City Council - Regular Meeting

City Council meeting to order for this fine day of July the 13th. We're gonna stand for a moment of silence and we all have heard about the passing of Lindsey Graham. Keep his family in prayer, our state as well, and the country. He has been a force for many. Amen. Mayor Pro Tem, lead us in the pledge, please.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We have item three, approve of the minutes for the June 22nd. Before I go there, Councilwoman Smith is on vacation, so she's missing us. I'm sure she's watching online. Hey, Megan, how are you? And I'm back, so I was on vacation on the last one, but she will be out today. Approval of the minutes for June 22nd, 2026 City Council meeting. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any that oppose? Ayes have it. Let me turn my phone off. Item four, approve of the agenda for the July 13th, 2026 City Council. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any that opposed? Ayes have it. We have public comment. At this time, we have a couple public comments and the way it's going to work, once you get up to the mic and after you restate your name, you have two minutes to state your comment. And so we have Ms. Moultrie. Ms. Moultrie from Whitlock Street. Okay, Ms. Moultrie didn't make it. Ms. Jones. Ms. Jones from Fairfax. Ms. Jones from Fairfax. Well, I went by and talked with the clerk, Today, the mayor has a public comment that he wanted to make in recognition of a student athlete at Spartanburg High School. And I have to read off her bio, guys, and just bear with me. And Ms. Riley Vaughn, if you don't mind standing or coming down front so everybody can see you. But this was sent to her coach back in june twenty fifth twenty twenty six dear coach jones the gatorade player of the year program is proud to recognize riley bond as the twenty twenty five twenty twenty six gatorade south carolina girls track and field player of the year in receiving this award they uh... they joined a forty one year legacy that includes past winners such as peyton manning Paige Becker, Jason Tatum, and Mallory Swanson, and many others to name. As the top award high school sports Gatorade player of the year, award honors the most elite high school student athlete in 12 varsity sports, for their athletic excellence, academic achievement, and exemplary character. All finalists, all the final candidates selected to determine by the selection committee assets and thousands of, okay, okay, okay. Now I want to get to, you know, in order for Riley to win this award, her resume, Resume, let me know when that two minutes go up. As I go through her resume, look at this.

Come on, come on, come on, come on. Yeah.

Come on. You have to hear this. There we go. All right. This is just 2026 track and field highlights. She holds a record at Clemson, Spartanburg High School, and Dorman. She's a record holder. Qualified for the Adidas, New Balance, Under Armour, and Nike High School Nationals. Nominated various times for the mile split athlete of the week, all county, all region, all state. State champions for both shot putts and discus. Discus, county champion, meet record holder. Region, upper state champion, state champion, Under Armour High School national champion. Shot putt, county champion, meet record holder. Region champ, meet record holder, broke school record twice. upper state championship meet high school record holder broke school record 3 times state champion under on the high school national top 3 finisher all American and not only she a student athlete really guys but a community service Turkey Giveaway, Back to School Supply Giveaway, Humane Society Volunteer, Stock the Pantry of Total Ministry, located in Spartanburg, McCracken Middle School Leadership Workshop, Prom and Homecoming Cleanup Crew, Setup Crew, Workday Volunteer, Bake Sale Fundraiser, Concession Volunteer for Football, Basketball, Volleyball, Community Carnival Volunteer, Prom Homecoming Ticket Sale. Youth group, Connected Scholars, Bra Mentor, Delta Gems, Church Activities, member of Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church. Student leadership, student body vice president this coming year, correct? So that says she's a junior, well, rising senior, so she's still in high school. Now, student body vice president, junior leadership of Spartanburg, coach O ambassador, student organization, student council, beta club, national high school, national honor society within my high school and nationally. Move alpha theta. uh uh uh award interact club junior leadership of spartanburg fine arts eight years cello player five-year piano player man this list goes on and on exemplary student but we were on vacation when we got the message and i was out at the last uh council meeting but i just wanted all of you all to meet miss riley von rising high school senior the south carolina state Gatorade Female Athlete of the Year. Congratulations to you, Riley. We are so proud of you. uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... attorney awesome awesome awesome very very proud mr. mayor i just want to note i'm going home to talk to my rising 11th grader he needs to step it up a bit congratulations awesome awesome man great news to come back uh as they are about to head back to school within a couple weeks so school starts early this year But great. That was good news for me. I'm so proud of her. Has an older brother heading to LSU this year as well. Yeah, yeah. So great, great family. Thank you, guys. From my player of the year. I mean, she was back in the day, but her resume. I mean, her resume is longer than the CBS receipt. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Love it, love it. Thank you, Robin.

