County Council - Regular Meeting

of buyer needs. For some that is historical R2 single family dwellings on larger parcels of land. For some that is not. That might be town houses. That might be apartments. And the investment by builders will be dictated by market demands. No developer comes into our county or any other with an expectation not to sell and to lose money. Your county staff and council will be working on a new plan this spring, a new comprehensive plan. And I hope that all of you interested in the growth and development of our county will bring the same energy to that process that I'm seeing in what now appears to be an effort to object to almost any development that we're bringing forward to this council. A community that does not work to to grow will die. As we work to bring economic development success to Greenwood County, an area in which we have thrived over the past five years, we lose if the employees filling those jobs do not choose to reside here with us. I want you to think about that for just a minute. We must have a diversified housing portfolio. In part, the comprehensive plan is designed to help do just that. Economic development in this county keeps your taxes low. You live in a county that has not imposed a millage increase on our taxpayers in 12 and a half years. I'm going to say that again. 12 and a half years. I challenge you to find another county in the state that can make that statement. So, what I want you all to know is we work hard to balance these things for your benefit and on your behalf. This council appreciates and encourages our residents to come before us and express your opinions on all topics, all topics that come before us that we have the authority and oversight to to carry

out. In my time as chairman, I've gone out of my way, as has this council, to give latitude in how we receive public comment and s and certainly during periods of public hearings. But the tone and conduct of some of our recent county meetings have caused me to believe that my own personal nature and tendency to overlook what might in some cases be the public's straying from proper decorum only invites further issues of that type. So while the public should have the opportunity to address your elected representatives always, that communication will be done in a manner that is within proper decorum and that council deserves and requires. Therefore, I'm going to take this moment to clarify several issues. Greenwood County Code 214 states that the chairman shall act as a presiding officer of the council. This requires me to direct and manage these county council meetings. During the past, but especially during my tenure as chairman, we have allowed communications, particularly between county council and members to the public, to be very casual, and I like it to be that way. But casual also demands that we be courteous. However, we seem to have entered a new era recently where I believe that similar cooperative spirits and members of our staff have somewhat been taken advantage of. This is not going to happen in these county council meetings. Therefore, what I'm going to do, I'm going to lay out for you the way I'm going to run these meetings going forward. [snorts] First, everyone will receive three minutes to speak and deliver your comments, unless you were given additional time by the chairman. I don't like to cut people off in mid-sentence

and I will tend not to do that as long as I'm not hearing the same thing that I've heard four times before you. If you represent an organization or group of people who have the same thoughts, I would encourage you to have a spokesperson for that group. [snorts] Second thing, um you will address your comments to the chairman and not to specific county me council members. I will not tolerate any theatrics, including but not limited to intense to attempts to insight attendees. I'm not going to tolerate people turning around and speaking to the crowd. I'm not going to tolerate any of that. So, uh, no addressing the public audience, any such behavior will forfeit your time to continue to speak. and um I will immediately require you to sit down. Failure to adhere to adhere will result in your being removed from the meeting. If at any time a member of the public becomes unruly and fails to follow the directions of the chair, that person will be removed by law enforcement. We are not going to conduct ourselves in the manner in which we see other communities conducting themselves. We're going to conduct ourselves properly and we're going to have cordial and respectful conversations and we want to have those conversations. County Council members will not ask questions to provide statements regarding the speaker's comments. Uh the county chairman will will I will evaluate the need for more information and certainly I will frequently ask council if they have specific questions but any continued dialogue um will be um by their request. Everybody good with that? Okay. All right. Thank you for listening,

Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. Um just remind everyone tonight that um uh because I think a lot of people here for the one in district 6 which is u old aville highway and and woodlon road that this is first reading and title only. So we welcome their comments but they need to understand there will not be a vote on this tonight. Vote will come on the 17th. They just need I want to make sure everybody was aware of that. And that was my next order of business. You sorry about that.

No no you're welcome to speak tonight. I've got one, two, three, four, five. I got about eight people that signed that have signed up to speak and you're welcome to speak, but you but this is first reading. So, our public hearing will be held at our next council meeting. And I frankly would encourage you to to save your comments for that point in time because that's what it's designed for. But if you choose to speak tonight and speak again, you're welcome to. Okay. All right. Now, let's go back to our normal business. Councilwoman Bishop, I believe you have our our invocation. Let's pray. All right. Now, [laughter] [clears throat]

thank everybody for being here. Father, in the name of Jesus, we just come before you today thanking you for your many blessings. Thank you for the opportunity to come before you, Lord, as a county and as a council. And Lord, I ask that you bless each and every individual here today. That you keep them. That you watch over them, Lord. That you bless their families. And Lord, I ask that you help us to [snorts] make the best decisions for Greenwood County. Lord, we thank you and we honor you. And it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.

We have uh count well, excuse me. Let's go ahead and say the pledge. And I'll tell you what, I'm getting ahead of myself. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We have county employees here tonight to be recognized. Yes, ma'am. I missed it. I'm sorry. Every one of them missed it. I missed it. When I asked Mr. chapel to tell you the reasons that we had to hold a lengthy executive session. I failed to ask for a motion from council that we exe that we exit exe.

So move, Mr. Chairman. I second. So all that stuff that I said leading up to now, y'all can just remember you heard it. Have a motion and a second. All in favor we exe and we are out of executive session. Thank you. Can I say it all again? Please don't. We have [laughter] county employees here to be recognized tonight. So, what I'm going to do, I'm going to move them in in front of public comment because there's no reason in them having to stay for for a length of time. So, Susan, you got the you got it. Okay. So, council, if you care to come down front, come down. If you don't choose to, you can stay [snorts] where you don't give us

I'm Go. I'm go. But you stay with

So for the county employees, when you come forward, Abby just said she's going to take the pictures outside. That'll kind of speed up the process for us since we got a lot of business to conduct tonight. Thank you. M. First, our rising star nominees. I'm going to call out the names. Darby Derek from the tax office.

[laughter] Good job, Darby. Thank you so much. They'll take your picture outside later. Kevin Elely from administration. [applause] For those of you who have not met him, Kevin Elie is our new code enforcement officer. Been here. How long you been here, Kevin? Almost a year. Almost a year. [applause]

Tony Gilmore from the clerk of courts clerk of court's office. [applause] Good job. Thank you so much.

Ginger Pearson from our treasurer's office. [applause] Haley Mallister from the magistrates's office. [applause] Maybe Haley's not here tonight. And last in our rising star nominees, Allison Scott from our economic development office. [applause] Thank you. Appreciate you.

Our next category is our star employee nominations. Our first from the auditor's office, Rhonda Boyd. [applause] again from our master's office. Holly Davenport. [applause] Thank you. Almost didn't see you in there.

I know. I was so Hey, darling. Good to see you. From our IT and GIS department, Miss Lisa Davis. [applause]

Thank you. Thank you, Lisa. Appreciate you again [clears throat] from our administration, Mr. Kevin Haley [applause] [snorts] from our clerk of C's off clerk of curt court's office. I'm telling God tonight. Kayla Frier [applause]

from our assessor's office. Elizabeth Hanland [applause] from our recycling department. Michael Quilty. [applause] again from the clerk of court's office. Lindsay Reynolds [applause] Solid Waste Collections. Mr. Robert Skelton. [applause]

Took you eight years to get me here. [laughter] Thank you, Robert. From our treasurer's office, Lewis Sly. [applause]

and from our tax office, Alen Trailer. [applause] Our next category is departmental head nominees from the parks and recreation department. Mr. Brad Cuddle. And unfortunately, Mr. Cuddle has announced his soontobe retirement. So when's that retirement date, Brad? We're gonna work the heck out of you between now and then. [laughter]

Thank you for finalist for our rising star of 25 award, Mr. Kevin Elely. Again, [applause and cheering] Kevin, you might want to just stand up here with me. [applause] And from the magistrate's office, Haley Mallister. [applause] Yeah, this is getting the same kind of rig.

