City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon and welcome to our first meeting of April. Um, feels like July, but we'll take April. Invocation tonight be led by our mayor pro Tim Jeff Roberts. Respect to the flags be led by Councilman Tony Stewart. Please rise. Please join in prayer. Heavenly Father, let us pause and give thanks for all the ways that you have blessed our lives, our community, and this nation. We pray for the ability to reflect upon these blessings, and for the humility to acknowledge that these blessings are derived from you and not from our own doing. We pray that your blessings will bring peace, prosperity, safety, and well-being to all of our citizens. As we conduct this meeting, we pray for wisdom, discernment, and for the capacity to provide effective leadership to the citizens of Anderson. Allow us to see clearly the right path to take to make the best decisions for our future. Most importantly, let us conduct ourselves in a manner that is pleasing to you. In your holy name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Allegian 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.

We have a couple of things before we get into the body of our meeting. And the first one is a swearing in of our new council member, Marshall Pickkins. and I'll turn it over to Miss McCuin.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. Um, at this time, we'll be swearing in Mr. Marshall Pickkins, uh, the third to, uh, seat two. Uh, Mr. Frankie Mlan, our city attorney, will be swearing in Mr. Marshall. your left hand on the Bible and raise your right hand and repeat after me. I name do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I am duly qualified that I am duly qualified according to the constitution of the state of South Carolina

according to this constitution of the state of South Carolina to exercise the duties of the office to exercise the duties of the office to which I have been elected to which I have been elected And I will And I will to the best of my ability to the best of my ability discharge the duties thereof discharge the duties thereof and defend the constitution of this state defend the constitution of this state and of the United States and of the United States. So God, this is a statuto. As councilman of the city of Anderson, as councilman of the city of Anderson,

I will equally, fairly, and impartially I will equally, unfairly, and fairly, and impartially. To the best of my ability and skill, to the best of my ability and skill, exercise the trusted in me. to exercise the trust in those in me. And I will use my endeavors. And I will use my best endeavors to preserve peace to preserve the peace to carry into effect and carry into effect according to the law according to the law. Purpose for which I have been elected

the purpose for which I have been elected. city and as a tradition um we're going I'm pin you with the city council hope I don't poke you here Congratulations. Congratulations. Today we have a couple of proclamations that surround our community development. If you be patient, Proclamation reads whereas the month of April was recognized throughout the United States for American status or disability. And whereas housing is a critical component of family and community health disability and whereas both state and federal offices are department housing and urban development continue their efforts to promote and educate as many citizens as possible about every person's right to enjoy equal opportunity and housing ensuring that

all Americans have the opportunity to achieve the American dream of homeship. Whereas the city of Ammonson continues to firmly further prepare housing for its citizens. Therefore, IC Roberts may city of Adamson along with my fellow council members to proclaim April 2025 fair housing month in the city of Anderson, South Carolina for the significance of fair housing to our way of life. encouraging all citizens to observe and support both the letter and spirit of fair housing law as administration of individual rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and Constitution sign of April 2026. The next proclamation reads, "Whereas the week of April 6th directly 10th of 2026 has been designated as National Community Development Week by the National Community Development Association to celebrate the community development block program, CD, CDBG program, and home improvement investment partnership, the home program. And whereas the EDG program provides annual funding and flexibility to local communities to provide decent, safe and affordable housing living environment and economic opportunities to low and moderately income. Whereas the home program decent, safe housing opportunities for low income. Nationally over a million units and portable homes have been completed using whereas the following activities have been owner occupied hous rehabilitation

assistance home ownership assistance firsttime home buyers public services including fair housing in addition to economic development providing small business throughout our community therefore Anderson designates the week of April 6 through April 10th as National Community Development Week in support of these valuable programs that have made tremendous contributions in the viability of housing, stocks, infrastructure, public services and economist recognize the outstanding work locally and by CBG and by supporting the increase fun 2026. Thank you. Mayor, I think Mr. Cunningham. Um, maybe like to say a few remarks as well.

I missed him. I knew you were late. You know, he was early.

Let Let the video reflect that I was here before the meeting started. Oh, there we go. Um, well, just a few things. Um, one, I am certainly glad to be here. I'm Michael Cunningham. I represent uh the community house resource board as a chairperson. Uh, in my day job, I work for our local hospital system and med. And, um, thank you first of all to the city of Anderson and to the city council uh, for these two proclamations. But beyond the proclamations, thank you for your longstanding uh and steadfast support of the community housing resource board uh and our efforts to help uh educate around fair housing and to your long-standing commitment to CDBG and developing stronger, healthier communities. Both of those are so very important. If you think about uh as you mentioned when the fair housing uh act was passed that it it was really more aspirational um is it it hoped for creating an environment eventually and at least publicly saying that we we expect there'd be quality of access to safe and affordable housing. uh I say it's aspirational because at the time it wasn't necessarily the reality and over the years we've continued to hopefully get better and better become more perfect as a union to try to achieve some of these things but it doesn't happen without continued support uh and continue to continue to identify why this is important this is such an important landmark decision for our country to make and uh the city of Anson has has certainly uh been a stalwart and and making sure that we are aware of but not just aware of you're actively engaged in it and so I want to thank you on behalf of the community housing resource board uh and and really for our community for for this effort you've taken. We know on the healthcare side how important it is to have access to safe, affordable, and livable housing as

a part of a a healthy community. And so it's something that that we see every single day. Uh and again, we just want to applaud you for your commitment to that effort.

