County Council - Regular Meeting

I'm Joe Boykin. I represent District 8, and I currently serve as chair of council, and at this time I'd ask all of our council members and key staff to introduce themselves, starting with Mr. Wehrman.

Rob Wehrman, District 3. Teddy Pryor, District 5.

Larry Kabrowski, District 2. Jenny Honeycutt, District 9.

Bill Tootin, County Administrator.

Kristen Salisbury, Clerk of Council.

Herb Sass, District 1. Darby, District 4.

Natalie Hamm, County Attorney.

We have Mr. Moody joining us remotely.

He is. I am here, Joe Brantley, Moody District 7.

Thank you, sir. Okay, we're going to begin our special TST committee. All members of council are members of this committee, and I serve as chair. May 21st minutes.

Move for approval.

Second.

Second.

All in favor say aye. Aye. Ayes have it. So at this time, we're going to have Mr. Eric Adams with our Public Works Director to make a presentation.

Thank you, Chairman Boykin. We just wanted to take a few minutes of your time to brief you on our work around transparency with the existing first and second sales tax programs. One of the questions we get a lot from the community is, where has the funding gone from the program? So this will help us answer that question in a transparent way. We're still in a draft. We're planning to go live in end of August timeframe, but we wanted to brief you on this and get your feedback of kind of where we are in the process. Quick, would just like to say thanks to our staff in Public Works. Chris Orofino's here helping me tonight. He's had a big role in this, and certainly our IT department with Shandu taking the lead has been fabulous on this. So this is our landing page that the public would see. Across the top we've got our metrics. We just want to highlight the number of total projects in the program at over 450 projects. We've got the expenditures there, and then we've got metrics across. So you're looking at tons of asphalt at over 750,000. Again, that's enough asphalt to pave a two-lane road from here to New York City. So that's the quantity that we're looking at here. Sidewalks, that's 53 miles of sidewalk that has been completed as part of this program. So as we look at this landing page, we can see our total projects by our status. So if we want to look at the 454 as the total, 370 have been completed and we've got 84 active projects. Then the lower left quadrant, we have it broken down by vicinity of the county. So if a citizen would like to see what projects have taken place in my area of the county. And then on the lower right-hand side, we've got it broken down by category. So whether that be our feature projects, which are our larger projects that were named in the referendums, or that's into our pavement management, resurfacing, or the allocations. Also on this screen, you can toggle from the project totals into total expenditures. So when you click on this, you can see the total expenditures, again, broken down by general areas, but also broken down by project type. And again, featured projects, those being the larger projects, you can see that as the bulk of the expenditures. Now, from here, we can drill down further into project details. Again, we've got the metrics across the top that kind of break down overall, but you can sort by these different categories. So first off, on the far left, top left, is the funding source. So if you want to look at just the first sales tax or second sales tax, you can toggle between those two. You can toggle between the project types, project names, so you can type in the project there, the status of the project, whether that be active or complete, general vicinity, municipality, so where that project's located. and also if it is a state or local road. So for example, we'll look at a project, if we'll look at intersections, so if you just wanted to look at intersections, we can click here. The statistics at the top change, so we have 76 active, or total intersection projects, expenditures, the statistics change along with that. If you wanted to drill further, say I want to see intersections on Johns Island in the Johns Island-Wabamala area, you can click on that. And again, you see the total would change to 10. So you can drill down into those specific areas by project type. If a citizen just wanted to look at a specific project, let's say a completed project such as Johnny Dodds Boulevard, you could type in, just start the search there. And then we can drill down on that project by highlighting it and clicking on the project details. This will show you the general information of the project, so where it was located, the project description, the statistics that were accomplished as part of the project, and also the financial expenditures from the sales tax as part of that program. If we back out, let's say we want to look at an active project. For example, we've got a couple projects going on at Fort Johnson Road. So if we type in Fort Johnson, it brings up all the roads with the project name Fort Johnson. So if we want to drill into the Camp Road at Fort Johnson project, Since it's an active project, we have more details here. This one, for example, splits two council districts, so we've got eight and nine. It's also located in two municipalities, so city of Charleston and town of James Island. But on the schedule, you can look at it by phase, and we have notes for each of those phases, so a citizen can kind of be updated on where the project is in the status. The financials, so the total project budget at $6.5 million, total expenditures to date, remaining budget. And then we have the expenditures broken down between what we call design and delivery, which would be more of your construction and right-of-way. So overall, this would give the ability for a citizen to go in and really drill down on anything they want to see within the existing sales tax programs, and really just an effort for us to be as transparent as we can with the first and second sales taxes. So that's all we've got for now. Again, we're planning to launch kind of towards the end of August of this year. I'm happy to entertain any questions, or if you'd like to give feedback, just let me know, and we'd be happy to incorporate your feedback. Anybody have any questions?

Mr. Adams, I'm just going to say I'm very impressed. I mean, this is a lot of data, and it looks very user-friendly, and thank you all for your effort on this. I think it's going to be a great aid to the public to see where the money is going and what projects' statuses are. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

All right. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Honeycutt, who chairs the Housing Special Committee.

Thank you, Chairman Boykin. Housing Committee, as made up of myself, Reverend Middleton, Mr. Sass, Mr. Worman, and, of course, the Chairman serves as a member of all committees. At this time, can I have a motion for the approval of the February 5th minutes?

So moved. Second.

Second. Any discussion?

Second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Ayes have it. All right, we're going to move on. Mr. Davis, I understand you have a presentation for us.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. My name is Eric Davis, Director of Housing and Land Management. Thank you for the opportunity to update the committee and council on the actions that are taking place. We can't hear you. Oh, sorry. Shall I start over? All right. Again, Eric Davis, Housing and Land Management, and we're going to give you some updates since we last presented to you last February. This is a brief overview of the agenda. As required in our agreement with South Carolina Community Loan Fund, you'll be receiving an annual report from them. They're our administrative partner for the Housing Trust Fund. You'll also get some updates on progress from community development, revitalization, as well as myself for housing and land management. First up will be Greg Perry, South Carolina Community Loan Fund Program Manager. He's going to provide you that annual update. And most of what he's going to be speaking to aligns with the strategies in the Housing Our Future plan of establishing the trust fund and establishing new gap financing sources. Greg?

