County Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'd like to welcome everyone here to Langford County Council meeting. I ask that the clerk note for the record that a quorum of council is present. that public's not notice of the meeting, including the meeting agenda, has been posted the required length of time in the lobby of the county administration building and on the county website and that the news media was notified of the meeting time and place. I'd like to welcome you to your county council meeting. I would ask that you take a moment to turn off or place on vibrate any cell phones. Thank you for not wearing any hats or caps in the council chambers and please be considerate of the others in the room by refraining from conversations during the meeting. I ask that you please stand and join us for the pledge of allegiance given this evening by council member Steve Harper. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Let us pray. most heavenly gracious father, we thank you for this opportunity tonight to come uh take care of the business here in Langster County and and uh Lee, guide and direct us as uh we will make the best decisions for Langster County. And Lord, uh be with our neighbors to the south of us and uh Mexico as uh they try to get that situation under control. Lord, it's in your name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Could I have a motion to approve the agenda? So moved. Have a motion from Miss McGriff. Second.

Second from Mr. Neil. Uh is there any discussion? Hearing none, I call for the vote. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. It's seven to zero. Okay, we're going to move on to citizens comments. Um, we now come to citizens comments. Please bear in mind that this is not a period of dialogue with council or a question and answer period. This is your opportunity to address council with your concerns. I ask that you address your remarks to council as a body and not to any individual council members. Please speak into the microphones. State your name and address for the record and you will have up to three minutes to address council. Your time will not start until you have provided your name and address. I'm Miss Jean Doyle. Good evening, County Council, and thank you for your time. I can't say after the last meeting that I was surprised that five of you voted for the approval of the reasonzoning of the Harris land. What surprised me most was the lack of any interaction between the majority of council and the developers. No questions, no requested clarifications, nothing. That tells me that you had made up your mind before the meeting. It must have been pretty boring to sit here while Mr. Louise and Mr. Graham asked numerous questions asking for a lot of clarification. The developers certainly worked hard to meet with the residents in direct that are directly affected by the development. Traffic light for the retreat will benefit 375 homes. No doubt noise and light abatement for residents on Clarion Drive in Shelley Woods. Hope it will work as planned. Adding more

green space to the development also a wonderful thing, but you have to drive to get to it to walk around and use it. I'm not sure that that makes sense. Connectivity to Carolina Commons. Basically, you're suggesting wider, larger road through Carolina Commons in the adjacent area. Cars drive through the Carolina Commons like it's a speedway sometimes. So, wonder how that's going to work out. Um, people talk about if there's more things to do on 521, there's no reason to drive north. I don't know. I drive north all the time for all kinds of fun things. None of this, none of these suggestions are going to fix the traffic issues and the increased traffic. In all the meetings that I've attended, I've never heard anybody talk about traffic studies. Not for residential development, not for business development. Why doesn't an SEDOT and/or the county insist on traffic studies? If council had hard facts, perhaps you could make more informed decisions. Can this be part of the new UDO? Mr. Louise informed the council that from November 2025 through January 2026, 3 months, there was 170% increase in accidents and an increase of 200% in critical accidents in Indian land. Those are some pretty significant numbers. I feel for the multigenerational land owners who are being held hostage by a county that did not have the foresight to think long term about the problems all the development would iss uh development would cause. I couldn't stay for the entirety of the last meeting but I have watched it on uh YouTube. Very grateful that there is that. That was the request for the Haven to reszone the land from uh rural neighborhood to medium density residential cluster subdivision. This is for 900 single family homes. I was shocked that the other council meers

council members actually had some questions other than Mr. Louise and Mr. Graham. I heard concern about traffic, fire, schools. Oh my gosh, the exact same issues that we were talking about in regards to the any development in Indian land. It just astounded me. One council member almost said that she didn't want to create the same problems that Indian Land has. Lonard's trying to be a good a good neighbor, give land for an EMS station. Lenard did that when they built treetops, but the county doesn't have the money for the building, the equipment, or the staff. But I just found a feeling of real hypocrisy when people were arguing about issues in the southern part of the county that we've already had in fighting against in Indian land. I appreciate the development is coming. It can't be stopped. But what is frustrating if there are no plans to fix any of the issues. County council would wave a magic wand and they had unlimited funds to fix 521. It would still be several years before there'd be a shovel in the ground. Kicking the can down the road isn't working, but adding more development certainly isn't a plan either. Thank you very much, gentlemen, for your consideration.

Thank you, Miss Tony Mcamean.

Uh Tony McCammon, Indian Land. All right, here's a riddle for you, County Council and everyone else in the room. All right, humor me for 30 seconds. I'm going somewhere with this. What do a rocket scientist and a farmer have in common? Logic. Their jobs require logic. They both know that when storm clouds roll in, rain will fall. They both know that the intensity and the volume of the rain, that the wind and the lightning make a difference. Now when they're faced with those kinds of critical uh aspects to the weather then they have to know whether they're going to launch the rocket or harvest the crops today. The rocket will launch and the crops will get harvested. Only will it be today or tomorrow. Here's the point of this. What happened at the last county council meeting was a just a display of illogical thinking. Over the past two and a half years that I have been attending the council meetings, every report from the emergency services at budget time has indicated a shortfall in personnel and equipment to meet best practices standards. You've heard it over and over. However, it's obvious that the statistics and the anecdotal evidence don't matter to most of you on the council. There are two councilmen, however, who do have some logic in play here because they seem to be truly listening and anticipating needs, not only of their constituents, but of the constituents in the middle of the county. Fact, after the illogical vote of 5 to2 to grant reszoning of the 71 acres in Indian land, four out of the seven of you went on after the room

cleared out to approve another 900 residential units in Mr. Mellar's district on the border of Mrs. McGriff's district. Now, those lucky residents who have been sharing their fire, EMS, and law enforcement with the panhandle will be further subjected to growing shortages as well. My final big question tonight is this. Why? Inquiring logical minds want to know what and who are the beneficiaries of all this illogical thinking? What is the benefit being passed along? and to whom unrelated but related history. There's been foyer requests submitted to council by citizens in the past which haven't been brought the con transparency needed to answer the last two questions for other county projects. How and who benefited from them? Who benefited from the waving of 34 million, repeat 34 million in impact fees in 2023? Here's my prediction. The storm clouds are coming. The anger and frustration rain is picking up momentum. So far, the citizens cries of help us have not been addressed. Their next cry may well become forensic audit. You choose. Jean McCoy. My name is Jean McCoy. I live at 9213 Whistling Straits Drive in Indianland. I would thank you for the opportunity to speak to you tonight if I thought that

what I had to say would have any impact on you. The only reason I am speaking is because I feel it's important to do the right thing as a citizen. regarding the reszoning of 71.1 acres described in ordinance 2026-202. It brings up procedural questions for me as a constituent in this county. One of the questions is regarding the decisionmaking process of the county council. It's frustrating to see inconsistencies in that process. The planning commission staff and the planning commission give conflicting opinions. Sometimes the majority of the council takes the advice of one or the other and sometimes neither. This is perplexing to me because that begs the question, what is the purpose of having staff or a commission if we can't rely on them to even bring consensus opinions? And if you do believe they are of value, why do you not follow them? You seem to be quite impressed with the CFSmith's bubble map. Pretty pictures aren't what I would call good criteria for whether a project is viable at this location or at this time. It appears that developers are granted more credibility with the county council than the value of citizens opinions. Thank you,

Kathy Storm.

Kathy Storm, 5025 Redwood Grove Trail, Indian Inland. I must admit when I left the last county council meeting that I felt defeated. I had little hope that our voices were being heard. No matter how much research was done and statistics presented, the results are the same. No work on infrastructure, not even a plan. But a cry from Lancaster County, "Come on in, boys. We're open for business." I began to wonder what qualities someone that wants to govern others well, what are those? Why do people vote for you? Is it popularity or how long you've lived here? Is it to gain health and power, wealth and power, I'm sorry, prestige and favor? Is it a stepping stone to one's career? Or is it a business or law degree? Or is it common sense and logic? Is it the desire for truth and transparency? Is it humility? Is it the ability to hear opinions different from yours? Is it a desire for all residents to be treated equally? Is it a love for this country, for this state, for this county? Is it the love of justice? Is it finding creative ways to raise money for infrastructure without taxing residents out of the county? The why matters and the why matters here also. Why are you not willing to wait for the new UDO before approving further projects? Why has the infra

infrastructure not been addressed when you have heard for months and months and months about the issue and even heard please from Jose and Stewart and now even Mrs. McGriff since it is now touching her district. Frustration and mistrust is being um manifested. I took a long look at myself and asked, "Why are you down, oh my soul?" And I remembered Paul's words, "Do not grow weary with doing good things. I'm a fighter. I'm not giving up. I love Lancaster County. I love South Carolina. And I'm not going to stop fighting until the day I die." Thank you.

Thank you. Libby Sweat Lambert. I'm Libby Sweat Lambert. I live in Lancaster County. Tonight, I'm going to talk to you about my son, Travis. Um, Travis was the kid that announced that he was joining our family and he was bringing his two brothers with him. Um, in high school he played for Indianland. Um, he played football and he was pretty darn good. But he decided after his first year he wasn't going to play anymore because he didn't like getting hit. And as a male teenager, he said, "I don't want my pretty face getting hurt so the girls won't look at me." Um, right after he turned 21, he was diagnosed with diabetes. He was 21, omnipotent for numerous years. He wouldn't follow the diet. He wouldn't take his insulin. He made some stupid decisions. um and his body started going bad. In January 2021, I went to a doctor's appointment with him and um we found out he was going to have some more tests that needed to be done the next morning. So, I convinced him to stay at the house that night. The next morning I went in. I tried to wake him up and he continued to want to sleep in normal pattern. That' been his story for his life. In about 15 minutes, um, I asked my husband, I said, "Steve, have you heard

Travis moving around yet? Have you heard him go out to the bathroom?" And he said, "No, I haven't heard the doors." So, I went and knocked on his door and um no response and I opened it and I found my son wedged between the bed and the nightstand in a diabetic coma. He had vomited. His mouth and throat was full of vomit. I was screaming for Steve to call 911. And I was screaming at my child not to die. I was finger sweeping his mouth, going down in his throat, getting as much vomit as I could out. I was looking for his pen so I could give him a shot. Didn't give him enough. And thank God as I was screaming again, "Don't die on me," I started hearing the ambulances come down the dirt road. I heard fire trucks. because of, not in spite of, but because of Lancaster EMS having enough staff to get to us in a very quick fashion. my son lived after he flatlined in the bedroom. After he flatlined in our driveway, after he flatlined on Craig Farm Road, they got him to MUSC Springs. It took over eight hours for them to stabilize him enough to get him to a trauma center.

Kidneys were failing. things were bad. But in because of not in spite of because we had good good EMS staffing and we had good people. We had him on August 30th. And and let me tell you, we had him for eight months in and out of hospitals, in and out of rehab, and the rest of the time he was at our house on August the 30th. Let me back up. I hope none of you have to look in your children's face and explain to them there's nothing else that can be done. because I will tell you it is the hardest thing in the world to do. And those of you that know me, you know I am tough. I am strong. On August 30th, we called the other kids and we said, "You need to come on down. Steve and I were exhausted." My oldest son and our girls were there and they sent me and Steve to bed so we could rest. and we went to bed in the bedroom closest to Travis. I got up about 3:00 and sent the kids home. Within hours, my child was fed. And I'm going to show you the last photo. And by the way, this is his robe. This is my son's room.

