chairman Connell, council members, the city of Camden has rescheduled a public hearing on a reszoning issue that was supposed to be held tonight. It will instead be held Monday, September 29th at city hall. This has enabled many people to attend tonight's Kershaw County Council's public hearing on the comprehensive plan. Why do you say should this even matter to you? About a year ago, a group of us had to show up at the city planning committee and they were um talking about a historic ecoin property and their comprehensive plan kept that property from being developed with 152 patio homes. Their comprehensive plan prevented that. The property involved in the city's request for resoning is one that all of you are very familiar with and quite soon you will be dealing with via adjoining Kershaw County property. By knowing what we will be what will be coming your way, it makes the decisions this council is making regarding the comprehensive plan, the ZLDR and our temporary moratorum extremely important. Please take the time to get this right. Thank you.

Thank you for coming out tonight. Mr. Deose, who's next? Andrew Whitaker, Kershaw County ZLDR, and then two letters I can't discern. Mr. Whitaker. Good evening, County Council. I haven't seen you for a while. Russell, look some weight. Very good. Thank you for noticing, especially since WIS is here.

Appreciate the opportunity to come here tonight uh to comment on the data center proposal preliminarily. Um congratulations to you all on your near completion of the Kersha County comprehensive plan which aligns very well I see with uh Camden's uh comprehensive plan which is which is great. I think we can agree that a good growth guided by a living document comprehensive plan is a smart uh specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timebased plan uh in any uh business plan uh evaluation. But just as important in helping evaluate either residential or commercial development proposals is a very strict ZLDR to ensure standards, site materials, quality, irrigation, sewer, infrastructure, water, and electricity usage are all known and met. Has Kershaw County Planning and Zoning completed their new ZLDR? and if not when. Of course, you don't have to answer. These are just questions you should be thinking about. Um, some questions from me as a catchup for this data center. Why Kershaw County? The answer to me is clear. low cost to them available land, low cost, huge quantities of water and a perceived on their part limited regulatory resistance and environment. Who are Nexus Ventures LLC of Charlotte? They filed in September of 2024. What is their track record of performance for management team and for the company? Who are the equity stakeholders in

Terara Networks Ventures LLC and what percentage of each? Are they really from North Carolina or is that just where they registered the LLC? Is Terara Networks LLC a vehicle to cloak private equity management stakeholders and track record? This is sometimes done in some places. I'm not saying necessarily in this instance is the case, but that is a methodology of private equity firms. When they were founded, how long have they been in the data center business? What are their other model examples of such projects that can be shared? Lastly, what are their one-year, 5-year, 10-year water and electricity usage projections here in Kershaw County? And how are they in a commercial ZLDR being held to these projections if it were to be approved by Kershaw County Council and Kershaw County Planning and Zoning? Lastly, what are the dollar costs and the dollars returned to Kershaw County? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wood. [Applause] Mr. Deose,

next speaker is Lashana Migley. Miss Migley. Did I pronounce that right? Megley. Megley. Yes. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Good evening, Chairman Connell and County Council members. My name is Leseanna Megley and I am a resident of Cassid. As this body prepares to prepares to take action on the Kershaw County comprehensive plan and map amendment recommendations, I'm here tonight to urge you to deny the related zone reszoning request case 2514 for the property at 771 Park Road, which is less than a mile from my home. This community is already carrying a heavy burden. We live near a landfill and we deal daily with the environmental health and quality of life impacts that come with it. Adding another largecale industrial project beside it would double down on the harm to a community that has already been asked to sacrifice too much. The recommendation coming before you from Kershaw County Planning and Zoning is not just about a data center. While the applicant says they want to build a data center, this resoning would allow any type of general development use once the zoning is changed, there is no guarantee of what might actually be built. That's too much risk for our community to bear. That's the unknown risk. The known risk, the known environmental impacts of the data center are serious. We're talking about increased noise, lights on 24/7, heavy truck traffic, strain on our water and electricity, and destruction of wildlife habitat. These impacts don't just change the landscape. They directly affect the health, safety, and property values of the family who live here. And let's be clear, the data centers don't bring many permanent jobs. In fact, this project is expected to only create 11. So, the trade-off is massive. Our

residents face noise, traffic, light pollution, air pollution, and lower property values. While the long-term benefits to the community remain very limited. This resoning would be an irreversible decision. Once the land is changed to general development, we cannot go back. We rely on you, our elected leaders, to protect the character of our community and to ensure that development is truly in the public's best interest. A core responsibility of your oversight of zoning is to protect residents from incompatible development. If the council allows this resoning, you will not be protecting us. You will be placing yet another burden on people who have already borne enough. I'm asking you to stand with the people that you represent. Protect our homes, protect our health, and protect our way of life. When this comes to a vote, do not approve this resoning. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Megan. Mr. Deose, who do we have next? Next speaker is Lynn KTO, data center comp plan. Miss KTO, Yes, ma'am.

My name is Lynn KTO. I live 1265 Sanders Creek Road and I'm 2.6 miles from the data center. Um, this is what a data center sounds like. 24/7. My husband actually I'm leaving it on so you can see what somebody would have to live with that lives near it. If you if you could please lower it. The folks online won't be able to hear you at all. But they won't be able to lower it in the houses they live in. Well, we would just like to hear what your comments are tonight.

I just wanted to prove a point. I have had a phone call with my husband and my husband rarely ever picks a side on anything. He just minds his own business and he immediately said no data center that it will affect people two to three miles away. And I was like wait within two three miles away and so I started doing research the pros and the cons of a data center. Necessity versus want. Somebody wants a data center, but we need clean air, a safe home to live in and fresh water, plenty of water. And we already have a water issue because of Charlotte water wanted to route it to another river. Air pollution that's caused by a data center is CO2 and greenhouse gases, nitrous oxide. It also reduces real estate value for at least 30 plus people surrounding that area. So if this this data center is going to provide 11 jobs, what about all the other houses that live around there and the value of those houses? It also uses high water consumption, strain on resources. It has been known to dry wells, reduce water pressure, deplete groundwater, and cause environmental hazards. There's high power usage that demands an increase on customer bills. I'm one of the customers in this area, by the way, so I'm not okay with that. uh noise pollution is 24/7. There is a low frequency hum continually. There are sound readings. DBA is human audible sound that they hear, but there's also DBC readings which is rumbler or the feel that comes from that. This affects not only humans but the animals in the area. Please do not do this to the people live in this area. This is like a highway or a train continually going by them

nonstop. Would you want to live by a highway? I live by a train, but the train doesn't stay going all the time. It's twice or three times a day. Light pollution impacts bird migration near in our girl park. Maybe in impact human sleep patterns. And then you have the problem of what's going to happen with e-waste. Now, what is e-waste? This is when old technology is outdated and then they have to remove it. Are we going to absorb the cost? Is it going to go in our landfill? How are they going to get rid of it? It also has health risks. Asthma, heart conditions and cancer has been leaked to these type of data centers. Now, all data centers are the same, but there are

conto. Um, do you need more time? We were happy to extend it and I'm happy to bring that motion if you need more time to wrap up. Please. About three more things. Three more things. Well, go ahead. If it's just three more, you can wrap it up. Please do

three short things. Um, there are nine common health hazards or risk listed by job site care that you need to do research on. Also, you you say there's going to be job creation, economic growth, but there are also going to be additional economic losses for the people in the community. So, are you going to give to the people coming from outside and take from the people who live there? That's my concern. But what about security? You know, in a recent situation in Blewood, rans, there was a ransomware attack where Group Space Bears actually attacked a local data center in Blewood. Now, they they post that nothing actually happened, but it was actually put out in the news this actually occurred. There are a lot of factors we don't have any guidelines for in our community. And before you make any decisions, that's the first thing you need to consider is a guideline for any type of data center coming to the county. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Miss Gonto. Mr. Deose, who do we have next? Gwen Gwyn Shannon, I believe is the last name. Utilities. Mr. Shannon, I think it's Gwen Shannon. Shannon Gwen Shannon. Yes, Miss Shannon. It's Gwen. First name is Gwen. You're welcome, Miss Shannon. Yes, ma'am.

Good evening, council. I have a small situation and that is the utility bill. We have a fluctuating utility bill and I'm not sure if it's because of the outages which are frequent in our area and it's like you cannot budget yourself when the bill goes from 100 to 200 to 300. It's ridiculous and you call and you cannot get an answer regarding what the problem is. So we would like to basically in the NIL area know what is going on and hearing about the data center. It's scary. It is really scary. If we have 10020 electrical bills with this kind of project we were looking at perhaps double and the infrastructure in this area cannot handle that. So, we're asking you to reconsider if you're planning to vote yes to vote no. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Shannon. Mr. Deose. Next speaker is I believe last name Musas um Car Carmichael. Maybe it's difficult to read the first name. Mr. Mr. Carmichael or Miss Carmichael? Car. Miss Carmichael. I'm sorry. I have to get up. Oh, you don't you don't have to get up and talk if you don't want to. We're just happy to see your smiling face. Thanks for coming out tonight. That's a beautiful yellow shirt. Thank you. M Mr. Debose, who do you have next on the list? Next speaker is Mike Mun on data center. We'll follow up with Mr. Mun. Yes, sir. Please.

Yes, sir. And did did we get Mr. uh Miss Shannon's phone number just so I can check? city. Yes, it's down. Couple council members. Sounds like Sammy has it. Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, board members, I'd like to address the If you could pull the mic up just a little bit so we could hear you.

I'd like to address the uh property which is less than a tenth of a mile from my house. I live on um 732. What's my address? Holland Lane. It's right at my doorstep. There are there just a number of things I'd like to bring to the board's attention for you to consider. And I was a I was a DoD employee for a number of years. I've been around contracting a number of years. I know a lot of contractors and I know how they get in the door and how they uh massage the system to their benefit. But anyway, uh the first issue is noise pollution for you to consider whether they are going going to have noise attenuation. uh the impact of the continual humming of the transformers and the data processing equipment that itself brings. The massive energy consumption is that's probably going to affect my utility bill which is enough as it is and I'm sure that uh it would probably use Black River Electric.

Yes.