Where's Haley? Oh, Haley's not here. Excuse me. finalist for star employee of 25 from IT GIS department, Lisa Davis, [applause]

me again. Thank you, Lisa. And the guy that we lost for eight years from solid waste collection, Mr. Robert Skelton. [laughter] We're trying to make it up to you. Robert, [laughter] how y'all doing? [laughter] Okay.

Okay. We do have a a a recognition for you, Brad, if you come back up here. Um, department head of the year nomination. Mr. Brad cup. [applause]

Hey, retirees. Okay. And these are our retirees 2526 that go through January 31st, 26. Lieutenant Christopher Stling from the sheriff's department. Is Christopher here? Not here. Karen Davis with 28 years and one day. [applause]

Thank you. I think my notes here say that Karen Karen worked in tax collector's office currently back in the tax collector's office and working in delinquent collections. Is that right K? Huh? I did current and delinquent together. I did delinquent. Okay. The last five months I did current and helped them out with did delinquent. [laughter] Yes. Yeah. Just keep it. She worked in the tax office. Yeah. [laughter] and last 32 years, six months in one day. Wendy Williams. [applause]

I'd talk about all the great things you did, but I'd mess that up, too. So, thank you. 28 years, four months, and five days. Stephanie Sum. [applause] Oh, I thought that was her again, huh? So, I don't think Stephanie's here. Brad Barnett is not here, is he? I haven't seen Brad. I'm sorry, Barnell. Brad's not here. Well, Brad's been with us for 25 years and four days. And Miss Pam Young, 29 years, four months, and six days. Pam here. Okay. If not, that's it. Thank you all for your service. Thank you very much. Council, I trust that you've approved your minutes from our last meeting. I'll entertain a motion that those be approved. Please.

Motion to approve.

Motion by Miss Miller, second by Miss Teresa. All in favor? That is unanimous and so ordered. Thank you. Um, I'm going to say again now we're going to move we're going to move into public comment. If you are signed up to speak on my list here and you care to speak tonight, that's fine. But but in regard to our on your agenda under new business 20263 item B, which is which is old Aville Highway. I'm sure most of you are here to talk about that. That will be a p there will be a public hearing in our next session. But if you care to if you care to speak and are here, I'll hear from Mr. Marian Moore first. Marian, state your name and address, please, for the record. You have three minutes.

I'm Marian Moore, live at 206 John's Creek Road. uh this piece of property we're talking about, it is really a big traffic issue as I'm sure other people will do that. Uh I've been a builder and develop property and everything and this is a very desirable piece of property to build on. I think everybody in this room right here probably needs to realize this piece of property is going to get developed. But what I think what Greenwood is tired of is this overcrowding and jamming these houses together, stripping the land off. And I happen to be personally affected by one of these subdivisions that have been started and has ruined my 9 acre pond. The developers need to [clears throat] learn that we can go back to a neighborhood look and you can make money. You can space these houses out. They don't have to be crammed together. And I think that's what everybody is tired of seeing in this town is developers coming here who have no no uh tie to Greenwood other than just making this development and then getting out. And I think we need to ensure that these developments are done in a tasteful and look look what's around them. Pay attention to what's around you. And and you know, just like Folly Bend, you know, you could take a look at Folly Bin right beside there and it is a very desirable subdivision and you can space your houses out like that. Yeah, maybe the lot cost are going to be a tad more, but it would be more desirable, more aesthetic, and I I don't think anybody could complain about that type development. Thank you,

Mayor. Thank you. when you and I spoke, you you had some points that I thought that you wouldn't be able to convey in three minutes. I thank you for for that decorum, but I would encourage you if you would care to put those together, send them to Miss Susan, she'll get them to council members. And I also any any of the council members I'm I'm easy to get in touch with if you want to contact me. I've got some good ideas that you could use. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Appreciate you, Miss Tina Escalana. [clears throat] Name and address please for the record. Tina,

certainly. My name is Tina Escalona. I currently live at 818 John's Creek Road, but our family owns a farm at 713 Woodlon through 3 acre parcel. Number one, thank all of our county employees. We are really grateful. As I said in the planning meeting before, we understand that um you guys aren't particularly well compensated for the work and all of the effort that you put in on behalf of our county. And I know for a fact that we all are so appreciative of that. So I will skip ahead. I know that we wanted to speak tonight. We know that the hearing is going to be at the end of the month, but we want to convey how passionately we feel about this issue. Chairman, I wanted to address one thing that you had said earlier. It's not that we are anti-development for everything. It seems like it felt like you were very, very frustrated coming into the room tonight. And you know that's part of the reason we want to speak is that we want to participate in the process. We want to understand are you balancing the numbers of homes that are being abandoned and left or sold people moving out of town with some of these lost jobs. Um you know we want to better understand the numbers and make sure that somebody is balancing that. We all know that if you overbuild in our area it's going to decrease property values. We know that Old Woodlon and Abbyville Highway are two two-lane roads. It's going to take services to build those roads out. It's already dangerous. I submit it and I don't know if you saw them or not, the statistics from the highway patrol saying how dangerous Woodlon Road is already on a good day, clear day with absolutely um no weather incidents or whatever. They have a higher proportion of accidents. Why? Because of the configuration of that road. Old Abbyville is exactly the same way. So without weather um weather or any other inclement, you know, or any other adverse effects, you have a dangerous section. You have two two-lane roads pumping more volume of traffic through that area than it probably should. I'm not an expert. We haven't

seen the traffic study, but just because we are calling for you guys to slow down a little bit and say, "These are our concerns. Are you looking at them? Explain them to us." That's not being aggressive. That's not this is how the process should work and it's disappointing. I don't want you to be aggravated because this is how democracy works and this is what we should be doing. And for my final points, it's are you guys looking at or discussing the character of the builders as you partner with them and advocate for them? because when you came in tonight and you talked about, you know, some of the things that you were discussing, hey, I want you to understand, you know, millage and that's an important point, but saying you um you guys don't want us to build out at all. No. During the last planning meeting, you only had one person show up for a very good proposal for um a well-needed apartment complex. Everybody that was around me was, "Yeah, that's exactly what we need for our workers. this is not a good fit because of where it is by the school. You have all of these individuals coming out onto these two-lane roads. It is a traffic hazard. It's a danger we can anticipate. And we want to challenge you to do that, too. But it's not being disrespectful that's participating in the process. So, if I've offended anybody with my questions and my consistent questioning, I apologize. But I'm here to help. And for us to work together as a citizen group is a really good thing for Greenwood County. It really is.

Thank you, Tina. And and let me say this, Tina. Yes, I do get frustrated sometimes and I try not to show that frustration, but I'm as passionate as you all are about the growth and development of this county. I want it to be right. You know this about me. I'm a country boy. You know where I came from, right? So, I want us to always balance our development. Thank you for coming tonight. Gay Marshall. Name and address, please. Miss Gay.