This is the last photo of my son. My children took it around midnight on August 31st. I was here earlier advocating because I'm a neighbor and I don't want all of these. But from now on, I am here as a person who is in a None of you want to be in. You don't want to be in the club because your child has died. Nobody wants to be in that. I can't get out of that club. I can't quit paying dues and get out of it. I can't have an affair and get out of it. I am in that club. And when you keep approving house after house after house and we don't have the infrastructure, more people in Lancaster County are going to be in the club that Steve and I are in. You don't want to be in it. But because of good good staffing at EMS, I had my son for eight more months. Addie bins Good evening, council members. Patty Benz, 48416 Snapdragon Lane, Fort Mill or Indian Land. Good evening, council members. My testimony is about the CFS Smith

zoning change request agenda item 7A ordinance number 26 2026-20. Please return refer to attachment A which is this and I will pass this to Miss Simkin. Uh this is a concept site plan given to residents by CF Smith at its 12:15 residence meeting and attachment B the revised concept plan prepared by a Sun City resident today. You will get these both. Residents concerns at the 12:15 CF Smith meeting included the buffers between the shopping center and Laurel Hill houses and Shelleywood houses, the traffic signal location, and increased traffic on 521. CF Smith had three separate neighborhood meetings with residents in Laurel Hill, The Retreat, and Shelley Woods to discuss their concerns. These meetings took place after the planning commission meeting on 1216 and before the council the county council meeting on 29. However, the CF Smith concept site plan given to residents at its community meeting on 12:15 is the same one in the pack packet given to the 1216 planning commission and both the 29 and tonight's council meetings. CF Smith had two and a half months to revise the 1215 concept site plan to address the identified issues. We've heard CF Smith talk the talk. Now it's time for SM CF Smith to walk the walk and produce a revised concept site plan

that addresses the outstanding issues prior to the approval of the zoning change. We are therefore respectfully asking the county council to delay the vote on the second reading of zoning change ordinance number 2026-202 until CF Smith submits a revised concept site plan to the planning department for the county council's reviews that includes the following. a minimum 100 foot buffer between the shopping center and the Laurel Hill Homes, Shelley Woods Homes, and Parkstone Apartments. Relocate the traffic signal to Murphy Drive to align with Halifax Drive. Provide a right turn straight across and left turns turn lanes from both Murphy Drive and Halifax Drive. Connect Park Commons Avenue to Murphy Drive. Connect the Prominade Shopping Center interior roadway to the CF Smith service road. If this is not possible, then extend the right turn lane on northbound Highway 521 from Del Webb Boulevard to Murphy Drive. All council members acknowledge their concerns about this proposed shopping center at the 29 meeting. What do you please do what you can now to ensure a win-win for area residents and the county? Thank you very much. Susie Proer

Good evening, council members. I'm Susan Procher, 2290 Hartwell Lane, Indianland 29707. My testimony is about the CS Smith zoning change request, agenda item 7A, ordinance number 2026-2012. Residents have the ability to go to the Lancaster County website the Friday before the meeting to review the agenda and packet information regarding items that affect their communities. We did so for the CFSmith zoning change requests from lowdensity residential to regional business. On February 9th, our comments during the public hearing were based upon the documents regarding the resoning that were on the Lancaster County website. After we testified, we learned that the developer provided different information just before the council meeting and presented the information that night. The same thing is happening tonight. We have learned that CS Smith submitted a memorandum of understanding for distribution to the Lancaster County Council this afternoon. This behavior by the developer CF Smith is unethical and the total opposite of transparent. It does not give the residents, the planning department, or the Lancaster County adequate time to review the information, comment on it, and make sound decisions on what is best. CF Smith's goal is to divide and conquer. They believe they can just have the Lancaster County Council rubber stamp whatever they submit. We are therefore respectfully asking the county council to delay the vote on the

second reading of zoning change ordinance number 2026-2012 until CF Smiths submits an anou and a revised concept site plan to the planning department with sufficient time for the planning department's review, the residents review, and the county council's deliberate review and action. By doing so, you are telling CF Smith that this is not the ethical and transparent way the Lancaster County Council does business on behalf of their constituents. Thank you. Thank you. John Saul. John Saul, 201 Brier Drive, Indian Land. Uh, good evening, council members. My testimony is about the CS Smith zoning change request as well. Uh, this evening, uh, ordinance number 2026-202. At the February 9th, 2026 county council meeting, some residents expressed their support for resoning based on statements made by CF Smith at neighborhood meetings in Laurel Hill, the retreat at Rayfield and Shelley Woods. Council members asked CF Smith to put the requested changes into a memorandum of understanding, which the developer agreed to. Uh, as was presented by a previous resident, the packet on the county council agenda website for the February 23rd 20 26 meeting tonight

still has the original CFSmith concept site plan given to residents by the developer uh at the uh uh meeting in uh the uh Indian uh uh facility uh back in December and also presented to the planning commission uh the day after December. the 16th. And for the life of me, I don't understand why it's so hard to get the current the most accurate uh the latest iteration of the concept plan on the website for citizen review. I I just I I don't understand what the problem is. Uh in addition, uh there's noou uh for citizen review. Uh understand there there's one floating around somewhere, but it's not available for uh we citizens. Uh uh it's confirmed by planning staff at the February 9th, 2026 council meeting. Once the zoning change is approved, CS Smith only has to abide by the current UDO uh if no binding documents exist. And uh based on my real estate experience in Lancaster County, if it's not in writing, it's not happening. And if it is in writing, good luck with that. So, we need a good solidouou uh contractually binding on uh both ends, both the county and the uh developer. So, uh please use your authority protect residents and the county interest by ensuring that what has been discussed in meetings has been documented in writing and is signed by both the county and CSmith prior to the approval of the zoning change. We are asking you to ensure CS Smith's compliance with the items listed above and any other items deemed appropriate by county council once the requested zoning is approved. Thank you.

Thank you,

David Snap. Thank you, council. My name is David Snapp and I live at 289 Laurel Hill Road, Indian Land. And I laugh because when I first moved here in December, every utility and service company wanted to tell me I was living in Fort Mill. Um, and I would just want to say too, our heart goes out to this nice, beautiful lady back here. I think your story is just unbelievably compelling. And it's a little bit difficult to get up here to talk uh after that kind of story. From my perspective, you've really got to have your responsibility. Nobody denies that. Each and every one of you is elected to represent citizens, not powerful law firms that come up here and make arguments in terms of how they're representing their clients. The citizens here don't have Robinson Bradshaw, one of the most expensive, politically connected, powerful law firms in the Southeast. We don't have that. So, we hear aboutus and we hear about changes to site plans. We don't have anybody come up here and represent us. So, we have to speak for ourselves. And you know, last meeting I heard the uh chairperson say, "Well, you know, I like what I saw here tonight." And what he saw was a bubble map, brown and green and pastoral colors, so beautiful represented by the developer.

But yet the plans have called for huge two huge box stores with hundreds of parking spaces. So I ask you, what are we talking about and where is the due diligence that each and every one of you has to you know abide by to get this thing done? Where is the independent environmental study that should be done on all of this? Lancaster County is having to be pushed and shoved towards all of this development because you know Charlotte is out of control. You can protect this county better than this. Where is the traffic independent traffic study? All of us have witnessed medics trying to get down the southbound lane of uh 521 and they can't do it. Where are the due diligence aspects of all of this? And why is it being done so quickly? You just notified the public back in early December that this was happening. That's not enough time for this kind of consideration. There are seven shopping centers on this stretch of the highway. How many shopping centers do we possibly need in Indian land? And last meeting the developer said, "Well, you know, all the all the shoppers will come from a three or five mile radius." That's absurd. And so what I'm asking for tonight is look, just slow down. There's nothing that says you have to do this tonight or tomorrow or next month. Study this very closely. You're thinking about the tax implications, $5 million or whatever it is. How much is it going to cost the county

to have law enforcement to have the infrastructure to make sure that uh fire medic can go down the road without being impeded by all the traffic? This is a responsibility and I just would urge you as a resident who just moved to this beautiful area to slow down. There is nothing that says you have to do this right now. So, I would like to thank you and and just ask you tonight to please look at what you need to do for the future of this beautiful county. Don't be pushed into this by Charlotte's growth. Thank you, Barbara Scanal. a little shorter there. Had to pull it down. Good evening, council members. What I have is being distributed to you is a summary of residents concerns that you've just heard and requests regarding the CFSmith zoning change request agenda item 7A ordinance number 2026-2012. We are respectfully asking the Lancaster County Council to delay the vote on the second reading of the resoning change request until CFS Smith prepares and submits the following items to the planning department that are posted on the planning department website for residents review and added to a future Lancaster County Council's agenda for review and action. Please use your authority to protect

both the residents and the county's interest by ensuring that what has been discussed in meetings has been documented and executed in writing by both the county and CFSmith prior to the approval of the zoning change. The purpose of these requests is to ensure CF Smith's compliance to the items listed below. Once the zoning change is fully approved, the county council and CS Smith may consider using the attached revised concept plan. I know you've already gotten one of these, but getting another one. Um, and that's again prepared by a person that lives in Sun City. Won't name who, but you probably guess. Um, and um, as a guideline. So, I'm asking the attendees in the audience to please pay a special attention to what I'm about to say because I will ask for a show of hands at the end of this presentation for those are in agreement because I can't read minds and probably you can't either. So, number one, change resoning request general business. Why? Because according to the documents in the um current UDO and it does it states there that regional business does not have the possibility of apartments or other multifamily units. general business would still allow them to build what they want to build, but it takes away the concern of the folks that are adjacent to the development of having a um apartment complex put in there if CF Smith can't get the folks that are thinking they're going to be signing on the dotted line for big box stores or other types of event, other types of development. So um then the second thing is a revised site plan which we've always talked

about that corresponds with the memorandum of understanding taking into account the areas of the CSmith has advised I'm sorry I'm talking too much that CSmith has identified as not buildable due to topography. He said um that was said at the planning commission meeting and other um meetings we've heard as well. So what is the approximate total acreage of the property right now is 71 acres but again the question is how much is actually buildable. So first thing estimated buildable acres. What is the location and estimated acreage of the buildings within the property lines of the total buildable acres? The estimated acreage of the parking lots and number of spaces required based on building square footage and as per the current UDO 2.3 a minimum of 100 ft buffers between the shopping center and residential units. Laurel will Laurel Hill homes Shelley Woods and the Parkstone Apartments. Doesn't matter if you live in a house, a townhouse or an apartment. You all des all of us deserve to have a decent quiet life. Second, uh next thing is tra draft track traffic circulation for Murphy Drive and Halifax Road and Park Commons Avenue. Relocate the traffic signal to Murphy Drive to align with Halifax Drive. provide right turn straight across and left turn lanes from both Murphy Drive and Halifax Drive and connect Park Commons Avenue to Murphy Drive using a roundabout. So that will prevent the issue of having stop signs and backups in and out. Um, the second thing is the central entrance to the shopping center. And that's also this I'm basically just going over what this is that you have somewhere in there. And we're saying place the um the central entrance be between Laurel Hills Road and Murphy Drive with a right turn and right turn out only and connect the

central entrance to the internal service road using a roundabout. Again, to prevent backup into 521 and throughout the shopping center for Laurel Hill and Prominade, connect the Laurel Hill Road to Highway 521. right turn in and right turn only. Connect Laurel Hill Road to the interior service road using a roundabout again for the safety of the residents and the folks going in and out. And if possible, connect the Prominad Center to the interior service road using the same roundabout with Shelley Woods. Now, we understand the developer has told us before that may not be possible because of where the the retention basin is. So, if it's not possible, we have another option, which is to extend the right turn lane into and out of the shopping center across Highway 521 from Dell Web all the way to Murphy Drive to remove traffic off the lane closest to the shopping center and to assist all vehicles in and out of the shopping center to merge onto the main lines and northbound Highway 521. So the bottom line is we understand that development is going to happen, but we have to do it where it makes sense and we have to make the developer accountable and we can't do it if we just say okay we're going to pass it tonight. you have enough justification to say we're going to delay the approval tonight until both a resi site plan and theou can be fully vetted by planning staff residents and all of you. So, thank you for your time and please consider this when you talk about this um development during the second reading item number 7A. Please delay this approval for this meeting. Thank you.