Good evening, Council. My name is Greg Perry. I am the Program and Partnership Manager for South Carolina Community Loan Fund. And tonight, I'll be reporting on progress and lessons learned during the first year of the program and will update you on some improvements we are considering. So South Carolina Community Loan Fund and county staff have structured and administered the program on several guiding principles, creating and preserving affordable workforce housing, improving quality of life by creating attainable housing, opportunities near jobs, leveraging public and private capital, and promoting economic growth, encouraging affordable workforce and mixed income communities, and ensuring fiscal responsibility. All projects awarded have been structured as a short-term loan. So far, we have been allocated $14.6 million. Total funds committed are deployed $6.9 million, and the fund balance is about $7.7 million. We have four projects awarded in a total of 272 units. We have four awarded projects where we have 83 of those units are below 80% AMI, 155 units are between 80 to 120 AMI, and 25 units are over a market rate 120% AMI. These homes benefit the individuals who already work and serve in our community. They assist with shortening their commute and gives them an affordable place to live. Active applications in process, we have about three. One in underwriting for $930,000. Due diligence, one at $1 million. In closing stages, we have one at $2 million. The developer demand is steady but expected to increase very soon. Some of our recommendations, increase maximum loan amount cap, continue more active targeted outreach, developer roundtables, meeting them where they are, conferences and industry publications. And some of the feedback we've received so far, because at one point we started off with just giving them $1 million. Then we moved from $1 million to $2 million. So some of the feedback from developers is just, you know, $2 million sub-market loan on a $40 million project didn't really benefit them as much. So we just talked about increasing that cap. Grants, we explore grants through a partially forgivable deferred loan program for home ownership. Grants would be around $1 million. We'll consider that at some point. And the feedback we received from developers thus far is that loans provide very little utility for home ownership projects. So we will explore grants through partially forgivable deferred loan program for home ownership. Thanks.

Just wanted to clarify there what Greg said about the home ownership and the $1 million. We were thinking that out of the remaining funds, perhaps, that might be an amount. But we'll come back to you all with some additional details on that as that's fleshed out. Next up is Luella Smalls, Charleston County Director of Community Development and Revitalization.

Good afternoon, Council. I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to talk about the success that we've had this year in affordable housing in the Community Development and Revitalization Department. As you know, we leverage funds from ARPA, South Carolina Housing Trust, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Urban Entitlement in order to advance your initiative under the Housing Our Future plan. I'd like to start with the ARPA program. I want you to know that we are on track to complete the projects well before the December 31st deadline. We would start with the land acquisition. We have expended 64% of the $4.4 million, and that's produced 248 affordable and workforce units for Charleston County. In our critical home repair program, 92% of the funds have been expended. of the $4.1 million, and that created 304 projects. I want to go back to the land acquisition really quickly. I know that percentage is 4% and it seems low, but there were two projects that you recently approved this year, and we expect them to close in late this month or next month. So that percentage will actually be 100% by the end of August. in our gap in infill financing it was 22.3 million dollars allocated and we are at 92 percent complete in spending the funds we have 300 units of multiple family units completed and 37 units of single family homes completed i wanted to add to that that in the multi-family the ami was on average between 30 to 50 percent so all of our AMI for all of our programs is 80% and below, but in the multifamily area, we were around the 30% to 50%, which is a really good addition because I know with Eric, he stays more in the 80% and above. So I was really pleased with the AMI on our gap in fill financing. And then with our wells, septic tank, and public utility connections, of the 5.5 million, we are at 81%. We were able to do 89 repairs, installations, and connections, and the Snoughton infrastructure project was completed. The only thing that we're waiting for in this particular program is Mount Pleasant Water Works is doing a project for us, and so is the North Charleston Sewer District, and they prefer billing at the end as opposed to billing us ongoing. So those projects are working well. I've met with them. I meet with them every month. They're on target to finish actually earlier, around August, September. And I expect the rest of the funds in the wells and septic program to be spent by then. In our urban entitlement, this is our second largest granting program. I will talk about what we've done between January and June of this year, because this is an annual allocation. And so I don't keep the data ongoing. I just keep it by the year. In the housing program, we are allocated approximately $400,000 of CDBG funds. We were able to repair eight homes this far. As you know, we're trying to spend the ARPA funds before we get into the other funds because the deadline on ARPA is a little closer than my deadline on urban entitlement. On home constructions and rehabilitation, we have about $675,000 a year. So far since January, we have built nine homes. And in the well septic and public utility connections, we get another approximately $675,000 of CDBG funds. And so far, we were able to work on 24 homes in the community. Although we haven't started spending this, I wanted to remind you about the $400,000 that you allocated with the 27 budget, the fiscal year 27 budget. We have not started designing that program. I do want to finish my ARPA projects first, get those out of the way, and then take some time to look at lessons learned, particularly from our critical home repair program. But in the late fall... of this year, maybe early winter, I anticipate bringing a program for you on how we will spend the $400,000 that you allocated this fiscal year. Are there any questions?

I've got a question. And I don't know if it's, I mean, Ms. Smalls, you touched on it. But I think it's actually more about the trust fund. And maybe for some, I'm going to give you the context here, whether you like it or not. I've always viewed our trust fund as sort of a continuation of what we did with a lot of the infill policy that you certainly oversaw. But it does jump out to me a little bit that, when we were doing the infill gap financing, we were hitting that 50 AMI and below target pretty heavily, and I do think that is a credit to the program. And obviously, we're moving sort of more into the 80 AMI range with the trust fund. Is that just a function of the fact that we're just doing loans out of the trust fund, or is there something else that's sort of driving that? And I don't know if that's a question for Mr. Perry or for Ms. Smalls or for whomever, but I just am curious, like, what is driving that? And I'm not necessarily... saying it needs to, that we can't do 80 AMI. I mean, we have needs all over the spectrum from folks who are really, really struggling to folks who are in the middle class. But I am curious what levers might be making those changes.