I am Gay Harmon Marshall. I live at 113 Eastwood Drive. I have lived and traveled the old Abyville Highway. My entire life. When I was born, my family lived on the old Abbeyville Highway, kind of where Devon Park is in that area. In 1965, my parents moved. We built a house, moved to 108 Pine Circle in Lakewood Heights. And then in 1991, I bought a house in Heathwood. I bought the house in Heathwood for a number of reasons. Wanted to be close to my parents. Heathwood. Our lots are on average an acre or a little more. All the I think it's 59 houses in Heathwood. All are customuilt. They don't look just alike. Just painted a different color or the garage on the right side versus the left side. So I' I've traveled that road all my life. And I think a a lot of the people, most of the people that live on Woodlong or Abbyville Highway, we bought that land because it's got a little bit of a country feel. Um, you know, we can we can get out, we have [clears throat] room to to walk around and and enjoy being out, not just on top of each other where some of these houses you can just barely get along more between the two houses to cut your grass. And I I realize this probably isn't accurate, totally accurate information, but yesterday since I have so much time on my hands, I sat down and I went to greenwoodreeltor.com and I looked. It says that there are as of yesterday 355 houses on the market in Greenwood County with the uh median listing price being two thou $279,900.

So then I went through picture by picture and I looked at each house that says new construction are to be built and I actually listed it by location, street name. There are, according to what I added up yesterday, 125 new construction houses are houses to be built listed for sale on greenwoodretor.com. So that makes me wonder really why do we need like this development that's 107 houses and we are fixing to have a another issue in that area because on if you go down Lis Road there is a piece of property on Lawless Road that was owned by the Bazards probably 30 years ago the Bazards wanted to put a trailer park in there and we fought that and that got turned down by council. But that 28.74 acres on Lawless Road which esses into Woodl Long Road, it was in the property transfers Sunday. It sold to Keystone Properties for $800,000.

Going to have to cut you off. Okay. Times expired, but thank you. Okay, [clears throat] that's correct. Having trouble reading who lives at 713 Chikapan, please. Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Again, having trouble. Is it Deslin or Dex? Delin. Delin. Delin. [clears throat]

Come [snorts] forward, please, sir. Name and address for the record, please. Develin. I live at 115 Langley Road. Also grew up on 806 Old Abyville. That's still my parents' place as to uh all our family now. Um first off, I just I spoke last time. I'm going to use some of the same points. I've got some more. But first off, I'm against any reasonzoning or development in this area. I've lived in this area 53 years of all my life. Uh we in the area don't want this kind of growth. I understand what you were saying earlier about what we need in growth, but there's growth all over Greenwood County. I'll point that out some more. I said last time and I'll say again, this is Greenwood. Emphasis on wood, not uh Greenville, not Simpsonville or any other town like that. We don't want this clumped together building. Um reszoning and development uh will increase the traffic on Old Aville Woodlon and Langley Road which is already real busy. People cutting through from Calhoun to u the Aville Highway 72 um and other areas in the other little roads in that area that can't handle what we already have. [snorts] um already um let's see, we have the growth that's on Calhoun or 225 in that corner there and also off of right beside um what is it? Harris Mill Village. Uh there's also uh some other at least six more developments around that I'm hearing. A lot of Greenwoodians don't want this type of growth. Once again, she pointed out some several things that sounded, you know, pretty good as far as the the land mass. So,

uh, most of our area is R1, R2 neighborhoods, which I learned last time that is in the county is smaller tracks than it is in the city, which does not make sense to me. Um if you develop like the surrounding area like he was talking about uh Folly Ben or whatnot you're looking at 60 homes uh maybe in that area which I can live with once again you know folly being same way um there are areas in Greenwood that buildings should be torn down or that should be or might develop in that way you know in that area some dilapidated buildings. Uh as far as employment growth in our area, we are losing more industry than we are gaining. I was 31 years worked out at Monsan Salucia as you know they've closed down and then also now tene uh here's a point that I I thought of that y'all were all elected by Greenwood County voters in Greenwood County and you're expected to vote like we would like for y'all to vote. um you know not just for like the investors from out of town you know for growing like this need to listen to all of us that voted for you. My final point is [snorts] how is electrical grid supposed to keep up with all these new growth and homes in our areas when we were just asked to reduce our power usage during the storms the snowstorm and the ice storm and I'm sure it's going to come up again.

[clears throat] Thank you for your time.

Thank you. I would uh I would encourage you if you have an opportunity to talk to Mr. James Baitman about the economic development successes in Greenwood County over the last five years, just so you know, those those industry closings that you talked about, um we have replaced all of those jobs and we're about 400 plus. And in the last 36 months, we brought $1.5 billion dollars worth of new investment to the county. So that's your comment was was not accurate, but James can give you details on that. Okay. Jeff Wash, is it Wash?

Yes, I'll post. Thank you, Jeff. Uh Glenn Colin Colen Colen.

I'll be very brief. Name and name and address for the record, please. Glenn Coen, 119 Metobrook. I don't where I don't live anywhere near this place. I'm just here to support my my fellow residents, but I wanted to apologize to council. Um, I got a wee bit of Irish in me. And when I saw this come up again, I got really, really angry because we just defeated one reason and now he wants to go to something where he could put up town homes, you know, make it even more congested. So, I got really hot and so I apologize. Apologize to you, Carol. So, I'm sorry about that.

Thank you for that. I'm Irish. So, [laughter] but yeah, the guy brought up a good point about the the power grid. So, that's really all I wanted to say and sorry. Thank you. You're a gentleman. Thank you, sir. The last and I have absolutely no clue, but if you haven't spoken, you're I I cannot read that at all. I'm gonna have to start having Susan print these beneath. Uh it looks like is it Sherry? Sherry. [clears throat] Thank you, Miss Sherry. Come forward. You're not the first person that says I have horrible handwriting. It's not worse than mine. I work for an attorney, so I have to read his handwriting and I pay him back [laughter] for that. Um thank you for your time. Um name

Oh, I'm sorry. Sherry Lewis. I live at 616 Old Abbeyville Highway, which will be directly across from the entrance of what um Beasley is trying to do, which would be 614, I think, is what it the way it's listed. And just a fun fact from this morning, I know someone's already addressed the traffic issue, so I won't um say, but one thing about that this morning, I was sitting in my window and I I hear cars go by starting at 5:00 a.m. anyway, you know, all morning long. But I said, you know, I'm just going to sit here and count all the cars that go by between from 7 o'clock until I want to stop. So from 700 a.m. to 7:32, I count off guards 263 cars in front of my house right now.

I believe it. that does not include what was at the other end that I could not see that would have turned for the school and everything at Wilmont Road. So, that was just a little fun fact. I want to throw that out there. Um, I did send in some paperwork. I think y'all probably already have it [clears throat] and thank you again for taking the time to read and look over that. So, I will just say one part of the conclusion here for this. Um, I do want you to deny the approval for the zoning change. I'm not opposed to them building houses. It's just I don't see the need for a zoning change. I don't I don't understand going from R2 to MP4, I think is what it's called. Correct me if I'm wrong. Um and I don't think people understand the difference between the two. So, if that could be explained, I would appreciate that for the crowd. um require I want to require a comprehensive traffic impact studies which I think uh Miss Carol alluded to that that that probably will be done and I want to thank Miss Carol for all her hard work. I don't know how she does it and answers the phone and t I just don't know how she does it at all but thank you Miss Carol if I can say that. [clears throat] Um conduct thorough environmental and infrastructure assessments. um you are doing the hearings, that kind of thing. So, you can scratch number four now. And consider alternative development plans that are appropriate to the scale consistent with existing neighborhood density. That is a big issue

in my opinion. [snorts] And um in conclusion, while we recognize the need for housing and growth in Greenwood, which I think everyone here does, um we believe that the responsibility of the development must balance growth with the protection of the existing residents quality of life, safety, and community character. The community character on Old Abyville Highway and Woodlong Road, it's just precious. It really is. um as proposed just Beasley only. Um I don't think that it strikes that balance in my personal opinion. And I also think that the reasonzoning is going to allow other like there's what two other things that have already been sold just since all this started will fall under this zoning. Who knows what they're going to do. I will say Beasley is trying to do the trees around there and that that's you know that's okay but don't put as many. I agree with everybody else on that. So safety is my biggest concern and that's all I'll say.