Did I turn my phone off?

I think someone else is. All right, good. Now, item six, public hearing. We have ordinance to amend the City of Spartanburg-South Carolina zoning ordinance and comprehensive plan land use element by amending section 206, change the district boundary specifically to property located at 154 Ridge Street from the current zoning DT5 urban center zone to DT for general urban zone to accommodate the development for a single family dwelling and providing the effective date. And okay. All right. Friendly and Frazier had a bunch of stuff to read their planning director, Ms. Frazier. Thank you.

Good evening, mayor and council members. I don't have anything as exciting as Riley's. We'll try to make this fun for you as well. Um, The item before you this evening is rezoning of 154 Ridge Street. The owner applicant is Okinawa Property Group, Christopher Jefferson, someone that I know you're familiar with as the developer. This particular home is part of the city's Scattered Site Affordable Housing Program. A lot was released to Mr. Jefferson early in 2025. The request is to reclassify this parcel from a DT5 to DT4 in order to accommodate affordable single-family residents. DT5 requires two-story homes, which then made it a bit prohibitive in terms of affordability. So where we are in the rezoning process, as we always do, we make sure that there is a public information session. So that was conducted on May 14th. We did not receive any public comments or written or into the office. And then following the public information session, we also held the planning commission meeting on May 21st. This was the formal hearing. We had two members from the public that did attend. They were nearby. neighbors, I believe, but they were there to speak to a different project, so we did not receive comments at that time either. However, at that point in time, the commission approved the rezoning as vote 240, so unanimously they voted to approve the project. So that brings us to where we are today which is the first of the public hearings in order for this to be reviewed by you and then if it is approved it would move forward to final approval and adoption at your next council meeting which would be the 27th of this month. Just a little bit of context, and I'll go through this quickly, just to give you an idea of where this location, it's in the north side neighborhood, right off of Church, really off of Magnolia. Very small lot, 0.11 acres, as I mentioned, it's currently vacant, and it's surrounded by DT5 and DT4. This is an aerial of that. This is an older image from the tax map. If you've gone by there recently, you know that the other townhomes by Mr. Montgomery are up and leasing, and that's a good portion of that area that you see that's currently upgraded. But there's townhome development right there adjacent. Then it also is adjacent to the Ellington. I'll show you that a little bit closer here. So with the DT4 general urban zone, this is a zoning classification that is really geared toward more residential and predominantly residential, but you'll see some mixed use. So the transect that you see highlighted there, T4, really shows a general kind of land use pattern that you would see there. A bit dense, but not as dense as what you see in T5 and T6, which is closer to the urban core. So this is the project right here, 154. You can see that it's surrounded by either DT4 or DT5. That DT5 where you see the Ellington, the senior housing, that entire parcel is the Ellington. So it's not bifurcated or anything like that. That's all of the Ellington. And that's actually their drive. And then you see the fire station there in DT5. With all rezonings, we always check with what we consider our blueprint, which is a comprehensive plan. So what does that say in terms of this particular project? It falls within the center infill growth center, which means we're looking for infill, either mixed use or residential. So it comports with that. Also, as part of any rezoning analysis, we have, by law, five criteria that we have to review, not just staff, but also the planning commission. This is what each application is reviewed against. For consistency with the comprehensive plan, I think I mentioned that it does. Compatibility with the zoning, you see that all the other surrounding zoning is of like zoning. suitability of the property, and this is the single family piece. It's not a departure from anything that would be too dense. Markability, being affordable, we certainly hope that we'll have someone in there. And then the availability of sewer and water and storm water, that is a part of it as well. So here is the site plan and the floor plan. So it's a proposed three bedroom, two bath structure. And once we get past this piece and they move to construction is when we would start looking at the site plan review. So there would be another layer of review once this goes toward construction. This is an example of what the typical home would look like on that site in terms of being a one-story home. And this is a property also that was delivered by Oak and Ab Property Group. And here are some other examples of projects that have been delivered as well. So that is really the overall summary, but I'm here to entertain any questions you may have.

Sure, Ms. Frazier. I do have a question with that 154. Directly beside it, is that, if you go back one more, that's just a little wooded area? I have not been on that street in I don't know how long. Is that a shadow?

It's green space.

Just green space that who owns?

It's part of the Ellington.

It's part of that property. If there's no way he could talk to get a little bit more on that parcel there?

I'm not sure if that was discussed when it was issued.