Yes. With the urban entitlement funds and the ARPA funds, there was a requirement by the federal government that we stayed 80% and below. And so the trust fund is separate. And do you want to elaborate on that?

Yep. No, absolutely. So we have... We have some units, that was my soundtrack. We have some units currently that are below 80% AMI. So we have some units that are 50 and 60% AMI as well. So I think when I mentioned earlier about, I think it was like about 83 or 85 units. Some of those units are at 60% AMI.

Okay. Yeah. I mean, I just, I will say, I do think like if we go back and pull the numbers, I think we would still find though that, i'm sure we've got some below 60. um i'm i'm willing to bet though that that we were a little bit more consistently getting at lower income levels when we were doing it and i just it doesn't have to even be an answer tonight but as we move forward with this we want this to be a program that's in place for a long time and i think the reason we have these annual updates is we might want to change the direction of certain things and so you know The big difference that steps out to me is that we restricted to loans here and there's some policy reasons for doing that certainly when it comes to longevity of the program but I did want to know you know what options we might have if we wanted to try and dip a little bit lower on the AMI spectrum moving forward if that's, again, it seems to me that I'm guessing it's largely about the grants versus the loans, but would love some feedback on that. It doesn't have to be tonight, but it might be something for this council to consider moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Orman. We would absolutely explore those options.

Thank you.

Mr. Bass, do you have any questions from the committee?

I like these. These are good numbers. Thank you all.

Davis, do you have some additional information to share? I do.

I'm going to run right into that now. So last three strategies I'll speak to are land banking, tax abatement, and some zoning updates. As you know, we partner with Charleston Redevelopment Corporation on the Affordable Housing Land Acquisition Program. You all initially allocated $2.5 million to that program. um but just recently over the past couple of months you allocated additional funding and made those awards so that's where we get to the 4.35 million in total allocations and awards and as you can see all funds have been awarded to seven different projects already we have a zero balance it did create 248 attainable units i think You know, that shows a lot of impact because that breaks out to less than $18,000 subsidy per unit that we're subsidizing for 20 to 30 years of affordability. So next, we're going to continue to search out opportunities grants to recapitalize this program. Switching gears to tax abatement, Council has approved two projects to date, both within easy walking distance to the future LCRT, and those will produce 71 affordable and workforce units at both the 60 and 80 AMI levels. We currently have three applications in progress, and inquiries do continue to increase here. I think it will continue to increase with the recent changes in state legislation scaling back some tax exemption through the state. We will continue our enhanced marketing and outreach efforts. And recently, we have been meeting with our municipal partners to make sure they understand the program and that we're catching these developers early on in the planning and entitlement process so that they can consider taking advantage of this program and adding affordable units to their developments when these municipalities think those projects are appropriate. Given that the municipalities control entitlement in 79% of the urban area, this is a very important partnership that we'll continue to build. Planning and zoning. As you know, North Charleston and Charleston have been working on zoning code rewrites. North Charleston's unified development ordinance process kicked off a few months ago. We've been following that closely and participating. Intend to wrap that up next summer. You can learn more at onenorthcharleston.com. City of Charleston's going to solicit feedback on their changes later this year. Internally, the Planning Commission did establish that missing middle housing subcommittee. They've had three meetings to date, and the next one's on July 27th right here in this building. Lastly, and changing gears just a little bit here, I'd like to update you on Mayor Cogswell's rapid rehousing initiative. It's now known as the Hope Center Regional Homelessness Initiative. Last year, council allocated $500,000 of Airbnb settlement funds towards the program. Recent communication, oh, a condition of that award was that the matching funds for the program had to be acquired by June of this year. Communication from the mayor's office just this week said that those funds have not been secured and they hope to revisit the project next year. If it's the committee's desire for staff to come back with a recommendation on how to allocate that $500,000, we'd be happy to do so and happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Mr. Davis. Yes, for our next committee meeting, we would like a staff recommendation on that. In the meantime, members of the committee, any other questions? I think Mr. Moody has a question online.

Thank you, Mrs. Honeycutt. This is excellent information, and I think it continues to show that county council leads the way in housing. And I know this is a very special initiative to a lot of our members. One of my questions are going forward with the community loan fund is I would like to see the money that's coming back in that's revolving back out again. So we make these loans, these developers, whoever pay it back. That money, the interest income, I guess you would call it, the money that's coming back in that's getting redeployed. I would like to see that in future meetings. Thank you, Ms. Hanneke.

Thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Dargie?

Well, not a question, but a comment. I just want to give a shout out to Mr. Greg Perry. He is emblematic of teachers such as myself who taught him that we're not there for the money, that they are taught to become productive citizens. And that's the real purpose of education. And I want to thank Mr. Perry for coming back home to deal with this community, sir. I'm very appreciative. And when you were in middle school, sir, you were always a contemplative kid. You always thought deep in heart. So I want to say I appreciate you, sir. And I'm very proud that you're one of my former students, sir. Thank you very much.

And Mr. Darby, I want to thank you because there's hundreds, if not thousands, of people just like that that you have helped. So we appreciate you. Mr. Worman, did you have anything else?

I do, actually. I would just ask, following up on, maybe sort of piggybacking on Mr. Moody's comment, these tax incentives deals obviously also generate revenue for the county. And I know we get that information when we approve them. But I would be interested in seeing what that sort of schedule looks like. I mean, I don't know when those would first be hitting, but I do think at some point we would be receiving those fee-in-loop payments.

We're going to be at least 18 months to two years out from when those fee payments start. That's after they receive their CO. And similarly to Mr. Moody's question, out of all the loans that have been awarded over the last year, I believe the shortest term may be three years. So we're still three years out from those being completely repaid.

okay well i mean maybe just a comment is we we have sort of set some set some things out there with both of these programs that at some point we'll we'll have revenue coming in um and you know certainly interested in seeing what that sort of schedule looks like granted it sounds like both of them are at least three years away and i mean if they need the co for the tax abatement program then that's probably a good bit more than three years away on those but Nevertheless, as we look towards the future funding of these programs, we've always known that we're going to have to make them somehow self-sufficient, and so starting to get our eyes on that two or three years ahead of time might not be the worst thing.