Thank you ma'am. Thank you ma'am. Thank you. [clears throat] [snorts] All right that ends the period of public comment. Uh we will now move into presentations. Um I think our first presentation is safe streets for all grant and Mr. Josh Skinner's here to talk with us about where there's Josh. [clears throat] And while he's getting ready, Tina, your questions don't offend me. They don't offend any of us. We don't learn if we don't ask questions, right? Oh, I'm sure you will. Tina's my friend. We talk a lot.

Okay. Thank Thank you, Mr. Chairman of Council. We have a presentation tonight by Jamie Kendrick with uh Meet and Hunt uh Wood Wood Wood Valley Solutions um about the Safe Streets for All grant that we started um really two years ago. Just to give you a real quick background, this was funded through the 2016 CPST uh 5.5 million for for um park and trails. About 350,000 of that 5.5 million was set aside for bike and pedestrian trail improvements. You see the breakdown of what we spent out of that 350,000 so far. We resurfaced some trails in Greenwood, the West Cambridge Trail, the East Cambridge Trail. Um we've done some drainage work on those trails, new signage on the Heritage Trail, and uh some curb cuts and new trail finishing in the Mill Village. [clears throat] We applied for this Safe Streets for RAW contract uh which was $100,000. Um we've since we've been reimbursed uh almost 80,000 like $76,000 through the grant. Um we'll get the final reimbursement check after this presentation. But um so all in all, $20,000 for this the study and the uh concepts you're about to see is is I think a pretty good deal. But after all that, we have 121,000 left in that uh in that uh project um account. So just uh you know the safe streets for all grant really is funded through the highway administration that really focuses on roads. Um of course we we want to look mainly at bikes and trails. Uh so we made sure in our grant proposal that we uh included a clause that said connect

connectivity of existing bicycle and p pedestrian trails be a main focus of concern. Um that was in the actual grand agreement. If you look at the master plan from 2015 connectivity of our sort of little pieces of trails throughout the city were a main point of emphasis in that master plan. And if you if you talk to people throughout the state, uh the one thing I remember from different planning conferences, trail conferences, uh they say you need a you need a 10 mile section of trail to get people from throughout the region to to visit the trail and and spend a day or half a day to to uh to ride that trail. So uh if you look at, of course, Greenwood's a you know, historically a railroad town, railroad county. We have 21 miles of trails from 96 to Hajes. Uh so be a lot of work to get all those connected, but it's something that's uh worth looking at and it's kind of a a larger piece of this uh uh grant uh project grant proposal that

Josh, do you want to let Jamie give any highlights on this? I I should have told you to bring Jamie up. Jamie, come up here if [clears throat] you will. Yeah, he's about to get into the actual grant program. Okay. I was just uh giving you a background of of why we're doing this through the capital project. For the audience, Jamie Kendrick is a safe safe streets consultant for this process. That's right. You can keep going. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, council members, good to be back. I think it was your December meeting of 2024 when I did the first

presentation on this and um so but a lot a lot has evolved since then uh in terms of the program itself. And so some of that uh will be reflected, you may hear hear me talk a little bit more in a road context uh than perhaps we were thinking 15 months ago uh reflecting a change in the federal administration priorities. And that's something we've we've tried to use the trail and bike ped nexus as much as we can but needed to talk about this a little bit differently in order to stay in the good graces of our uh our federal partners. So we've we've attempted to do that here. This is this is the slider. Okay. So, I do want to talk quickly about I'm going the wrong way. Okay, here we go. Uh, talk about some of the challenges safety-wise, uh, how we got input on the the project, some of the priority corridors that we're recommending, uh, and then talk about next steps in terms of a an implementation grant opportunity, uh, that will become available somewhere between March and June of this coming year. Um, so what we told you in December of 2024 was that we're going to do this comprehensive safety action plan with the first 100,000 and the second 100,000 we would have money for demonstration projects. Um, unfortunately, while we still have the money, we're being kind of hemmed in uh by our federal partners in terms of how we might use that. And so I should mentioned Joanne Burquette was here, had to leave. She said she'll be back around 7. Um, we've been working with Joanne trying to talk through how do we make some of these demonstration projects work for both the the administration as well as for the the local goals for the project. So, we're going to keep working on that. We have some ideas I'll share. Um, and so, but we also said that we would frame this at the context of some big bigger larger scale projects that could be taken on through an implementation grant.

U, okay, I'll go as quick to get to the fun stuff. the, you know, the project is really intended to be focused on, the program is intended to be focused on serious injuries or fatalities and how we drive those down. Uh, fender benders, um, you know, are annoyances, but this is really focused on saving lives. Uh, and it's intended to be, you know, coming at this from all angles. So whether that is at the very tail end of the process, the time the crash occurs, getting people to the hospital and getting trauma care uh done, or whether it's the very beginning of the process from the time you get in your car and buckle up or don't, or what you've been drinking before you got in the car. So the full the full range of of strategies. I will tell you that in South Carolina, the first year of the program, uh not much action happened in South Carolina, years two through three, two through four. Now, uh, South Carolina's gotten a good number of awards. Uh, I'm working on a bunch of these, fortunately. Uh, but there's been a big focus in this administration on, uh, EMS strategies. So, postc crash care, access to traumaare. Uh in Clinton, for example, they got $750,000 to do some pedestrian safety improvements and also to implement uh emergency [clears throat] vehicle signal emergency vehicle signal preeemption uh to both to protect the first responders as well as to clear intersections uh faster for uh for fire apparatus, EMS apparatus to to get through. Uh in Batesburg, Leville, they received $8 million for a roundabout and some sidewalk projects. uh Greenville um access management project. So there's a lot of things we can use it for. We just have to figure out how to speak to the administration u in in a way that uh they can respond to. So safety [clears throat] challenges, 153 serious injuries in Greenwood County 2019 to 2023, 66 fatalities. All of that almost half of that occurred on just

3.4% of your road segments. We know where the problems are from a serious interfatality standpoint. Uh and with various strategies in partnership with SC DOT, we can can attack them. But we know where these are occurring and we know they're occurring repeatedly. Um and we so we created what's called a high injury network that u in this case ranks the top 20 or so uh segments of roadway. Um it's not entirely clear here, but you'll see a fuller report in the next week or so u that goes through some of these. It's it's a combination of your higher speed connector roads say from 3 from 96 into into town. Some of your more rural roads up towards uh where Scholes, but a lot of it is within kind of a three mile perimeter of of the city uh is where your serious and your fatalities are are recurring. This is based on SC DOT DPS um uh data from the last from that four-year period. Um couple of specific issues. So I mentioned uh we call vulnerable road users. This is motorcyclists, pedestrians, moped riders, bicyclists account for about a quarter u little bit more than a quarter of all of your fatalities in the past in that 2019 to 2023 period. Um and the the the chart there on the right uh kind of indicates that the faster the speed obviously the more likelihood of serious injury or fatality at 40 miles an hour the likelihood of death or serious injury to a pedestrian or somebody on a motorcycle being hit 80%. Right? So the need to manage speed is a big part of the um the problem here. If you then go and look at a couple of your corridors, um, rural corridors in particular, you know, you're seeing average speeds, you know, 55 to 60. That's that's the median. That's the middle. We're seeing on some

of your rural two-lane roads, 65, 70, 75 miles an hour. Um, for roads that really weren't uh ac designed to accommodate that. And that's where you see you, it's interesting, you look and you see in the more urbanized area, you see serious injuries. you back up and on the more rural roads coming into town, you see the fatalities because of the speed, run off the road, uh head-on crossing the center line, excuse me. And so you just got to come at it from a bunch of of angles and it's hard to Whoops. Hard to fix. Uh but uh but it's a worthy effort. Um I will al I didn't put the slide in here but also approximately onethird of all the fatalities in Greenwood County have been alcohol involved DUI DWI. Uh so that's something that we in the final report we'll talk a little bit about. Uh but it's something that can't be ignored in the process. Uh we did do a good bit of uh community engagement. You [clears throat] know, I don't think any of this will be a surprise, certainly in the context of some of the things you heard this evening about the ability of of kids to walk to school. Uh the ability of people to get across uh streets safely, speed, uh you know, whether you are on the roads that were talked about or or in 96, you know, it the problems across the county are pretty common.