Thank you. Thank you. you know, and I'd like to, you know, Michael is just been in in this part of uh the city of Anderson so for so many years and I appreciate your um work in this area, too. So, thank you. We'll move on to a special presentation by the Upstate Alliance, John Lumis, and I will turn it over to Miss Mchuan. Tee it up. Mr. Mayor, um the city of Anderson is proud to be a partner with Upstate Alliance, Upstate SC Alliance. This is our regional e-commer development partnership and with the vision of council of being at the regional table as being an important um being an important partner to that and being involved in the overall regional economy development but also locally and how this our investment into that brings uh the economic boom uh back to Anderson. Uh Mr. John Lumis uh is a resident here in Anderson and the city of Anderson and uh we're proud to uh have him here and uh to present as the CEO of Upstate SE Alliance and give us an overview. Mr. Lums.

Thank you, Mr. City Manager. And um I am a proud resident of Anderson. I grew up here and I I live here and um I just appreciate number one the opportunity to come before city council and number two I cannot thank y'all enough for your investment in the upstate alliance and what we do for economic development here in the upstate region. So I'm going to go through a presentation. I' I've learned been doing this for 12 years now and I've learned that brevity equals longevity in my job. So, I'm going to try to be as brief as possible. Um, at our annual meeting recently, we featured an upstate Michelin employee. He told us the story of his family's journey with the company. His father retired from the Sandy Springs plant and his son now works there. This is a this is an example of the generational legacy that the upstates leaders hope to achieve with economic development. Hearing how individuals can blaze can find a passion, blaze a path, and progress through their career right here at home is exactly why communities engage in economic development. Today I want to share more about the role the upstate alliance plays in that process in our 10 county geography. So who is the upstate alliance? We were established in the year 2000 and we were brought together by public sector and private sector leaders that acknowledged that um we could do much better working together as a region than we could separately um as individual um cities and counties. At that time, I was the economic development director for

Anderson County um when the organization was coming together and uh my budget uh per year for marketing, travel, trade shows, lead generation, everything I had to do was $4,500 a year. Okay? I couldn't hardly get past Pelzer for that much. So when the the concept of the upstate alliance um was that we could all work together, utilize private sector dollars and public sector dollars and actually start marketing ourselves, that really opened up a lot of opportunities for um for Anderson County and for the other nine counties and the cities within the region. So again, we are a public private partnership. We have 10 counties um which I think we're on this first slide. Yes. That are involved in our organization along with four cities that are on our board and the city of Anderson is one of those. Um we are governed by board and executive committee. The mayor um has served on that executive committee in the past and again thank you for the um all of the support from the city. We also work very closely with the South Carolina Department of Commerce and they acknowledge that they don't really have the funding um to do enough marketing around the state. So, we're able to utilize um some funding from them and match that with our private sector dollars to market our region to the world. And we're one of eight regional groups around the state. All 46 counties are involved in one region or the other. Um and they were we we were created in recognition that single communities have a larger presence when they work as a region. So most of us know the region story. We were a textile production hub that fell

vulnerable to new technology and global markets. For decades, leaders of our state and region have worked diligently to lay the foundation for a prosperous community. They envision good quality jobs for everyone working to attract strong employers like Michelin, Arthurex and Bosch. Today we continue to focus on attracting companies within these target industries. Aerospace, automotive, engineered materials, food and beverage, life science, and office and professional. Um, many of these companies that we've talked to are are smaller companies or landing pads that in a lot of cases want to locate in a city type environment. So that's when cities like Anderson can come to play. Today the upstate's economy has matured into a diverse powerhouse where manufacturing and technology meet. the wages and prosperity prospects for our region uh improve because of this. One central element to the upstate success is our global business environment. A recent study by the South Carolina Manufacturers and Commerce Group reiterated the importance of manufacturing to South Carolina's economy with a $300 billion economic impact yearly that supports directly or indirectly 30% of all jobs in South Carolina. The study also found that manufacturing jobs pay 24% more than the average South Carolina job. And manufacturing has a higher has higher multiplier effects. For example, in the automotive industry, for every 10 jobs created, 36 additional jobs are created elsewhere in our economy. Um, and this helps downtown cities,

commercial development. A lot of these people that work at Mission, Arthur, um, Bosch and other manufacturing places live in the city of Anderson bringing additional wealth and also spin-off businesses, um, locate in the city. Um, and I focus a lot on manufacturing because that is really what drives our state's economy and our upstate's economy. But within our cities, the spin-off factor from these are creating so many jobs and so many businesses. I mean, I don't I don't think the city of Anderson would look like it did today without all of the manufacturing jobs and the technology jobs and the innovation jobs that have come to the entire region. So we are a very international um centric location for business and we have over 590 international companies within our region from 38 countries. Several years ago, we had the Michelin Cities group that came here and it's pretty incredible to see all these people from all over the world that came here and and many of them knew a lot about the the city of Anderson and the upstate just because of all the business brands that we have here from all over the world. So, how did we do in 2025? Upstate had 53 projects with 7.6 6 billion in capital investment and nearly 5,000 jobs created. The state of South Carolina had 9.1 billion in new investment. That's all I'll say. Okay. And do the math. Um that brings our 5-year clean cumulative total to 18.8 billion and 28,700 jobs for people in the upstate. Here are the highlights of how the Upstate Alliance team supported

the region's efforts. Our team made 429 presentations about the Upstate to share our region's value proposition. We completed 78 requests for information, which is a key step in the site selection process. This is when companies are looking at our region and we send information out to our local economic developers and most or all of these 78 went to the city of Anderson to Andrew Strickland who is a member of our local economic developers team. We hosted 102 visits to the region. This these were company visits and visits from centers of influence or COIs which are site selection consultants, real estate brokers, um international trade representatives and others. And we added 262 new leads to our pipeline. Each of these activities are meant to support and promote our most important constituency, the local economic development offices, city of Anderson, the other cities and the counties. We work very closely, like I said, with Andrew Strickland and his team on trying to bring prosperity to the area, providing research support and assisting them in any way that we can. So, um I think that the growth that we have had in our region has been incredible. I think it is going to continue and I feel like cities like Anderson, Greenville, and Spartanberg really take advantage of a lot of this growth and we want to continue the growth that we're bringing here um to help our cities and counties continue to prosper. Okay, that's all I have because I was trying to be short and Tony Stewart told me to be short tonight. So, um, any questions from anyone? I'm glad to take

any questions or comments or Thank you, Mr. Lis. Um, any questions, comments? Miss Stewart, you'll ask me something. Come on. No, Mr. Mayor. Uh, just one comment. Um, Mr. Lus, thank you for the presentation tonight.