Thank you. Anybody else? Mr. Davis, if you wouldn't mind, there were a couple of recommendations from Mr. Perry in addition to providing us with some recommendations on how to spend that money. Would you also bring us back whatever they decide to do in terms of the loan cap and the home ownership, partially forgivable, whatever that looks like ultimately? I know that they're operating independently under the agreement we've structured, but if you could just advise us on where those recommendations land.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much. You're welcome. All right. If there's nothing further, I believe this meeting is adjourned.

All right. Well, this time I'll call to order the Environmental Management Committee. Mr. Moody is chair of that committee, but since he's attending virtually, I will chair in his absence. Other members of the committee are Mr. Kabrowski, Mr. Pryor, and Mr. Wehrman, and myself, as I serve on all committees. Item 1, approval of minutes.

Move approval. Second. Second.

Say aye. Aye's have it. Moving over to item number two. Mr. Pryor.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I want to ask Mr. Q to come up and the reason we're here is because the City of North Charleston contacted me about doing a convenience center inside my district. And so we met with them and they had some good recommendations and I Mr Q was there, but I just wanted him to give you this Council don't know you know snippet of what they're looking for. I mean it would be a program that's ran by them and staff by them, but we would help with the initial equipment and starts picking up and transferring the stuff from there. So they're kind of moving out of snail's pace, but we wanted to get this in front of us. So when the time does come, Mr Q has the. No ability to do what needs to be done. So if you would allow him to just give us a little brief on what we got going on, I'd appreciate it, sir.

Absolutely. Good evening, Mr. Keith. Good evening, everyone. You can hear me? Yes, sir.

Really can't, right? All right. So what Mr. Pryor said... About two years ago, just to give you a little history, about two years ago, we applied for grants to build a community site, a needed community site in North Charleston and one in Mount Pleasant. We did not get the grants, but the need for those things is still imperative. Anybody who's seen Mount Pleasant and North Charleston... They need to be serviced a bit. So Michelle Lloyd, on April of 2026, proposed the site of 4212 Scott Street. We met with them, we talked about it, and Ms. Lloyd did inform everyone in the meeting North Charleston will be willing to staff the site and run operations, while Charleston County Environmental Management would be responsible for the hauling process of the material at the site. Of course, there's little things that go in there, but we'll get to those things. Necessity for this. Everybody in that area, first of all, unincorporated area, as well as others that live in that area, have to drive to Bees Ferry. It's kind of an inconvenient site, if you think about it. And so it's an overload at Bees Ferry. There's more traffic out on Bees Ferry Road. There's just a lot that we could avoid with this. And not to mention servicing people in North Charleston, I think is a necessity. I really do. There are... Well, at this point, we went to Mount Pleasant and we talked with them because we tied these all together. And Mount Pleasant, the unmanned site, finally put cameras up there. I'm sorry I did. We can actually see when that place is closed, everybody there. Hundreds of people just coming and doing whatever they want. We need to build a site there. Mount Pleasant, it's just very limited on what they're willing to let us do. North Charleston, on the other hand, came forward. Mr. Pryor, Ms. Lloyd came forward, suggested a terrific piece of property, I thought. The other thing is there's enough room on this. I want to say this right. It's a capacity to function as a storm debris lay down yard, offering ample space for the temporary staging, storage, and management of debris generated during storm events. They have that area. It's located well for us. I just have to make sure I cross T's and dot I's, Mr. Pryor and North Charleston, and then I will give you everything we have. But there was kind of a rush initially when I met Ms. Lloyd two weeks ago at the site. We walked through it, and she said, we want to open this on January 1st. And I said, oh, well, that's good to think like that. And then he called me about a week later and said, just slow down. This was after I reached out to Mr. Pryor and everybody else. He said, we had some... Changes maybe to the drawings, because the fire department's putting something there. But that was all put into our plan. But there were some changes. And so she said, just hold off a little bit. But this is still a deal that they want to make, or they want to do. So just wanted to keep everybody up to date on all of this. If you have questions, I'll answer them. I do rarely get to get you all together. I do have an environmental management three-minute breakdown. Because Mr. Thigpen said I had three minutes to talk. So I just want to go real quick through it. I promise I will not tie it up. I see how busy we are. Plus, I'm the only one from my group speaking. I mean, the other people had four or five people. All right, so. Our administration and programs collaborated with community center to conduct frequent site visits to provide customer service and safety training to site attendants. Created training of videos, flyers, and signage of media to train on the safety first handling and shipping of lithium, which is a big deal. Worked daily with Republic to mentor a level of competency for Charleston County taxpayers. They did tours of the MRF and the landfill. We had 50 tours this past year. And we had 20 community events, including Earth Day event that will be remembered by a certain banana dressed knucklehead. That was me. Okay, landfill. Cells three and six, we saw construction the first Monday of August, okay? One of those cells was an ash. Three that we're recapturing. Six is brand new. With an ash from the old burner days. The bids came in with people telling us what per ton for removing all the ash so they could build the cell. Just a proud moment. I even wrote that. The bids included tens of thousands of dollars in removal of the ash from cell three. We handled it, 60% of it, just no extra cost except Steve okayed me to rent two trucks for like two weeks, and that was it. And we've been working on it nonstop since then, and we got 60% done. Ash is great for our roads. We haven't gotten complaints on the roads because, I mean, it's mud and trash, and now it's ash. And when ash gets wet, it calcifies, it gets a little bit more sturdy. So we took away 60% of that, which will save the county a little bit of money on the bottom line. Okay, new technology at the landfill, still working on it. It didn't work out the way, we did a trip and I learned it quite a bit, but there's better examples of the technology I want to do. We're not going to go into that too much, but it's too worthwhile to give up on because of one bad term. We just need, the science works, so we have to look at it.

No, we'll get past that.