So, our goal um it's aspirational in nature is to get by 2035 to zero injuries or fatalities. It truly is aspirational, but that's the the goal that's that the federal partners ask us to to push for. Uh, and we identified five u core strategies for your vision zero plan that uh I think sometime in a March meeting. Uh, that plan will be before you. Hope we need to adopt it before uh we can apply for the implementation grant. Um, I want to focus Josh mentioned the the bike ped plan from 20 [snorts] 19.

Yes, we we did a little bit of updating that with a focus on filling some of those gaps. Uh so, for example, across bypass 72, trying to get from the end of the uh Cambridge Trail uh over towards the shopping centers and eventually one day uh further up or down at um the Heritage Trail trying to get across uh Main Street. Uh [snorts and clears throat] we so we focused on on some of those connections and put together some design concepts for those. We also looked at school areas. Uh about um 35% of all the serious injury fatalities occur within uh half a mile of a school. Now to be clear, that's on your your bypass 72 where there is, you know, a good number of schools around the it's not necessarily pedestrians walking along, but they do there is a nexus to schools that we can take advantage of as we as we move um potential projects forward. Um then we talk about rural road safety and SCOT to their credit has done a lot in the past five years around things like rumble strips, upgrading uh signage, slowing people coming into intersections, you know, and it's made a dramatic difference statewide, but still a long way to go. Uh, and then the last two that I'll focus on uh, tonight are, you know, when you think about when they built the bypasses, and it's not just here in every town that I work in, we built the bypasses to move traffic faster and farther. Never went back and kind of retrofitted what had what were the the the main roads before. So you ended up with roads where cars still go can go fast now because all the the farther traffic can go up to the bypass, but now you've got an East Cambridge Avenue for example, which used to be the main drag has less traffic than a 72 and can just fly. And so we never really went back and and retrofitted those roads, not again, not just here, but pretty much everywhere that we work. And so one of the strategies we talk about is making uh 72 business 178 business more safe,

walkable, community oriented uh corridors. And then the the last one is reducing traffic conflicts on the bypasses. A lot of left turn crashes, a lot of u because there there's no uh traffic controls but maybe a mile and a half apart. And so you get a lot of driveways uh that are that are people are darting in and out of or trying to come across into a third lane all the way across and can't judge what's coming. Uh so you know that's a land use question right about how you do your your zoning your development permits about how can we manage some of those cut down on some of those driveways commercial properties in particular. uh so that when developers come in, you know, asking them to do consolidated consolidated access management uh points uh and make some of those uh safer. So, uh I'll focus on I mentioned the bike facilities. Um one project we looked at and this has both a speed benefit as well as a uh bike pet access benefit is Kokberry Road between the high school and 72. the speeds on that segment from North Side Drive all the way down uh are you won't find many people going below the speed limit. Uh you won't find many people going um less than 5 to seven miles per hour going below the speed limit. Currently it's two lanes in some places with a center turn lane. Far wider than it needs to be given the amount of traffic through there. If you could with with paint um so that if traffic volumes grow, you could come back and undo it. Take it from two lanes in each direction to a single lane in each direction. Leave the center turn lane so people can bypass but really focus people on a much narrower road. And then you could also then on the remaining sections uh you [clears throat] could um uh create a buffered bike lane uh to Miss Joann's point uh in all of this. And we could see that happening all the way from

North Side High or from North Side Drive all the way down 72 to Grey Street Park uh and then uh a little different strategy but eventually winding over and connecting uh to the uh to the Cambridge Trail by Lander. Uh so again, we showed some some treatments. There's the the really odd intersection there at Laurel and um uh what's the name of the street there? Wilson. Thank you. Yes. um that who knows how it ended up that way, but some ideas for how to kind of clean that up. There have been a number of serious crashes at that intersection. There's a lot of students uh who walk uh that way. Um and then a [clears throat] new trail head over by the ball fields at Atlanta. Um back to this the sidewalk gaps real quick. We identified eight schools or 10 schools, eight locations where we could make significant progress uh by adding sidewalks at relatively, you know, relatively speaking, moderate cost. Sidewalks and crossings and speed management would be a very attractive um application for a for an implementation grant. Uh rural rural roads, this is really what SCD is focused on.

Can I ask you a question real quick? Sure. I couldn't read the map. By chance, was there a sidewalk looked at down North Side Drive from with Greenwood High School, Pinerest down to um Did I put them all on here? I did not put them all on here, but yes, North Side Drive was one where with about a mile of sidewalk, you could hit three schools. Three schools or four schools? Three. Yeah, correct. In that area. So, yeah, that was one of the ones that um was Do we show it on Folks there? Uh let me see. Yep. So we show it on uh heading towards Ironwood Drive uh on from North Side. So part you saying on North Side itself or on

We've got sidewalks going toward [clears throat] Idaho from Greenwood High School, but from Greenwood High School down to u Pinerest Elementary and the the uh career center. Yes. There is no sidewalk, but there are people walking Yes. through the grass coming from those apartments every day. Yep. East east north side, right?

Yeah. Yes. That was one of the probably the top three. And you can then continue up um Pokesberry to get to the middle school and elementary school that are a little farther up there. And that's a a good project. There have been two fatalities in that part of Pokesberry north of um uh North Side Drive. Um one of which I think actually was a pedestrian fatality since 2019. So u but again speed right down that hill coming towards the high school. That's that's the issue. All right. Rural road investments. Back to the projects I was mentioning a minute ago. You know, strategies to restore, you know, 72 and 178 business to really much more um to bring them back to where they they should should be or were many years ago is neighborhood oriented uh corridors. again narrowing lanes uh really upgrading the the crosswalks um you know putting attention the the crosswalk um or excuse me the intersection shown here I can never get the names right uh you can't cross it there's no crosswalk there's no pedestrian signal there's with cars going every which way at all the same time on foot you can't do that

[snorts]

um so an intersection redesign there would be a good candidate for the federal grant Um, I mentioned the the left turns. Um, it's really interesting to the west of Greenwood Mall. It's um, Hospitality Boulevard was built as an access road. Uh, and yet all the left turns uh, all the turns are still allowed into those um, hotels and restaurants there. So, the access road was built, which was great. That's the the safety idea, but the access points were never closed. You can see that one, two, three, four, five um crashes including a fatality, five serious injury crashes, including a pedestrian and a fatality occurred in that area. So, access management on these corridors, you know, everybody wants a left turn into the facility, but it also is can be rather deadly at times.