Thank you. and the the recruitment effort of the upstate SC Alliance and how his impact on the city of Anderson is not just limited to the city limits and yes you're correct so uh much of the workforce uh does live within our city limits however uh we also operate a large uh wastewater services and also water distribution services and so two wastewater treatment plants and water distribution plants uh these large manufacturers are our customers and the enterprise fund of the electric city utilities. And so we uh we're grateful for those and and they're they're a contributor to our utility system. Um which also keeps the residential rates lower by having them as a major uh contributor for them. and our electric city utilities plays a big role in the request for information that the upstate alliance sends to us as we fill out and show that we have the necessary capacity for e to for additional e-com development.

Mr. Lumis, could you just briefly talk about you mentioned the upstate South Carolina talk um I saw some numbers recently about the projected population. Can you talk for the region? Yeah. Well, the the population right now is 1,627,000 people. We've been growing um at about 1.5% per year. So, that's we grew about 15% between um the 2010 census and the 2020 census. So, um we are currently the fastest growing state by percentage in the US. Um, and the upstate is kind of leading the charge. I think Ory County and a couple of the coastal counties are right there with us. But, um, you know, if you look at that 1.67, um, or excuse me, 1.627 million, you know, if you're you're growing at 15 um% per decade, that will mean in another decade, we will have added about a little over 250,000 more people to the region. Um, yeah. Yeah. So, and you know, when I was a kid, I looked at the numbers in 1970, which is when I really started knowing what was going on in the world, we had 99,000 people in Anderson County. We now have about 230,000 people in Anderson County. So roughly um more than doubled. Um and uh and people talk about growth and oh we've got too much traffic, but you you're either growing or you're shrinking. There's no middle.

Yep. Thanks, Miss Stewart. I just want to say I just appreciate you know all that you do to bring all these businesses into our upstate especially particularly in Henderson County because we see it you know here in our city limits. We we continuing to grow grow grow and without the businesses that you help bring into Anderson, we would not see that growth. So really appreciate it. Thank you, sir.

The the downtown is incredible in Anderson. We come downtown almost every weekend. And it it's just the the number of people that come here. The downtowns that we have are what make our region great. And I mean, I think that continued growth, continued development, the beauty, the green spaces, that the quality of life aspect is what makes um the region what it is. Well, good. We appreciate the presentation. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. March 23rd minutes have been distributed. Are there any corrections or additions to those minutes? Make a motion we approve those minutes.

First by Mr. Steel. Second. Second by Mr. Newton. All those in favor say I. Oppose. The minutes of March 23rd passion one. Have a couple items of old business. And the first item is request consideration of an ordinance to reszone 1401 South Street and five associated lots from R5 single family residential to NC neighborhood commercial. Miss Mchuan,

the planning commission met on April the 7th to consider the request. After deliberation, the planning commission recommended approval of the request to reszone 1401 South F Street and the five associated properties from R5 single family to neighborhood commercial. This item is under consideration for first reading. Planning and development director Maurice McKenzie will brief you on the details of the request. Mr. Mackenzie.

Thank you. Again, as Mr. McHugh mentioned, this did go before planning commission last week. It made a recommendation of approval. Just to give you a little bit of background about this request. The applicant is requesting to reszone 1401 South F Street. And also you see there's five lots attached to that that makes up the parking for uh the the building at 1401 South Fant. It was historically operational as a funeral home. The applicant is requesting to reszone it to neighborhood commercial so they could operate a funeral home there. Once again it operated for many years as a legal non-conforming use. Basically it was zoned R5 single family residential. So it was essentially grandfathered in. However, based on our zoning regulations, if a non-conforming use goes vacant for more than a period of 4 months, it reverts back to its zoning classification. In this case, R5 single family residential. So, that's why they're requesting the reszoning to neighborhood commercial. In your packet, you do have the neighborhood commercial permitted uses in there, but it is the least intensive zoning classification that will allow a funeral home. The purpose of the NC district is to encourage the lower intensity offices, retail, and other uses that are generally compatible with a surrounding residential area. And again, with this neighborhood commercial zoning, it is at least intensive classification that would allow a funeral home. And while the while reszoning the property to neighborhood commercial would allow the funeral home to operate there again, you do see on your list and I mentioned the allowable uses in neighborhood commercial that it does permit other uses like retail offices, things of that nature. And I do want to mention, and you're familiar with this, that we're in the process of completely revising our zoning regulations, our zoning ordinance. We

anticipate that to be complete in the fall later this year. And there could be some ways to create language to funeral homes not being in a more intensive retail area. But again, that's under study right now. The zoning ordinance is in draft form and we're still working through that. So we hope to have a new zoning ordinance in place later this year. And again, this did go before planning commission. last week, April 7th, planning commission did recommend approval. Also, the applicant and representatives are here as well.

Thank you. Before we get into our body discussion, is there anyone in audience that would like to speak um for against this item? Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Council, Mr. Administrator, City Attorney. My name is Charles Boyin, and I represent Mr. Holly, who is the petitioner in this matter. Um, Mr. Mr. Mayor, with all due respect, I would um take personal ref personal privilege for just one minute.

Yes, sir. I appreciate the the announcement about the community development week and things of that nature. That's what brought me to Anderson over 50 years ago and uh and and I'm happy to see that that tradition continues. Thank you.