Gas collection, we got turned down from the gas collection because Dominion just had, were too full in their pipes and we could not discharge the gas from there and it became this. But one of the companies that bid originally built a plant in Georgetown to take gas and they have the trucks to haul it. So if this other technology, which would be if properly done, would be worlds better. At least gas collection, revenue generation, and the gas collection system that, again, we don't pay for, that the vendor would pay for, could go into place. They are very anxious to do this. We have to see the other things just a little bit longer. And they're willing to wait. The MRF, the RFP for the MRF, we are changing. Well, not changing, but we put out for bid somebody to run the MRF. We have the same company here. Since I got here, I understand there were very few people bidding that one back then. We have several now, and good ones too. But the current ones there, CRS, they have as good a shot as anybody. They just have to bid it right. and uh oh yeah last thing cameras we have cameras everywhere we have 150 cameras now so we can watch everything uh disagreements and convene sites we can uh actually see so we don't have to make up you know what actually happened and uh that's it three minutes steve okay uh any questions about anything any questions from mr q tonight it was i think mr sassadena

Mr. Pryor? Yeah, go ahead.

Mr. Q, how big is this property on Scott Street? How many acres?

The dimension, it is, you know, Mr. Pryor, I wrote it down.

Six acres or something? Yeah, it's about six acres.

It's a big piece of property. Yes.

Do we have to buy it, or how are we going to acquire it?

The city owns it. They are donating it to build a convenience site. We are going to just service it. They're going to hire their own people to run it, but part of the negotiation was they have to operate under Charleston County rules. We can't have one inconsistent site. As far as our signage and everything else that we do, we will have one of the supervisors from currently from our community sites, we'll have him work hand-in-hand with their person that they pick, so we're all aligned and there is a symmetry to everything we all do.

Right. That sounds great.

I think so, too.

Really great. Thank you.

You're welcome. Mr. Sass, a fire station will be built next to it as well.

So to be closer to the community.

That old one on Lee's Avenue is outdated. It should have been gone 25 years ago. So that's one of the things that they wanted to have. And so I think it should be great for the area. Folks won't have to leave on Saturday to travel up and down Bees Ferry Road. They can be serviced in the city. And I guess we'd probably see some people from Mount Pleasant instead of going to Bees Ferry. We'll come and drop off as long as they live in Charleston County. But Mr. Chairman, I'd like to... Make a motion to allow the administrator, when the time comes, to negotiate whatever Mr. Q needs to make this happen. So that way it won't be a repeating process. The administrator can go ahead and do what is necessary because the funding is there, from what I understand. So that would be my motion. Allow the administrator. I'll second that, Mr. Breyer. Thank you, Mr. Woody and Mr. Q, to move forward when North Charleston is ready.

All right. Properly moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Yes, Ms. Honeycutt.

Question, Mr. Q. Is there a video of the banana suit from Earth Day?

I burned most of the pictures, but there's still one or two floating.

You've got to love this guy. You've got to love this guy. Thank you. Thank you, everybody.

Thank you, Mr. Q.

Thank you, Mr. Q.

All right, this time we'll adjourn the Environmental Management Committee, and I'm going to hand it over to Mr. Pryor.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are going to our Administrative Rules and Policy Committee. We have two items on the agenda. Myself, Ms. Honeycutt, Reverend Milton, and Mr. Sass are members, along with our chair, ex-officio at all committees. Item number one is approval of the minutes of June 18th, 2026. Move to approve. Second. Second. Any deletion or additions? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

all opposed eyes have it item number two this is uh our new policy that will bring our contingency right in line with all of our council outside agencies requests i think we discussed that about a couple weeks prior so if there's no discussion what is the pleasure of this committee mr park can we go ahead just for everybody's benefit and outline what it was absolutely go right ahead

No, I would like you to.

Okay, so what this entails is when someone would come and ask for money from out of council contingency, they would be subject to the same rule as anybody else with outside agencies, meaning they would have to go through our staff, have the proper paperwork, and most of the time they would have to be upfront money and then be reimbursed. They would get some portion of the money, but the rest would require matching money and then to be reimbursed.

Okay.

Yes, ma'am.

I just wanted to make sure we were clear. We didn't set any policy on limits of what they could ask for?

No. No limit. It's just their qualifications. Just qualifications. They go through the whole process, and if this council deems it necessary, but this will only happen with council contingency, but it would be in line with our whole policy as well as outside agencies.

Thank you. I'd move to approve.