Jamie, you brought forward a lot of information. I know you've done a lot of work and we appreciate it's been quite a bit of time since we've seen you, but we're gonna have to close it out because we've got a a public hearing we got to get to in old business. But but in summary, um I would tell you that if uh Jo, you can we will read your final report. You give it to Josh. But in conclusion, is anything else you want to leave us with before? No, you're right. I hit my time. I think that was my last two slides. Just that we the grant the implementation grant will be due May 1st, May 15thish. Uh and so we'll need some direction from staff and council uh by mid-March, I would say, in order to get those ready. and council might expect maybe to see you again. When? Because we hadn't seen you in about two years.

No, not that long, but year and a half. Uh 15 months. Um Okay. I can be here at at the next two meeting. Okay. Before you council, any comments or questions for Jamie? Not for Jamie, but I had a comment actually about Mr. Skinner here. Um if I may.

Sure. We did a lot of employee recognition tonight, but you know, I've I've seen Josh get up here and talk about roads. I've seen him get up here and talk about all these different projects. I just passed him in the office the other day and I said, you know, there's been people complain about the amount of money we spend locally with capital project sales tax. and uh within a day he sent me an email um pointing out we've spent in excess of $11 million and I think the index covered um that information. I just think that's number one. Thank you for sharing that Josh because I know you deal with projects from roads to sewers to um parks and recreation to bathrooms to firehouses everything. you do an outstanding job and thank you for giving me this information, but I think it's great that the public is also aware that we're spending a lot of that money here at home in Greenwood County.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Great point, Mr. Puit. Thank you. All right, we're going to move now into old business. We we do have a public hearing that we need to conduct. Um uh I will u I will open the public hearing or ask for a motion that we open the public hearing. So move motion by [clears throat] Mr. Templeton, second second by Miss Teresa. All in favor and ordinance 20262 removing parcels from the Ferncliffe special pack tax purpose district. Our county treasurer, Miss Dorne, will give us information, please.

Thank you, chairman and councel. Uh on July 1st of last year, you all created the Ferncliff Special Tax District for their request and then they have now requested that four of the parcels in that original district be removed for the upcoming um tax district uh for the upcoming year. Two of those parcels are owned by the Ferncliffe Homeowners Association and two other parcels are owned by adjacent property owners uh in the district, but they are undevelopable undevelopable properties. Um a total tax value of $500 among the four parcels. I'm happy to answer any other questions you may have.

Mr. Chair question just curious what is the purpose of them removing what does what does [clears throat] it do so that the so that they don't have to pay the fee in the in the next tax year. Okay. the fees that we are doing in the special tax district, right? The tax commissioner, well, the originating ordinance set the fee at $1,000 per parcel and then the three tax commissioners will come forward each year with a budget to to determine what that future fee or millage is. U just curious has anybody verified the usability of the two lots that they're saying that is not

well based on the values of $200 and $300 and then they're adjacent to another property owner so they appear to be um related to I think you told me septic to to a septic tank yeah okay thank you so unbuildable lots uninhabitable parcels two two of four Was that right? Two two of them are are that way and two are owned by the homeowners association. Yes, ma'am. And have zero value. I see. Thank you.

Um, hearing Miss Dorne's explanation, I'll ask if there's anyone in the audience here tonight that wants to come and speak in favor in favor of this. Seeing none, is there anyone in the audience here tonight to come to speak in opposition to this? Seeing none, then I'll entertain a motion to close the public hearing. So moved. Second. Motion by Mr. Puit, second by Mr. Templeton. All in favor? Public hearing is now closed. Mr. Chairman, this property is in district 5. I'll offer you a motion to approve. Have a motion to approve by Mr. Puit. Second.

A second by Miss Miller. All in favor of approval. And that's unanimous and so ordered. Thank you. In new business, consideration regarding the recommendation that Greenwood County select Kiwit to serve as a as a construction manager at risk for the auxiliary spillway project. Mr. Templeton, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, as you all know, we've been working on the fuse plug project for a very long time. Um, the project has gotten to a point where we feel it'd be very beneficial for us to move forward with the Seymar, our construction manager at risk, um, kind of a procurement method. It allows us to get a contractor on board during the pre-construction phases, help us to work through budget and other um value engineering type ideas. And through a um advertised procurement process, we did propose we reviewed proposals and had interviews with four different firms and after those interviews, we felt that Kwit was the best firm to move forward with um for this process. So, we'd asking you tonight to approve moving forward with them and giving the county manager the authority to negotiate out the contract for the pre-construction phases of this work.

Okay. Thank you, Rhett. Having heard that, do I have a motion to approve as presented? Mr. Chairman, I'll offer you a motion to approve. I second. Have a motion by Mr. Puit, second by Miss Bishop. Before we vote, any comment or questions of Mr. Templeton? I have a quick comment. Um, I think we heard maybe from uh the manager. You were on this were you on this committee? There were several reasons that led us down this road, but I think several of you guys said that one of the big reasons is this is the group that did the same type of work on the Connesty Dam. Is that correct? Correct.

So, I think that is that kind of record speaks for itself. a huge project that came in under budget and under uh time. So definitely uh looking forward to seeing what they'll do for our project. Thank you. Appreciate it. Any other comments? Hearing none. Um uh all in favor all in favor of approval of Mr. Templeton's recommendation and that is unanimous and so ordered.

All right. Thank you all. Thank you, Greg. Item B, ordinance 202603 to amend the Greenwood County zoning map as and if amended so that two parcels of land totaling approximately 46.48 acres at 615 Old Abbeville Highway, Greenwood County change from R2 single family residential to MPR master planned residential. This is first reading and title only. Miss Coleman.

Mr. Chairman, these are two parcels like you said on the corner of Woodlon Road and Old Aville Highway. The larger one is down here, but the smaller one is up here that backs up on a small portion of Folly Ben. There is a power line easement that runs through the property. Um [snorts] the request is to go to a master plan residential, which is kind of our localized um PDD. So, plan development districts under state law require mixed use. Master plan residential is exactly what it sounds like, but we ask for the same kind of considerations. uh that we do with PDDs is you know more open space, more active [snorts]

uh amenities and that kind of thing. So you can see about where it is. As I said both um Old Advil Highway and Woodlon Road or State Road. So DOT would require a traffic study on this because the minimum their minimum is 90 homes for a traffic study. Typically a 100 homes is what you expect to see, but ours is lower. So definitely we'll meet that threshold. Utilities are there. Um we have gas and water in some of the area. There is sewer out there. The developer would have to bring sewer to the property. Um you can see old Aville Highway in both of these photographs. Um this is Woodlon Road and the one on the left is actually of the power line easement and of course nothing can be built there. This is Woodlon Road looking towards Hunter Creek. And these are typical amenities that the developer provided. So they would have a fire pit with a seating area, um a pavilion u area where they could have gatherings and pickle ball courts, which seems to be the way most developers are going these days. So our comprehensive plan that you spoke of earlier does show this as low density residential. Um based on calculations that we have with this, it did qualify as low density residential. So, it's in keeping with what we'd expect. This is the actual plan. Originally, as submitted, it showed 107 lots on 46.48 acres. That was 2.3 dwelling units per acre. By the time we met at planning commission, the [snorts] developer had lowered that to 103 and he has since lowered it further. So, I was asked to look at it and be realistic. I put in the report that theoretically you could get 170 houses on that property. Um, that's not realistic. That literally is just math. That's taking every square foot that's available and calculating it based on the minimum lot sizes that are there now. So, what he proposes to have is a