Is that going to impact their capability to support the existing infrastructure or will they need to expand? is an additional cost to them or is this going to be covered by the development? Uh the heavy water usage, um the negative impact on the property value, I would expect that my taxes are going to increase, my value is going to decrease on my property since I'm a tenth of a mile from from the property. The increased traffic during and after construction, u there's always a a a delay or deferment in the transportation. the the uh the roadways are in, you know, they're in fair shape, but I would expect that to probably triple. Uh they haven't been paved in years. Uh the increase of traffic during the construction, the interruption, the stop and go traffic, the new school, which is less than 210 of a mile from there, that's going to impact them and all their kids and their transportation requirements. the uh environmental degradation, the loss of the green space, the loss of the natural habitats, the risk of the long-term damage to the ecosystem. Many of these topics have already been talked about in some detail and I'm not sure that the board members are aware of all of the intricacies that are included in the initial uh assumption and analysis versus the long-term uh growth and and uh possible u cancellation of this. What's going to happen if the company goes away? What are we what are we going to do? The last thing since I have four seconds is don't we already have a a county industrial park? Why would that not be considered as a place to put this data center?

Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. M. Mr. Bose, by my account, we have one more speaker. Belinda Franklin Moore reszoning. Miss Moore. Yes, ma'am.

Good evening, members of council. I come to speak to you tonight about the resoning request for the data center. Um, and it is scheduled to be for general development. There is no such thing as conditional zoning as other speakers have eloquently stated. uh you cannot put the genie back in the bottle. So this means if no data center is built or they decide to sell off some of this land, that's it. Anything and everything can go out there and there's nothing that council or planning and zoning or anyone can do about it. Um lest we forget about permit levels of waste disposal into the Watery River. There's also the matter of the interbasin transfer from Charlotte which affects our water flow. Um our permitting levels everything about our water. Um the permitting levels have a finite number. We haven't reached that yet. But in the meantime, if a new disposer comes online, then the other stakeholders have to have a decrease in their permitting level. folks like Invista are probably not going to sit still for that. Um, but I think we are trading our economic development future for what? Our economic development future is directly tied to the amount of waste that we can dispose into the Watery River. Treated waste, by the way, not raw sewage or anything like that. And so if that those levels are exceeded or those permit levels are maxed out, we're done. We're done for economic development. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Moore. Mr. Bose, one point of clarification. I think somebody signed up for the public hearing that's on the agenda, but it appears to be for public comment. Is is that correct, Mr. Chair? Yeah, I did note a Shondaanda Johnston signed up for the uh next matter on your agenda, the public hearing on the MCIP, but the subject was data center. So, it it may Okay. Well, what love to exercise a little bit of grace if you intended to talk on the data center or did you not intend to speak tonight? Yeah, now would be an appropriate time. What's the name again? Miss Was it Shondaanda Johnson? Correct. Shondaa Johnson. Okay. Okay.

Yes, ma'am. And thank you.

Kersha res county residents deserve transparency about the proposed data center. There are no federal or state regulations for AI and no legal framework requiring tech companies to disclose their energy and water consumption. Presently, over 200 environmental safeguards have been rolled back since January of 2025, resulting in a surge of energy and water use that has caught the attention of scientists and lawmakers. Data centers use millions of gallons of drinking water to cool their servers. A midsize data center can consume around 300,000 gallons of water a day. as much as 1,000 US households. Yet, despite the massive strain on the water supply, the company's operating data centers lack transparency about their water use. A holistic understanding of water stress levels require analysis of both the total use and consumption of water. Water consumption and water use both need to be measured. Most water used in data center cooling evaporates and is lost completely from the local water system. It the water is used and lost making it unsuitable for other uses like drinking or agriculture after its use in the data center. The question has been why South Carolina. South Carolina has a great deal of water. We have over 14,000 miles of rivers, more than 1,400 ponds and lakes, and at least 10 acres in size, and 16 lakes or reservoirs larger than 1,000 acres. 10 acres or more in surface area. Our groundwater,

drinking water, potable water supply includes six known aquifiers on the southeast coast. Three of them major aquifiers in the coastal plane. Groundwater only exists also exists in the Piedmont area. We are not likely to run out of water, at least not in the near future. But we must realize water is our most limited natural resource and prepare now to meet the future needs of our population, industry, and agriculture. We have and will continue to have sufficient water to use, but not enough to waste. The Southern Environmental Law Center, known as SEC, is one of the nation's most powerful defenders of the environment. Rooted in the south with a long track record, SEC takes on the toughest environmental challenges in court, in government, and in our communities to protect a Southerners's way of life with regards to air, water, climate, wildlife, lands, and people. In March of 2025, the Southern Environmental Law Center did exactly what we need in Aken County.

Miss Johnson. Yes. I was just going to mention I I see you've got multiple pages there. Do you need some extension? Okay. Go ahead. Okay.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, the following records were requested and I sincerely hope that this group will also request the same information. The data cent's anticipated daily, monthly, and annual water consumption. Proposed or anticipated infrastructure upgrades. any negotiations between Kershaw County and the developers of the proposed data center, including financial incentives, reduce water and electricity rates or and tax incentives for such. South Carolina is not likely to run out of water, but we do not have any to waste.

Thank you, Miss Johnson. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Deose, Mr. Chairman point order. Yes. Could I please? My point of order one is a compliment to you which I think you would appreciate and also it's just a legal question which I pretty much know the answer to but I I think these people deserve it and I think this council could hear it. One I want to thank you for extending time letting people talk. Yes sir. I've been through a lot of chairmans and some has haven't been as gracious as you and I just really appreciate that. Uh number two you know this is something you know county council we set the policy Mr. The Bose staff put this on the agenda. We didn't put it on the agenda. We can instruct staff not to put it on the agenda and just be done with it. Can we not, M. Mr. Jones, this is this is not on the agenda. The matter is not on the agenda.

No, no, no. I said, but we can instruct staff not to put it on the agenda. Period. We don't want to hear it. I believe a matter properly submitted and heard by the planning commission has to be referred to the uh county council for consideration. Well, I don't like that. Otherwise, governments just wouldn't hear things they don't want to hear. Okay. Well, we'll hear and we'll vote it down. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Okay. Uh, Mr. Deose, that concludes public comment. Correct. Correct. Do you have anybody signed up with the one adjustment that we had for public hearing 7A? Not any longer, Mr.

Okay. Um, I'll just go ahead and state it and then we'll open up the public hearing. This is on item number 7A on the agenda. Uh, you heard Mr. Bose call it Mip, but for um for most of us, it's a multi-county business park with Lee County relates to economic development on a different uh project. And I will open up the public hearing. We've had no one sign up. Is anyone present who wishes to speak on item number 7A on the agenda? Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing on 7A. That word assumption based on their own.

No to totally unrelated uh different project and anyone who wanted to speak could come up and speak uh on topics that were germaine to the actual agenda item, but it's unrelated to any data center and we don't have an data center on the agenda for tonight. So we'll close uh the public hearing on 7A. Uh Mr. Deose, do we have anybody signed up for the public hearing on 7B regarding the comprehensive plan? Yes, Mr. Chair, we have three speakers. First speaker is Linda Caneter.

Public hearing is open. Mr. Caner, Chairman Connell, Council members, throughout the county's comprehensive plan update process, I have been very involved. I've been attending planning committee council meetings and public forums. It was two weeks ago tonight, well it was two weeks ago when I was watching the planning committee meeting from the day before that I learned the final draft had been posted on the website. During that meeting, it was stated that the final draft had been posted and no comments had been received. Just maybe because no one knew about it. From what we had been told, the final draft was not to be ready until October. After spending over three hours reviewing the plan and noticing that many of my previous suggestions had not been addressed, I submitted them on the website. At the February 4th public forum, I told the consultants and planning committee members that the information on the polo field was incorrect. It is the second oldest active in the

country, not the third oldest, which is still on the final draft. That seems like it's been some time ago and it's been brought up many times and it's still wrong. The sign at the Polo Field as well as our current comprehensive plan has it designated a historic property and the second oldest active in the country. This does matter. So why hasn't it been corrected? That's a small thing. It's in graphics. change third to second. It's a big deal. I mean, if you were second in the country on something and somebody kept putting out that you were third, I mean, wouldn't you be a little upset about it? I would be. Also, why are the statistics on population, race, and ethnicity, housing, and housing values from 2021? January 1st of 2028, when this comprehensive plan takes effect, those statistics will be 7 years old. That's pretty useless. There are omissions of important places in Kershaw County regarding economic development and support of local businesses. I really have a problem with the grossly overuse with the grossly overuse of the dwords diversity and diverse. I've suggested replacing those with varied, different choices,

alternatives, options, etc. that aren't quite as politically motivated. I guess when you discuss the second reading on accepting the comprehensive UP plan update, I request that each of you let us know if you've actually reviewed this document. I still very much prefer our current plan that remains in place for more than two years. It is very specific to Kershaw County's past, present, and future. Isn't that what a comprehensive plan is supposed to do? Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Canancer. Mr. Deose. Next speaker is Dose Mr. Deose.

Yes, ma'am. Please.

Hi, Mr. Connell and County Council. First of all, I want to thank you Planning and Zoning for the time and work done on a new comprehensive plan. And I particularly like the add-ons given to the rural estate districts and the ecoin overlays. However, I feel like Linda, it still needs to be tweaked as to several inaccuracies and omissions. For instance, one inaccuracy, most dangerous highways were cited I20 and Route 521. My research indicates it's I20, Route 97, and Flat Rock roads. In the vision section, I'd like to see added preservation and protection to those ecoin overlays such as the Springdale Racecourse, the Camden Training Center, the South Carolina Ecoin Park, the Hunt Country, etc. Under policies and land growth, I'd like to make sure that future growth does not impede the quality of services provided existing taxpayer citizens. Under economic development, number ecoin horse industry brings in $30 million a year to Kershaw County. This needs to be included under the urban section. tree buffer zones and I can't read my writing. Um, tree buffer zones and footage to go along with that. Um, and besides parks and pocket parks or boutique parks, tree buffers are highly important

under the parks category. encourage dog parks for citizens, bird watching, walking parks. Another concern and omission I feel is regulations and guidelines for solar utilities and wind turbines. It's my understanding we already have four applications for solar utilities, but no guidelines and regulations. And I might be wrong on that, but that's for you to tell me. Because of the above inaccuracies and emissions, I would like to defer the second reading of the proposed comprehensive plan and take a bit more time to tweak the existing plan to make it more accurate and more encompassing. Thank you. Oh, and the last thing, PS, I would like to send a letter to council in planning and zoning indicating these inaccuracies and omissions because I did try in one planning and zoning meeting to express my my interest in this and I was told that I they would get to me later and they never did. So,

I will send you a letter. Thanks for coming out tonight, Miss Dose. We'll look for your letter. Mr. Debose, is there a last person signed up? Yeah, final speaker is Ling KTO. Miss KTO.