Nevertheless, I'm here tonight as attorney representing Mr. colleague in this particular petition and I appreciate the planning commission's recommendation but I think it's important for this body to have a perspective that we brought to the planning commission. I understand the reservation when you reszone it to a higher density higher than the R5 then you open it the door for a lot of uses. While in Anderson, I did have the personal opportunity to meet with then city manager Richard Woodruff, John Moore, who was the finance person. These are names that are lost to history. When McDougall Funeral Home relocated to North Main Street and left that building vacant, we had a problem in the city. What was the problem? How do we fill that? We did not have a lot of people coming to do to look into it, to use the property. Such is the case with the Johnson Fuel Home. There's no one in that community or coming to move in that community for residential purposes. It's it just hasn't happened. The it it is recognized by that community as a funeral home and we believe that's the best use. I I hear and it's enticing that you are going to bring possibly a a classification that would have less uses that would come, but that's down the road. That's asking Mr. Holly to continue paying the carrying cost. Every day that he stays closed is a day that his money is tied up and he's unable to realize the return on his investment. If you will do a chat GPT search, that's what I'm told. And that you can tell by

my age and lack of hair, I don't know about chat GPT. But if you would do a search, you'll understand that it takes five, seven to 10 years for a funeral home to begin to realize a return on investment. Therefore, it would be foolish if not folly for the funeral director to invest and then within two or three years turn around and do something with the property. There's one thing that he knows if he doesn't know anything else that properties that are used particularly in our community as a funeral home simply does not h have high adaptive reuse. So it may be like finding a unicorn when you find someone willing to invest a half million to a quarter of a million dollars into this property in this neighborhood for a funeral home. But I do believe just like when the community development department working with the city manager made the decision to buy the McDougall funeral home loan to put a city use in it to keep the building active until it could be torn down rather than doing what happens when you have a vac building. It becomes a draw that causes slum and blight. So Mr. Mayor and council members, we ask for your favor consideration of this petition.

Thank you. and and I'm happy to respond to any questions that you may have and Mr. Holly is here if you have specific questions. Are there is there anybody else that wants to speak either way on this? Just one quick question. Do you plan on services? Cremation services would be offered by the business but not at that location in a different location. Thank you. I'm sorry. Sorry, I should be recognized before I responded to it. M you're good. Very good. Um any questions here? Mr. Roberts, may proton question for Mr. Holly.

Did when you bought the property, did you know that it was had lost its uh current zoning and it would require a reszoning? Yes, sir. How long have you owned the property? Uh since December. December. Miss Stewart.

Well, no. Uh, just like, uh, I think Mr. Roberts, you know, um, again, Mr. Holly, I know that, you know, you bought the property and you knowing that it needed the reszoning, but you know, a lot of times you want to try to buy a property that, you know, you're going to get a zoning because it's kind of like you're gambling. You don't really know what's going to happen one way or the other. And you know, over the past couple months, you know, when we found out that you bought the property, I think in January, I think is when it was closed on, uh, you know, we've had a couple of community meetings uh in the neighborhood at Royal Baptist Church about um where we have a community group that comes together and talks about, you know, what's happening in the neighborhood. And let me just say, this is not about Holly Funeral Home or it being a funeral home. That's that's not what this issue is about. The issue is about the zoning classification and and that's what I just want to make sure we hone in on a little bit because the zoning classification is neighborhood commercial and it allows for a lot of different usages and I think the uh and it's not in our packet but there was about 35 people 30 35 people that came to our community group over the last couple months that you know they're in favor of the funeral home but they're not in favor of the zoning classification because again we don't have a crystal ball in front of of us to know what the zoning is going to look like five years from now, 10 years from now, whether Mr. Holly's going to be in business 10 years from now, what that what that could open the door up to. So, um I I think that's the the big elephant in the room is that not knowing what a future use could look like. And I I understand um uh that, you know, it's you know, once a funeral home is there, you know, it's you know, chances are it may not go anywhere. But I don't know. I don't have that answer. And um you know, but what is encouraging is is that I I really feel like we're talking with our staff and our planning director that you know, about hopefully 3 months from now,

we're going to have uh a new zoning classification, which is a PI, I think that's a is called public institution, which only allows for funeral homes and churches. and and that's something that in three or four months that uh you know the community would be all in favor of you know I would be in favor of having it reszone you know to that public institution but you know so what I would just respectfully ask is that you know Mr. Holly, you know, I don't want to turn this. I don't want to make a motion to turn it down because if you turn it down, you have to wait a year to come back to have, you know, to come back if it gets voted, you know, to do that. I'm just one vote. I don't know what my fellow council members are going to vote. But if it gets turned down, you have to wait a year. And I don't want to see you having to wait a year because I think the community, you know, is okay with the funeral home. They just, it's just that zoning classification. And there's some other properties in and around the funeral home that are being cleared or being worked on that are neighborhood commercial that are trying to get that neighborhood commercial designation as well. And it could just you know be a you know a spiral effect what we did for this one now you're doing for this one and trying to really keep the integrity of the neighborhood as that single family residential neighborhood with you know just certain usages. So, you know what I would just like to do is just ask, you know, this council and ask, you know, staff if we could possibly just not, you know, taking a vote on it tonight, but to table it and have staff get a chance to speak with Mr. Holly or unless you know, you know, what you would like for us to do here tonight, but I would like to make a motion that we table it, you know, to so that we could get this PI zoning classification so you could come into the funeral home because again, it's not about the funeral home. It's just about the unknown of the zoning classification. And that's what I'm struggling with as a council member who's hearing what the community is telling me, you know, over the last couple months. And and again, I think

those signatures are on that petition at the planning commission as well. I think there's about 30 35 signature, Mr. McKenzie. I think it just wasn't in our packet tonight. And

good. What I'd like to do, maybe Miss Mr. Steel has a question. We can continue the conversation. I have a couple of questions. I think actually primarily for staff um on some of this stuff. Uh Mr. Stewart indicated, you know, that we're considering as part of the comprehensive zoning plan having a PI designation for churches, funeral homes alike. Um, if this were zoned as a neighborhood commercial, would let's say because right now there is no classification under our current system that would restrict any building to church uh funeral home. In fact, I think we just did a church a couple weeks ago that was neighborhood commercial. Um, so with that, would we be able on that church that we zoned in a few weeks ago, this funeral home, come back in and overlay that uh private institutional on top of this neighborhood commercial if it does in fact begin operating as a funeral home and we get that designation in the future?