minimum lot area. The smallest lot on that plan is 10,500 square ft. So, 10,000 square feet is the R2 minimum. So, he's already above what R2 requires. What they were offering in exchange for the NPR designation is a buffer around the exterior of the property. That would be heavily treed. If you've been out there, if you've driven by, you can see that it is probably one of the most timbered properties in that area. They're really thick growth of trees. They would obviously have to cut those that are in the middle, but they could leave a 20 foot buffer around the exterior. Really what they're asking to do is have consideration for a larger buildable envelope so they could build bigger houses on the same size lots. Um, typically what we see is they want to have smaller lots and fill it up with a house. In this case, they want to have pretty much the same house or same lot and kind of fill it up with a house. They also offered that they would put in they have in the NPR that they would use um materials such as Hardy Plank and I'm calling it that. That's the brand name, but um also brick and and rock or stone. Um they can't do anything in the power line ement. So that is open space. So when I was asked to look at it again, what I did was I pulled out all of the area for the open for the easement. I also pulled out this area right here, which is kind of a creek line that is going to be protected by a 30-foot buffer. So I pulled out all of that area and strictly on math I got the maximum absolute maximum I could get on the property when you consider having rights of way was about 120 lots and that would be if everything was perfect. So that's assuming there's not there's not big drop offs, there's not more wet areas. That's still to be determined, but that would lower that would lower the overall density even more if you look at it with regards to everything else you have to

pull out still. So like I said, if you're maximizing the property 120 lots, um he's already got he's already down below 100 at this point. staff supported this because we felt like it met the standard for a [clears throat] master plan residential. Um, planning commission recommended denial based on public input. Um, and that was an 8 to2 vote. Carol, on your map that I'm looking at, how far into that does that transmission line cut? Right there. You mean the width of it or

No, I I know what the width of it is, I think. So I'm assuming if that's a 100 KV line that that's a 60 foot rideway. I think it's 68 feet. Marion's nodding his head. Is that right, Mr. Marion? At least I think it's 68 feet as platted. Okay. Thank you, Carol. [clears throat] I really I mean we'll have to ask this question again in two weeks when the room is full. I wish [snorts] it was still full. But my question to you is because I've had a lot of conversations, had a great conversation with Marion yesterday. Mhm.

But my question is I know what he's trying to do with the MPR. If if this council chooses not to grant that, which that's what the public wants us to do is not grant that, what can he do with the current zoning? Yes, that's the number that I gave you. It would be in the range of 120 to 128 homes. But that's if everything worked out perfect, right? I mean, that's if everything worked out perfect because I didn't count roads and rideways.

It counts It count I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but it counts roads and rideways, but I didn't count out um I did count out the the flood area or the wet area, but again, we don't know the extent to that wet area. I don't know what the drop offs are going to be. Some of that may not be developable and that would be clearcutting it pretty much the whole way, but it does does take into account the power line easement because we know you can't use that. So that would mean that 20 foot buffer would go away is basically right that's going I see Mary and line to line. [laughter]

Um and my next question really has is kind of a tagalong question. The it's already been mentioned tonight that the piece right next to it recently sold It looks like on your map that is AG1. It is. Um I hate to even approach that. Um if if you're familiar with AG1. Basically AG1 is like the loosest we've got. Right. It is. If if you have access to sewer, AG1, the minimum lot size is 7,500. That's what I was that's what I was concerned about. But yes, you answered my question. You don't have to go any deeper on that. [clears throat] [snorts]

But I I know we're going to have this discussion again in two weeks and I but I wanted council to know that I had already asked you this question and I've had this discussion with several several people and we're we're not uh I mean Marian and I talked yesterday for a long time and he's u he does have [clears throat] some good ideas and and when we start going through this comprehensive plan and maybe maybe we lean on him a little bit but I just those I just wanted to make get that ask on the record before next for two weeks now. Council, any other comments or questions of Miss Carol?

Mr. Chairman, I will say for the folks that are here tonight that the truth is there's been a lot of cases. I've been here Gonza Bryant used to say for a while. I've been here over 12 years and there's been a lot of cases. The truth is if we it would have turned out better for the residents [snorts] if they would have let it go through the the planning versus the developer just going up developing it under the current zoning that it is now. Uh if he's asking for 90, I'm quite sure he can get 90 on there. I've looked at it and taken some measurements and I'm certainly not a an expert at this, but I I have done [clears throat] this as you know on some property that that we own that I own and uh he can put at least 90 properties on that property with R2.

Yes. Uh without any question. Yes. I mean I I the numbers work. So just want people to understand that he bought it under that that zoning and he has that right. So I think we we need to move very careful that we don't shoot oursel in the foot here that we get the best the best we can because uh I believe whether I agree with it this council agrees with it whether the people who voted me in agree with it it's going to be developed

and uh let's let's do the best we can with it is is is the point because I have seen I could give you two or three examples in Greenwood County to where it went the opposite direction. You know, you know, probably the ones I'm talking about that it was shot down and then the developer went in there and done things that they said we should have never we should have let it we we should have controlled it. But anyway, I just thought I would add that to Robbie. I think that's kind of where Robbie, this is Robbiey's district and he wants to just like I do my folks. I want to do what's in everybody's best interest and sometimes it don't look like it is in their best interest, but a lot of times it really is. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Alson. I

have one question, Mr. Chair. Oh, excuse me, Mr. Mayor. Go ahead. Could you help me understand the connection and the timing for the SC DOT? You said there it would require a traffic study versus what they could do today. So, does a traffic study have to be done? And he's and and they say, "Oh my gosh, we can't put 90 houses because the road won't handle it." What's the right before the horse? Which one comes

really? And I'm I've met with DOT. I've been I've been in close contact with Ryan Valentine on a lot of projects. And um we were successful in one of the first projects I worked on which was annexed into the city and getting a del lane. There was already a turn lane because there was a median there. But um I like to see del lanes going into subdivisions. So if somebody's turning into the subdivision, they can pull off into what is an ex, you know, right turn lane and get in. So that that allows traffic to keep flowing. So we know already that del lanes at the minimum would be going in both directions. Um, putting in turn lanes may be a requirement based on the traffic count, but that comes at the development phase. So, that's not really part of the zoning phase. Um, but like I said, they have established 90 as the minimum for requiring a traffic study or traffic analysis. So, that's already in the works.

So, they would have to follow what the SC DOT is requiring them to do, the developer would, right? Because DOT is like the other utilities we have, which by the way, they would be, like I said, they'd be bringing sewer to the property. They already have everything else they need there. But that would be something that they would be paying GMD to bring sewer across the road to get there. Carol, do you know if he's already had that conversation with with with GMD? Yes. There's a letter in the application packet that they included, so I'll make sure you get a copy of that. I'd like to. Thank you. [clears throat]