Brian Anders Little change of pace. Uh Brian Andress, 100027 Southmore Lane, Indian Land. Uh good evening, council members. I am here this evening to speak to you for the need of fire station 3 in Indian Land. With the council's continued approval of new developments throughout the panhandle and south along Highway 521, response times for existing two fire stations are being stretched. The growth was the growth we're experiencing is in very significant and ongoing. In 2024, the Indian Land Fire Services responded to 3,379 incidents. In 2025, that number increased to 3,941 incidents. Leadership is now estimating an additional 20 to 30% increase in the 2026 current call volume and projected growth in the area. It's a lot of calls, people. Uh, for more than five years, the Indian Consolidated Fire District Commission previous boards have presented the need for a third station in an effort to plan ahead and be proactive. Unfortunately, we are no longer in a proactive situation. We are now facing a public safety safety necessity for a new station. Response times in northern portions of the district are falling below recommended standards. still very good but are starting to fall. And that impacts not only the residents safety but our also our community's insurance ratings. The estimated cost to construct fire station 3 is approximately $8 million. Discussions regarding the equipment and staffing can follow for another day, but the first step is committing to building the facility itself. In the past, council has stated that

county is not in the business of building fire stations. However, council has been in the business of approved substantial growth in Indian land, including large retail developments, apartment complexes, housing communities, businesses, and hotels. With that growth has come an increased tax revenue. Induland residents also pay an additional special fee district fee services on top of their county taxes. It is it is reasonable and appropriate that a portion of the tax revenue generated from this growth be reinvested directly into the infrastructure necessary to support it including a fire station 3. It is reason or excuse me our county should be proud of the leadership and professionalism of the Indian Lamb Fire Service. They have demonstrated strong response times, a commitment to serving residents, and thoughtful five and 10-year plans to help continue to support the growth from the level of Indianland. Now, it's time to support them. I respectfully ask this council to prioritize and fund a fire station 3 in 2026. Providing our firefighters with the resources they need is not simply a budget decision, it's a public safety responsibility. And from everything you're hearing this evening, it's way past overdue. Thank you for your evening.

Thank you,

Greg Gregory, Mr. Chairman, members of council. Pleasure to be with you today. My name is Greg Gregory. Live at 805 Blenham Court in Lancaster. I operate builder supply company here in Lancaster. Our company has been here for about 120 years and employs around 85 people, mostly from the Lancaster proper area. I'd like to speak to you tonight uh to give you some points on why I think the Haven should be approved. Um, first of all, unless somebody is willing to pay millions of dollars to put this property into conservation, it will be developed one day, but it won't likely be at a better deal uh financially or conservation wise than what's been offered uh by LAR in this offer. If the property is developed by another person, then it's not likely that they'll be the caliber of John Hardy, uh the person who's behind all the marquee developments in Lancaster for the most part, including Sun City, Carolina Lakes, the most um the most successful Sun City in the country at the time, Treetops, Rosland, and many others. I've heard a lot of talk talk tonight about uh money and finances and the need for more money uh for a county government. Uh new homes are one of the biggest sales tax generators in the county. The materials that are used in a new home will generate around $15,000 in sales tax. To equate that, one would need to go to Walmart and buy $175,000 in goods to generate that much sales tax revenue for the county and the state. There's a lot of talk about growth not paying for itself. But it seems to me that the areas that are growing are prosperous while those that aren't are not. Case in point is where we are right here. Lyster proper not prosperous. Has

not been prosperous for 30 plus years. Uh the nicer neighborhoods are run down. The schools are underutilized. The storefronts are empty. Why is that? because we're poor and have been poor ever since left. The median income for the city of Lancaster is $46,000. 42% below the median income of the county of Lanster at $79,000 and 60% below the median income of Indian land at $117,000. When I talking to people in Lanster, it seems like they really want two things primarily besides good schools and good police and fire protection. Those two things that are the pressing priorities that are always mentioned to me are number one, they want a main street that they can take pride in again. And they want a better selection of restaurants and grocery stores, something akin to what Indian land has. No, the haven will not be in the city, but it will be close enough to positively influence it and inject the income needed to bring prosperity here, just as Rosland will. The incomes of people nearby people of income, the income of people in this area, nearby city of Lancaster, and just outside the city aren't magically going to rise two and a half times to the level of those in Indian land. Increased prosperity must come here. the same way it did there by attracting higher income households and that's what the AAN will bring to this area. So, thank you for your time and for your service and for listening to what I have to say tonight.

Wayne Bale.

Hi, I'm Wayne Bell. I live on Craig Farm Road and my being here tonight is because I am concerned about the Haven project that Mr. Gregory spoke about. I have concerns about it because I live on Craig Farm Road and I've looked at the maps and it seems like there's a couple of roads are kind of going to cut in there to allow the that project to access Craig Farm Road for access egress, whatever. Craig Farm Road is already a racetrack. We don't get police out there like we used to. They used to hide down by the creek, you know, and pop people at night. We haven't seen police out there, the sheriff's department in years. I understand that. They don't have the staff. So, my concern is it's going to turn Craig Farm Road, the communities on Craig Farm Road, and there are some there that have been there for years and years. It's going to turn them into a racetrack. It's going to hurt their their their ability to protect children. Right now I'm old and so I just every day goes by I'm riding down Craig Farm Road say going to the going to the trash dump or whatever and some guy comes flying up behind me like a bad out of you know where and so being old and with a certain you know humor I slip down in my chair cut my hair back head back open my mouth and drive nice and slowly through some of those communities they going to drive 25 miles an hour when they're behind It's not It's not fun. I can't even I used to walk every day. I walked three miles a day every day. I can't even get on the road anymore. It's not It's not safe. It's not safe for pedestrians. It's not safe for cyclists and it's not safe for automobiles either when you got people using it as a racetrack. I would ask you all, I know we're going to approve this thing eventually, but do we have to do it tonight? Can we not get some planning? I'd like to know what's the plan for Craig Farm Road. What's the plan to make Haven a community that is

not going to be like Indian Land, which I've heard a lot about tonight saying there's been a certain lack of planning. Let's plan this thing out so it's something we can be proud of. Thank you very much. Thank you, Alan or Alex Boon. Okay, thank you. Okay, that concludes our public hearing or our our citizens comments. We're going to move on to item six, consent agenda. Do we have a motion to approve?

Mr. Chair, I move to approve consent agenda items 6 A, 6B, 6 C, 6 D, and 6E. Okay, we have a motion. Most Stellar, we have second from Mr. McGriff. There any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. It's unanimous. And we're going to move on to our non-consent agenda. Mr. Chairman, I'm sorry. There were some electronic comments. If we could go back to that for a moment.

Apologize. Thank you, Mr. Chair and council members, you have copies of um physical copies of these at your seats. We received three citizen comments in support of the Haven um ordinances 2025, 2002, 2025, 2001. We received two emails in opposition to all new development specifically along Highway 521 in Indianland. We received one email in opposition to the Haven. We received two emails in favor or support of the Harris property ordinance 2026 2012. We received 33 emails in opposition to ordinance 2026 2012 or the Harris property. We had three miscellaneous emails. One from Debbie Hegler in Indianland, South Carolina asking um council to consider the impact of reszoning the 71 acres. Kathleen Moleman in Indianland, South Carolina um regarding needing service roads to keep the traffic off of 521 and Kevin Clenen Peel Indian South Carolina regarding his concerns about notices sent by the planning department.

Thank you,

Simpson. And now we're going to go on to item 7A, second reading of ordinance number 2026-202, an ordinance to amend the official zoning map of Langster County to reszone approximately 71.1 acres. Tax map number 0013-0000-67.00 and 0013-0000-67.01. 01 and 013-67-2 and 0013-0000-67.03 and 0013-0000-135.0 O which is located at Charlotte Highway and Laurel Hill Road from the low density residential LDR district to the original business RV district. Planning department case number RZ 2025-2538. Planning staff recommended approval of the resoning request. However, planning commission recommend recommended denial by unanimous vote. This passed 5 to2 at the February the 9th, 2026 county council meeting. Stuart Graham and Jose Luis opposed. Do we have a motion?

Move to approve. Have a motion from Mr. Meellar to approve. Do we have a second? Second. Second from Miss Mcgriff. Miss Williams.

Um, good evening council. Um, this is the second reading. We held public hearing last meeting. There are no significant changes to the ordinance or the information that you have in your packet. However, I do know that the other attorney had given um Miss Dupont Mark Dupont the uh updated that you requested and that's going through the legal channels and and I have not done anything with that. So, I don't have anything to offer on that. Um, otherwise there is no other changes and I do not believe that there was any specific requests from council of me at the last meeting. If you have any other questions, I'll be happy to answer them and the applicants are here as well.

Have any questions for Miss Williams? Is that will it is it available for the public to look at now? If you would like it to be technically as a legal document that's going back and forth, we wouldn't release it. But if you would like it to be released, we can do that. I I think I I would like to be released. There any other comments? Um I've got a couple. Um can we talk about the big box component potentially in in RB? It's what what is the is that automatically allowed? How is

So So big box is not anything that's specifically designated out. Um it it's commercial. Um the only place where commercial specifically is set forth by square footage and those things is where you made those amendments to um create the big box retail like the large scale retail and the hospital amendments that you made in the highway corridor overlay. So So and large scale retailers above 100,000 square foot I believe in my gut I feel like it's 60,000 but it could be 100. I didn't do that text amendment so I'm not familiar. I can look it up and get back to you on that for sure.

I'm just trying to make sure that we have a clear understanding of what potentially could go on that site commercial and and that's that's the thing.

But I guess what I'm saying there for largecale retailer there there is there any action that would come back to council but it would be up it would be available by right in RB. Most of the commercial is I I can make a copy of this for you guys and I'll give this one to you specifically. What I did was take the general business and the regional business zoning classifications and set out side by side what can be in those two. Um there are no specific square footage requirements or restrictions that we have. So it's commercial commercial.

Okay. I just want to make sure because there was we were having conversations um that last meeting about largecale retailers and what that actually meant they could do or not do. So I want to make sure we're clear on what is allowed and what is not. So nothing else would have to come back to us for approval once it's approved. Right. No. Um their their site plan and their preliminary plat would have to be approved by the planning commission. Um, but the reasoning is just one step in that chain.

So, I think just to clarify the point that we're trying to make, if we approve this based off of the current zoning, it is not going to come back as a conditional review to add additional square footage to the big box stores that were presented earlier. If they are not if they are not in compliance, and I I guess I would ask the attorney if they've checked to verify whether that would be allowed,

right? So with reasonzonings, the planning staff doesn't look at those things. Those aren't things that we look at. So I can't specifically tell you, yes, this is in compliance because we we don't ask developers to provide that because there are certain restrictions and stuff that we can and cannot ask for. That is something at the resoning level. We can't ask for all of those things. We can't require anything because all of those are contingent upon the reasonzoning, right? So, but we do those at the other steps and the civil plan reviews and all that. I guess I would ask the attorney for the developer if they've done the research to identify whether 170,000 would be a byite use without any additional action by council.

Okay. it. Is there an anticipation to have any big box stores that based off of the concept plans that we've looked at that has 170,000 square foot 100,000 there? Oh, total. Yeah. Well, I think they were trying to see where the bubble plan was. So, I guess that's my question. Are you are you all is there any anticipation that that is a possibility? Okay. Maybe come up.

Yes. to answer your question that is potentially a possibility and sorry um yes that is a possibility and I think that dovetales with u the emphasis and time we put into trying to um create as much buffer space as we can and create create as much open space as possible on the plan and in doing so we've you know we've dedicated almost 24% of the the u acorage to buffers and open space. So, so doing that, you know, it's it's going to require a significant development to make the project work at some level.

Okay. And I guess the reason why I'm saying it is the concept plan that I'm looking at that was in our packet. It has one retail building that has 169,000 square ft and a second retail building that is 171,000 square ft. Are those accurate representations of what you anticipate could be possible for this location? I think that would be the maximum possibility. Okay. We had worked up, you know, probably 10 different iterations with one big box and a smaller retail center beside it. Other lots of different iterations and that's one of those.

So based off my understanding and my reading, I would think something of this size is going to be a conditional approval that would require additional counsel. So what I think you're hearing is we don't want this to come back. So just be aware of that.

Understood. Well, I guess I would have a question for you as well on I mean, is there is there any interest or from your point of view to maybe placing some limits on square footage of those big box retailers or not that you necessarily have to answer that now, but is that something that you would consider? Um,

I think we would certainly, you know, want to want to entertain whatever whatever we could with with council. Um, and at this point, we don't know any users that would be on the site. So, it's it's a little bit, you know, cart before the horse, but I think uh we would certainly entertain entertain that discussion. I'm just going to repeat the same thing that I think we've heard from all of the citizens. I think we've said it multiple times sitting on this dis. We do not have the infrastructure to support this type of development. It is a sad unfortunate fact, but that is a fact. We've talked about it multiple times. I cannot support this. We've heard the stories of what the impacts could be to our community that have actually happened. I read the statistics the last time with the growth of commercial in 521 and the increase in traffic accidents that we have seen. I cannot in good conscious agree to allow more traps to be set for people coming to Lancaster County. I just can't. And it's not that I'm against development. It's not that I don't think that you all are going to do a great plan. It's we are not ready today to do this. And I hope that all of you will agree with me. I am begging you. We cannot do this.