Yes. It would not be an overlay on top of it. Be just one zoning classification. So in this case, we would look at what's on the ground and then you try to match what the most appropriate zoning is. And in this case, it would be public institutional if we go that route with it. So once we approve the new zoning ordinance and map, we can immediately place this zoning classification on this property or these properties. Would we have to get make it conform? It would still be conforming. Yes. Would we be able to do that on our own initiative without having the applicant reapply to reszone?

Yes, sir. when we go through this whole process, it's citywide, so things do change. The language in the zoning ordinance changes as well. So, things will be different with the new guidelines, but yes, we can make that change take place as part of that process. Good. And what you throw, Mr. Um, I just had another question. I I drove through this the other day and I didn't quite know. I noted that there's a neighbor could commercial across the street that's zoned. Do we know what that is? I I noticed some parking lots. I noticed the funeral home, but I didn't Yeah, there's a one spot there. It was zoned gosh, several years ago. There was an intent to It was an old store. It was old store. Yeah. And I think the plan was to open it back up, put it back in use, and it never did take place.

Okay. And then I guess my last question is for the applicant. Would uh you, Mr. Holly be okay with it coming in as neighborhood commercial and then if we pass the comprehensive plan you being reszone for that less intensive private institution. Yes sir. Sure. Okay. Would you through all this would you give us a little background on yourself and your business?

So yes sir. I'm I'm Jonathan Holly. Um I'm a fourth generation funeral director. Um our family started our funeral home in 1917. Um I'm a fourth generation fenerator. As I said, I've been licensed fid from us 25 years and um you know, we've had multiple locations and wanted to come into the Sanderson community. Miss Stewart,

uh M Mr. uh city attorney, uh let me ask you a question. And um uh can we let's just say I own a piece of property and it's zone one thing and I I bought that property on the premise of doing something does because on here we can't if if I'm not mistaken when we reszone this we can't reszone it with the condition of him agreeing to it. It it because zoning can't can't have conditions on it. It's like we can't tell you we're going to reszone it. you're only going to put a funeral home here because he has other things that he could that allows under that code. So, you can't reszone a piece of property for a specific use. You have to reszone it for the overall zoning classification. So, you know, let's just say four months from now, um, and he decided or a year from now, he decided that he wanted to and we zone it neighborhood commercial. And then can we, if he says, I don't want it zone PI, you know, five a year from now, can we force him to reszone it since we just got finished reszoning it neighborhood commercial? uh if you know what I'm saying, you know, you know, because I think the applicant has to agree at when we do the overlay or when we do our new zoning code that they've got to agree to that and uh zoning, we just can't arbitrarily, you know, override what they may want. And correct me if I'm wrong.

Uh Mr. Stewart, I can answer that. So, what's coming before you is the new zoning ordinance. with that is also the citywide zoning map and so that that has a public input in input process and a public hearing and so forth. Um, however, you do have the opportunity to reszone across the map anything to any different classification that makes sense. And so, you'll be adopting the new zoning ordinance with the new zoning map. And so, yes, it it's it's not the cons, you know, you're not going to each property owner in that case asking for their consent to reszone that parcel. You're you're laying out a new zoning map. Um, and there's public input to that and you can take consideration to that, but at the end of the day, the council has authority uh, once it comes from the planning commission goes through the process to adapt the new zoning code with the new zoning map. So, what I'm saying to you is that you could overlay an area PI and you could do so even if somebody was in contest to that.

And let me just add to that to clear it up, Tony, Mr. Stuart that you know we've reszone large areas. They're nonconforming uses if it don't fit there. Just like that's why we have non-conforming uses. It's where we have re reszoned like we're talking about. Correct.

But this is essentially a spot zone in this neighborhood. And let's just say that what would happen five years from now if Mr. Holly, god forbid if he's not successful, he wants to turn it into something else and it's already his own. Is he stuck with that classification now where he couldn't turn it into something else? You know, that's what would happen under the neighborhood commercial. He couldn't. But, you know, if we're forcing his hand to be under that new zoning PI, then that's limiting his ability as buying this property now, what he could do in the future with it. Isn't that correct? If if that's an intent of council to when you look at this area to say this is for PI only when we adopt that new zoning code and map. Yes.

It's limited to that new zoning classification. Just wanted to say the limitation is acceptable to us. All I wanted is for sorry we just wanted for funeral home purposes only.

Well well I understand it's you know again you know it's not you know all due respect it's not about funeral home. I'm just looking at classification. That's what I'm thinking about is, hey, here's all the things that this property could, you know, turn into before that PI is adopted. You could we could reszone it neighborhood commercial today and you could walk out of here 10 days from now and turn it into something else if you wanted to because that's what ne I'm not saying that's what you're going to do, but that's something that could happen. And that's why I was asking, would you be willing to wait so that we could get that PI designation? And um let's wait um Mr. Robertson. Go ahead, John. You good?

Mr. Bulan or Yes. I'm sorry. Yes, sir.

Councilman Stewart makes a really good point and that is it opens up to a list of things. That point has to be processed through the practical effects. The practical effects are there has not been a clamor for of that property for anything other than a funeral home in the last several years. And if we're talking 90 days, I can appreciate him saying, "Well, just wait." Mr. Holly is paying money on the money on the purchase. So, he's losing money every day. And if it's going to be 90 days, you have you have the authority to buy two votes, clear it up. But he will be down the road with this zoning classification going toward getting his money back. Now, you know, my challenge is let's think about the times that funeral homes have closed or moved and how many people and how many other uses have gone in. That is simply not practical, particularly against someone who is losing money every day. And we would ask that you would consider that. It's simple to say we'll withdraw it, but tangible loss to him and we would ask the council to give

Mr. Newton.