Yes, ma'am.

Hi. Sorry, I'm back. Um, no, no noise this time. Um, I do concur with Miss Canader's uh statement that there's some inaccuracies in the comprehensive plan. That was a lot to address for a group of people in a very short period of time. We're talking about multiple years. This plan is going to address and a comprehensive plan is a vision for a community and you are given that task to decide on the vision for our community. It's an extremely important task. It's like the holy grail for our community. Think about it. What if somebody came and wanted to put 10,000 homes in our community? Would you be okay with that? How much is too much? A comprehensive plan needs to address many things. I know it can't be specific in everything, but it does need to address what's coming like the new things that are coming. At one point, the horse and carriage was the means of transportation and that went away and cars replaced that and now we have traffic trouble. But there are other things coming in the future like data centers. In my neighborhood, it's solar farms, but we don't really have very extensive guidance for our solar farms, which concerns me. Everything needs to be environmentally sound. We have to have a limit on the number of sites. There needs to be transparency for companies. What's going to happen if they fold? What happens if they sell? Does the comprehensive plan address that? What consultants are you going to hire for future solar farms and data centers and turbine farms or whatever is coming

next? Because I don't know what's coming next, but it seems like an awful lot coming lately all at once, which is a lot to address for even the group of you. So, who are we going to hire to help to address those to really know the information we need to know to address it properly? So, looking through this, I noticed some of the things that were suggested, perhaps a committee with a a site selection consultant, a real estate consultant, an environmental consultant, a traffic consultant, and a health consultant. Because when you have this many things coming at one time, you have a lot of factors to address. And does the comprehensive plan address that? Because if you don't do it, this plan is going to affect us for what, the next 10 years? And we know something's coming. Are we ready for it? Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Miss Conto. Mr. Deose, does that conclude? It does. Okay. No votes needed. Uh seeing no one else wishing to comment on public hearing 7B. No, you're able to come up and and speak as long as we're within the time period. I address like I appreciate everybody. If you would share your name, please. Oh, Alex Adams. Mr. Adam, I lived in county so I'm kind of worried, but I was just these two over here like what are y'all doing? What do you mean what are we doing? I'm just asking because everybody else spoke and y'all looked your head down. Especially Shoeacher. I'm just saying like if everybody's speaking their piece and telling you what they feel about the situation,

y'all should at least look up at least to be worried. I've taken notice the comprehensive plan. Well, say that and these are the people were worried about what you were doing. Like we're worried about this area. Yeah. What's wrong with that? Sir, if you could the comments need to be gerain to item number seven, the comprehensive plan.

Go ahead. Like, yes, we are worried about people that moved here. We all lived here, born and raised, and we just want the people that lived here to be able to afford the housing that lives here. And we're just worried about that. Like, yes, we want people to develop here. We like what's happening on Broad Street, but we also want to be able to afford to live here. And we understand that people live in Camden probably going to move out to Cam or Cassid, but we just want to be able to afford to live there. But every time we turn around, there's a new housing development going there. So, we just want to be able to afford those places. That's my whole piece. And I was just kind of worried about these two people over here just kind of like being very dismissive of it because I sat next to the older ladies that was sitting here and I just wanted to like speak their peace. So that's all I wanted to say.

Thank you. Thank you for your comments tonight. Thank you. Okay. Seeing no u no further participation in item number 7B on public hearings. Mr. Deose, I used to be a huge fan of you. I remember when you set up here. I used to be a huge fan. I used to go over to golf elgen on high school and I see you there. I was wondering who you were. I hope you're still the same stand up guy that you I I appreciate that very much. I appreciate that very much. Um thankfully I don't have to use that skill set in this room anymore. I appreciate you very much. Mr. Deose, that concludes uh public hearing. Correct. That does, Mr.

We'll close the public hearing for 7B. Thanks everyone for coming out and participating. Gentlemen, that puts us back on the agenda for item number eight, approval of the minutes. Do we have a motion? Make a motion. Make a motion we approve the minutes. Mr. Kato has a motion. We've got a second. Any discussion on the minutes?

Seeing no discussion, we'll move it to a vote. All who are in favor of approving the minutes, raise your hand. Miss Hannah, it's unanimous. In favor, the minutes are approved. Thanks for putting that together for us, Miss Hannah. Gentlemen, that takes us to item number 9A. This is a first reading on a resoning. It's a halfacre parcel located at 1306 Sky View Sky View Drive in Camden. Yes, sir. Can we uh give them a chance to get out so we can hear what's going on, please? A lot of movement going on. Sure. Anybody else have uh need to clear out?

I don't want to get accused of something I'm not doing. Good enough, Mr. Chucker. Yes, sir. Thank you. All right, that puts us on the agenda. Uh, at item number INA 9A, this is a first reading halfacre parcel located at 1306 Sky View Drive in Camden. The request is from R10 to B2 before we move it to a motion or second. Anything we need to know, Mr. Templer? Uh, no, sir. other than just this is a church wanting to utilize the uh another part of their parcel in a consistent way with what they already have in use with the church itself. Okay. Do we have a motion on 9A? Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion.

Mr. Thompson has a motion. Is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Kato. Second. Mr. Thompson, you have the floor. Um yes, sir. I just kind of briefing through um preparing for the meeting. I I look through and this is um pastor pastor Marvin has been a good friend of mine for a long time and I know he's in the audience today. I'd love to have him come up and kind of address to give an idea about what uh this resoning request is for and what it what do we have to look forward to if this is approved. Yes sir.

Thank you. My name is Marvin Jones. I'm the pastor of Second Chance Fellowship Church and u we have done many things in our community. We've moved to the building uh 13 years ago that's right beside the Camden IGA. Some of y'all might know it. It used to be the Jehovah's Witness building many years ago. Uh our church purchased it and uh we've been there, like I say, 13 years. um the back part that we're looking at getting reszoned. Uh we um uh purchased it about six and a half years ago and probably should have went through the resoning uh process then but we didn't. Um since we have joined with United Way. So we u this past winter we house six of our homeless people in the church house that we're looking to get reszoned. Uh we have actually used it during COVID to have outside services. Um we have uh used it with United Way to be able to give u uh our homeless people food uh cook food for them and uh give them showers and stuff. And uh we don't we don't know exactly what the next year or five years or 10 years is down the road, but we know we're going to do something great for the Lord. Our church is growing and we uh we feel like we need to be able to reszone this uh to be able to go forward.

Yes, sir. Mr. Thompson, you still have the floor. Yes, sir. Um and the current zoning designation is RD or it is uh R10. R10. All right. So residential and the reasonzoning is specifically for the homeless population for continued work doing that. Um are are you not allowed to do that within the current zoning?

Well, we are, but we want to make sure that with our insurance and with everything that we we're covered completely. Uh because um like I say, we really don't know exactly what we're going to do in the future. So, uh, we, uh, United Way came to us, uh, this past winter and asked if we could keep our homeless people for two weeks. It seemed like every time we went to let them out, we always let them out on a Sunday, uh, it was cold. So, we end up letting them stay there three months. Um, so we would rather be able to have because the IG is there, our church is there, and, uh, some of the other businesses is there. we'd rather go ahead and have it reszone so that if this winter we keep five or six homeless people and you might be four or five months and uh so we want to make sure that we're uh we're keeping up with everything since the the sanctuary is uh zoned as a business. We'd rather go ahead and go ahead and get this piece of property zoned as a business, too.

Yes, sir. Thank you so much. and and Pastor Jones is like I said, I've I've known you for you and your brother for a long time and appreciate all y'all have done for the community. I mean, um you are staple church in the community, but not only that, the the services that you provide to the community. I've been to your church and associated buildings multiple times with Boy Scout troop events, um other community events. See, constantly looking to better the community. Um I love what you're doing. I appreciate it and I thank you for coming to us. One one last question just so for clarification. Have you spoken with surrounding property owners about the reasonzoning and let them know the plans and is there any push back or negative comments from any surrounding property owners?

No sir. We uh uh we're really good friends uh with everyone in the community and uh everybody knows exactly what we're doing because we always invite them. We'll we'll deliver uh we got a 70 year old guy that's got Parkinson and we call him Cookie and he cooks our hamburgers and hot dogs for our homeless people and whatever we have left over we take it through the community and uh and all of them they really appreciate everything that we do. So uh um I think everybody in our community loves us. So, uh, you know, some of them comes to the church and some of them just, uh, uh, we just kind of feed them some of the times and, uh, so it just seems like a kind of a happy family in a sense. Yes, sir. Thank you, pastor. I really appreciate your time. Yes, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Kato, if you could just all Any other questions or comments on this one or for the pastor? Just reiterate what Brent said. Uh, hear all good things about this church. I've known you for a long time and your wife and and y'all do a lot of great things there and I appreciate what you do. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Kato. Any other comments or questions? Just thank you. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Jones. Yes, Pastor Jones. I just want to say personally, thank you, you know, to see a man of God actually putting action into his words and I appreciate that. Yes, sir. That's no easy undertaking that you're doing. It's true. And I know that firsthand. And I just want to say thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Pastor Jones. Uh I just have one question before we move to a vote. Um I hear you on wanting to align the zoning with your current zoning. You said it's already business related for the church. Is there a like a business relationship that would that already has been developed with United Way or is it strictly charitable? I'm just wondering why to be too. Is it

Well, just because we're we're trying to figure out exactly what all we're supposed to do uh to build God's kingdom. So, uh we have uh a big part of it is that we have joined United Way and United Way we're uh you know it's uh it's kind of a partnership. So, um uh the people comes and they take showers and stuff and uh so we don't really know exactly what uh we're going to do. We we've even talked about maybe having breakfast uh for our homeless people every day. And uh so with doing that and with our insurance we uh so we have to carry two different insurance policies because we got you know uh business with our sanctuary and then on the other hand with our uh uh church we call it a church house. Uh it's a residential so we rather just go ahead and put them together and have it all commercialized.

Okay. Thanks. I just got a few questions about it and I'm sure you'll get some more. Yes, sir. But um appreciate your commentary and answering questions on first reading. Any other comments or discussion before we vote? I'm all in. All right, we'll move this one to a vote on 9A. If you're in favor, raise your hand. On 9A on the agenda, Miss Hannah, it's unanimous by those present in voting. It passes on 9A. And I have one question. So, this is the first time I've ever done this. Okay. So, what's the next step? Uh, well, you have three you have three readings. So, the readings occur consecutively at council meetings. Okay. And so, in two weeks at the next scheduled meeting, um, you'll have another reading. So, second reading. And then third reading is the time when it ultimately passes and would be reszoned if it passes on third reading.