Any other questions? I miss Mr. Chair. Um I I think it's I just want to make sure I understand theou I mean we're voting on a reszoning. How does theou fall into that? Theou has to do with the road realignment.

What I'm asking is in in our agenda we have an a development agreement and we have a resoning for the haven. I'm trying to understand how theou fits into what we are approving and what we're voting on because are we just I mean correct me if I'm wrong but are we not just voting on a a reszoning?

Correct. So the applicant has asked that at your next meeting you have theou in front of you with a resolution to adopt theou in connection with third reading. So it'll be a resol it'll be a resolution. Yes sir. Okay. have any other questions? Sorry. Uh, one more. I we talked about the southern access um and Audi and I I really want us I don't know April if you've got any more information on that.

Um, yes and no. So, we we have had some discussions internally. We actually met today to look at some options that will be coming from you from Mr. is very soon. We can't specifically rule that out at this point, but we can't say yes, we have this great plan. Um, that will be something that um you will be given that information and discussed very soon. It's it's it's a it's going to be an exciting, difficult, fun project to do, but I can't promise that we'll have any success in finding that

sounds fun. the the only thing you know we've we've always connectivity to any other properties next to any properties developed any undeveloped properties.

Yeah. But I I just don't understand with the project next door was nothing stubbed out not even a right away that joins this property on that side. So the Aldi was developed the the property that's beside it that they're looking at was designed as one of their basins, their storm water basins. Um the topography around that area is very difficult there. There's a very large retaining wall. That is the only one area that we've identified to um make connectivity. If we can make miracles happen and get it done, it would be a great area. However, because of the issues that we've identified, we can't promise that it will be an effective result.

Mr. Chair, go ahead. Luis, I I was just going to make a motion to delay this until we have an opportunity to read theou and understand what we are doing and the implications behind and so that the developer can look at the issues that we've addressed regarding the size of the space, whether those are going to be the appropriate requirements. I think we still have a lot of unanswered questions. So, I'm going to make a motion to delay this until the next meeting. Second.

Okay, we have substitute motion on the floor. Now, I I will say uh the shopping center next door was part of an old PDD. Uh and a lot of those connectivity issues were not covered at that point in time. So that's why there's there was no connectivity to this to that site from this site. I appreciate that, Mr. Chairman.

And do we have any further discussion? We have a a substitute motion that we need to um to handle first from Mr. Louise. Did we get a second on that Graham? Have a second from Mr. Graham. All those in favor of the substitute motion, please raise your right hand. All those opposed. It looks like it's uh 641 against. So, we're going to have go back to the main motion since it's been substituted. All those in favor of the main motion, please raise your right hand as as amended. I'm sorry. As amended,

it's amended, but you don't need it because you've postponed it now via that substitute motion. All right. until the next meeting. You postpone it to a time meeting. Yes. All right.

Thank you. Okay. We're going to move on to item uh 7B, public hearing and second reading of ordinance number 2025-202. Ordinance title an ordinance to approve a development agreement for the Haven development project located between Charlotte Highway and Craig Farm Road, Langster, South Carolina, establishing the regulations for the development of the property and other matters related there too. Planning Department case number DA-2024-2259. The planning commission recommended approval by unanimous vote and the planning staff recommended approval of the development agreement which passed 6 to1 at the February the 9th 2026 county council meeting. Mr. Louise opposed. Uh we do have someone signed up for the public hearing. Uh let's see 2025-202 Libby Sweat Lambert. Uh let me read uh before we get too far into it. We have arrived at the place on the agenda for public hearings. Public hearings provide an opportunity for the public to express to council their views on the matter that is the subject of the public hearing. Each public hearing will be conducted in accordance with the requirements of state and local law. Please keep in mind that a public hearing is not a forum for the public to engage in a discussion or dialogue with council members. Your comments and views are to be addressed to the council as a whole. Each person will be given three minutes to make their comments. Please speak into the microphone. Before you begin your comments, please state your name and address for the record. Your three minutes will start when you have provided your name and address. And

again, uh, Miss Libby Sweeten Lambert signed up. sweat Lambert. I'm sorry.

Um I'm the neighbor. Um I'm on activity road and um development agreement that was that I've been able to review has quite a few things that will affect our entire community. um all the way around from Charlotte Highway down north corner Turza activity shallow unity when we look at these various things um it's um this is what we're going to give so you'll give what I'm going to ask tonight is you give us time look at these things very closely we're rushing rushing rushing rushing Please give us time in this county to catch up.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. Do Do we have a motion to approve? Move to approve.

Have a motion from Mr. Meller. Do we have second? Second from Bryant Negle. Um Miss Williams. Right. So, you heard um most of the proposal last time. There were a few things that was asked of me to provide for you. So, I'm going to very quickly jump through the slides. Um this is the same thing you saw last time. Um this is Lenara's request for development agreement. They they've met multiple times. Um this is the recommendation. the the property is surrounded by um various zoning designations. It does align with the comprehensive plan as this um is identified as growth area in the comprehensive plan. Nope, that's the area outlined. That is a photo of the developers conceptuals and I believe they will be giving you some more information shortly. That is some of their amenity sites taken from their presentations. These are the things that I highlighted last time that they are agreeing to all the the they must adhere to all the traffic improvements. They are um they put in the development agreement that this will never be designated as an age restricted community among some of the other things. um Activity Road. They will not use Activity Road as a construction entrance and we'll be posting signs detailing that and know through traffic and all of that stuff to um save that area as well. So, the one thing that I was asked to reach out to um emergency services and get some more specific information. This is the information that I was given. There's currently one EMS truck station near USCL that serves this area. the station because of topography and areas will not allow for more units due

to um the lack of space. Um there has been some discussions not with me so I don't know those but discussions about a um a new proposed land donation. However, the other one was not favorable because of the location and topography issues. Um Mr. Kato gave me the information that the station would be best located along high highway 521 with that entrance being an emergency only entrance. Um they also propose a joint station shared by fire and EMS paid staff. Um however there is no funding for a station or to staff it as we've heard um at this time. Um, the EMS would need a station to house at least two EMS units and four personnel. And they would want a click to enter gate at the backside of the subdivision, which would be an emergency access only. Um, the developers did send in an update and they said that they are willing to increase the fees for public safety. As you can see, the left side is what's current. What they're offering in the middle is the new ones for the difference on the right. Um, and I do have an email. Mr. Willis had spoken to some folks and they that's where they are saying that they would be considering a new land donation for a fire department, but I can't answer any questions on that because I don't have that. Other than that, there are no changes. Um, Councilman Louie sent Miss Smart Dupont some on this. I think I tried to address them as best as I could, but if you have any questions on those, I'd be happy to try to answer those as well. I don't I don't think I've seen the responses

unless they came in. No, it it's in your packet. It is the development agreement that it's attached to the ordinance with comments out to the side. It should be in the packet. There any questions for Mr. Williams while Mr. Louise is looking that up? Yes sir.

If I could just so council will be aware um if you have any questions of course developers are here. Uh late Friday they posed a potential alternate site and I have consulted with Clay Kato and Greg for the stations. It would not be in the development per se. It would be down in a commercial area, direct access to 521, but that literally just came in today and obviously we need to get with the information. I'm wondering they do like the site would have utilities as they other So in regards to that land donation, how how will that hasn't been reflected in this development agreement? Correct. This version.

That's correct. It just came in uh over the weekend. So it we didn't get a chance to change it, but it will be reflected in uh the next final reading if we go to that. Mr. I don't have any any questions of April, but I do have some comments about this um uh reszoning. So, are we ready for those? You can do that.

You know, uh as I said at the last meeting, this is touching my district. Uh bumping up to my district before we rip redrrew the lines. My district went way up uh Craig Farm. And as I said last time, I know we're in a growth area according to our comprehensive plan, but I think we're in a great position right now south of five to do planning and discussions around how we're going to deal with this growth coming south of five. And this is the perfect time to do it. Uh should not be in a hurry, but we need answers. At least I need answers as to the infrastructure in that area, fire stations, EMS stations, law enforcement, and the roads. How we going to deal with the the traffic on Craig Farm Road? They say it won't be, but it will be because I live in that area. I live two roads down and it's a cut through. It's a cut through for everybody. and and to get off 521, you going to cut through Craig Farm Road and you're going to go fast because there's no law enforcement on that road and you're going to do as go as fast as you possibly can. And Mr. Bale said that when he was up here, but I think it's some things we're in a good position now to talk about this growth and make plans about how we're going to handle it rather than building now and talking later because after this we got two more potential developments coming in that area. So, we need some answers. Uh, you know, let's just slow up a little bit. Uh, and you know, I hate, you know, what's happened in the Indian land area, but a lot of that was way before our time and nothing we could do

about it because it was uh sealed and um, you know, but right now we see it coming. Let's back up and let's see what we can do about it. Did you find what you're looking for, Mr. Louise? I is it is it the chart that has the because all I'm all I'm seeing is a chart that shows like some changes with the development agreement. It's not it's not in there. Yeah, it's listed as exhibit A right behind the ordinance in your packet.

It's the actual development agreement. I just went in and made notes to address your questions. So, in your in your attachments, you should have the ordinance that's two pages and then behind it is it says draft in red and then it begins and it's got the margins out to the side that include starting at section 107. There are notes out in the margin of comments. Where's it? Yeah, I'm I I missed it when I was looking at it because it had the exhibit A. I apologize for that. That's it.

There any other comments from Mr. Louise to look into that? The the only uh comment is that if they uh uh we do get a best site and they grade it or whatever, then I would ask that utilities be run to the property line. of of of whatever's donated to the county. All right. Did somebody get that note? You got that, Sherry? All right. There any other discussion?

Yeah, and I I can go through those comments and and follow up. Um, I'm gonna echo what Miss McGriff was saying and it's similar to the prior presentation and Miss Lambert, um, your story resonated deeply with me. Um, I recognize those concerns and I recognize the pain that you had. Um, and I am concerned that we continue to go down a path without having appropriate planning for these developments and an appropriate understanding of where we're anticipating development to go. And like I said in the last um motion, I I think we need to hold off and just make sure that we are doing things appropriately and thoughtfully and that we're taking into account all of the circumstances and the logical consequences of the actions that we take. Um so with that, I will also do a motion to delay this till the next meeting so we have some time to review all of the documents, all the concerns. hear what Miss McGriff is saying. Um, and just give us more time.

So, that is a a motion that I am making. A second. Can I have Can we have discussions on that? I I think we need a little more time before not the next meeting because I think we need to discuss this at the council the whole meeting that'll give us give us an opportunity to discuss it in a whole and uh give a list of things that we need and what we want to see. So the next meeting is when and the council the whole meeting is to meet after that is the 11th Mr. Chairman. Um

yes,

I think I think this uh you know this is uh went through a development agreement committee. Uh this is uh I'm looking at uh public safety fees of way more than anything that's ever been proposed. And it's Mr. Gre I've lived here all my life and the uh what Mr. Gregory states about the city of Lancaster is true. Uh we we have businesses that come here are or uh industry and they are looking for developments uh to move to and uh in the Lanster proper. There are not uh this type of developments at this time. This is very low density for 600 acres. Uh only a unit and a half. Uh and I I would wish that I think we've discussed it and it's uh it's went through proper channels and uh I do not see delay in this.

Um can can I speak to that? I'm I'm not saying we don't need it. That's not what I'm saying. We need plans to understand how we going to deal with it if we're going to build that development. Do we have plans for EMS station? Do we have plans for a fire station? Do we have plans for infrastructure in that area? That's all I'm saying. We have not had that discussion around any developments that are coming in that area. And now we are right at number five and we know it's coming. We need to have these discussions so we'll all will understand if two more is coming how we going to handle that. These fire station will not be able to handle that. I am not against growth. I'm not against that. But I do need to know who's going to deal with that growth and I mean how we going to deal with that growth and who's going when we call for the fire station who's going to respond. We need to understand these things. That's all I'm saying. Yeah. I'm I'm for growth 100%. But I need to understand how we're going to deal with it.