Okay. I'll second. Any discussion? All in favor say the power by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Ayes have it. That concludes our Administrative Policy and Rules Committee. We move to Planning and Public Works. All members of council participate. We have two items on the agenda. The first is the approval of the minutes of June 18th. Let me see. That's 16, 18, 18. Okay. I thought it was right. 2026. Move. Second by Ms. Heineken. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, ayes have it. Item. Number 2A is a presentation that the chairman had asked for. Ms. Emily Swearinger will be making that presentation. I got your name right. So Ms. Swearinger, the floor is yours. And I would ask that council hold questions until she is finished, write them down, and then she can answer. Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Honeycutt and council members and staff for allowing me to come present today on the Central Park and Riverland Drive project. I'm Emily Swearington. I'm the consultant project manager for the project and have been with the project since we started with the county. So I'm going to give you a little bit of an overview today. I have a short presentation, five to ten minutes, maybe eight slides. Just a little history of this intersection and the intersection improvements recommended here. The project began in the early 2010-2012 timeframe. When DOT identified the project as a safety project because of the crash statistics, they moved forward with the design for the project. There were some significant tree impacts. So the city of Charleston did not want to move forward at that time with the project. So the DOT took the safety funding and took the project off the list for improvements. And the county then took it on as part of the sales tax program to make improvements there. And so we began in 2018. working directly with the county to identify projects that would improve safety and congestion and look at multimodal while minimizing tree impacts. So that was really the goal. The 2021, after we had gone to the public on several projects, occasions and had multiple alternatives we had the council had redirected to wanted to redirect the project and look at more multimodal improvements and safety improvements and try to minimize property impacts and so in 2024 the need and purpose was redefined and it was looking at shared juice path along the riverland drive corridor and doing some improvements for operations with the addition of a right turn lane within right away at the intersection There were still some concerns at that time with property impacts. And so in 2025, the scope was reduced to look at more of a sidewalk improvement for most of the corridor and then repairing the sidewalk north of the school in that area. So there's 4,700 feet of sidewalk, but it's some repairs Some, you know, eight foot or six foot, and then some at the very end that's a little larger like a shared use path. Where we are today in 2026 is we have submitted and gotten all of our Army Corps permits, our land disturbance permits, our DOT approvals, and the last thing that's really pending to move the current project to construction is tree removal approval from council. Okay. Just to go over real quick the goals of the project, 2018, this was our need and purpose, moving traffic, improving safety for all modes while minimizing the trees, grand tree impacts. And in 2024, we really redefined that to minimize impacts to the properties and the trees, but look at a more multimodal focus. I just provide this as a little bit of an overview of the crash history and statistics, which was the original driver from the project back in 2010, 2012 timeframe. And you can just see over the years how it continues to still have significant crashes and a variety of injury crashes and fatalities. Real quick, to go over the alternatives, in 2013, when DOT decided to stop work on that alternative, they were proposing a signal at this location with additional turn lanes. There was about 0.08 acres of impact to the right-of-way and some tree impacts there. It would operate well, but there were, at that time, there was not a house that on the corner property there, number 32. And therefore, if you were to do it now, there would be impacts to that structure that has been built at that time. at this time. In 2018, when we had looked at eight alternatives and got narrowed down to two, there were really two running alternatives. This is alternative one. It was a version of the signalized intersection. What it saved the trees down Central Park, so it would really have been more a boulevard feel with the trees down the middle, large, median. And it operated well. There were still some tree impacts. But it saved the grand trees that we were looking to save down Central Park. But this one did have property impacts to the Blake property. This is just another rendering of that, kind of shows you that boulevard. The original intersection improvement also was in the eight that was evaluated, but due to tree impacts at that time, it was also eliminated. We looked at an alternative three that looked at an elongated roundabout option. It saved the trees down Central Park. It would not impact the property on the corner that has been built and provided good operations. And this is what that one looked like. And then in 2024, we shifted to more of the multimodal focus. It includes the right turn lane on Central Park within right-of-way, replacing the sidewalk there on Central Park, putting in a RRFB for a pedestrian flashing beacon for the students that are crossing there. And then as I mentioned, the sidewalk improvements that will be along Riverland on that side. Though we still have congestion issues, And it's not going to be signalized in this current plan. So operations for Central Park Road are at an F, but Riverland still drives and moves along the corridor. And then just as our current time frame, so it kind of shows we've completed all of the permitting, except for the tree impact by administrative approval here, which is pending by the county. But plans are ready to be signed and ready for construction. Any questions?

Any questions? Just one right quick while you're up. So this plan that's here now includes a signal?

The plan that is currently going to construction includes a flashing beacon for pedestrians, but not a traffic signal.

So, and secondly, would a traffic light actually improve that F that's on Rivlin?

A traffic light would improve operations, although it does require the turn lane addition. So there's a left turn lane on Riverland as well as a right turn lane on Riverland. So the Central Park leg could stay the same or close to the same, but there would be a need for turn lanes to be added.

And if we were to move forward with this recommendation with the traffic light, this would not impede us moving forward with the project as far as permitting. We won't have to start all over again.

We would. We would because we haven't permitted a traffic light there. And it would also include, as the earlier version in 2013 when DOT had it and in our alternatives, it does cause right-of-way impacts on the north side of the property or on the east. east side of the property on the Blake property. So we have not acquired right away from them, but the only way to get the turn lane in on that side as well as for the right turn lane would be to impact those properties, which have not been impacted at this point with the current plan.

So are we talking another year or two for permitting? Probably, yeah. Yeah, that's a little...

And there's also utilities on that side of the road, overhead power lines. And right now, they do have prior rights. So any impacts to them does require us to, one, compensate for the relocation. But if we go and widen on that side, then it'll push the utilities out a little bit farther as well.

OK. Mr. Chapman?

Thank you, Mr. Pryor. I think my point I want to make right now is I understand where we are in the process and how we got here. But for me, it doesn't seem like it's really solving the safety aspects of this intersection. And the signal would be a much needed improvement on the one hand. Was a urban roundabout ever contemplated at that intersection?

It was. We actually, in the eight alternatives I mentioned in the 2018 timeframe, multiple of those were versions of a roundabout with slip lanes, either at the existing intersection or maybe realigning to the Lucky Street because we have all the school traffic. And all of them failed in either the AM or the PM or both. So the traditional roundabout did not work with the volume that we had.

So I guess my follow-up would be if that won't work, would the signal be a substantial improvement if that were the path forward?

The signal did have AB operations and the level of service that you're familiar with that. So the signal did provide those improvements and acceptable for operations. Okay.

And I guess I'll wrap this up with this. If we go forward with what we're pursuing now, could the work we're going to do, could that be incorporated into the signal project if the council decided to pursue that later?

Yes. Yes.

Thank you. I'm sorry.

Just because you and I share this district, I want to speak to this, because this is one of the difficulties in moving projects forward. I mean, I'll be honest. I'm pretty disappointed when I look back. I mean, this project is 14 years old when we look back. Sad that the city initially objected to it, really for all of those residents and obviously for all the accidents that happened in the interim. But this is part of the challenge and the beauty of having public input because what we want to deliver is what's best for everyone in that area, the best we can achieve. What has changed significantly in the interim from when I got on council until now is that we are not going to have a dot grade intersection up the road connecting 526 and that was contemplated in some of these original designs and so without that this has become a thoroughfare i completely understand the neighborhood dissatisfaction with sort of a lesser improvement than what could ultimately resolve some of the traffic flow issue but as someone who ran on safer roads it does make it safer in the multimodal context, which is why we move forward. So my hope is that we can get at least this interim done and the next person to take this seat can determine whether or not we can improve on that. But sometimes it's one step at a time. And so I appreciate all of the work that AECOM has done to get us this point and to staff for managing all of the communication over the last eight years. And I look forward to some improvement. Thank you.