That that'll be November because of the Yeah. the difference in scheduling. Okay. Thank you'all so much. Thank you, pastor, for coming out tonight. Gentlemen, that takes us to item number 9B. This is second reading regarding the comprehensive plan. Uh do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. Mr. Shoe has a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Mr. Tucker has a second. Mr. Shoe.

Yes. So, obviously there's been a lot of talk tonight on the comprehensive plan. Um, if I can just take a minute. I, you know, um, just want to clarify something. Uh, for the folks who may see me looking down. I do look down a lot cuz I take copious notes. That's why I know we had 12 speakers. Duke about the mobile intake. Our number three and number two person switched. Our NAACP lady who lived in Kershaw but felt like she only lived here temporarily because she went to school talked about 123 football fields being the size of a data center. Miss Katza talked about the public hearing that Camden did that they postponed. Mr. Whitaker worried about the private equity funding. Miss Medleys talked about comprehensive plan. Miss Kto brought up the volume issue with her phone. Miss Gwen Shannon talked about a utility bill although she lived in Nights Road probably a Camden issue. Our next speaker didn't speak. Mr. Nun spoke about the data center. Miss Moore talked about general development being a problem and Miss Johnson also spoke at length about the data center followed by Miss Katzer, Miss Dose and Miss KTO on the comp plan public hearing. I can assure you I've read every piece of paper up here and listened to everyone who spoke. So that being said, I think second reading makes sense for the comprehensive plan. There are some issues in there. Miss Caner, if you can get us something to show uh just as bluntly, I haven't seen the data that it's the second just so we can hang our hat on that it's the second largest polo field. That's an easy fix to make. Um and again, I'm sure it's posted up there, but just shoot that to me directly. That's an easy fix to make on third reading. You know, I I do have some concerns with the comp plan. I I think that in my opinion, maybe it doesn't go quite far enough to make our goal uh to make sure residential growth isn't too explosive, but I do think we're in a good document. Something that is important to note is we can change this thing. It is a living document. Um those who talked about the ZLDR being the lifeblood, that's our next step. Uh

we actually have our first ZLDR rewrite committee meeting. I believe it was Mr. Whitaker that asked about that. Our first ZLDR rewrite committee meeting is September 30th. So, we're going to start the process of reddrafting these zoning codes. So, if in that process we find some things that need to marry up against the comprehensive plan, we can do that. And uh I think it was Miss Canatzer who mentioned that this comprehensive plan will technically be effective upon third reading. Our old comprehensive plan is valid until the date that she mentioned, but this comprehensive plan will actually step in its place upon third reading. So, I think it's a good start. We want to get something passed now because if we start writing our ZLDR without this, if we start passing our ZLD, we start writing it. But if we start passage of the ZLDR before the comp plan is passed, then we run the risk of someone coming in legally and saying, "Well, you weren't comp you you did not comport with your comp plan because you were under the old comp plan." This does a pretty good job of laying out some of those agricultural equin protections, the residential growth. Uh those are just some of the big things they've done that are different than the last comp plan. So, it's important that we get something passed. I think this is a great start. It may need some work around the edges and it may take three readings, but we can always come back and adjust it. So, again, that was a little more time than I intended to take, but again, I just wanted to make everyone I want to make it clear to everyone that I listen to everything and read everything before I come in here. That's all I have. Thanks.

Thank you. She Mr. Shemake. Uh, Mr. Tucker, you have the second. I guess he said it all. I don't need to say anything.

You didn't write it down. the um I do want to reiterate the the uh time frame on this document. Um even if it passes third reading, the thing that you must understand, and this is probably what we don't do a good job at because I've sit through a couple of these is it's a moving living document that we update stuff. We need to get it correct. And I wrote down the corrections on, you know, the highway information, the polo fields, so forth and so on. My notes are right here as well. I'm not going to bore to read those back over with you. But um when you come and speak and um we hear you, staff hears you. Uh Mr. Templer makes notes. Uh our clerk, the council make notes. These don't fall on deaf ear as you may want to think sometime. But also remember that it's a process. It doesn't happen overnight. So with that, I'll be supporting second reading tonight.

Mr. Chairman, if I may.

Yes, sir. Mr. Brazzle. Um, I'll agree with Councilman Schumate and Councilman Tucker. I'm not a big fan of government bureaucracy and detailed rules. I think the people of this county make up the most important document, living, breathing document that we have, not the government, not this comprehensive plan. I know that we have to have one legally by state law. I'm happy to support it tonight because in all reality, it is not the government that dictates how well this community in this county is going to do. It's us and it's everybody in this room. So, I'll support it and I'll be happy to support it, but it doesn't need to get any more detailed than it is. If we need to fix a problem, we can fix it in code in three readings. And we've done that. Councilman Shoemate and I have collaborated and and fixed things within weeks and uh made vast improvements. So, I'm completely fine with passing this tonight.

Thank you, Mr. Brazzle. Any other council member comments, questions?

Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, um if I could, I I'm very interested. I want to highlight the benefits of Kershaw County and the beautiful place, the reason we all live here and we love it. Um, and if it is the second oldest polo field, not the third, I would like to have that documentation. Um, Mr. Templer, if you wouldn't mind maybe connecting U, Miss Katzer, and getting the actual documentation because I would love to update that. That's a that's a big check mark on behalf of Kershaw County's history. Um and then also with I know that it was mentioned multiple times about um during the update liking the old plan. The old plan being better than the new comprehensive plan that is drafted. The old comprehensive plan was drafted prior to state statute requiring another element of comprehensive plan guidance which is resilience. And it's not a specific chapter. It's meant to be inclusive throughout the entire plan. So according to state statute, we have to have an updated plan based upon it. And updates are every five years and then a full rewrite is 10. And so we and I'd like to also highlight um staff if you wouldn't mind when did we start the rewrite process, the exact date and how many public meetings. I know that's probably a hard answer, but if you have a roundabout off top of your head, that'd be wonderful just for the public and can can be aware.

We have Mr. Ruskowski here and Mr. Temper, however you want to. I ask Joey to come up just instead of guessing.

Uh, good evening, council. So, this project started uh in all earnest, it it started in May of 2022. Uh, and throughout that time, we had probably about half a dozen community meetings. Um, and then we got to February of this year, 2025, and that's when it was decided that the uh there was some more massaging of of the document and and to give the planning commission a an extended chance to to review it. So, we held eight additional uh public workshops or meetings that were part of regular meetings uh that were advertised in the local paper and on the website, of course. And um unfortunately we only had about seven public members from the public and some of those seven were repetitive uh visitors uh attend those eight additional meetings. However, uh the planning commission worked very diligently to uh incorporate changes and edits into uh the document as a reflection of the comments that had been received during that time.

Thank you Joey. I really appreciate it. That's all my questions. Thank you Mr. Thompson. Any other questions, comments from council? Mr. Jones. Thank you, Joey.

I have a little bit of just a little different take on. I uh I think it should be as close to right as right can be. I know Mr. Schumick and I had a conversation today and I really appreciate it and we don't disagree that second reading I don't have much of a problem, but third reading we are. And and yes, it will be read. It will be looked through. Uh this is not my first rodeo with a comprehensive plan. I can remember 10 years ago when that one was written. I read through. I didn't like it. I voted against all three readings. Now, however, this is a different council. I have a little bit more respect for this council than I did the past councils. Uh they've been to me very we may not agree on a lot of things, but they've been very upfront and straightforward with me even if they didn't like some of it. But I will vote for third uh second reading tonight. Now, I don't know how I'll vote for third reading. But I think it's very important the issues that you folks brought up. I think it's very important when we have public meetings and people drop things in suggestion box that those things are addressed and I know there was some concerns and questions about that and I know that for a fact but having said all that I am going to support second reading to keep it moving through it will be read your concerns will be addressed and I have some concerns other than that as well too but we'll get into that as the Mr. making I said on third reading we'll get a lot deeper into it. Thank you.

Thank you Mr. Jones. Mr. Kato I just want to thank the ones that spoke tonight on reference to the comprehensive plan but I I don't want to to dismiss the hard work that's been done on this comprehensive plan. There has been a lot of time and a lot of hard work put into this and a lot of public meetings and a lot of uh a lot of different stuff. a lot of different workings have have taken place to get this done and and uh yes, I appreciate all the corrections that that were brought up tonight that we need to look at before third reading, but I I have all faith that this will be ready to go by the third reading. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kato. I'll piggyback on that. I'm very grateful for the the time that folks put in to volunteer on these commissions, particularly the planning commission and others who have um participated at public hearings or otherwise and staff. We literally could not do it. uh you know this is a part-time job serving on county council. Most of has full-time jobs or um feel like we have a full-time life after retirement anyway and so that volunteer service is essential and getting us to this point where we can work on the comprehensive plan. Before we move to a vote, I just had a few comments on the data that's used. Um the data generally would be pulled from 2021 reports because the country only does the census every 10 years or so. So you have a 2020 census that occurs. They usually don't crunch the numbers and bring the data to municipalities or states to use until 2021. And so that's really what we have to pull from unless we by happen stance are able to get some DOT numbers through traffic counts at a particular intersection. Sometimes we can glean that information and include it in some of the evaluations we're making or if we develop that data internally through permits that are submitted and we can kind of see trends that are occurring in certain areas. But uh we really have to rely on that census data that occurs every 10 years. And so that's why you would see that that report and that grouping of data being used in forming the comprehensive plan in many of the decisions that we make. Any other comments or questions from uh council members? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. All in favor on uh second reading. Raise your hand in favor. Miss Hannah, it's unanous. It passes on second reading. That's 9B passes. That takes us to item number 9 C. This is the second reading on a joint multi-county business park with Lee County under SE code uh 4-1-170. We've already had first reading on September 9th. Is there a motion?

Make a motion that we approve second reading. Mr. Chair, Mr. Tucker has the motion on second reading. Is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Shoe has a second. Anything to bring up we haven't already covered. Mr. Tucker? No, sir. Not for me. Mr. Shoe, you have the second. Nothing. Okay. Any other discussion or questions from council members? I always just like to point out this is a clarification um for the public. Anytime we we do this, it's just to support economic development project. It's it's uh basically just legal language. Correct, Mr. Deose? 100% correct. And that's that's all state law that we're just having to comply with. Correct.