She was a young lady here representing Okinawa.

Yes, sir. Sorry, what was the question?

The site right there beside 154, the green space.

Yes, sir. So that does belong to the Ellington Apartments. We recently had to get them to agree to actually move a power pole from 154 over into that green space. The lot is big enough to develop, as the site plan shows, so we weren't going to really fight them on trying to make that part of the development.

Good, good, good. Thank you. Any questions? I'm sorry.

Mr. Mayor, I do have one question. I think this is a great project and I'm glad we're seeing this property develop with a single family home. I guess my question is why would we have released the property to Okinawa well before we had it properly zoned for this use?

Um, that predates, I'm not quite sure.

So what I, what we believe happened is when the Ellington development, um, was originally approved, they, I believe all this entire, uh, the Ellington lot was DT four as well. So they got it rezoned to DT five and somehow this just got roped in along with that rezoning. That's what we believe happened.

Councilman, I believe Martin Livingston can probably address that piece because it has something to do internally in terms of finance, I believe.

The question was why didn't City Council rezone the property before we transferred it?

I guess the question is why did we deed the property to a developer before we knew exactly what they were going to do with it?

Oh, so we knew exactly what they were going to do. They were going to do single-family housing. The zoning designation does allow for single-family housing to be built, but it would have been a two-story home. The rezoning allows them to build a single-family home that's one-story, so that's part of the reason for the rezoning. But all of the lots that were provided to Oakland Avenue had to be single-family homes, either two-story or single-story structures. Okay. The rezoning is required so that they can meet the requirement.

The rezoning is just so that they can build a single story? Single story, that's correct.

I drove by and I noticed that there's not that much of a privacy from the apartments that are there. Are we going to place a fence or something there? For privacy, for the people that would be moving into the property. We can certainly ask them to do that if necessary. You will do that? We can ask them to do that. It's not us. No. Oh, we're not.

No.

I mean, the builder can do it, though.

That is something we can take to our builder to fit into our budget. Yes, ma'am.

Okay, because it needs going to be some privacy there because the people in the apartments are looking right down in their backyard.

I agree. Yes, ma'am.

Yeah. Thank you.

Any other questions? Thank you. This is a public hearing. Second. All in favor? Aye. The way the public hearing works, we will have anyone from the audience to come up and speak in favor or against. Each side has 20 minutes to present their case. No one person can speak any longer than 10 minutes. So if you would like to come up and speak in favor of this project, come up to the mic, introduce yourself, and and let us know your thoughts. If you would like to speak in favor of 154 Ridge Street. If you would like to speak against this project, this development going on Ridge Street. If you would like to speak against the project going on Ridge Street.

Mr. Mayor, I move that we close the public

Second. All in favor? Aye. Any doubt opposed? Ayes have it. Any other questions? I recommend a motion.

Mr. Mayor, I make a motion we approve the resuming request to DT4. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Any doubt opposed? Ayes have it. Thank you. Resolution item seven. Resolution certifying the building as an abandoned building site pursuing in South Carolina Abandoned Building Revitalization Act, Title 12, Chapter 67, Section 12-67-100, South Carolina Code of Laws in 1976 as amended regarding the building light at 630 Walford Street, City of Spartanburg. Mr. Chris Story, City Manager, presenting.

Mr. Mayor, members of council, you're familiar with the South Carolina Abandoned Building Revitalization Act. It's a tool to encourage reuse of vacant or underutilized properties in the state, which has the effect of strengthening neighborhoods and encouraging development within already developed areas, as opposed to additional expansion of the urbanized area. And so we believe it's an important tool for accomplishing some of our redevelopment objectives. 630 Wofford Street was vacant for, according to our records, about 15 years. It is located near where the railroad track goes underneath Wofford Street, just a short distance west of where Wofford meets Arch Street. It is a commercial structure, sort of a smaller light warehouse type of structure that's been in place for generations but set vacant for about 15 years. It is now experiencing a $2 million renovation. It meets the statutory definitions of abandoned building and we have recommended your approval of the resolution which would allow the developer to apply for credits against some state taxes and fees that would have no bearing on the city's revenue. What would in fact increase the revenue for the city, county and is the increased property value from the positive investment there. And as you can see here, it's a property that was in need of some significant work. And so it'll diminish the attractive nuisance that comes with vacant commercial structures and strengthen the community's tax base. So we recommend your approval. Welcome, any questions that you have?

Chris, I do have one. They are doing a great job with that building. But it's... way into being renovated. Yes. