City Council - Regular Meeting

us in our chambers of our airways our concern our city as we deliberate the business of our city tonight we ask for your guidance and your strength we will make decisions that in the best interest of our community as council members we pray our administrative staff, our employees who work every day to protect our city and to make it the best that it can be. And dear God, we reach beyond our city, our community and our state to help us to meet the various challenges that we face each day. We pray dear God for unity in time of confusion. We pray dear God in the time of turmoil and give us strength. We pray for peace throughout our nation. We pray that your will be done. Dear God, we pray the United States of America.

Amen. 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. Before we start our meeting tonight, we have a proclamation. It's a annual thing we do, but it's an important part of um what we believe in the city. I ask Chief Stewart to come and join me. He'll give a few words um after the proclamation. The proclamation reads the National Police Week of 2026. And it's to recognize National Police Week 2026 in honor of the service and sacrifice of those officers killed in the line of duty while protecting our communities and safeguarding our democracy. Whereas there are more than 720,000 law enforcement officers serving communities across the United States, including the dedicated members of the Anderson Police Department. And whereas nearly 85,730 assaults against law enfor law enforcement officers were reported in 2026. And whereas the first recorded death in 1786, 24,412 law enforcement officers in the United States have made the ultimate sacrifice and been killed in the line of duty, including five members of the Anderson Police Department. Whereas those names of those dedicated public servants are engraved on the walls of the National Law Enforcement

Officers Memorial in Washington, DC. And whereas 345 new names have fallen of fallen heroes are being added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial this previous year. And whereas the service and sacrifice of all officers killed in a line of duty would be honored during the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Funds 36th annual counter light visual on Wednesday evening, May 13 of this year. And whereas May 15th is designated as peace officers memorial day in order all fallen officers and their families and US flags to be flown at half staff. Therefore, it be resolved that the city of Anderson Incorporated formally designates May 10th through May 16th of 2026 as National Police Week in the city of Anderson and publicly salutes the service of law enforcement officers in our communities and in our communities across the nation. Sign this 11th day.

Just a few brief remarks. We appreciate so much council mayor administration for recognizing this uh for those officers that have lost their lives in the line of duty including our five here city of um also on May 13th at 6 p.m. Anderson courthouse courthouse we'll have a ceremony at 6:00 feel free to join for that also local order police Anderson County. So, minutes of our April 13th minutes uh distributed. Are there any corrections or additions to those minutes? Make a motion we approve those minutes. First by Mr. Steel,

second. Second by Dr. Thompson. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. That passes unanimous minutes of April 13th. We have one item of old business. That's the item request consideration of ordinance 26-05 to reszone 1401 South Street and five associated lots from R5 single family residential to NC neighborhood commercial. Mr. Coin,

this item is before you on second reading uh to reszone as uh read out uh in the title just a minute ago uh 1401 South Fan Street and the associated properties. The applicant's attendant use is as a funeral home. Um I do see the applicant is in attendance tonight. Council discussed this item at the April 13th meeting. During that discussion, uh there was a consensus that the funeral home be would be acceptable and the council inquired about ways to limit the reszoning to just that case uh for use as a funeral home. administration uh started uh working with the applicant and also suggested during that meeting uh the use of a restrictive covenant outline a use restriction could be an option for this for consideration on second reading uh this did pass first reading Mr. McKenzie along with uh Mr. MLAN city attorney Mlan um worked with the applicant on the restrictive covenant. Um it is before you the restrictive government covenant draft. Maurice will go over the the nature of that discussion um regarding the covenant and also the area again and go over this with you again on second reading. Mr. McKenzie.

Okay.

Thank you. And I passed out a few moments ago a revised it's an amended restrictive covenant in your packet. Um there was one in there last week, but it did make some changes between now and then. Couple of things. One is that there were some revisions needed in the language in the legal description that better described all six properties. So that's been changed. Also, the duration of the use restriction changed from a period of 5 years to 25 years. So those are the two biggest differences between the restrictive covenant that was in your packet and what you see before you now. And the duration of the use of restriction change from 5 years or 25 years or until such a time that the city modifies or changes its zoning ordinance to allow a particular zoning classification that will allow funeral homes on the property. And that kind of leads into the fact that we're in the process of revising our zoning ordinance. It's been a long process. We're hoping that it will be complete later this year. In the draft regulations that we see thus far, there is a zoning classification called public institutional. And we've been looking into this further as we've been going through this exercise that uh public institutional allows churches, schools, government buildings, things like that. And we're thinking that it's possible that we can include funeral homes in that mix. That way, if we apply that zoning classification to this site, then it won't have that long list of permitted uses that neighborhood commercial has that we have some concerns about. So, that's where we're looking as we move forward with this. If you approve this on second reading, again, did come before you on first reading at your April 13th meeting, you approve it on first reading with the condition that an acceptable restricted covenant is produced before you. Thank you. Um I open up the council

applicant there. Let's have a discussion here. Uh I know uh maybe this is a question for the applicant. I know last time I think there was a member of the audience had asked about uh crematory services and um I noticed the name is JP Holly Funeral Home and Crematory and it mentioned that it was going to be done offsite. Is it still planned to be done off site? And you know, we have a representative from Mr.

Yes. Off off site, meaning away from the funeral home or on one of these six parcels? Off site. Yes. meaning away away from Anderson. As a lawyer, I was trying to be very efficient with my words, but it no, it's not going to be done here at all.

Understood. Understood. And I guess the only other question I have, I just, you know, mentioned last time again, I know we had talked about it a couple years ago and in one of our council retreats about uh uh speed calming measures and neighborhoods things that we could do. And we really like for staff to see what we could look at, you know, whatever those requirements are to kind of help with the traffic flow coming from the intersection of Hampton and Fan all the way up to Cleveland Avenue, which affects the funeral home. And you know, whether it's doing speed bumps, humps, whatever you want to call it, maybe some striping, crosswalks, something that just makes that a more safe area where the funeral home's at. So, don't know where we're at with that. Uh, I know it was mentioned that the last meeting I think that's a DOT road. So, can anybody update me on any updates that we may have on those traffic common measures that?

No, it'd be a longer process than that. It usually takes us several several months to work with DOT to support that. They do a study. Um, they take a look at um I I know speed bumps is not something they're interested in. They would they would look at a process with us to say, would you want to take the road? That's that's a big subject matter right now. Um, and you could install your own traffic caling measures. Um, or there's other things that they've recently worked with us on. We've implemented this year, which were the flashing speed signs that we put out along uh DOT streets. They approved that. We funded it. That was city funds that paid for that. Also, the road diets, as you know, that in this case, you couldn't do that. I I I would foresee that they would decline the speed humps. They would uh make allowable the flashing speed lights and maybe some additional markings.

What why would they not allow them? I see them in other neighborhoods on state roads all the time and I know we had talked about it. you know that there's a checklist that we go through and you know pretty much if I remember correctly from a couple years ago that the DOT has kind of pretty much blessed that if we you know if we wanted to put in those humps or bumps whatever you want to call them that I think that we're responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of them. So just

yeah I mean what again it's it takes more than a couple weeks to do that. I'm sure we'll we'll have that conversation with them certainly and see if it's an option. Um I personally think it's a good option you know. So, it's a uh it's something that u our office our we do have a new traffic engineer in our district office and we we've had a good relationship here and been able to implement these new things this past year that before or they weren't very receptable to. So, um we'll we'll have the full conversation with them about it. All right. Any other questions, comments? May pro Tim.

Uh question for the applicant. Um, I think our ultimate goal is to have the zoning changed to to supersede the restricted covenant. And while I'm in favor of the restricted covenant, I think ultimately the zoning is the answer. And my question to the applicant is, are you opposed or in favor of when the time comes that this is reszoned to PI, are you in favor of of that reszoning? Mr. Mayor Proin in favor of the res. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions for that?

Mr. Mayor, if there's no other question, I'd like to make a motion that we approve this on second reading. First by Mr. Stewart. Second. Second by Mr. Horn. Any further discussion? I would just like to comment. I I really appreciate both um our city staff, council, and the applicant for working together. I think this was a really tricky situation where there were a lot of sensitive issues uh and we needed to be able to move it forward and I think we got a really creative solution. Um that is uh what I see city government does best when when administration and council and and our private individuals can work together to create a good outcome for our community. I think that that's it. So I I just want to thank everyone involved in this. Good point.

And it was unlike some parts of government. It went fairly quick. So, any other discussions? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. That passes unanimous. Thank you. Thank you. Everybody involved. We have four items of new business. And our first item is request consideration of a referral to the planning commission. a petition to reszone 1200 South Tower Street from Li Light Industrial to RM10 multif family residential. Mr. Mchuan, thank you. I'll just turn it straight over Mr. McKenzie for this.

Okay. Thank you. Again, this is a referral and the request is twofold actually. The applicant's requesting to reszone the the lot, the properties which has a house on it to um bring it to zoning compliance and also to subdivide the lot for the construction of one other house in the future. The current zoning is LI light industrial. So, we've talked about this in the past that single family residential just isn't allowed in LI district. So, it's a non-conforming use, but they'd like to resone it to RM10 multif family residential. So they can subdivide it. The property is 16,000 square feet in size. So if reszoned, it could be subdivided. And we are looking at the RM10 zoning because if you look at the map, that is the residential classification that pretty much surrounds this general area. And keep in mind, I guess it's to the west, to the left of the property that you're looking at on the map, an adjacent lot went through a resoning process and also subsequent subdivision of lots to build four houses on that 61 acre site. So that was last year. So you're seeing that trend in this area leaning toward residential. But again, this is a referral to the planning commission and they will consider this request at their May 5th meeting. Thank you. I agree the that landscape is changing a lot in in that part of time. Um any questions before we pass it on to the planning commission?

Just to orientate me, uh the the purple to the west, is that the Head Start Center? Yes. Okay. I just want to make sure I'm I'm looking at the right place. Yes, sir. I didn't have first by Mr. John Roberts. Second. Second by Mr. Matt Horman. All those in favor say I. I. Oppos. That passes unanimously. Second item is request consideration of a contract for the Main Street fiber project. Mr. Human,

as part of the Main Street repaving project, the city has been working to replace and enhance subservice existing infrastructure, including the city's water and sewer lines. Those projects are now complete. the main street project uh crosswalks or the concrete crosswalks that we have not done or out for bid. Uh we have those tentatively planned for this summer to be replaced. Also, the repave repaven package is being put together to be put out for bid. We anticipate um working with the contractor on that once those bids are received. Hopefully uh maybe see set a fall timeline for that for repaving on Main Street. But again, it's it's sometimes difficult with the repaving contractors um as they're doing several state projects and interstate projects. So, we'll have to see what the bids are and we'll have to see how we can work with them on the timeline and and when it fits best on that part of things, but we are moving right along with that. Again, these are these are funds that you've saved up for this specific capital project. The next thing um is subservice related is fiber optics. And so for it's been a goal of ours for a while to have um security cameras all the way down Main Street. Our limitation of that has been bandwidth. We're currently using a mesh network and also cellular network in this area. Uh due to the line of sight and the capabilities of the cellular network, it it just it comes on and off. It's it buffers most of the time. Uh we haven't had good success with that particularly on Main Street. uh other parks that we have, we drop fiber in and then we have the mesh network and we have fiber optics and then it provides uh the bandwidth we need to connect all the cameras to one point and then you have the fiber optic node. Um, in this case, we're proposing uh while we have this and there's going to be some there's going to be some

boring along with some digging for the hand holes while we're still in the phase. We are before we repave is to put the fiber optics down Main Street and we'll get in that to a second the details of that. Uh Jason Nson can explain way better than I can. But uh we did explore I tasked um the IT department particularly Jason with exploring commercially available options. There's none at this time on Main Street to explore uh with the West Carolina Telephone Company um which is now operating under upount fiber along with a new company that is just uh coming into the city. Um I won't name their name as they're they're trying to uh get their their foot slated into the city. um along with work with AT&T as well on any options available and it just did not u meet the timeline and the what they were receiving on their proposals. Um it did it just didn't work out as feasible and so we went back to to plan A which was us installing our own fiber and then having more strengths to maybe have it commercially available to them um and maybe be a revenue source in the future. Uh, with that, I'll turn it over to um Jason Nissen, our chief information officer, to go over the request, the bids, and um and what exactly we u we plan on uh asking you for direction installing for this capital project.

Thank you, David. Uh council, as David mentioned, we're seeking approval for a contract with Network Controls uh to install fiber optics down Main Street. It'll run from the municipal building center down to Triple Street. And um as you can see um from the agenda packet, we had five bids. Network controls came in um as the lowest bidder. Um and if I may, um just going to run through a couple of benefits uh to the city and it cit our citizens um for installing these uh these cameras. First, we uh we plan to install 24 uh 360deree cameras downtown uh to help bolster public safety along Main Street. That's one of the um one of our main uh drivers there for for this project. Um and then second, uh the installation includes additional fiber, which we call dark fiber. And that additional fiber can u that'll allow us to upgrade later down the road. Um we can um can also potentially uh lease that fiber to uh to businesses for um you know possible revenue source later on down the road. And uh lastly, it advances our long-term goal of connecting our city-owned facilities to fiber. Um and that would help u reduce our dependency on internet service providers. Um that way it would it would belong to the city um and save us money over time. Um so with that um like I said we recommend um and seek your approval for the network controls contract.

Thank you. Um questions Mr. Stewie

I got a few questions. Uh the first one uh kind of explain to me the connectivity from Main Street to Trible. They don't connect together one way there. you know, how you know, if you're coming down Maine, you got to turn down some road to get over to Triple Street. So, how's that connection going take place? Second thing is is that, you know, if you're having, you know, you got a tower right behind the wine store right there on uh Greenville Street, you've got the you got sell your service Verizon, whoever on top of the um library on the water tank right there. Then you've got several others downtown. You're having a you know, I I'm in the telecommunication business, been doing it 21 years. you're having a problem with one of those carriers about drop, I would ask since we probably have a big stake in what we have here in the city is to reach out to those companies and say, "Hey, we're having a drop in service in our downtown area, whatever the case may be. Maybe they're still operating on 3G, 4G. They may not be have updated their towers to get it." So, that would be just one comment I would just offer up. I see it all the time. Um then the um the third part is that if you're connecting fiber down Main Street, I know we had talked about potential leasing it for revenue, you know, and if if you're doing it to businesses downtown, you know, I I would just have heartburn if if you can't do it to every business downtown because then you would say like why is this one may have an opportunity this business not? So I guess as we get to that point down the road just like hey it's it's either offered to everybody or it's not offered at all. So but but anyway just

Yes sir. No I understand. Um I there have been other um uh government uh entities here in the in South Carolina that have done that. Uh I know OKone is one of them. Um, and typically they lease out to an internet service provider and then that way you know they're handling the installation the you know running it from where we are and that type of thing. But um that um so yes, I understand where you're coming from on that in that regard. But like I said, ma most of it would be through um instead of us offering that to individual businesses, but it would be to mainly internet service providers. Um,

I think I think there's a big I think there's a big gap that we might can close if we just reach out to Verizon, AT&T, you know, whoever is on those sites and kind of help. I think and if you need some help, I'd be happy to get you in a pro in the appropriate RF engineer to have them take a look at it. I I appreciate that. We have talked to them though and Jason, maybe you can reflect on that we're on FirstNet, which bounces off AT&T and other cellular networks. They put a small cell site over here and that uh they actually prefer that we're not operating these cameras on 5G.

That's right. Um that we actually had an issue at one point where we weren't getting the bandwidth that we needed. We feel like that it's you know mainly for the buildings and and you know the way the signal travels. So we tried to purchase some additional larger antenna to increase the gain. and we I was visited by the signal hunter from AT&T and it had started to uh interfere with um you know uh residential um 5G and and LTE. So um we had to we've just been real careful about what we do and try to bolster and and you know

raise those gains and so we get better performance and again and to your point Mr. city manager and in areas like downtown Anderson where we got tall building signal doesn't travel. It's called what they call the inbuilding service and a lot of cities similar to our size you do have the small cells and it's usually ever a couple blocks and that's what's going to get you the optimal you know is there's not going to travel that far. It just takes many of those, you know, networks down that path of Main Street to put a good network together because if not, you will have a drop in service or you will not, you know, get it'll be a capacity issue in a in a certain general area and you'll have a drop call or may not have service at all the next block over. So,

it's good information. Thank you. It's great information, but we're we're uh still proposing to move forward with the fiber optics to serve this network and also to expand our city network. We think it's a good uh use for this and allows us to meet the timeline uh to have the subsurface work done prior to any repaving. How many cameras do we have downtown now? Uh on Main Street, we only have a couple. Uh we do have um you have we have about six six cameras on Maine, I believe. Sorry, David.

Yep. And then you have the Heritage Park, North Main Commons covered. Uh the parking garage is covered and the part of the Anderson County Plaza going into the courthouse, the new courthouse. So the river would just be all the way down or that

Yeah, we have a huge gap that's is it's been a problem for us reviewing cases downtown consistently. um where it's buffered in and out or we we just had good coverage and with the high-end cameras that we're going with with the true um 360° the fiber optics is really helpful and that way we'll have complete coverage down main street. We'll be able to add additional cameras if needed ever without any bandwidth issues and um that will allow us to be able to look at any case that may happen um regarding a car uh a front of a store or any other thing that happens. Any other questions, comments?

Do we have any history with network controls and electric? Uh, yes sir. We um we use them for um let's see, they helped us with the Lindley Park fiber installation uh and with Cater's Lake. And I'll be honest with you, um I I've had a heck of a time getting anyone to even help us. um they actually came and um helped us with those two projects and also helped us with a fiber cut that we had behind city hall. So um they they've been they've been very helpful. Anything else? May I make the motion to approve? First by Mr. Newton, second by Dr. Thompson. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I

oppose. That passes unanimous. Thank you council. Thank you. Our third item is request consideration of a resolution to provide certification as provided by the South Carolina abandoned buildings revitalization act of 2013. That's South Carolina code 12-7- 100 for the building at 215 217 and 219 South Main Street. Mur.

Yes. These last two items are in reference to um what we what we call the Big John's project at Church Street, Maine. We're very excited about this project, the revitalization of uh three buildings and to three storefronts and apartments up top. Um it's been fenced off and we it's going to be moving forward. U Mr. Mlan prepared this part of it for us. Mr. Mlan, would you go this?

All right. This is what we've done several times before, but uh our tax law allows tax credits, sometimes property income tax credits to companies that rehabilitate a an abandoned building site. And uh when they apply to the department of revenue to do that, the city is require part of that requirement is that the city has to certify that it has been abandoned for 5 years. And basically that's what this resolution does on their behalf is to certify that it has been an abandoned building for five years which we can do and that's what it's been.

That's that's the resolution and they are planning to apply for income tax credit. We don't approve the credits or anything like that. We just certify it's been abandoned for 5 years takes it from there. This is the same way we did with the the mall a couple weeks ago. Yes. Okay. Yes. Same process. Any other questions, comments? It's been done before. I'll make a motion to approve it. Second. We have first by Mr. Harbin, second by Mr. Steel. Further discussion. All those in favor say I. I.

Oppos. That passes unanimously. The last item of new business is request consideration of an ordinance authorizing a perpetual easement agreement on city property adjacent to property at 215 217 and 219 South Main Street. Mu okay Mr. Sher.

Uh thank you Mayor Council you have before you for the same property same project ordinance to grant an easement state law requires that that be done by ordinance This would be the first of two readings required to grant a 10ft easement along the rear of the property that John's in order to accommodate uh clear space for historic windows that are going to be reinstalled in that facade of the building. State requires state preseration office requires to be granted clear area be granted for those windows to make sure nothing in the future is built within that space. So those functioning windows can still function window.

Any questions, comments? So essentially this just prevents anything from being built 10 ft away from the back of the building any any structural facility to be built within that. So we can still landscape we can still have parking sidewalk lighting. So we own from the back of the building to where the first curve is on the park. Well we we that whole area from the back of that building all the way to Church Street. That's right. Church Street.

So that grass strip is actually so that lot that back lot line the zero. So with that, I'd make a motion that we grant proceed. Well, first by Mr. Horin, second by Mr. Steel. Discussion. I doubt with our investment in Church Street Heritage Park that probably no building would go there for the foreseeable future. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. It passes unanimous on the first reading. I'd entertain a motion to adjourn. So move. We have first by Mayor Pro Tim.

Second. Second by Mr. Picket. All those in favor say I. Huh?