Correct. placing these uh parks that are subject to economic incentives into these parks allows them to um get recruitment from infrastructure that they put in infrastructure and also additional job credit. So yeah, it's all in furtherance of economic development. All right. So just lawyers, it's it's it's it's a lot of legal ease and uh I've I've read it a lot over the last five years and at the end of the day it's real simple. It's economic development equals jobs equals a better Kershaw County. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brazzle. Mr. Jones, if I may about economic development, I think we've put a lot of money into it and get very little out of it.

Well, just in response to that comment, I think we've had roughly $80 million in investment over the last 18 months or so, if Jeff Burgess is not in here, and several jobs. And thankfully some of the projects have actually been homegrown Kershaw County like laser form and others that have grown. They were give me sir they were sort of give me they they were they were going to happen anyway.

Okay. Well I'm not going to argue with you but unless there was a felo I know many of them wouldn't have invested. So I'm grateful for that opportunity and for jobs being created in the community. And to those who are listening or watching you know keep bringing good jobs high paying jobs to Kershaw County. We need it. Um, I I pared this many time, but we have roughly 10,000 plus people that leave every day out of 30,000 plus full-time workers, and they go work somewhere else. So, they travel away from their family. They leave the area. They spend their money for lunch or dinner or, you know, whatever present you need to get for um for that last minute birthday gift somewhere else. And um I'd like for those folks to be able to stay closer to home if they want to. So, I welcome the jobs and the u the business investment. Any other questions or comments from council? Okay, seeing none, that brings us to uh a vote. All in favor, raise your hand on second reading. Miss Hannah, it passes. It's unanimous. All right. This brings us to item number 9D on the agenda. This is a third reading regarding um improvement and clarification procedures for timelines applicable to text amendments under uh our zoning uh the ZLDR. Do we have a motion?

I'll make a motion. Mr. Mr. Shoemake has the motion. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Tucker has a second. Mr. Schumake. Yeah, this we're third reading. We we've explained this pretty. It's fairly short. This just cleans up our ZLDR uh in relation to the planning commission to note that there's a 30-day window after referral that it comes back to us if it's not heard. And it allows us shorter time frames for p for public hearings if they're allowed by statute. That fairly straightforward. Okay. Mr. Tucker, you had the second. Anything further? Uh no, sir. That's you see where your lines are stricken out and where the uh added text was uh put in. Yes sir. Thank you. Um any other council members have comments or questions?

Seeing none we'll move it to a vote. All in favor on third reading 90 raise your hand. We have Shoemake Tucker Brazzle Connell Kato Tomlinson in favor. All opposed Mr. Jones opposed. It passes on third reading. That's 9D. Item number 10A for discussion placed on the agenda by Mr. Tucker. Do we have a motion? Finance Committee report. Yes, sir. I'd like to make a motion to give a report from the finance committee on our projects and our fees, if we may, please. Okay. Is there a second? I'll second. You have the floor, Mr. Tucker, for discussion.

Thank you so very, very much. Um, we've been promising the the public and this uh group here um that we would give you a report on the um projects that we have. So, what I would like to do if I can is pass out some um information for you. Um the finance committee actually met um did I give you one? Is anybody missing one?

I took yours. Sure. We actually met last Friday um to go over with staff and so um the papers you have before you uh let's do the uh boat ramp first if you don't mind should be the expenditures Miss Tucker are these on the screen so the folks can see uh no sir they're not. Can we make that happen? Uh next time because I don't think we can scan them in now. Okay. But they're for public information. I know that I didn't get them scanned in in time. Mr. Jones, thank you.

You're welcome. Um, so on the, uh, boat ramp, um, as you can see the expenditures, then it has the fund sourcing. Um, this project is about to come to a close. I think they've done all the paving, and we hopefully will be closing on this project this month, at the end of the month, and hopefully soon having a ribbon cutting. Um, if all goes well, um, we will be about 6566,000 to the good. You can see the funding sources where we took out state grant council motion on a tax oper um a tax and then capital uh funding um including our contingencies. So that's kind of a breakdown on that. Um along with that uh the finance committee also has the purchase orders and change orders of everything that um took place on this project. I don't have that tonight to share, but if you want to dig deeper down into that, we do have that. Staff has that as well, so they'll be happy to share that with you.

Any questions on the boat ramp? Okay. Hearing. When will it be completed again, sir? Almost done. Thursday. It's almost It's basically done now. Okay. It's not open yet. Thank you. It's not open. Um I'm saying the end of the month, Mr. Jones, it could be uh sooner, but at least by the end of the month. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. I'll just mention that we're trying to figure out a ribbon cutting date that might align up with align with some existing event or if there's something we can bring down there um for public interest and benefit. We're working on that and as soon as we know, we'll set up a date that works for everybody.

Okay, sounds great. Let me also say this for public record because there was a lot of uh stuff on the internet and a lot of chatter in the community. um this council or this staff did not pay two or three times to pour that boat ramp down there. Um you can tell by the um the cost of this that um it did not increase to the 2 million or whatever people were saying. I don't have Facebook or any of that. I Facebook every second and fourth Tuesday with you when I come into these meetings. That's the best I'm going to be able to get. Um, with that being said though, um, this is why we wanted as the finance committee wanted to dive into these projects so we can be responsible for your monies and what where these projects along with staff and have a better understanding. So, and I thank staff for helping us get this all organized and understood. Anything for my colleagues uh, Shoemate or Thompson

on the boat ramp? On the boat. If I if I could clarify what what Councilman Tucker just said, the concrete was replaced on two different occasions at no cost to Kershaw County because it was inadequate and insufficient. So it it did get replaced just not on Kershaw County's dime.

Amen. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Brazzle. All right. Before you on the next is give you the list of the other projects. Um it gives you the uh summary of the opera funds which was uh by us appointed to these projects park 105 10,561,000 Boydfield and Copelandfield 1.68 Kershaw County West at 1.745 that total is 13,993,51687. So that's all our projects that is the other three projects is left. We had a total of four projects going at one time which was a lot uh for this county. Um but these are things we had opportunities to do with opera money. You know the opera money came from during you know COVID and all that. So we were on a timeline where we have to spend these monies or we lose these monies. We'll have to turn them back in. And staff has done a great job about dealing with that and handling that. So I wanted to point that out. Also in here in your project funding, you're going to see where the health district gave 6 million. Um, we used 6 million out of the opera funds. We used 1.5 out of the capital fund. Out of the capital fund, some of that is rollover money. What do I mean by rollover money? Projects we didn't get done the year before, such as the lighting and the parking lot in Kershaw West. um that was done this year or is in the process of being done and those monies total about almost $900,000. It's $872 310 um that got rolled over so we can complete these projects for this year. So um overall we're in excellent shape. Um I'm not ashamed to admit some of our shortcomings that also took place um which was on the Boyd and Copeland

field. Um we actually um had budget $800,000 for that project. That project came in at 1.6 um due to a couple things. Uh council approved the project at a higher bid than what we had budgeted for. Um, and back on April the 8th, uh, is when we did it at that meeting. Um, thank God for your opera funds that was earning taxes. We're able to get the, uh, taxes interest earning interest. We're able to get that interest pulled back into the capital fund and substitute that to where there was no increase to the taxpayers or any increase to anybody. Um, and then we also on these ball fields, uh, what's not noted is that Musco is our lighting company and, uh, Mr. Templar can go into more detail if you like on this. So, when we bid these ball fields and projects, lighting is not included on that initial bid that is bid out, uh, through them, which is a state bid, which no one else can do it as cheap as these guys. We kind of have a contract with them through the state and we're very fortunate um to have the high-tech lighting that they provide us that can work rem remote and off our phones and all that good stuff, but it's still cheaper than being an initial bid. You like to elaborate, Mr. Administrator?

Uh yes, sir. We just found an opportunity to save money. We we broke that uh those the lighting items out of the bids because it took the middleman out. These are onstate contracts. So we saw savings opportunities and went for that. Thank you sir. So uh that is pretty much my uh projects report that I would like to um ask my colleagues on finance, Mr. Thomasson and Mr. Shemate if they have any questions or any um comments. I don't have any Mr. Tucker. Thank you.

I've got I've got one question. I defer. I I just wanted to uh point out that I I think what the big takeaway here is we we were able to make what has go what has been and for some time will be the greatest uh recreation improvement in the history of Kershaw County for sure. And we've been able to do that with 6 million federal dollars that had to be committed for one-time uses and spent a certain amount of time. They couldn't go to recurring funds. We did it with 6 million in uh matching funds that were only designated for this purpose. We did it with $448,000 from CTC to help fix the roads out by Woodward Park. And we did it with uh some rollover money and $150,000 in tourism tax dollars that can only be used for recreation and tourism stuff. So without raising millage, without an impact on taxpayers on a millage base, we're able to to pull together multiple different funding pools, grants, and combine that smartly into the greatest improvement that Kersaw County Recreation is going to see in a long time and has ever seen in history. Mr.

Any other comments or questions for you know finance chairman I just want to I just want to thank everybody for their hard work because

the one and and I want to add to what Mr. Shoemake said because I can look at this and be proud of the fact that it's completed projects. They weren't halfway done. We made sure and found a way that we got these projects done the way we wanted them done the first time. We didn't leave something off and say we'll come back later and fix it and have to worry about it six years down the road. We got them completed at one time and it was much needed projects and I'll speak for my district especially especially in the northern end of the county. It was much needed for our recreation up on that end of the county. So I thank y'all for what you've done.

Thank you Mr. Kato. Any other comments, questions? Just just still the one question, sir. Yes, sir. Um, Councilman Tucker, did we borrow any money for any of these projects? Oh, no, sir. Did we did we bond any money? No, sir. Did we pay for everything with cash?

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We owe no one on these projects. And uh, Councilman Kato hit it on the head. I have been here as we peacemail parks. We do a little bit here and then we go seven, eight years and by the time we get back to building on to the next project, it darn near there cave in. So you basically starting over to bring it back up to um usable um standards and then you add on. So um I am proud to be a part of this body that made some decisions in our recreation throughout the county because we touched the West Watery area, Camden area, and the northern end of the county with all our recreation projects. We left nobody out. So that's something to be proud of and stick your chest out. And yes, I'm one of the proud seven. So

Councilman Do you know that somebody told me it would cost $40 million just to do a recreational facility for baseball? See, that's where the problem lies. You stay on Facebook. I don't do Facebook. No. No, sir. They were No, sir. They were a member of this body. They are no longer a member of this body. And we did it. And we did it. We did it well. And we did it for the citizens of Kershaw County. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. So, if there's no Mr. Chuck, before you get on to the next um topic on fees, I just wanted to mention um and and give some thanks to MUSC for participating with the health services district

on funding. Um that's that's an overarching effort by the health services district and MUSC, our local hospital to fund a outdoor recreation project at Woodward Park and a indoor recreation project uh with the health services district and likely future YMCA in the Lugoff area. So, we're very thankful for them to participate as well. see our local hospital getting involved in in recreation and athletics as health. And then I want to mention that, you know, I was very sad to be away from y'all for two years, but I'm very thankful for the time I had over at the state house in particular because of the state grant that came for the watery boat ramp. I see we've got Senator Blackman here. This is just an example, Senator. Thanks for being here tonight, of how a local delegation can make such a difference. Whenever we do that ribbon cutting, that entire delegation I serve with has got to come out because we had to fight tooth and nail against Greenville and Charleston and Richland and Lexington counties and those delegations to procure funds to try to make this project happen. I'm so thankful that the staff and the council has worked towards a quality project and avoided waste on this. I think it's going to be well used. I'm sorry to interrupt you. No,

are we talking fees next? Yes, we're talking fees next, but um great recognition and um I um I'll appreciate you pointing those things out as well. Um so any any other questions from my colleagues up here. Okay. All right. Well, I want to say thanks to the finance committee as well. We also was charged with um looking into the uh fee structure. We had a little issue with that and I'm happy to remind everyone that um that was recognized by Councilman Brazzle, rectified by staff, refunded by Kershaw County. So that means it's all is well and all is good. With that being said, um you have an example in front of you of the inspection process for the Kershaw County um building um department. And um this is for as you read the example is for a stick built home with a crawl space. So depending on what type of home you build will uh also um determine your inspections. Um but remember when you pull that permit on your levels of inspection, you're going to have a freebie. They'll come out and initially look at your work and then after that they start calculating up what they call reinspections. Okay? So if you did everything perfect, the staff would have to come out for your footing inspection, your foundation inspection, your rough in inspection, your permanent power connection, and then final inspection. So that's 1 2 3 4 5 six times that'll come out. Now, if you fail any portions of that, it is going to be a reinspection. And this is when the fees start coming into play where you'll pay $50 for your first reinspection fee. Then your next reinspection fee is $100. The next one's $200. The next one's 400. And it will cap at 400. And it would um every inspection you fail from there will be a 400 reinspection fee. Um it will not be any um astronomical numbers

that we were doing before. um the text is clear on what we pass and that's what we're going to um go by and um and uh you know I don't you know I don't agree with that

and govern ourselves accordingly and it's okay Mr. Jones that's not the first time we disagree um with that being said um I want to thank the uh Mr. Joe and his department, planning and zoning. Um, what I did not realize when we were going over this is how many times we actually sent our people out to do inspections and reinspections. And what was becoming of this, some of you asking, well, why are we doubling? Because I see a lot of new faces in here tonight that I normally don't see. And I'm happy to see you. Um, we don't want to become where our staff is doing QA, quality um, control over our builders and our subcontractors. And we talked about this in length last meeting when we were sitting up here. They need to come out. We don't have a huge staff. We are a growing county. Um, I don't know what census going to look like because we just halfway there in 2025 and we've already grown over 15% uh, for this county already. So, it's going to be crazy by the time we get to 2030. I'm just telling you, the numbers will be off the chart. We'll be in the top three most growing counties out of the 46. I can about guarantee you uh come census time. But with that being said, the inspectors need to come out, inspect, and move on to the next home or we're going to have a staff the size of Richland to do inspections. And that's what we can afford because that will be on your dime. Um, we need to do quality quality inspections, but we don't need to be the QA guard for people building homes. They need to have their game plan, their coach, their contractor, their whoever, superintendent, whoever's in charge. That is their job to make sure that they get this right and make sure it meets Kershaw County guidelines that you want the people we hire for you to approve. And if it's not right, I

don't have a problem with them failing. So this is um the information that we came back with and we just want to give clarity on it. Happy for my colleagues to join me on anything that they want to add and happy to take questions. Any questions, comments? Mr. Kato,

I' I've got one question that I don't see on here, and I tell you, I know since I've been on council that I know there's been probably more than just one incident, but I do know of one, and it's on the stop work order, and I see that we have a residential and commercial fee for the stop or to lift the stop work order. Joey may have to answer this question, but I know on this particular instance, the stop work order was violated, but I don't see a penalty. What is the penalty for a company violating a stop work order? I cannot answer that, Mr. K. Yeah, me neither. It's a good question. Can we have Mr. Administrator have Yeah, I'll get Joey up.

Okay, Mr. Notice of violations, stuff like

uh yes, uh Mr. Templar is correct. Um what if somebody violates a stop work order then the uh next step is to issue a notice of violation with corrective action within 15 or 30 days depending upon the uh nature of the violation and then if at that point they don't comply uh it is a uh summons issued by code enforcement and then the county attorney's office gets involved with um uh bringing this to a to a court hearing across the street. I didn't know if there was a penalty. I didn't see a penalty fee. I didn't know how that was handled with the stop work orders, but I know that was a problem when I first took office. Just wanted to know how we was handling that.

No, it's a great question. I've got a question, some comments. Mr. Jones, thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Joey, um, you know, what I'm hearing in the public is that, you know, I hear about the quality control and that whenever staff will go out, they're not there to to to do what Q&A or whatever, that's why they put a stop work order on it. But what I hear is that they're not told what they need to do and they feel like they've done it all and then they get written up and then the the staff comes back out and they vi there's something else they find that is in violation. So there seems to be, you know, two he and she said situation. I know that the deputy county administrator has said that uh he was looking into as they did for the and it's a shame that we have to go here and do this guys, but when you're dealing with government, you're dealing with citizens, I believe in transparency, I believe in sunshine and putting it all out there, putting um body cams on the inspectors because there's been a lot of comments made in all fairness, you know, from your side, from their side, and we as a council, we we don't know. And uh but I I hope that y'all are moving forward with the body cameras on the uh building inspectors. I think that would really resolve a lot of our issues.

Yes, sir. We are. Okay. Thank you. Wow. Any other comments or questions? That's all, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your time. Thank you very much, Mr. Tucker, finance chair. All right. Welcome, sir. No votes required on 10A. That takes us to item number 10B, placed on the agenda by Mr. Jones. Okay. Is there a motion? Yes, I so move. All right. For discussion on planning and zoning 10B. Is there a second? Second. And Mr. Chair, if I may, I'd like to let Mr. um what's his name down there? Brazle. Let him handle it. What's his name? Mr. Brazzle. What's his name?

One of those moments. I'm sorry, Russell. You know how I feel about you. You okay, Jimmy? Go ahead. So, um I think Councilman Jones has had his uh questions answered. It just so happened that um I had a a planning and zoning question come up. And Joey, I hate to do this to you. I'm sorry. Would you would you mind just for a point of of clarification for me with the situation so I don't have to bug you later? Um that work, Mr. Templer? Yes, sir.

Okay. So, I'm going to refer to a document regarding water quality buffers. Um, [Music] in in timber harvesting, they're referred to as SMZ's, streamside management zones. We've got a document section 53.6. It's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. It's eight pages. So, it's it's quite a bit of information regarding if you subdivide or or I suppose if you're building a subdivision, how you are to buffer and protect water quality. And of course, I agree with doing those things. Um, is is that what is this like a development document? So those regulations are spread throughout the code and what that document represents is basically just our effort to be more customer service friendly by uh having people come through different parts of the code and we've just assembled it all together in into one document.

Okay. Everything related to water quality. So when when was that um put in place? What date does it have a date on it? That has been in place for several years. I believe even before I came here that was Oh. Yeah, it says here uh December 15th of 2010. Yes, sir.

So, my simple question is this. I had bought a parcel of land from from some family members and we I I bought like half the parcel and when we surveyed it, we surveyed past the creek and we showed on the map a a delineated um 100 I think it's 100 foot buffer on the creek.

It's if it's for a perennial creek. Yes, that's correct. So, so if I'm surveying the creek or if I'm I'm surveying left or right of the creek, what what we need to see is a a buffer delineated on on the map. Is that right? That is what the regulations require. Yes, sir. Okay. But it's not a on the ground sort of thing.

No, what we we've been very flexible uh because it's very expensive to get surveys of large tracks of land that have water features on them. So what we do is we uh note what that buffer is. We have them note that and then do a general uh uh uh you know from the top of the bank measurement and show that. But if they were to actually go in and develop the property, then at that time we would would require the delineation of that buffer when they go to develop a physical delineation. Correct. Yes, sir. Okay. But but if I'm if I'm breaking up 800 acres into two 400 acre tracks and I use the creek as a boundary

um and and we take a surveying instrument, we shoot points down the creek, basically I can delineate 50 or 55 ft on either side of in a mapping software situation to show a buffer um on a map and that would be that would be it. and and it would be noted as well what the specific regulation is and correct that's fine for that purpose. Yeah.

For but for that and and that was that was all I needed was to um was to clarify the difference between uh developing a developing a parcel into a housing development versus just breaking apart acreage for um timber trust conservation

timber farm that sort of thing. So that that was the only thing I needed to clarify and you did that perfectly and I thank you. Um I know we've had some hard conversations. I appreciate your willingness to have those hard conversations and I appreciate what we got out of our last conversation that I know wasn't real pleasant and um warm and fuzzy, but I'm going to tell you what we got from our administrator at Friday was a wonderful explanation um very similar to the one we received today that I have no issues with. Um, I have no issues with the way we're doing our reinspections um in in accordance to how it was explained to me. So, I thank you for that. And um I want to tell you all of your staff that works for you represents planning and zoning in various ways and and wonderful ways. And I just wanted to say thank you to every one of your staff members that work for you, Joey. Thank you. I appreciate

you've got you've got a wonderful staff here in Kershaw County. I do. I do. I'm very proud of them. Yes, sir. Thank you. I appreciate you being here tonight for this. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ruscowski. Thank you, Mr. Brazzle. No votes required. This is discussion only. That moves us to council member briefings. We'll start with Mr. Kato, please.

I'm going to be brief tonight. I I wanted to mention that I had an opportunity to speak at the Bthun Lions Club. uh really had a great conversation. Had about 16 or 17 people there that night and we talked about everything from planning and zoning to recreation to what the future holds for Kershaw County or um even some possible economic development issues. But we had a great conversation and a great time. I had a great time spending it there at the Lions Club and I appreciate their invite. Secondly, I want to say happy birthday to Miss Ginger Farmer. She's back here, our clerk of court. And uh you know, I got to say she's here at just about every meeting and and as a department head. And I I thank you for that. I really do. And uh just want to give a shout out to our senator, uh Alan Blackman. He's back here. Uh the chairman mentioned him earlier. Thank you for what you do and thank you for working with us the way you do. That ends my report.

Thank you, Mr. Kato. Mr. Tomlinson, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, I'd like to start off by thanking staff. I know that staff, we put a lot on staff and y'all always respond in the positive. Um, so thank you for all you do. I really appreciate your time. Senator, good to see you. Welcome to the to the big city of Camden. Uh, appreciate you being here. I wanted to just to highlight um Dwayne Gary's public comments. Um, the South Carolina Office of Resilience Disaster Case Management mobile intake, October the 9th, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Elgen Community Center. If you have or know anyone who's been affected by Helen, however, as small or as big, there's no reason not to go in and apply. All they can say is no. So, go in, get your application in. The DCM will be there to guide you step by step through the process. It's the liaison between the federal funding that comes in, the guidance, and the individual constituent here in Kershaw County. They do a great job. Also, I wanted to thank my colleagues tonight. Um, I know we heard a lot about data centers. I'm sure everybody up here has gotten multiple calls about them um the past couple weeks, and I appreciate us kind of postponing this. And the delay is not not a means to an end. The delay is so we can better understand how data centers impact Kershaw County, our citizens, our environmental impacts, and what the future looks like. We've heard a lot of concerns, electricity usage, water usage, pollutants, different things. But I would like to ask how many people who came and spoke utilized AI to draft their comments or got their information off of AI. I know when I just did a Google search, that's where mine came from. So just because you can you know everybody can do a brief search but

every different industry data center in general same with any other industry that we have in Kershaw County is tailored and does not fit the model that a quick Google search says. So we are up here to understand the impacts and that's what our decisions are going to be and the impacts going forward whether it's to the citizens the environmental the noise that is why we're postponing and I really appreciate my colleagues for doing that looking forward to learn more about it and just while we're sitting here my son is just got an update he scored four goals in the soccer game so far I think we're up about seven to nothing u texted the coach and told him to sit him on the bench he's done for the night so thank y'all for being here I really appreciate it look forward to seeing y'all again

thank Thank you, Mr. Thomasson. Mr. Jones, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of county council. We have certainly have a difference of outlook on county government. We have a different opinion when it comes to certain issues. You know, I also I I was staff here for many years. I retired Kershaw Kane. I was a department head. I ran the jail and ran a bunch of other agencies up under it. I know county government. I know what public service is. And I I'm just going to tell you that uh I support our staff. We have some good staff, but we also have some staff that takes advantage of the system. And I'm gonna hold them accountable. And I'm not going to play footsie with them up here. Is it is what it is. And when you get repeated complaints after complaints after complaints for the last year and nothing's been resolved, well, then I'm not doing my job or somebody's not doing theirs. But I want to make sure that uh people when people call they get a speedy they get a a speedy return phone call from staff. I want to make sure that they have their their undivided attention if a citizen has a problem. You know, I've always told council members up here, let's put people first, not money. But anyway, it's probably best I don't say too much right now. I have some more coming down the road. I can assure you of that and I'll have the data to back it up. But Mr. Chairman, thank you very much and appreciate your time and listening,

Mr. Jones. Thank you, Mr. Shemaker.

Yeah, a couple things. Um, happy birthday, Ginger. I I can never see you because you're always sitting right there. So, I'm I never I never realize you're here. So, happy birthday. And Senator Blackman, thank you. Uh, for those of you who don't know, Senator Blackman before he was a senator was on Lancaster County Council. So, uh, he's he knows all too well. Chair all knows all too well. Um, still one of the most enlightening discussions I had on jail fundings was with you and I still need to circle back on that because that's a great mystery we're still trying to crack over here in Kershaw. So maybe you can give us some of that Senate money to build a new jail as long as you're here. So thank you for being here, Senator. Really do appreciate it. Um, Smart Growth Committee, a lot of talk about zoning and land development regulations, ZLDR, it's the Bible for what can actually happen. Uh we have a wonderful committee uh that's been formed and um we are having our first meeting on September 30th at 5:00 p.m. Uh in that meeting we're going to sort of set the agenda. We're not really in that meeting going to have any specific discussions on actual rewrites. That meeting is an organizational meeting. It'll be our first time to get together and really just set a schedule, work with staff to figure out how we're going to go about this process. So it's really kind of a an agreement to agree. We're just going to get everything in line and then we'll have a meeting schedule posted so people will know when our regular meetings are. Um and of course there'll be public comment periods and all those things akin to the comprehensive plan. Um I think she left but uh Miss Shannon I did want to mention uh is uh I think she lives in Camden. So if she is listening to this um I hate to be the guy that's just kind of kicking the can but uh the utility she's referring to would be solely based in the city of Camden. county wouldn't have any role on those utilities uh based on where she said she lived. So, I just wanted to mention that for her. Um and then lastly, the data center comments. You know, Miss Linda Moore, I don't know if she's still in here, but she said it best that, you know, the question that's coming in front of us next month is not do we build a data center. It's really important that we understand the

question in front of us is do we take a uh a rural district and reszone it into general development. Now, I'm not going to opine on data centers uh today very much, but generally speaking, I have been against and most of us have been against reszoning a rural district into general development. And the reason for that is what M. Moore said, which is once you reszone, you don't get to unring that bell. So, it doesn't matter if it's the best use any of us could have ever thought of, a factory that produces no waste that employs a thousand people that already live here, right? If that fell through after resoning, at that point that district can be a housing development, an apartment complex. It is our most permissive land use. So to the extent a data center is a good idea, there's other ways to do it. And to the extent it's a bad idea, there's other ways to address that, too. Um, I do want to say on the data center point, we're all, I think, doing our homework on it. Uh, we've all gotten a lot of calls about it as Mr. Tomlinson correctly and accurately said. You know, one thing I two points I want to note is a lot of the newer data centers are using reclaimed water uh kind of like your radiator does and also uh in terms of the uh impact on electricity. I think it's important that if we do data centers, we make sure that we're setting an ordinance so that that data center isn't taking away from the grid and raising people's uh power bills. The flip side of that and I think it's important to understand this is what we can't do is sit up here and say hey you can't do anything with your land. We have a moratorium on residential growth but that will expire even if it's extended it legally can't last forever. At some point these folks who own 100 acres who wish to devest themselves of of it and do something with it will be able to. So the question is what does that use look like? And I say that not to say that it should be data centers. I say that to say that if we can come up with economic projects that bring money into Kershaw County that are not a detriment that do something that increases our tax base without having the incumbent residential growth, the

infrastructure tax, uh taxation on infrastructure, school uh school growth. That's a good use that we should look at. Not saying that is data centers because I still have a lot of homework to do myself. But I would just caution against this idea that with these 100 200 acre parcels out in Camden, out on the north part of Port of Kershaw, that nothing will ever be built there. That's just not going to happen. We are, as Mr. Tucker pointed out, the seventh fastest growing county in uh Kershaw. Our senator here is from one of the few that are ahead of us, which is Lancaster. Um Lancaster, Edgefield, Spartanberg, all border counties that border a state and are close to a major city. The other three, Jasper, Berkeley, and Ori are along the coast. We are the only county not contiguous to an ocean or another state that's growing the way we're growing. So it's very important to understand the growth is coming. Our job is not to stop it even if we wanted to. It's to manage it and make sure it looks the way it needs to look so we don't lose those things to make this community great enough for all these people to come in and share their impassion uh speeches. So that's all that I have. Um look forward to seeing you guys in a couple of weeks.

Thank you Mr. Schumank. Mr. Tucker our finance chair.

Thank you Mr. Chair. Um, I want to first start off by, um, always welcoming my friend, Senator Blackman. Uh, always enjoy seeing you. Um, and fight for us when you get back over there in January. We need all your help you can bring us. Yeah. Happy birthday, Miss Farmer. Yes, ma'am. Wish you many more. Um, I want to make sure that I get zero credit for what took place tonight in public comment. I had no idea that this room would be full of people and the cameras because I did not talk to anyone. But I do want to commend and thank the president of the local chapter of the NAACP, Reverend Benny Mango, for organizing and speaking up and uh coming before us to address your concerns and your issues. And that means a lot. Um, I'll be talking with you later as always, but uh, I'll appreciate that and all who showed up. Um, members and residents. I know all of you may not be members of the NAACP. You need to be, but um, that's a that's a plug for you there, Rev. And so, uh, with that, I want to thank them for coming and being vocal about their positions and their property and health and stuff because that's important. and I own land out in the Cassid area as well uh with my family. Uh as you've heard me say many many times before, that's where my father was born and that's where he rests, right out there at Haiko Church. So, um with that being said, um Mr. Chairman, you were mighty gracious today and I appreciate it. But let me duly note when people come in late and don't know what the heck they're talking about, probably should not be the people that approach the podium and accuse council members of what they're doing. because I did take offense to that because I write a lot and I'm never going to apologize for that because I have to approve minutes. I have to make notes so I can have conversations with whoever it may be

later on and talk like I know something, not like I didn't hear anything or didn't remember anything. So with with that being said, um and my colleague who expressed it so eloquently earlier um when it looks like we may not be doing something behind this DAS, don't take it for face value. ask the question afterwards or before, what are you doing? Because I'm happy to show you and tell you and my papers are all written up and they're going to stay that way because I have to know what's going on tonight in order to review minutes and to make phone calls and return conversations that's that's due back to people as they come up. So, um I think that covers me for tonight. I thank all of you and I hope that you have a um oh, data centers. Um, I learned a lot tonight from the speakers. Um, there's a lot more to learn and that I will do my due diligence on. Um, I um I want to make sure and my colleagues can tell you this that I'm hearing from all sides of the story. That's what I'm doing now. I am collecting data to hear from everybody and then I can sit and have conversations and agree or disagree in whatever ways that I know that best represent the people and that's the way this will go. Um I can't sit here and tell you and bam my fist on the um desk that data centers are completely bad. They do have a lot of bad things that come with them. But let me tell you what they don't bring. They don't bring people. So there's no taxing on the school system, the garbage system, the police system, things of that nature. And they do bring in a revenue. Now, I'm not going to sell out for that, but those are some of the good things that they do do that I do know off my conversations and u and my due

diligence. So, with that being said, I hear your concerns. I hear them loud and um I will be in touch with you as a group or at least through Reverend Mango um and the state on speaking on your behalf. That concludes my remarks. Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Vice Chairman Brazzle,