Uh Frankie, so I'm trying to think of a way to get this to the finish line in the sense of what we do tonight. Is there a way to craft it where whether it's Mr. Holly now or in 90 days, 120 days for someone else where that property itself will be reszoned to that PI that we keep discussing. So essentially to to alleviate the worries of it being anything other than a funeral home saying look you know we reszone it tonight to neighborhood commercial and then you know 120 days 18 days whatever no matter who owns the property no matter who you know whatever service I mean again I'm not I'm just use the example say hey you know in 30 days you sell it and you know there's someone selling used cars there or something doesn't matter no matter what no matter what use that property is being utilized for it will fall under PI Is there a way to do that?

We have never done anything like that to my knowledge. You know, we couldn't restrict either resone it one way. We can't make it conditional. But in the past, we have had people that would voluntarily put a restrictive covenant upon the property prior to us resing it that the property would never be used for anything else. I think that's what Mr. Stewart's greatest concern is is somewhere between now and then. And I'm just trying to think of a way to

and in all and then again in all due respect uh Mr. Boyon uh in all due respect I understand what you're saying about Mr. Holly has invested money and you know and he's he's trying to get a return on his investment. He's paying but again he bought the property knowing that we could be here today unzone. So he knew that going into spending that money. So he took a chance of per se throwing the putting the money out there knowing that it could go either way. So you know so like and I understand that you know he you know he's having to pay that money but that's really not all back on us because he took that gamble and so I just

Any thoughts any thoughts on Mr. Newton's request from administration? I mean we have we have done a restrictive covenant before on properties and so if if they agreed to do that I mean and and you that was to put a restrictive covenant on the property a legal restrictive covenant on the property agree to do that um upon you guys considering to pass this tonight. I I think that's that's fair. We have we've done that before and that's that's wild. That would be it's first reading as well. I mean this you have you have opportunity here between here and second week

reading your well Mr. Holly, what? No. Okay. You know that. Yes. Well, you know, you know what what I would be open to is u you know to kind of keep the ball rolling is that I would be open to you know because again it does take two readings is that we'll get past this reading tonight but prior to the second reading is that we would have some type of language that would come back at us to some type of restrictive covenant on the title that says that this can't be used in in all associated lots that it can't be used for nothing other than funeral home purposes and like to be able to see that at the second reading before we pass it.

Mr. Stewart, um would would you would the council also consider a development agreement if necessary instead of the restrictive covenant? Just have to see what that looks like. Um okay. You know, just can can we move it along and present something? I think I I think if you would allow us to to work with the applicant and on either one of those options and then we we can delay the second reading scheduling of that. Um so if it takes four weeks we we can do so so we can work along with the applicant to put together an agreement in that sense uh to move it along if passed on first reading tonight. I'll be open I'll be agreeable to that

I would say too probably and all due respect to you Mr. Stewart, I I think this probably would be nothing but a funeral home during during our lifetime. And and I would I would assume that the planning commission felt the same way, too. Um and and I grew up here. Uh, so did you and that was Johnson's funeral home and they were a funeral company and and they've been in business since 1917. I I think fourth generation. Um, again, I don't know if we're overthinking it and making it too complicated.

Go ahead, Mr. Robert. I agree with your words, mayor. Um, and maybe we are over complicating it, but I I think the concern just goes back to all the different parcels and and just trying to protect the neighborhood in the event of neighborhood commercial. I believe these men are going to honor their word. I believe it needs to be up and going. I think the community wants it up and going um see some life back in that building. It's been closed seven or eight years, I think, at this point. Anyway, so um I think anything we can do as we've talked about to help push it along and and make it a win-win for all would be

really good. I just like to add one more thing in between first and second reading and passing a second reading is also I just like for staff possibly to uh explore any type of traffic common measures we can get because again from Hampton Avenue to Cleveland Avenue there's no stop in between you coming over the hill from Johnson Funeral Home you're stopping at Hampton or either you going cresting the hill and using the parking coming across F Street I know nothing's ever happened there but Again, it's a blind spot and people do fly coming that way and they just want to look at, you know, protecting the patrons u you know coming across with some, you know, traffic walks or something that can calm do some traffic calming measures and if we could work with DOT, I think Fantry to the DOT road uh whatever they could do to help out that as well. And so with that, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to make a motion that we uh pass it on first reading and uh that staff will work with the applicant to come back uh with a plan before us on either a development plan um or some type of covenant u on second reading.

I'll second that motion. First by Mr. Stewart, second by Mr. Newton. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. opposed. It passes unanimously on the first read. Our next item of old business is request consideration of an ordinance to annex and zone 3415 Clemson Boulevard to GC General Commercial. Miss Mchuan,

the planning commission met on April the 7th and recommended approval of the request. The item is before your consideration on first reading for annexation and reszoning. The parcel is located within the urbanized and commercial area of the city and is considered a donut hole as it is a pocket of property that is surrounded by the city limits. The parcel is located in both the police department and fire department service area and will be serviced by Anderson fire station 2. Additionally, the parcels with both within both the city's water service district and wastewater services area. Mr. McKenzie will brief you on the requests. Mr. McKin.

Thank you. Mr. Mchuan covered most of this in his description, but again, this is a request to annex the property, zone it to GC General Commercial. You can see that the city is completely surrounding this property. And the predominant use zoning on Clemson Boulevard where this has frontage is general commercial. So that's the zoning classification we are recommending to go along with this. as it prepares for redevelopment. And keep in mind that when plans come in, we will review those for compliance also to make sure that this meets our our landscaping, signage, everything else along that lines as well. But again, planning commission did consider this last week recommended approval of it and also we have a representative of the applicant if you have any specific questions for him.