I echo that. Well, I got a question. Mr. M.

We Lar is offering to do a special tax tax district for the fire service, which would be $150 per home, which would be equivalent to $38,900 a year to add staffing to a fire service, full-time firemen. Uh, I mean that this is above and beyond what we originally came to a development agreement with and he's also doubled or uh his fees for the sheriff and the fire and EMS and different things. So, so they're they're they're paying their dues uh for infrastructure.

I understand that, but that's not going to meet our needs. Will county meet our needs? county be in a position that is our needs. They're going to build the stations. Mr. Chairman, we've been trying to build a station number three for I don't know how many years. What makes us think we're going to build a station all of a sudden now on this piece of property? It took us how many years to build the EMS station on Van Wack Road? So, that's what I'm saying. We just need a plan to say this is what's going to be built in this area at this time. By the time the houses are built, the fire station will be there or EMS will be there. Developer.

Would they like to make a comment? Would a developer like to speak? presentation.

It's on that side. Thank you. Let me go back.

Thank you. Um, Mr. Chairman, members of the council, staff, good evening. I'm John Hardy with LAR. Um, this is the 12th land opportunity I've worked on in my 36 years here in Charlotte. And there, these 12 are all I'm referring to is in Lancaster County. Um, we've put together quite a bit that I'd like to talk through that I think will help help alleviate the concern. the folks that are from Sun City, the Retreat, Treetops, the Glenn, the Grove, the Greens, Belair, Carolina Reserve, Harris Mill, they're all paying a fee because I was concerned in the year 2003 that we needed full-time fire and EMS. So, we put with the help of Rudy Carter and the council at that point, they allowed me to go ahead and establish a special fire district, a special tax district, excuse me, with the $90 fee that the folks here that live in those communities pay on an annual basis. I don't know if it's increased over time or not. I believe it has. Um, so in order to respond as quickly as needed, those fees were in place at the time to allow those people to get to care for folks quickly. I'm excited to talk about the Haven along with Rosland and the water and the sewer and the gas lines and the electric and the roads that have been built in this area to help bring economic help to Lancaster. It needs economic rejuvenation.

And I believe as I get through the presentation, you'll see where in today's day and age, we need the land owner, we need the developer, we need the builder, and we need the future customers to help offset cost. And in this case, all four of those constituents are involved. Okay. So, the property is bordered by North Corner Road to the north. On the left hand side is the community of Rosland and 141 acres of future commercial that the Normans are ready to go ahead and bring in for um potential building of that site. To the east is Craig Farm Road. Craig Farm Road is not designed with this neighborhood to be widened. never was. Uh there is no right-hand turn onto Shiloh Unity Road coming off of Craig Farm Road. That right-hand turn is on 521 and Shiloh Unity Road as a 100 foot right turn lane in addition to the straight through lane. Um and I'll get to that a little in a little bit further as well. I do want to share with the entire group here today that this council has studied has studied the future plans for this area and the count and the whole county. I was part of those meetings. There were 2,000 stakeholders from this county involved in 2022, 2023, and 2024 before this council adopted on April 22nd, 2024 the 2040 comprehensive land plan. All of you were on that except two folks. Alan Blackman was here and Mr. Terry

Graham was here. And both of those individuals would take anybody to task that says that they didn't help study those plans. They would take you to task. You know it and I know it. And I know those two very well. One's a South Carolina senator and the other gentleman I have great respect for, Mr. Graham, what he does on a day-to-day basis. So this has been studied. There have been a number of focus groups that were had. There are three distinct regions in this county. You know it. You were part of it. You have Indianland, you have central Lancaster, and you have southern Lancaster. The public engagement was incredible. The workshops that were held and the meetings that were held for big ideas were incredible. There were five core focuses. creating great places, connecting people, place, and opportunity with connectivity through other roads to take the load off of the side roads and bring it on to 521 through a a widened boulevard with no homes loaded on it to handle that traffic. That that was the premise. That was one of the premises to everything that was done with the 20 2040 comprehensive land plan. It was reviewed by the Lancaster County Planning Commission on February 15, 2024. It was highly recommended to accept. Public hearings were held on March 25th, 2024 and beyond. And then on April 22nd, it was adopted by Lancaster County Council. Clearly the haven is in this growth area and everything in the gold or the brown is in the growth area.

Just let me interrupt ma'am right there. Yes, ma'am. And I do understand that that it was in the plan. Yes, ma'am. But if we knew it was in the plan, the plan to build the EMS stations and the fire station should have also been in progress. They need to happen together and not the building coming, the development coming and then the infrastructure later. That's all I'm saying.

I mean, what study has been done on 521 to accommodate 100 acres of commercial, 900 houses, 1,800 house in Rosland and whatever else? What study has been done? I I think that's Well, we've done a traffic impact analysis already on 900 homes, but that doesn't tell us what what the impact of all that other stuff is combined. That's just talking about 900 homes right there. I mean, I hear what you're saying. I understand that we we have to do by by law. We have to do a comprehensive plan and we have to go through that process. I think everybody here was upset from Indianland. If you didn't listen to that, I don't know what to tell you. If you're not aware of the issues infrastructure-wise in Indian land related to fire, EMS, roads, all that stuff that has not been done and continues not to be done. We're talking about station three up on Harrisburg. We bought that land what

10 years ago. We still haven't put a a station up there yet. So, I mean, I hear what you're saying with the comp plan, but we clearly have not executed a plan. And I don't understand anybody that can say something different. Well, I would tell you that, you know, that's that's up to you all. That's why you voted into what to do. So, exactly. I clearly understand um you know what you're saying. We want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Believe me, we're not saying that you haven't done what you cuz Lar is a great uh develop done great things. I'm just saying as county, we need to do some things before you do some things. That's all I'm saying.

I I understand. Let Let me skip to two slides if you would. Um because I think they're important as part of your consideration. Uh well, it'll be three slides because I do want to show you this. Um this is the 926 homes proposed with a traffic impact analysis already done prior to when it even needed to be done, approved by SC DOT and Lancaster County. Um, and that boulevard that goes through is phase one. It goes all the way through to Craig Farm Lane, Craig Farm Road, excuse me. There's no building. If you look, Sorry, let me grab this one.

If you look right and it won't work. There it won't work on there. Oh, Activity Road. Sorry. Um, just to the left of Activity Road. all the way to Craig Farm Road. There's no homes. Number one, the boulevard is unloaded, so there's no homes that front onto that road from a safety perspective. And then there's no homes being built all the way back. Most of you know the the lake that's um there as part of North Corner Haven. There's no homes that are getting built back there, you know, in consideration for not and we could build back there. That's that's good land. But I want to go ahead and skip to a couple of slides. What do I need to point to?

Keep going. Keep going. The proposed amenity. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Right there. So, this was the original impact fees that we talked about. Um 88.99 for the school district per home for 8 million 8.2 million. Uh the sheriff was 138, EMS was 128 per home, and fire was 1,053, parks and wreck 892 for a total of 10.287 million. Would you go ahead and scroll? Keep going. Keep going. Keep keep going. Right there. So, we looked at two potential sites for fire and EMS to be dedicated. um the northern portion of the property where I showed you the site plan that east north corner that brown in the upper leftand corner um right there that's approximately 8 acres of potential fire EMS site and um we would be willing to donate that after discussion with um fire and EMS MS. The site to the right, which has direct access onto 521, is a 5 acre site for fire and EMS combined in one station. Lenar has that property under a letter of binding letter of intent for $625,000. And should this get approved, we would be happy to don purchase and donate that to the county for a future fire and EMS station. Would you go to the next slide, please, on this one? So, our division president and myself sat down after listening at

the last meeting and believe me, we listened and we thought about, okay, how do we become even better partners along with the owners of the property, future purchasers of our homes? How do we help out even more? We know that there are needs. We hear everybody in this meeting loud and clear. We appreciate what everybody goes through. We We left the school district fees the same that we would be willing to pay the impact fees of $8,899 per home. We raised the sheriff. I was in a Rotary Club meeting with at least 25 business owners last Wednesday. I believe it was Lancaster Rotary meeting. And I spoke to people on the sheriff's staff and they could use additional funding as well, cars, people, etc. Um, folks that work here were there and they talked about EMS. So, we went back to square one and we're willing to raise the proposed fees for sheriff and we're not buying our way. We're simply trying to leave a place better than what it was um when we're gone truly. So, we'd be willing to raise the sheriff to a thousand, EMS to a,000, and fire to $2,933. Total public safety impact fees increasing to 3,614 per home, increasing by 3,614 to $4,933. taking the grand total to $14,724 per home. In addition,

the special tax district, I think, is very important to help with full-time fire and EMS. Now, is 138,900 a year enough? No. Does it get it started? Yes. Do I think it'll be almost two people? Yes, I do. Um, so we're trying to do our part along with the landowner. You guys heard I didn't I asked one person to write a letter. One person. That's it. I heard we had 30. That's That's pretty interesting. Uh, no. Who's 30 against? 30.

Three. We had three. I thought you said 30. Excuse me. We had three four one against. Um, we would like to do the community now. We believe that but it'll take at least two years to build from now. 18 months to two years. 18 months to two years from now. We could solve a lot of things with meetings. If you want to set up SC DOT, we can help set that up. If you want to bring other builders and developers in to meet and talk about things like this, I'll set that up. I know every builder in town and every division president. Uh our division president knows he's in meetings with them. we can help solve this problem if you want to meet. To your point, we're willing to help. We're willing to set up the meetings that will help I think could help the future of the county.

Can can I just add something just while we're talking because I like everyone else, I'm not against growth. Contrary to what everyone thinks in here, I I believe for a county to survive and a county to to to be viable, we have to continue growing. We have to be innovating. We have to be doing all of those things. Yes,

we it is not the right time in my opinion. We have needs that have resulted from the growth that has already been approved and we are seeing those impacts today. I appreciate the growth in the proposed fees to 2933. I did the quick math. That's less than 3 million. We heard a new fire station. Nope. 2933 * 926 I believe is about 2,917. You have to add the EMS to that too, right? That's a joint station. But what I'm talking about is just for fire.

Oh, we heard fire was 8 million. You start adding into that the capital needs for trucks. That's significant. Uniforms, everything that goes with the fire station. It's a lot. And I don't want to I don't want to take that for granted because I have done the behind the napkin math, the pencil whip. I've done all of that. So I appreciate the position you're in. I appreciate the efforts that you're doing. The needs are simply greater than I think it would be fair to ask

because it is so significant right now. We to Miss McGri's point have to go back and analyze what we can actually do to solve the problems. And it is not something that just Lenara can do. I appreciate it. The numbers just aren't there. The math is not going to math. Mr. Chairman, go ahead.

I I've got to disagree with all of what they saying. I'm 67 years old. I've watched this county. I grew up in a great place. Springs industry left us and it devastated the the greater Langster area. It was actually uh there was a a report in Fortune or something in magazine at one time that the uh Lancaster area was the most depressed area in the country. I've watched 18% unemployment. I've watched people on White Street lined up looking for jobs. Lancaster County. We can gripe and about the growth of growth all we want, but right now we're either the sixth or seventh uh richest county in in South Carolina. And uh wasn't too many years ago we were down at the bottom. I know we have problems there, but the greater Lancaster area needs this. Uh we are we are having trouble attracting any industry. And part of it I believe is because we don't have the housing. Uh we uh we we don't we food line does a great job in Walmart, but we need as Mr. Gregory said, we need other opportunities. Uh we need the per capita income of the Lancaster area to go up. And this development is a area that that my kids or grandkids would move to. And uh there's not a lot of housing options in Lancaster. And the they sent the president's uh for impact fees here uh on future developments that uh uh that that are standard is high. It's a lot higher than anything we have ever.

Uh Mr. is a is a percentage of what they will create. This this will offset the cost of that new development. Mr. Chair,

Steve, I agree with everything you say. I mean, 100%. My point is county needs a plan on what we're going to do when that development comes. We don't have that. We know what we need. Where we going to get the money? I just need to understand where is it coming from? Where we going to build the fire station? How we going to get the money? Where's EMF? We got the land, but we don't have the capital to build it. I mean to to um build it and to furnish it. That's all I'm saying. Cuz we know it's coming. Let's have some sort of plan on how we going to deal with it. That's all I'm saying. I've been living here about 50 plus years. But and I understand exactly what you're saying, but I understand when growth come, it's coming fast and it's going to do the same thing here that it it h the way it happened in Inuland. We just need a little more control of that growth. That's all I'm saying.

Yeah. I I mean I I've grown up here my entire life and it's that and and the crossroads or I don't know a van and between and Lancaster and I've said this consistently a strong city of Lancaster is the most important thing for this county and I fully support anything to go down that path. My concerns are related to to which I've said over and over again or I've tried to we have not addressed the infrastructure defense agencies in Indianland and we are on a crash course to do the exact same thing in this area. We can at least address this area. We've got some something to work with. I I I don't like doing a special tax district in one specific neighborhood because that means that fire is limited to that specific neighborhood. It has to be region. We have to create a fire district that encompasses that region to so it can serve that region. And we can't do that in between the second and third reading of this of this. So, why not take a step, sit down at the at the cow meeting and and figure out what that looks like? We can do that with fire. And we need to do that because to Charlene's point, she's right. She's seen it happen. What happens? Here's the haven. There's one right behind you. You got 100 acres of of of commercial across the street. When's the place where it stops? Where's the line where we go like, "Oh, it's going to be three developments. It's going to be five developments. We know that's not going to happen. It's going to keep rolling. Let's Let's figure it out. Now,

have any additional comments? Mr. Tardy, you have any more on your presentation? No, I'm grateful for the opportunity. I think that this this community will be one of the best communities ever built in Lancaster County. Um the land plan is exceptional. The homes we're going to build are exceptional. Um so we're we're hoping for a positive vote so we can continue to positively impact the county. Thank you. Okay, we have a substitute motion on the floor.

So you actually Council Member McGriff, are you amending Council Member Luis's request? cuz he said to the next meeting and I believe you wanted to push it till after the cow meeting. Um I if if the motion carries to uh move the meeting the second reading to the next meeting I really want us have opportunity to discuss it at the at the cow's meeting before we have a second reading so we can have some discussions around what our concerns are. So I will amend my motion. Thank you. So that this is pushed out until the first regular council meeting after the cow meeting on March 11th.

Thank you. We have a motion for Mr. Louise. Mr. Graham, you seconded that. Will you second it again? I second. All right. We have a motion and a second on the floor to move the u the next meeting or the next the reading of this to move it out to the second meeting in March after the cow meeting I believe in March. Yes, which would be the second in March. Any additional discussion? Yeah, we got a vote.

We got a vote. All those in favor of Mr. Louisa's motion, please raise your right hand. All those opposed passes forward at the Okay, we're going to move back to our Do we move back to our original motion or No, sir. Because you've postponed it now.

All right. Thank you. Okay. We progress to item C87C, public hearing and second reading of ordinance number 2025-201. An ordinance to amend the official zoning map of Blangster County to reszone approximately 604.56 acres. Tax map number 0032-0000-26.0000 00 and 0044-0000-5.0 O and O32-32.0 O and O33- O-31- which is located on Charlotte Highway from the rural neighborhood district to the medium density residential cluster subdivision overlay district. Planning department case number is RZ-20224-2259. Planning Commission recommended approval by unanimous vote and the planning staff also recommended approval of the resoning. Passed 4 to 3 at February the 9th, 2026 county council meeting. Stuart Graham, Jose Luis, and Charlene McGriff opposed. Uh we do have a public hearing. We have one person signed up. Uh do we have a motion on this? to approve.

We have a motion to approve and a second. Um, Mr. Chairman, there's no motion to approve. We're moving into the public hearing first.

Okay. Well, we'll get it. Go ahead. Miss Libby Sweat Lambert. Again, this is my son's robe. is the last piece p piece of clothing that I bought for him. Um my son became ill as I mentioned earlier became January 2021. It's when things worsened worsened badly for my son. I've called um the building department for Lancaster County and I pulled numbers. Um, since January 2021, only permits pulled, not what you guys have approved, but what permits have been pulled were for 40 approximately 4,500 houses, approximately 200 trailers, approximately 25 modulars, and then about 23 apartments. Now, I couldn't get the number of units per apartment, but I've ridden around Indian land. So, let's just call it a hundred per. So, that's about 2,300 apartments. So, I just did some math. Did a little bit of math. That's about 7,025 permits that have been pulled since January 2021. and let's just call it 2.5 people, 2.25 people per unit. That means we've added about 15,86.25 people

to our population. And during this time, council has only approved nine new boots on the ground EMS workers. nine, spreading them across seven days a week, three shifts a day, or excuse me, they do the rotations. So, nine people for an additional 15,86.25. And that's just rounding some numbers. Once you've lost a child, you are fearless. Nothing worse can happen to you. nothing. So I started coming to these meetings because there were going to be a whole lot of houses built around me. But I started listening and I started hearing. And I'm going to tell you, I absolutely do not believe if this situation with my son had happened today, last week, that there would have been two EMS units there fighting to save my son. And I do have I have no confidence that I would have another eight months with my child. I am imploring you. I am begging you to figure things out. Don't put other people in the situation that my husband and my family deal with now with the loss of our child. Again, I am fearless now. And this is what I'm going to tell you. If you keep approving one housing development after another without having the infrastructure in place, the blood

is on your hands. You are responsible when people die because EMS is not available to save them. Thank you. Okay. Now, we'll take that motion. motion. Second. Have a motion for Mr. Harper and a second Mr. Meloner. Any discussion? So, I'm going to make a motion to extend this one because it's tied to the other one. So, I'll tie it to the same exact second council reading in or council meeting in March. Have a mo a substitute motion from Mr. Louise. Second.

Second from Mr. Graham. Okay, we'll vote on the substitute motion. Is there any discussion? Discuss this first.

Is there any discussion? Again, this is a well planned thought out project that takes care of of fire and EMS and I feel for M Miss Lambert, but I I think I I'm looking at one or two or three people that have quite complained about this. It has made it through planning commission with the unanimous recommendation. Uh planning staff has recommended it. And if you would go look at that property and drive it and see what they're going to leave on the back side uh as public I don't know if it's public space or or or or what's left of the venue back there. I don't know how that's treated. But this is Lancaster's opportunity and please do not deny uh from my point of view a development that has been a long time coming. Uh we grew up with Awood and Forest Hills. That's where the doctors live. That's where your plant managers live. That's where your superintendents live. You you tell me a community you go through in and I challenge you to tell me where the doctors live at this town, where the plant managers live in this town, where the supervisors live in this town, and I guarantee you none of them more within five miles of the city of Lancaster. And this is what we need for economic revival. And as far as delaying it, uh I

just I just do not see it. And I'm very passionate about this too,

Mr. Chair. Again, I say it's not not wanting the development. It's some things we need to discuss to have in place if it go comes to fruition. That's all I'm saying, Steve. I like I said I live to two and I know what we need also but I know we need to do some planning in the meantime and I don't mean planning on what we want to build. We need to plan on what we're going to build if those if the de that development is coming and others. We need to at least have our plan of action in place as to uh can we afford a fire station? Will it be one? Yeah or no. If not, what we going to do to accommodate that? That's all I'm saying. I know what we need to delay this will not do anything. Two weeks is not going to uh delay this project any more than any paperwork we would have to do. I just think we need some more clear discussions on some of the things that need to happen if the development uh if this uh ordinance is passed. That's all. There any other discussion? I I mean I I believe in the quality of this development. I've seen what Lenor has done over many years that they've done business in this county. Um, I think waiting a couple of weeks so that we can have these discussions and to be able to make a decision based on those discussions is not going to harm this um

moving this project forward. So, we have any anybody everybody ready to vote on the substitute motion? All those in favor of the substitute motion, please raise your right hand. All those opposed four to three. Okay, we're going to go on to item 8 D, public hearing and third reading of ordinance number 2025-209. an ordinance to amend the development agreement to approve a third amendment to the development agreement between Langster County and C4 Exchange Land Company LLC for a mixeduse town home, multifamily apartment, and non-residential development project known as the Exchange upon approximately 130 acres of land located at 8918 Charlotte Highway, Langster, South Carolina, establishing the regulations for the development of the property and other matters related there two. This passed 7 to zero at the December the 8th, 2025 county council meeting. Passed 7 to zero at the January the 12th, 2026 county council meeting. We do not have anyone signed up for a public hearing. So, we'll go on to the third reading. Do we have a motion to approve?

So moved. Have a motion from Mr. Louise. Do we have a second? Second.

Second from Miss Mcgriff. Uh Miss Williams. Is there any discussion? So, I will be honest, and it's been so long since this one has come before you, I had to go back and look at what we were talking about. So, I will kind of highlight that. Um, it was on your consent agenda for second reading and is only back because of the public hearing requirement. Um, this amendment is, um, doing a couple of things. One, they requested to go ahead and extend the term to for additional five years. as allowed for in the development agreement. They're also um being exempted from the build two zone which affects some of the setbacks in the area. Um if you recall when I I explained it and I had pretty pictures that it's more of the justification on the lot. Some of the build zone would allow it to be more to the side and they want it more centered in the property which we have no issues with. Um and then to allow uh an increase in parking for a couple of those. Um as we discussed back then um the UDO allows for an increase in parking as long as the extra nitrogen mitigation techniques are used and that will be something that we will look at at the plan review if this is approved. If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them.

Any questions for Miss Williams? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed is unanimous. Okay, we're going to move on to to item 8E, public hearing and third reading of ordinance number 2025-204. An ordinance to amend the ordinance relating to the appropriation of funds and the approval of a detailed budget for the Lang for Langster County for the fiscal year beginning July the 1st, 2025 and ending June the 30th, 2026. our fiscal year 2025-2026 and to further provide for revenues and expenditures during the fiscal year to realign the budget appropriation in ordinance number 2025-1971 for the purpose of establishing a special revenue fund to account for Department of Social Services DSS revenues and to provide for compliance with federal and state requirements for governing the use of DSS funds. this past 7 to zero at the November the 10th, 2025 county council meeting was held at the November the 24th, 2025 county council meeting held at the December the 8th, 2025 county council meeting. Passed 7 to zero at the January the 12th, 2026 county council meeting, Miss Harris. And do we have a motion to approve?

So move. There's a public hearing first there. There no one signed up for the public hearing. Sorry. Uh, we have a motion to approve. Who's moved? Did you say that, Steuart? Second. I'll second it. All right. Okay, we got that out of the way.

All right. Good evening. Um, Mr. Chairman, council members, this is the third and final reading of the um, ordinance that establishes a special revenue fund to account for the revenues and expenditures related to the title 4D um, child support enforcement program funding through the Department of Social Services. Um, it doesn't change the bottom line to our budget. It just it realigns the portion for um this funding source. Um these funds are um specifically um uh earmarked to carry out uh the contract contractual requirement with the family court and the sheriff's office. And each operate each of them operates under a um separate contract. And so the ordinance just separates the fund out of the general fund um just allocates it um gives it transparency easily um reportable and we're asking for approval final approval for that tonight.

Is there any questions on Merrs? Yeah. And just to confirm because we had had discussions about this. So this is going to create two separate accounts for the clerk and for the sheriff's office.

Um it's actually five separate accounts. There's five separate funding sources. um two of them specifically for the um family core, the incentive fund and unit costs. And then there's two for the sheriff's office um related to process serving. And so the um the funds are earmarked for use for those programs only. There is another that it's a collection um specifically for the um Department of Social Services, but that um all of the funds can actually default to the general fund if not used with the exception of the portion that's for the incentive cost. And so just pulling it out into its own separate fund just um it keeps it clean without us having to um you know it's it's not co-mingled in the general fund.

So they will be separate accounts for them. Yeah, they're separate account accounts now. This will just separate out in its own fund versus just the revenue line and this is part of what DSS had approved and all that and they were good with this. Okay. Yes, sir.

Any other questions? Hearing none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed, it's unanimous. Okay, we're going to go on to item 8F, public hearing and third reading of ordinance number 2025-2010, an ordinance to amend ordinance number 2025-1971 relating to the appropriation of funds in the approval of a detailed budget for Lancaster County for the fiscal year beginning July the 1st, 2025 and ending June the 30th, 2026. our fiscal year 2025 2026 to further provide for revenues and expenditures during the fiscal year and to provide for matters related there too. This passed 7 to zero at the December 8, 2025 county council meeting, passed 7 to zero at the January the 12th 2026 county council min meeting. Mr. fornack and we have a before you come up we have have a public hearing but no one signed up and before you start do we have a motion to approve

so moved have a motion from Miss McGriff would you second it and second from Mr. Meller now you may start

thank you Mr. KS. Good evening everyone. This is related to the capital project, the EMS garage bay. And this particular project is um it houses specialized emergency response vehicles such as the mass mass casualty incident bus which holds approximately 15 people, three MS EMS staff and 12 patients. So these because these emergency vehicles exceed the size of a normal garage, we then embarked on building the larger facility. And the pros for this project is ensuring rapid and safe deployment of these larger units out of the garage to the call. Uh we also want to protect our highv value emergency equipment from any damage by turning radius tight clearances and improve our responder safety by reducing any backing hazards and other limited sight lines. This is this is also funded by ARPA. $542,000 you allocated out of ARPA federal dollars. Although the project was met with challenges, it is complete. It was completed in November of 2025. And so the budget amendment tonight is to take from unassigned general fund fund balance the amount of 180,000 and transfer that amount out of unassigned fund balance to the EMS department budget to um adopt the bud to amend your currently adopted budget ordinance and to adopt the budget ordinance as amended is the action for tonight. staff recommends.

Thank you. Is there any any questions? Hearing none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed is unanimous. Thank you.

Okay, we're going to go on to item 8G, third reading of ordinance number 2026-205. an ordinance to approve a temporary construction and permanent easement grant to Langster County Water and Sewer District upon real property owned by Langster County and located all South Carolina Highway 9 bearing tax parcel number 0068I-f23.0 O and to will authorize county officials to take such actions as are necessary to effectuate the grant of the easements and to effectuate the purposes of this ordinance. This passed 7 to zero at the January the 12th, 2026 county council meeting and passed 7 to zero at the February the 9th, 2026 council meeting. Mr. Willis,

Mr. Chairman, members of council, uh the main change you have before you this evening is you have a new recorded plat. Uh this was prepared by Kenneth Green of Arjo Harris and Associates who works with the water and sewer district. Uh was recorded on February the 13th, 2026. And J. Anything else that we need to brief? No. We have a motion to approve. So moved.

Have a motion from Mr. Second from Mr. Harper. Any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed is unanimous. Okay, we're going to go on to item 8H, second reading of ordinance number 2026-20 2016, an ordinance to amend ordinance number 2025-1971 relating to the appropriation of funds in the approval of a detailed budget for Langster County for the fiscal year beginning July the 1st, 2025 and ending June the 30th, 2026, our fiscal year 2025 2026. to further provide for revenues and expenditures during the fiscal year and to provide for matters there too. This passed seven to zero at the February the 9th, 2026 council meeting. Mr. Pvousnax. Do we have a motion to approve?

So moved. Have a motion from Mr. McGriff. Do we have a second? Second. Second from Mr. Meller.

Thanks again, Mr. KS. This particular item is an A and a B and A being your temperature devices to control how hot or how cold supplies get while in transport for EMS. And then a sixmonth position for um our enterprise resource planning software. Uh let's go through EMS first. Uh excuse me. In December 2025, our EMS directors from across the region met and learned that the department of public health, state department of public health that is um is uh increasing their regulatory oversight of uh supplies uh u medical supplies and the temperatures not we are currently assessing temperatures of these supplies that are in storage and that are in transport. However, these particular devices would alert our staff before a medication gets too hot or too cold while in storage. And this essentially will prevent having to destroy medical supplies unnecessarily. And these particular devices, we have um a quote. It is included in your packet. And the action that we are asking is for you to appropriate a one-time nonrecurring amount per the quote of $39,738 from unassigned general fund balance in the general fund to Lancaster EMS and their equipment capitalized account line to purchase and install these 30 digital sensors um in our um inservice EMS units. QRVS and any emergency response trailer. The second piece of this budget amendment is related to the ERP specialist position. Uh this particular

so we are as you know we're in the process of implementing an ERP system. This particular person would help us currently and in postgo live to stabilize um our work to do data validation, help us with user assistance, maintain documentation and just help us help us implement successfully this huge undertaking. uh this particular position would be um mitigating any risk and ensures our continuity during the critical go live period and go live again is July 1 of 2027. Uh our current staff you know they have their existing workload plus the ERP operations. So we would like a person uh for six months in this budget to uh be dedicated The funding would be for um it would come out of the county administrator special projects account line and be transferred to its salary and wages along with the associated benefits and the equipment. Uh we are not no additional general fund appropriation is required. uh the transfer amount exceeds the the $20,000 transfer authority that is within um interim county administrator Mr. Willis's purview. And so that's why we're here tonight. Uh the action is to approve the interdep departmental transfer of $50,000 365 to support the immediate and critical need for this ERP position. And so we would ask that you approve both those transfers to amend your currently adopted budget ordinance and to adopt

your budget ordinance as amended. There any questions? Hearing none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed is unanimous. We're going to move on. Yes. And make a correction. The go live for ERP is not 2027. It is July 1, 2026. Okay. Apologize for that. Thank you. It went over our head anyway. So,

okay. We're going to move on to item 8 I f first reading of ordinance number 2026-207. An ordinance to establish a housing committee define membership terms and other items related there too. Uh do we have a motion to approve? So move have a motion from Miss McGriff. Do we have a second? Second. Second from Mr. Graham. Miss Williams.

Good evening again. So most of this information was presented to you back in December at your cow meeting by Dr. Willis. Um I will kind of give a summary and if you have any questions after that, I'll be happy to dig into them. So, we've been working to try to implement some of our comprehensive plan goals that were um late set forth in there. Um LC 1.4, which is very small there, but it's create a housing committee to study and better define affordable housing, help promote housing options, and help increase housing options in the county, coordinate with communications and marketing to improve public opinion on housing options. So, that is what I'm bringing forth to you today. We presented some information to you back in December and we listened and took some notes and used the the little bit of commentary that we got to create the ordinance. You have that in your packet. Um, as we all know, housing is a hot topic. Um, the timing for this committee is really um advantageous because the the COG is actually during their little touring road show with their comprehensive housing study that they did in the region. Um I don't actually have a copy of it yet, but um Corey, one of our planners, as well as Dr. Willis, went to some of the presentations and brought some of the information back and that will be forthcoming. The important part about that is it is this region. It has a lot of good information about Lancaster County. Um and it would be a good stepping off point for a committee to start doing additional research and help narrowing down the needs of the county specifically.

Questions? up. That's comments. Just some comments. I am glad to see that we're following through on this uh affordable housing uh plan that we talked about earlier and well, Dr. Willis's presentation was great and I I think she did a great job in presenting but we know that COG is also doing uh affordable housing study and at some point as you said I'm sure that they'll do the presentation to us but and I like the setup of the committee uh it's 13 committ there's two options two options

to 13 sorry so no you're fine so during the presentation Um, Dr. Willis did give you two it two options that we had decided. Miss Mcgriff, you were the only one that made a comment during that time that said that you liked the larger committee. So, that's what we went with. It's first reading not set in stone, but we took your advice and went with that.

And the reason why is because I think people need to be represented on that committee. And I like the the representation on the committee uh that all voices will be heard. Uh, I love the fact that we're going to have a representative from the community who is familiar with it. I love that planning staff, housing authority, all the municipalities. Uh, I love that. Now, we got down here to to the training part. I just got one comment about the training. I think we said once the committee is in place, they will be trained within one year. That's standard for most of our boards. Well, the boards and commissions that I handle like the planning commission and BCA, the initial training has to be completed with one within one year and then you have to have annual training.

Yeah. But but if you would like us to change that, we could change that and find some I want it to be as soon as possible because if we're going to do anything with this committee, we need to understand what we're doing. And if you're going to wait a year on training, you're going to get behind. We need to train as soon as we can secure that group and do training as soon as that group is secure so they will know what they're supposed to do, their duties, and what they going to report back to council.

So, what we could do with that is I I could work with Miss M Deont to get our in-house training set and then we could find a a housing expert. Maybe the cog could come in and do that and then we could have that pretty much scheduled as soon as you appoint the members. So once we get through establishing the board, then we appoint the members, then we'll have that training just set like it'll just happen kind of fluidly. One other how will we recruit the members? Will we do it in the form of a application like we do for our commission and boards or we as council will give names? Uh well I if you give names then give them the application. I think it needs to be through the proper channels and we do it like we ever do one.

So um we could get that application ready. um before third reading to that you have ready to start giving out to folks. Um if you all all are in agreeance with the the makeup of the board, you can already start kind of looking and having some folks in mind so that it it does move even quicker once we get past this part. We need to tell anyone you need to put in an application for this board in order to be considered. Yes, ma'am. Okay. I got a question. You got no funding currently needed, but you says future funding considerations may be warranted. What What is this?

Well, so for instance, the COG does have their regional study. It is for the region. It's not just for the Lancaster area specifically. So the the committee may identify needs to have an additional study done or something more specific to narrow down. That's going to cost money. until we get the committee developed and identified. We can't give you any specifics, but that is one thing that I do identify. Um there will also be heavily um public education programs and we may have to have um funding for that to you know pay for flyers or something. Um that would be something that we would have to identify and bring back to you once we have the committee created. There any other questions?

Uh Mr. Chair, go ahead, Mr. Um I I'm trying to figure out the best I I really would I know there's a city of Lancaster representative being proposed but I I I I guess my question is how would the city play into this committee? I think initially I would think that it would be really good to have someone from the city be on this or at least have a we we should be working in lock step with the city in my opinion on on this type of situation

and that would be why I have that representative as a city member so that they help coordinate. No, I know. I mean, but I'm just saying with the actual someone that is represent, not I get the the a person that's in part of the community. Well, I I and maybe I need to clarify that. I was thinking city representative as an official of the city. So, I could put city official instead of representative there. That that would be that makes sense to me. I just want to make sure that whatever buy in or whatever ties that we can have with the city of Lancaster to make sure that we're in lock step with this, we need to go down that path in my opinion. Yes, sir. So, I can change that just for clarity on the document before second reading.

I just assume each of each of the towns was municipalities. Well, not town of Van Wik's not on it. We we I'm just kidding. So the town of Van W is not on there because we do not do their planning services. No, the Vanw place for them. Yeah, cuz I took for granted it was the city of Lancaster, town of Kershaw and the town of Hering representatives on that. That's how I intended it, but I can I can change the wording to make it absolutely clear. Again, I my my intention is just to make sure that there's especially with the city of Lancaster that there's a very tight relationship. Yes, sir. And I think this would be a really good first step to get that going too. The planning commission

springs need affordable housing in that area also. I think that will be crucial. No, I I he also

I mean I was at the COG for the presentation at the COG and and the whole area, Langster County, York County, um the whole Cog area, Union County, and um Chester County all are under representative under reppresented for employee level housing. um all the housing in all those areas are basically above what the limits are of what they're looking for. So to your point, having representatives from Langster and Hersaw and other areas is it would be much accepted and and would be probably needed because they're the ones that currently have the housing that's closer in there. Although the one of the things that came out of the study was that there was not enough apartments in the whole area because that's unfortunately is where a lot of the work workforce housing is right now or at least apartments that are rent level that people could afford. Okay. Do we have any other questions? Hearing none, I'm going to call for the vote. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. It's unanimous. Okay. Item 8J, first reading of ordinance number 2025-206, an ordinance to approve a permanent easement grant to Taylor Thornberg Presley and Jonathan Allen Presley upon real property owned by Lancaster County and located off Grace Avenue bearing tax map number 0083-0000-00.01 01 and to authorize county officials to take such actions as are necessary to effectuate the grant of the easement and to effectuate the purposes of this ordinance. Do we have a motion to approve?

Motion to approve. Have a motion for Mr. Harper. Do we have a second for Mr. Neil, Mr. Willis?