Chairman Conell, thank you. Appreciate uh the meeting tonight and dialogue and it's good to hear from the public. Um, Councilman Schumate, thank you for uh letting us know that the the Smart Growth meetings are going to begin at the end of the month. That's something actually that crossed my mind and I was hoping that they were about to begin because we've got a lot of work to do and uh want to be a part of that. Regarding the data center, it's interesting. It seems like there's a lot of public talk about something that we haven't even been briefed on yet. Uh, somebody called me, I think it was last night or the night before and said, "What in the world's going on with this data center?" And I said, "Well, as soon as I find out, I'll let you know." But frankly, I haven't been briefed. And we need to be briefed if that in fact is the case. And I look forward to being briefed. So, I took it upon myself to reach out today um and gather some information. the information that I did gather um was minute in the amount that I need before I can make a decision. But I will say that I was told it's a closed loop water system. So I think much like a u a water furnace, a new age water furnace cooling system for your home. It's it's a loop of water that just continues to run. It's not what you would refer to in the heating and cooling industry as a pump and dump. In other words, water in and then water out. Um, that's what I was told. That could be incorrect information, but the gentleman that told me should have that knowledge specifically correct. So, that was a positive. Um, I was also informed that

Black River Electric would be the power provider. So, I would need to ask them the questions, would this affect users in a positive or negative manner. It could be a financial uh windfall for them. I don't have any idea if it would be if it if it helped uh the co-op become a co-op can't be profitable, but if it helped them provide power and it wasn't a strain and it helped the citizens um maybe that's a neutral situation. So that's something else that I would have to ask um of Black River Electric and th those are things that we have not heard yet. Um, it's 160 acres. I know on a site, if you develop the entire site, you're not going to use the entire site. So, I'd like to know specifically how large the buildings are, what sort of buffers would be around them, and I personally would want to visit a data center and put my eyes and ears on one because I would have to accept being able to live next to one if I voted yes. And I can't do that unless I actually put my eyes and ears on one. So, um, that's what it's going to take for me to support something like that. Just to give you, um, a little bit of information that's in my in my mind and in my thoughts. Um, I would never want to put anyone in a in a situation that devalued their home. Um, never want to put anybody in a situation that um, something was not good for Kershaw County as a whole. So, all of those things will be addressed. And I see that many of you are still here with that had the concerns and everything that was spoken about is very valid and appreciated and there's work

to be done and a lot of discussion to be had. um it it may have to be pushed back even farther. And as far as a reszoning, all those valid points regarding reszoning, um you know, if we resone it to general development, you could do anything. I think there's an opportunity for a development agreement with Kershaw County and the land owner and the developer. um which is apparently an LLC from Charlotte that is going to be building and potentially holding the data center. That could allow us to enter into an agreement to where if they did not complete the data center, if they didn't do exactly what they told us they were going to do, um then nothing would change. The zoning would not change. But I think that would have to be in a development agreement to be legal. I I'd like to ask um our legal council. Is that correct? Am I using the right terminology? I don't want to say the wrong thing because I know some things are illegal and some things are legal.

You can accomplish a lot in a development agreement. It does provide more certitude. Um revision of zoning um again would be something I'd have to look at. I don't know that I've seen a revision, but certainly seen de development agreements where a property owner and developer have agreed to restrictive covenants that forego a lot of potential uses in the reszoned district. Again, certainly something we can explore and discuss.

Okay. So, I I would like to see a document that would protect uh Kershaw County and the citizens if something were not uh to go through correctly. I think that's only fair to the people that live in the community if this project were to move forward that uh it's not a bait and switch and that everything's done correctly and properly and that buffers and if there's any anything to do with sound, any concern for sound, all of that would have to be addressed uh before before I could support it. So, I know I got a little bit elaborate in my comments, but I think it warrants an elaborate explanation as to where my thoughts are. Um, closing on that, I'd like to say thank you to all of our firemen and women that fought the Doyal Textile Mill. We just lost a historical building. I'm not sure how long it's been since they've ceased operations there, but it hasn't been terribly long. So, I know that that was a catastrophic loss for a company, for a holdings company. And um I know there's big pieces of ash all over the city. Um pretty catastrophic. And the fact that they got it put out and no one was harmed that I've heard of is fabulous. I think they just did a great job and I just wanted to highlight them and their efforts and and the way everybody I'm sure collaborated because one fire department didn't do that. That was a huge collaboration and just a real shocking event. So, um, Councilman Kato, I wanted to thank you for the work you

do with, uh, Cassid Order, if I'm not mistaken. Don't you work with the or connected to you're you're with Bthoon. Bthoon. Um, I reached out to you in an email regarding Cassid Water for Liberty Hill and I think you you said you could help with that. Yeah, we probably get something set up.

Okay. you you live you live a little bit more in that world than than I do. Um, Liberty Hill has some concerns regarding fire hydrants that they're not sure if they work. They're on the fringe of the county. Um, Will Glover gave me some great information. I would like to plan a town hall sometimes uh maybe early to mid November and have as many EMS fire and rescue providers there to work with the community and um I'd like to find out if the fire hydrants are actually are actually serviceable and wet and have water to them and I think it would take maybe a collaboration Kershaw County and um Cass asset water I believe is a provider. So, um, Senator, you being here, I'd like to invite you to that town hall. I'll reach out to you in private and glad to see you tonight. Um, didn't see you in the back back there for for the longest. Didn't know you were in here. So, appreciate you being here tonight. Um, appreciate what you do and the fact that you go to Columbia every day is, uh, quite the hall. Ginger Farmer. Uh, happy birthday to you. She's still in here. Hey.

Yeah, she's quiet back there. Happy birthday to you. Um, and with that, that concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brazzle. Um, I really don't have anything tonight. I know that surprises you. I'm typically long-winded. So, with that, we will move to administrator's briefing. Mr. Templer, you have anything for us?

Yes, sir. just real quick. Uh it's kind of I always give these uh updates on projects and everything. So I figured I would just switch it up a little bit, throw some completion aspect ratios to these. So boat ramp is about 99% completed. We'll work on punch list material or items rather for that. We will work on a uh a ribbon cutting over there because that's going to be a really neat uh facility over there. Uh Woodward Park improvements 50 to 60% overall. Um again we the uh finish line is 3 January 2026. So 60% overall but there's a lot that's a very busy 60%. We've got buildings going upward, irrigation, curbs, sidewalks, uh utilities being installed inside the buildings that have been uh uh completed. So, moving on to Boy Young and Copeland parks are about 90% complete. There was just a lot of site work out there, fencing, uh lighting, and things like that. So that that was a little bit uh quicker out there. That is November 8th is the estimated completion date there. Uh plus or minus of with all of these dates with obviously rain and other kind of issues. Uh you know, just going back to Woodward Park, we talk about the things that uh we that were unexpected and things of that nature. We went to go drill for uh water for irrigation out there and I think we hit rock at 15 ft. So hopefully it was a boulder. I don't know. We'll see. Maybe we get past it and we don't have to go all the way through rock to get down to water. So it's the uh unknowns when

you're going underground. Kershaw West parking lot and driveway is about 85% complete. Uh there's a lot of grading and stormwalks and driveway u all of the uh amenities that goes with that. Uh proof rolls and things of that nature. So that one's going to look to be completed November 7th. Uh now with a lot of these we are racing the uh paving season. We don't get to pave all year round because of the uh temperatures that uh need to be existent about 50 degrees or so above and uh when we want to pave if we want to have a quality application. So gives you a little bit of uh some kind of percentile of where we are on that and I'll include that in my Friday brief to y'all. D Royal Textile, thank you Mr. Brazzle for pointing out the the amazing work done by everybody involved. Uh the uh there was a statewide mobilization to get uh assistance from other departments. That's how large of a fire that was. Absolutely lucky to have uh Will Glover on our team. He comes from Zumpter and those were not a rare occasion over there. So he had experience in that and uh and of course the other folks come from Serly, Lancaster, Lugof, Camden. Uh I thought there was a Colombia or Lexington, but I'm not sure they needed aerials over there, but unfortunately we did lose a really really neat building uh built in 1905 and it took something that hot and that devastating to take that thing down. So big loss to the community. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Uh continuing to go

with the investigations over there. That was a city function. Everybody else was assisting, but that was their fire ground. Um but I was proud of our team for being able to uh lean in and all fire entities in Kershaw County to lean in and and go over there and respond safely. So amazing work by everybody. That is my report, sir.

Thanks for mentioning that. You know, a lot of memories were lost, too. Uh my dad and so many others in Kershaw County. That was either their first job or something like that. A lot of hard labor put in over there at the mill. And um was just kind of commiserating with my dad over lost that building. Thanks for your report. And just on behalf of the council, I know I can say we appreciate the uh the weekly reports we're getting in written form. That's been very helpful. Very helpful. Mr. D, any legal briefing beyond what we have for executive session? Nope. Standard response outside of executive session.

All right. With that, gentlemen, we have three items for executive session. Uh A is a personal employment matter. B is regarding matter subject to attorney client privilege. And C is a personal employment matter all under section 30-4-70 of the SC code. Um for the public benefit and before we have a vote going to executive session, we anticipate uh a possible vote on item number 14 C. Possible vote on item number 14 C. Is there do we have a motion to go into executive session? I make a motion we go into executive session. Mr. Kato. Second. Mr. Tucker has a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, we move to a vote on executive session. Raise your hand if you're in favor. Miss Hannah, it's unanimous on executive session. We are in executive session.

seek a motion to leave executive session. I will make that motion. We have a second. Second. There's a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of exiting executive session, raise your hand. We are out of executive session. Only thing left is to adjurnn. Is there a motion to adjurnn? Make a motion we adjourn. Mr. Kato, is there a second? Second. We have a second. See any discussion? No. There's none. Move it to a vote. All in favor? Uh, it passes by those who are present in voting.