Thank you, sir. Any comments? Any questions? Mayor Proin. Um, Mr. McKenzie, how accurate is the site plan that we have in our back?

Uh, it's conceptual in nature right now. We did have a meeting with them. That's what they originally presented to us. You can see there's two pads up front that they're planning and then in the they're planning to tear down I call it kind of octagon building and where the car dealership the main building but in the back of it is a building that I guess was historically used for auto repair body shop with the automobile sales place. As of now they looked at that building it's in really good shape. They're looking at maybe repurposing that building for another use because it is a big piece of property as you can see. It's 4 acres in size.

I also noticed on the site plan that there's some interconnectivity to adjacent properties. That's right. They're looking at interconnectivity. They're also looking at making some improvements at that intersection where what is that? Miracle Mile across the road that to make it all work in concert with one another. But again, yeah, seeing that interconnectivity is something we're definitely interested in. I remember this was Hannes Dodge, correct? I remember as a little boy if you had gone out of town and passed Hannes Dodge, you were in the country. You just left left the town. That is true. Look at it now. The city grew around it. Yep. Any other questions, comments?

Mayor, I'd make a motion we approve this on first reading. This is my district and it's a pretty clear donut hole. It'll just make this area uh have more conformity. And um I'm excited about, as Councilman Rogers, Mayor Pro Tim Roberts uh indicated, the the plans they have for the property. Hopefully it'll redevelop nicely. So first by Mr. Steel, second by Dr. Thompson. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I

oppose. I pass this unanimously. Have a couple items of new business. And the first item of new business is request consideration of a memorandum of agreement between Anderson Fire Department and Anderson County Emergency Medical Services. Miss Mchuan, the Anderson Fire Department is a professional staffed ISO class one fire department that provides full service fire and rescue response capabilities. The department services the city of Anderson, however, also serves throughout the county through its technical rescue responses. The item before you pertains to the medical and response operations for our post overdose response team, which is funded by the SC opioid recovery fund board. Chief Charlie King will go over the details of the request and the operation and theou that is pro provided before you Chief King.

Thank you sir and council. Appreciate the opportunity. While this program is new to us, the relationship that we have with Anderson County uh is not. And those those relationships and programs that we work together on uh not only are important to to our firefighters that it uh expands the kind of the opportunities that they have to apply their training, but certainly those opportunities provide a better service to our citizens uh both in the city and uh out in the county. Uh Anderson Fire Department hosts the county's technical rescue team. It's a program that is uh a city asset that provides dive and water rescue missing person uh USAR type mission response uh financially supported by Anderson City uh county government and the fire commission together. Their apparatus vehicles are housed here in our fire stations uh and they respond out as calls come in across the county uh and and even further. Uh, another part of that emergency response relationship is with our Anderson County hazmat team. Uh, that program is is funded locally uh through local industry uh that store and keep hazardous materials and provide a response asset uh that is a regional capability. Their primary response vehicle uh is housed at Anderson Fire Station 3. uh our rescue company cross staffs in and takes it uh out to emergencies as they occur across the county. Their uh latest one was about 9:00 this morning when several tractor trailers uh tangled together and closed the interstate at Highway 153. Uh they operated there for a couple hours this morning. Uh but in addition to those emergency responses uh through the hazmat team is uh working with the sheriff's office and their specialized response uh bomb squad and SWAT teams to support uh special events whether those

be large venue concerts around or dignitary visits that may happen in the area. Uh but but certainly our relationship with Anderson County EMS and Medore ambulance service is critical to our service delivery. uh 65% of our annual call volume puts us uh working with EMS. That uh comes out to about five calls a day uh that we're functioning with with paramedics and ambulances from the county system uh MedShore. The Anderson Fire Department uh typically responds and engine company that operates at the uh emergency medical responder level which is able to provide uh basic life support needs uh uh to the individual. Uh however, we continue to look for ways to improve uh that level of service just because uh our fire fighters are able to respond and arrive quicker and provide care. And we have continued to look for ways to increase that. So that leads us to to the new program that we're looking to partner with Anderson County and the their EMS agency on uh and that's provided funding on our part through uh the South Carolina Opioid Recovery Fund. uh for what we have termed the post overdose uh response team which is the purchase of a vehicle, the outfitting it with paramedic level equipment and providing a paramedic level provider. We would look to hire in uh one provider that or one per each shift that gives us a 24-hour level service uh with the primary intent of responding to the more than 400 uh opio opioid and drug overdose uh instances that happen in our county. A little more than 200 of those occur inside the city. uh and they would respond to those incidents along with

law enforcement, EMS uh to provide acute care as a paramedic. Uh and then beyond that care uh they would work uh through the grant uh funds that were provided uh to provide support uh to hopefully break that chain of addiction uh through uh initial tuition provision provision uh for them to get into some type of care rehab support to provide them the transportation to get there basic life sustaining needs uh clothing uh and the like. all is included in that grant. Uh and again is to hope to bridge uh the medical care component to the recovery uh for that individual being their primary function uh outside of the times that they would be doing that support social service level work for those in our community. We we want that to be an available paramedic resource to support our EMS system. Uh if you remember a few years ago, Anderson County uh took a different model in the way it approaches EMS with uh all of our ambulances have EMT level care the same as our fire engines do and our paramedics respond in in SUVs, pickup trucks uh to higher acuity type calls to provide a higher level of service. And this would give us the ability to ensure that a paramedic is available uh in the city and part of that response system to support u uh the the needs of our residents. Uh the memorandum of agreement in front of you kind of details the the really no cash cost share uh and relationship between the two agencies in that uh Anderson County and Anderson County would provide uh the medical physician Dr. Michelle King from ANMED uh their medical lensure coverage, their insurance uh for the the paramedics and EMTs that would be operating at that level. Uh some additional training is required for