Thank you. Not right now, Mary. I'm sorry. I'm gonna have to move on, but you can speak. You sir,

address it in the public hearing next time. Um, okay folks, this is first reading title only. Miss Carol, stay right there. No action needs to be taken. We will hold a public hearing in in our second reading. Item C, ordinance 202604 to amend the Greenwood County zoning map as and if amended so that one parcel of land totaling approximately 1.01 acres at 915 Salomon Church Road, Greenwood County changes from RDD Rural Development to C1 Neighborhood Commercial. Miss Coleman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is an area that I know fairly well since I drove that road for five years um when I worked out at the landfill. Um, so this is a piece of property that's currently being used residentially. It is RDD. Um, if you're familiar with RDD, it's one of those uh districts that allows almost everything. But the difference is you can have residential on an acre, but if you want to have commercial, you need two acres. So that was the impetus behind the request for the reszoning to neighborhood commercial because they don't have two. She doesn't have two acres. So this is a map of current zoning. You can see just about everything is either one of the A districts or RDD. It's an odd layout of the zoning lines. I'm not quite sure how they did that, but that's the zoning map. Um, you can see that there's residential, commercial, right next door is a meat processor that's been there as long as I have memory of that area. Um, there's a commercial car repair place at the end of the RDD. And then back behind it, you can see the public is public land, which is a county shop, and the old landfill property, which merges into the new landfill property. Everything directly across the street is residential until you get down the road a little bit, and there's a part-time restaurant there. So, this shows road ownership, again, state road, as a lot of them are. They do have utilities available. And what the applicant wants to do is change this, which is currently a mobile home, and offer it up for something like a Dollar General or some like a community store. Um, she stated there are a lot of people that live in the area that don't have access to shopping. There's not really anything until you get out to Five Points, Asylum Church Road in Cambridge. Um, so thinking that there might be a way to have a small marketplace out there for the people that live out there. And again, since there's so much commercial in that area, even though it doesn't necessarily match up with the zoning, um this would have to change the zoning. So there next door

in the um photo on the left is the meat processor. Across [snorts] the street, you can see there's a house across the street with um someone that's been living in a camper for as long as I can remember. [laughter] Good. This is this is looking towards the landfill.

And then again, there's the property again itself. So the property is about an acre. So that's a little over an acre. That's why they're asking she's asking for the change in zoning because if she had two acres, she could do it by right. So here we are with the future land use map. You can see that area is immediately all the purple is public land. Obviously that's the landfill and that's low density residential. So the reason that staff didn't really support it is because low density residential is not really conducive to commercial. planning commission um completely felt like this was a reasonable request and they've voted to support it. So I don't take it personally. I'm going with the comprehensive plan as I always do. Sure.

If you have any questions, I'll be glad to address it. Any questions, council? I I think it's reasonable as well. Uh it doesn't matter what I think. We'll see how council feels later. That's first reading and title only. So we have no action to be taken. We have I think we have no pending items. Miss McIntyre, anything? County attorney, anything to report, Mr. Manager? [snorts] So, if not, we will now go into district reports. Miss Griffin, district one.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, like to say good evening to each and every one of you. We like to say happy new month to you. Um, this is the month of love, February. Um, if you notice, we're wearing our red today in exance of heart awareness month. Um, also would like to um say that the um AARP meeting will be tomorrow morning at the hut at 10:00. Um, the Promised Land Association meeting will be Thursday, February the 12th at 6:00 p.m. at the fire station in Promised Land. And want to say thank you to Amber and our litter prevention workers. um they were doing litter pickup in district one um on Monday and yesterday. So I really want to thank them for all that they do, their hard work for making um district one look good all the time and I think that ends my report.

Thank you, Councilwoman Griffin. Mr. Allison, District 2. Uh all is well in district two. All is well. Miss Bishop, District Three. Just thank everybody for coming. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank everybody for coming and I I hope that everybody has a good evening. That ends my report. Miss Bishop, we're glad to have you back with us. Miss Miller, District 4.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I had the privilege to attend the chamber's annual meeting today and I want to give a shout out that part of that meeting is where they induct new members into the Greenwood County Hall of Fame and our own Miss Nicholson was inducted today and I just want to give her a shout out and she was the second female now to be inducted after all these many, many years. So congratulations, Miss May Nicholson of Greenwood County. That concludes my report. Thank you, Miss Miller. Mr. Puit, District 5.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Miss Griffin, is there a meal at that AAL? I'm just kidding. Um, [laughter] I attended the That helps with my decision. Um, I attended the uh 96 Town Council meeting last week. Um, and Carol's still here. I appreciate that. Uh we talked about the the Bailey bill and uh just want to keep that front in mind with everyone. Um there's been some renovation going on in in downtown 96 and I think that's a way that we as council can support people who want to reinvest in our older buildings. Um I can tell you that Dr. Bberger put a substantial amount of money in the two buildings he renovated and and that was definitely for the love of the town of 96. So, uh, when we see this come up, I hope you guys will, um, support that. Um, sorry I missed Keep Greenwood County beautiful breakfast this morning. I'm sure it was an outstanding breakfast and uh, presentation. Um, be sure to support uh all of Greenwood County uh in the food fight for 2026. Not to steal your thunder.

That's okay. We'll bring it up again anyway.

And um you know, thank you Susan for reminding us to to wear red. Um heart health month is February. Uh near and dear to me. My father passed away from heart disease. My mom is, I think, on her fifth pacemaker. and uh I've had a heart attack three years ago and had to have stints and my brother as well. So um take a look at your family history, go to the doctor, get checked out. Um it's very important and and thank you again Susan for that reminder. I'll end on a Bible verse. Proverbs 3:5 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding." That ends my report. Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Pro. Mr. Templeton, District 6. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [clears throat] Um, I want to congratulate Susan who was who won the government volunteer of the year today at the Greenwood. Keep a keep Greenwood beautiful meeting. Congratulations, Susan. [applause] Congratulate Carson, who was inducted as the new chamber president for this coming year. [applause]

And I want to congratulate Rob for staying under 20 minutes in his pre presentation this morning at Keep Greenwood Beautiful. Um, so yes, it's heart month. It's also National Cancer Awareness Month. I know each type of cancer has its own color and month like breast cancer is October and we talk about that, but this is also National Cancer Awareness Month. Um they focus on prevention strategies and regular screenings. Um cancer sucks in all colors.

I am wearing my purple ribbon for pancreatic which is what claimed my wife. Um I would be remiss if I didn't bring up the food drive food fight 26. We are a little bit behind. The weather the weather kind of messed us up with a couple of bad weeks. Um, we have a council meeting on the 17th. You know, we are we are competing against the city council. So, I would encourage you to get your food to us that night if you can because we're weigh in on the 19th at the farmers market, the GCRC. Um, uh, the Coachberry Fire Department will be at KJ's Market on February the 14th from 8:00 a.m. to 400 pm. I would encourage you to share the love and go support that um go support them. They did a tremendous job in the cold a couple of weeks ago at at Food Line. And lastly, I know everybody left. Um but I know they're going to watch this meeting to make sure that we, you know, we did what we said we were going to do. So for those of you who are watching us and are going to be here on the 17th, bring some food for the food fight. We'll collect it right up here and we'll get it out of here for you. So, that'd be a great opportunity for you to help the county out. And um [clears throat] I think that ends my report, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Templeton. You know, I think I'm gonna ask the county attorney to research and see if I as the chairman can always make my district report first because following you guys, I never get to congratulate anybody for anything, [laughter] but but I will echo congratulations to Carson. Uh congratulations to Susan, congratulations to my great friend Nicholson. I do want to take a moment to brag on where shovels up in my district during the frigid cold that we've recently experienced. Um, Linda Turgen, if I'm pronouncing Linda's last name correctly, and Robert Blasco came every night to the First Baptist Church where we had a warming a warming shelter, and they came every night for multiple nights to open that up to anyone in need. and that um was put into place by Councilwoman Ken Jensen with the Wes Scholes Town Council. And I really want to I really appreciate them for that effort because I'll tell you um some of you have heard me jokingly say that I had to spend a night in my car uh right right before Thanksgiving. It was 45 degrees and I about froze to death. And I don't know how anyone would survive in low 20s and teens digit temperatures. I I really don't. So that's always front of mind for me because of that experience. And I also want to thank Chief Jim Baber and the Hodes Fire Department because on those uh on those nights when it was that cold, they fed me a couple of times at the fire station. That's one thing our fire services people do a great job of is cooking and I always appreciate uh their invitations. Um so with that, if there's no nothing else for the council, we will adjourn. Thank you very much. You want to get a picture?