Uh Mr. Chairman, members of council. This is basically to correct an old um plat error. If you go back to the 1950s, Stribbling Circle was originally designed to go straight, make a left turn to come down to Grace, excuse me, and that's not what happened. If you look at the uh Ma plat on page 485 in your package, Stribbling Circle was actually built with a little curve head down to Grace Avenue and 101 Stribbling Circle did not touch Stribbling Circle. The plat that was prepared in 1979 showed the driveway crossing Springs Mills property. Springs Mills didn't care. Recently, the lot was sold and now the attorneys said, "We need to fix this." They've had basically had a presumptive easement. This is basically just fixing a problem. It's about 20 ft of land that is absolutely useless to the county. It just came with the air rail park.

All right. Is there any questions? Hearing none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed, it's unanimous. Okay, we're going to move on to item 8K, first reading of ordinance number 2026-2020, an ordinance to amend the amended and restated master multicount park agreement between Chesterfield County, South Carolina, and Langster County, South Carolina. as amended and restated as of November the 9th, 2015 so as to further update the exhibits by adding property located in Langster County. Do we have a motion to approve? Move to approve.

Have a motion from Mr. Monell or do we have a second? Second. Second from Miss Mcgriff, Miss KS. Before I start, might want to revisit. I think it was six four and one against for which the last say yeah for I'm sorry that's okay

now thank okay did you get this okay okay

um so good evening um county council members and county administrator Mr. Willis Economic Development Department has brought before you ordinance 20 um 20 2026 for your approval um as stated by uh Councilman KS. So under South Carolina law uh counties can partner to create paper business parks. While the land remains in Lancaster County, it is legally designated as part of a joint park with Chesterfield County. Chesterfield County has been contacted and are in the process of presenting a resolution for their county council's approval on their next council meeting which um I believe is March 2nd. Um inclusion in a multi-county park is a standard economic development tool. It allows a company to claim a higher job tax credit of additional thousand dollars per job against their state corporate income tax. A small negotiated percentage of the revenue from this property, in this case it'll be 1%, is shared with Chester for CA Chesterfield County in exchange for the partnership. While Lancaster County retains the majority of the tax equivalent payments, this amendment is a routine but vital step in our economic development strategy. It signals to our industrial partners that Lancaster County is open for business and committed to supporting local manufacturing. The economic development department recommends approval of first reading.

Any questions? Have any questions? Hearing none. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed. It's unanimous. Thank you.

Okay, we're going to go on to item 8. I resolution 1319-R2026 L. Sorry. Thank you, Mr. Louise. Resolution 1319-R2026. Resolution titled a resolution to direct county staff to take appropriate action to accept the 2025 local emergency management performance grant issued through the South Carolina Emergency Management Division to execute such other documents as may be necessary and convenient and to take any other action as may be needed to carry into effect this resolution. Do we have a motion to approve? So moved. Second.

Motion from Miss McGriff. A second from Mr. Louise. Mr. Willis.

Mr. Chair and members of council. This is our annual emergency planning grant. Comes from the state emergency management office, part of the state agunate general's office. Uh the grant is $56,859. It's used for local emergency management planning. There is no local cash match. The match is in kind salary for the emergency management planner. Okay. approval. Do we have any uh questions, comments? Hearing none. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed, it's unanimous. Go on to item 8 M resolution 1320-R2026. Resolution titled a resolution to direct county staff to take appropriate action to accept distribution of funds from the DUI assessment for EMS issued through the South Carolina Department of Public Health to ex execute such other documents as may be necessary and convenient and to take any other action as may be needed to carry into effect this resolution. Do we have a motion to approve?

So moved. Have a motion for Mr. Louise. Do we have a second? Second. Second for Mr. Neil. Mr. Willis. Mr. Chairman, members of the council, this is a new grant. It's coming from the Department of Public Health. Um, it is earmarked for EMS trauma training. There is no local match. The grant amount is grant amount is $1,798.

Okay. Any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for the vote. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed, it's unanimous. Okay. Okay, we're going to move on to discussion and action items. First item is item 8A, discussion and necessary action regarding Somerset Neighborhood Roads. Mr. Willis and Mr. Kato. Um, Mr. Chairman, um, we have I believe we have one representative from the neighborhood here. If I could present then I guess we'll

Okay. Um, this is coming to you as a request tonight from the homeowners association. Uh several documents I need to just briefly let council know. Um this is a no outlet subdivision uh comes off Charlotte Highway. Um there's no question that you know roads were inspected. They were found to be built in compliance with the road standards 2008 9 915 ordinance. Um, so that was done to as council may recall some of the older members on here to protect private property owners since we didn't take roads. At least it it made sure the roads were built to a good standard. Um, at that point, this is subject to a development agreement. Section 4.04A2 04 A2 of the development agreement reads, "The developer is responsible for all construction and maintenance and the cost thereof associated with the roads with the property. Developer may transfer the ownership of the roads and its obligation for the roads to a homeowners or property owners association or similar organization. There's no mention of the roads coming to Lancaster County. There are two recorded plats on this property. Um both of the plat note um all roads will be public they're accessible by the public and privately maintained that is pass. Subsequently, there was an ordinance uh ordinance 2014 1299 that provided that council may by a vote of twothirds of the membership um override the um restrictions and accept roads into the county if it meets one of two criteria. First, that the road provides connectivity to the county road system. It does not. The only road it connects to is US 521, which is a state DOT road. Second, that the road is a necessary component to the development of the county road system. It's a no

outlet subdivision. It doesn't connect to the county road system. So, from the administrative standpoint and uh in consultation with the public works director, we recommend denial of the request. Okay. Yes, sir.

I'm John Cooper representing Somerset. Um, we're here to request that the roads be accepted by the county and the the language saying that it's privately maintained to be removed. Um, the county has designated the Somerset roads as public on our plat as Mr. Willis said. And I'd first like to say uh I've uh communicated with Sher Simpson and uh Steve Willis and Joe Kato and everybody's been very responsive and and and very easy to work with and very informative. Um the ordinance uh that Mr. Willis is referencing the 20008915. That ordinance is there to take a private road. These are the steps that you need to take to make it public and accepted to the county. So, it's not applicable. Our roads are public as designated by the county in the plat. Um, the length of the road is 3,000 ft. Again, that's on the plat. So, we're talking a half a mile. It's not a big It's not a big big ask.

There any questions? What year was this put in? Um, I'm going to say it was put in uh 2022. When did we close the road system? Let's see. That that ordinance was 2014. Way back. That ordinance is not applicable. That's to take a private road and make it public. Our roads are designated by the county as public in the plat. Mr. Chairman, could we get uh Mr. Kato up here? Could we get Jeff? Could you Mr. Kato, could you come up?

Sir, could we get your name for the record, please? Uh John Cooper. Thank you.

Mr. Mr. Mr. Kato, I was I was not on here when that ordinance was passed. Could you uh give us your feelings on it and what you think? Yes, Councilman. The ordinance was passed. It was It took a long time. Steve and I are the only ones here left the start of it. Uh it took a long time and it was closed in 2014. There were phases to to close it, but it was the understanding of staff that while we still keep a county standard to the roads with the roads created that the county would no longer be accepting roads. That's that's how we've worked.

Uh uh Jeff, if we accept this, what position will that put us in for other roles this U Mr. Chairman, if I could, that's more probably a legal question than a public works. Well, legal then. Um, and Jenny, also if you might address the difference between a public road and a publicly maintained road.

So, so if we can step back just for a moment to answer some of these questions. The ordinance that is at play here in regards to this request is 2014 1299. And there's a section that says, it's section three of that ordinance. that says roads within a PDD, a residential subdivision, or a cluster subdivision overlay community that are identified and created through the submission of a preliminary plan after January 1st, 2015 will be private. That is the ordinance that is at play here. The ordinance that was described 2008 915 is the road standard ordinance as I understand it. The way that this ordinance lays out, it says that these roads will be private with exceptions. The exceptions are that by your vote you find that it is uh necessary for the the county system and there is connectivity to the county system. I believe what Mr. Willis and Mr. Kato are saying is that is not here. Those exceptions are not present in this case. So therefore, it would remain a private road because it does have the things that make it a private road, which is a um sufficient proof that there is an existence a legally created property owners association to take care of it and that they will remain privately owned and privately maintained. That is on the recorded plat. And to your question about a private road and a public road, I believe that's what Mr. Willis just asked. Um just because they are stated as public roads does not make them the government or the public body's responsibility. That simply means they are publicly available for the public to travel upon. A private road would be obviously in a gated subdivision. Council member McGriff, I might have gotten off where your question was, so I'm sorry if you

I I was saying if we do this, it's going to put us put us in a position that we're not following our ordinance and other folks will be in line. Yeah. Yes, ma'am. So So the ordinance is laid out to say how this process works and and and I believe the criteria we have Mr. Willis and Mr. Kato saying the criteria is not here for these to become public roads. Just because they are designated as such on the plat does not make them the government's responsibility.

Um in the future if you put out a plat that says the roads are private. Okay. Then that 1299 ordinance would apply. That 1299 ordinance specifically says related to private roads. Lot says our roads are public. Have any other questions? Any other discussion? We don't have a motion. Do we do we call you motion? We

There's not a There's nothing on the floor. Nothing on the floor. So J, how do we need to state that motion? I want to make sure we state it correctly. So the request their request is for you to accept them. So if you'd like to make a motion to accept them, that can be done or there's no action whatsoever if you're approve if you don't want to accept them. I make I make a motion to accept road into the county road system.

Have a motion from Mr. Graham. Do we have a second hearing? Not hearing a second. The motion dies for lack of a second. Go on to item 8B. Thank you. Receive information and take desired action regarding removal from a board and commission. Mr. Simpson. Yes, ma'am. Yes, you sir. I'm sorry. Thank you. Appreciate it,

Mr. Chairman and council members. So, the first thing um for you to discuss in regards to boards and commissions is we have a member on the storm water advisory board that has moved out of county, John Hardy. Um, and you can have a waiver if somebody moves out of county. So, we just need you to decide if you are going to remove because he's moved out of county or if you're going to provide the waiver. I make a motion to remove.

I have a motion from Mr. and a second from Mr. Harper. Any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed is unanimous.

Okay. So, now we've had an applicant for the storm water advisory council. Um, one of three citizens, Mr. Don Hagwell. Motion to approve. Mr. Hagwell. Have a motion for Mr. Louise. Do we have a second? Second.

Second from Mr. Graham. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. All those opposed is unanimous. Okay. The next is for the community outreach and engagement. Michael Jacome has applied to be the council uh district 3 representative. That's my motion to approve. Okay. I don't know anything about him, but the volunteer. Second.

Have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please raise your right hand. It's unanimous. Then we have two that are postponed indefinitely. And then upcoming term expirations and current vacancies are in your packet for your review. Mr. Chair. Yes, sir. I'd like to make a motion to um appoint Susan Brown to the community outreach and advisement board engagement advisory board. It's one of the postponed items. Okay, we have a motion. Do we have a second?

Second. Second from Mr. O'Neal. Is there any discussion? Is that okay that we move it up? Well, it was postponed indefinitely, but it's on your agenda, so that's that's all right.

All right. Any discussion? Hearing none. I'll call for the vote. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. It's unanimous. Okay. We're going to move on to executive session. I've got a um to read the issue of reasons for going into executive session. And I need a motion to go into executive session in regards to two items. The the discussion of personnel matters pursuant to South Carolina Code of Laws 30-4-7A1 relative to the county organizational chart and the receipt of legal advice subject to the attorney client privilege regarding a legal claim relative to a former employee and to invite Joanie Wyers of the Wyinners Law Firm in to discuss both items. We have a motion to go into executive session. Have a motion from Mr. Louise. Do we have a second?

Second. Second from Mr. McGriff. All those in favor, raise your right hand. All those opposed. It's unanimous. We are in executive session.

Have a motion to come out of executive session. Have a motion from Mr. Mosteller, second from Mr. Louise. Uh, all those in favor, please raise your right hand. We're out of executive session. Miss Mk Dupont. Mr. Chairman, for the record, council met in executive session in regards to two items. the discussion of personnel matters pursuant to the South Carolina code of laws 30-4-70A1 relative to the county organizational chart and the receipt of legal advice subject to the attorney client privilege regarding a legal claim relative to a former employee. No motions were made. No votes were taken. Have a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjurnn. We stand adjourn.