Mr. Sass. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This site has a lot of things that have to be worked around. And so we've been working this for a while. And the main thing for me is there's a school there and a community. And safety is, of course, building on what Ms. Honeycutt said and Mr. Boykin. Safety is the most important thing. So that's what we're really concerned about. We want to get that right, and we want the community to be happy with it, too. But thank you very much. This looks like a step in the right direction. Thank you very much. Mr. Kabrowski?

In view of the comments, then, especially Councilmember Honeycutt, What is the recommendation to move it forward now so we can maximize the benefits without delay?

This is on the table now unless we make a change.

Okay.

Anybody else? Well, I kind of agree with Ms. Honeycutt. I think we need to move this forward and we can always improve on this and start if we want to do a signalized, we can start the process and maybe by the time this is completed, you know, we will have the proper paperwork in hand to move this forward. So, Mr. Chairman, I hope that answers your questions. You had asked us to go back over this.

Yes, sir, it does. Yeah, I realize I don't want to stop the process now because we are invested in it, but I also like the confirmation that we can use this as a stepping stone to get a better improvement later on.

Okay. So, all right, Mr. Tootin and staff and Mr. Thigpen, y'all got your marching orders. Move forward. Thank you. Okay? We don't need a motion because it's already... Can we approve the trees tonight?

Can we approve the trees tonight?

Yes, we can approve whatever trees they need done. That's a recommendation. Authorize staff to remove the trees as necessary if someone wants to make a motion.

I think there's a process for that. If any of them are grand trees, they have to come have a public hearing and all that. So, Mr. Dickman, you weigh in on... Do we have any of that to deal with? I'm sorry. We did do the trees at that intersection for the ones that are in the county. We did do that the other day. There were some trees that The other issue was because of the scenic byway designation for Riverland Drive, trees that aren't grand trees are also considered, so we had to do all those as well. So, yeah, we have done that.

Yes, ma'am. Yes, we did that. So, I mean, as far as I can turn, depending on legal problems, we just move forward because we've already voted to move this and approve it, right? All right. So, Mr. Dickman, you got your marching orders. All right. Anything else? That concludes our planning and public works committee meeting. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

We're going to move into our finance committee. All members of council are members of this committee, and I serve as chair. Item 1, approval of minutes.

Second.

All opposed? Aye. All opposed? Ayes have it.

All right, Mr. Chairman, 2A through K, I move for approval because I don't think I got any conflict on that either, so.

All right, but let me get, do we have a second? I'll second it for discussion. Mr. Williamson.

I mean, I think I've just got a question here, and I think it mainly operates on 2i, although maybe 2j and 2k. I remember a long time ago, maybe not that long ago, a year or so ago, we had a big sort of public concern and outcry about a SLED grant. maybe having some sort of strings attached through DHS that would have required the county to cooperate with any sort of DHS ICE-type operations. I think we kind of ran that to ground last time. Are we just confident that there's no issue there? The only one that really popped out was 2I, although I guess 2J and 2K might feasibly have some similar concerns.

Yes, we're on the ground. It's not associated with any ICE operations at all.

Thank you. Discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Aye. Ayes have it. All right, moving on to item three.

Move approval 3A through E. Any discussion?

All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Item four.

Move for committee members who made staff recommendation.

Second. I'm catching up here. Thank you, Mr. Sass. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Aye. Item five.

Move for staff recommendation. Second.

All right.

We have properly moved and seconded. Any discussion?

I have some.

Go ahead, Mr. Bobrowski.

Again, I'll ask my standard questions. This is a public meeting. I assume that Project Minor is not the real name, and I'd follow up as what is the necessity for this tax incentive and How is this project different from other businesses that are similarly situated that aren't getting this tax incentive, and what is the cost to us?

Mr. Kabrowski? Yes, sir. Thank you. Yes, sir. In the other sheet, it was updated, and it reads with the holding companies that are all attached to this. There's multiple holding companies that are attached to this, and again, you you can see them all and then there are two operating entities one of them is tpg hotels and resorts and the other one is suntex marinas they will be operating the hotel or resort as well as the marina and this is a a transfer or an assignment and assumption so we're just transferring the pilot to them sir um and so there there is no cost at this point all right mr wehrman it says financial incentive what is the financial incentive The financial incentive was the pilot that was negotiated back in the late 90s. Mr. Wehrman?

Okay. Yeah, I just wanted to kind of confirm a few things as I understand it. So, and I think you mentioned, you know, this was a deal effectively that was made in the late 90s, and we're just, you know, they're obviously selling some of their assets, and we're letting them transfer the benefits of that deal to the new buyers. Is that correct, Mr. Johnson?

That is correct, yes, sir.

The other thing that I understand is that The state actually really has the authority to make this decision. And if we were to say no and the state says yes, I don't know why I can't silence my iPad. But I did want to just clarify, if we say no and the state says yes, do we get sued? Maybe that's a question for legal.

That is very likely. Under the terms of this contract, the state is positioned to provide authorization, and once that authorization is provided, county council really has no other option but to agree.

And maybe just one more question. Is that authorization decision going to be made subsequent, and if we need to revisit that, we will have a third reading to do so after the state's made its decision?

That is correct.

Thank you.

Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Moving on to

Move for approval on 6A, and I got a motion for 6B.

Okay. 6A, you have a second? Second. All right. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. All right. Moving on to 6B. Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir.

On 6B and lower of our discussion that we had at the last meeting, I'm going to move to suspend a certificate of historic appropriateness approval authority of the Historic Preservation Commission. and direct the zoning and planning director to review and consider certificate applications received during this suspension. Any appeals or decisions of the director shall be heard by county council. I further direct the administrator and county attorney to review the historic preservation ordinance and provide any recommendations for council review and consideration.

OK. Do I have a second?

Second.

All right. Properly moved and properly seconded. Any discussion?