those folks to continue to keep their certifications and licensers up. Uh and then on the fire department, Anderson City side, it's that we would field uh that resource uh and take care of both the response vehicle, capital equipment, and the employees uh to provide back and and just jointly that we would continue to work uh under an incident command system to jointly work together uh cooperative calls and that we would uh uh both grow in not only the opioid post opioid uh recovery response system, but also in continuing to grow together uh in providing fast and efficient good medical care uh to the citizens in need. The importance of this MO memorandum of agreement is that it allows us to to go in service with this resource in the very near future immediately that we're functioning uh as a part of the Anderson County MS system. uh our ultimate goal is that that lensure that entire process uh would be completed by the city of Anderson and the fire department, but that process takes about a year. Uh and just the limitations on the grant funding, the needs that we have in our community and just the drive that uh your fire department has to continue to raise that bar of service, we we don't want to wait a year. We want to move this along and certainly Anderson County uh continues to be a good partner and and what they've offered up in this memorandum of understanding. But again, uh while not a new relationship, it is a new program that we think will provide a a pretty important service to our community, not only uh just in the the drug addiction realm, but in uh uh those uh 3,000 residents that call 911 for medical help uh each year as well.

Thank you, Chief. Any questions? May I make a motion to approve? Second. First by Mr. Newton, second by Mr. Steel. Further discussion. All those in favor say I. I.

Opposed? Passes unanimously. Thank you. Last item of new business is request consideration of a contract renewal for IT managed services and cyber security. M. Mchuan. The city operates a comprehensive information and technology division managing our digital equipment and assets. Mr. Jason Nissen, our city chief information officer, will present this item for your consideration. Mr. N. Thank you, David. Council, um, as David just mentioned, uh, we're requesting approval to renew our contract with Sharp Business Systems. Um, we've been very pleased with their, uh, services these past three years. And um if I may, I'd like to briefly cover a few of these services, what they entail. Uh first is a 247 network operations center and security operations center. Um we have access to to those resources. Uh sharks knock and sock monitor our systems 247 uh intervening in cyber uh cyber attacks before they spread and proactively address issues preventing uh out outages and downtime. This also includes what's called a SIM and it's basically centralized logging. So, it logs uh takes logs and data from every device on our network and um we have a one-year retention on that server backup and disaster recovery uh cloud-tocloud backup solution which backs up all of our city employee files. Uh endpoint detection and response which is called EDR. It's similar to antivirus, but it's um it's more advanced, and we have it licensed for all of our servers, desktops, and laptops.

This also includes remote management and um operating system patching um and on-site engineering support uh so when we need their expertise um they can come on site and assist us. Um, another important aspect of this is compliance. The criminal justice information systems, our police department is required to adhere to the FBI's sieges security policy, uh, which is administered by state level South Carolina law enforcement division or sled. uh the sieges requirements of logs being retained for 12 months is covered by this contract with Shark and also the EDR which is required to be on all servers, desktops and uh and laptops. And um lastly, why is this critical today? Uh a sled trienal audit of the Anderson City Police Department will take place May 1st. Um and these sharp services will help ensure that we are compliant. It's a very exhaustive audit that we do every three years with SLED. Cyber attacks on the federal, state, and local governments are up sharply due to the Iran conflict. And just last week, we were notified from SLED that multiple South Carolina critical infrastructure intrusions believed to be tied to Iran took place. So these were local municipalities and their SCADA systems, their critical infrastructure, um they were breached. So um this contract helps keep us compliant, protected and audit ready.

Thank you, sir. Any questions? Questions, comments? I was going to ask, you kind of hit on the end. I know in our organization, we've seen a huge uptick really over the last few years with, you know, fishing attempts. I mean, I'm sure it's the same way with y'all. I mean, I know every couple months I get an email from the mayor asking me to buy him a gift card. Um, but I'm I'm sure y'all seen that kind of throughout the organization.

Absolutely. We've seen an uptick um with u you know, bad actors, threat actors, especially with AI now playing a part. Um, you know, it's it's we've seen more of it. We block between I'd say 10 to 15,000 potentially malicious connections to our network every day. That's our system. So, it's yeah, it's it's a good bit of data. And this this the SIM spelled S I M uh is really important because it collects data from everything on our network and that it really allows us to be proactive. Um the the knock they are watching our systems 24/7 and then something comes along that they feel like this is a problem then they um they pull the sock in as well. Um and those guys are very talented in what they do. I definitely appreciate. I know, you know, you're keeping people safe and information safe in your own way. So, I definitely appreciate.

I I will add as well is that we have the detective through this system um in real time attacks um and they through particular endpoints that they were able to access and we were able to shut that down during the attack. Also, several years ago, it's been several years ago now though, uh there was many attacks going along with cities. uh the one of the biggest ones, city of Atlanta had a very difficult time recovering from we we experienced the same attack. However, we were able to stop that um in its tracks and then actually roll back our system as it had just been backed up. And so we just cleared out everything, roll back the system and it fully recovered uh due to the technology available to us through this where we've seen other government entities take a complete loss on some of their software and databases from attacks like that. Any other questions, comments?

I just like to say I I understand the almost nothing of what Mr. Nixon did say, but I will say in my work history, I've dealt with some cyber security stuff, etc., and and seen him in different meetings. I know he's well aware and well abressed, and I just trust in his opinion and what he does for our city on a daily basis. And with that, Mr. Mayor, I'd make a motion to approve. We have first by Mr. John Roberts. Second. Second by Mr. Pickkins. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I oppose. Passes unanimously.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate you. Thank you for tonight. Thank you for putting up with me. I hope it rains soon so the pilot won't be rushed out of there. Yeah. I'd entertain a motion to adjurnn. I'll make a motion. First by Mr. Steel, second by Dr. Thompson. All those in favor say I. I.