Yeah. Listen, we've talked about this. We've had a number of executive sessions. And I understand the concern when we when we uh revised the ordinance um a couple years ago i think you know we certainly shuffled the deck a little bit i think we we put some some tools in there for um the commission to to be able to make these decisions you know we might have a difference of opinion as to you know what the scope of authority of the hpc is i'm not ready to do something like this um i i don't think now is necessarily the time to do it. I know we've worked on a number of trainings with them. But listen, this is a type of a commission that there's examples for it. I understand there's other trainings through the state or through some professional organizations that maybe we can explore. And frankly, when we get down to the crux of it, we can't be too afraid of getting sued. I mean, for the thing to work, there's going to be someone who might wind up being disappointed. You know, we might have to test this out at some point. So, you know, I don't think we're at the point of suspending it at this point, so I can't support this. But I certainly do understand the need to address the situation we're facing.

We're not suspending the board. We're just suspending the decision-making. And this is just one decision. It doesn't take away all the other decisions.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. It doesn't take away the other decisions. This is more of a legal battle. And, you know, and you know from some of the executive sessions, you know, I don't want to make it too public. But, you know, it puts us in a kind of awkward position and it puts the attorney. And so, you know, by conferring and consulting with her, I'm going to follow the advice of the attorney because you can't go wrong. But if I do, I'll blame her.

Mr. Kabrowski.

I think Councilmember Wehrman said it well, and I just echo what he thought. We appointed and created this Historic Preservation Commission for a purpose and a reason, and I think they're doing it, and I think that it would be a mistake and a bad message to send out to curtail what they do because we don't like some of the things said or done at the meetings, because the same could be said of people out there about our own meetings.

So I don't think that's a basis for curtailing them.

I would keep it intact, and I would be a no in this.

Any further discussion? Mr. Moody, go ahead.

thank you mr boykin um i i i disagree with some of the previous comments i i appreciate this motion by mr fryer i'm going to support it uh this group has been a disaster and you know about being afraid of being sued we're sued every time because these this group is not following the rules they've had training they've been told in meetings you cannot consider this and they go and consider it This group is just out of control. And I would go further. I'm going to support Mr. Pryor's motion. I'd go further and wipe the whole thing out. But I'm going to support this tonight until we can figure out how to structure this group that's better. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Okay. Any further discussion? Hearing none, Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Yes, sir. Mr. Darby? Aye. Mrs. Honeycutt? Aye. Mr. Kabrowski? Aye. Mr. Middleton is absent. Mr. Moody? Aye. Mr. Pryor? Aye. Mr. Sass? Aye. Mr. Worman? Nay. Mr. Boykin? Aye. The motion passes with one, two, three, four, five, six ayes, two nays, and one absent.

Okay, moving on to 6C, fiscal year 27 budget amendments.

For staff recommendation to amend the budget, and if Mr. Tootin wants to tell us why, but I've already spoken to him. I always call to get information. Before we come to meeting, because I don't want to put nobody on the spot, but if he wants to. For the public to a second, Mr. prior's motion. Yeah, I think this is needed. And Mr 2 and I appreciate your willingness to do this forward because it puts us in a better position about what you're doing. And again. you know i appreciate your willingness to do this because you know most folks at this time they just stand it and put their feet in cement but you're moving with something that's uh constructive and um i think it helps the county and it gives you a tool in your toolbox if needed i don't think i can say it any better than that sir okay sir discussion

Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?

Aye. I think one day down here, Mr. Warren. This will come back up Tuesday.

All right. Moving on to item seven.

Move for staff. I don't think we have a recommendation.

I think it was just. So no recommendations on those? Yeah. All right.

No, these are just information.

Okay, so this time we'll adjourn the committee's meeting and moving on. Thank you.

I don't have that.

Moving on to the special county council agenda, Freedom of Information Act.

In compliance with the Freedom of Information Act, notice of meeting was posted and agendas were distributed to news media and persons requesting notification.

Okay. Item number two, committee recommendations with first reading.

Move for committee recommendation.

Second. All right. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Aye.

Okay. An ordinance authorizing the execution and delivery of an assignment and assumption of payment in lieu of tax agreements by and among Charleston Harbor Holding Company, LLC, 20 Patriots Point Hotel, LLC, and Charleston County, South Carolina, whereby Charleston Harbor Holding Company, LLC, will assign to 20 Patriots Point Hotel, LLC, all of its rights, title, and interest in and to the real... Personal property subject to the payment in lieu of tax agreements and all of its rights and obligations which arise or relate to the period on and after the closing date as defined in the purchase and sale agreement under the payment in lieu of tax agreements to 20 Patriots Point Hotel LLC. authorizing the execution and delivery of an estoppel certificate relating thereto and other matters relating thereto and an ordinance authorizing the execution and delivery of an assignment and assumption of payment in lieu of tax agreements by and among charleston harbor holding company llc charleston harbor smi llc charleston harbor propco series and charleston harbor SMI LLC, Charleston Harbor Opco Series in Charleston County, South Carolina, whereby Charleston Harbor Holding Company LLC will assign to Charleston Harbor SMI LLC, Charleston Harbor Propco Series, and Charleston Harbor SMI LLC, Charleston Harbor Opco Series all of its right title, and interest in and to the real and personal property subject to the payment in lieu of tax agreements and all of its rights and obligations which arise or relate to the period on or after the closing date as defined in the purchase and sale agreement under the payment in lieu of tax agreements to Charleston Harbor SMI LLC, Charleston Harbor Prop Co. Series, and Charleston Harbor SMI LLC, Charleston Harbor Op Co. Series. authorizing the execution and delivery of an estoppel certificate relating thereto and other matters relating thereto.

All right. That's a mouthful. No, thank you. I don't think I got all that. 2B, FY27.

Move for the committee recommendation. Second. All right.

Properly moved and seconded. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Nay. We've got one nay.

okay an ordinance to amend the 2026-2027 budget ordinance number 2391 here and after referred to as fiscal year 2027 budget ordinance to amend section 15c regarding the sheriff's salary repeal section 15d and other matters relating there too um chairman i just misunderstood the last vote i thought when irina i'm gonna name on that

Put you down as a nay? Okay. Mr. Krabach is a nay on 2A. On 2A?

Yes, ma'am. I didn't mean to interfere with this one.

All right. Was he also a nay in finance? I think he would be, yes, ma'am.

Okay. All right. Nothing further. We are adjourned.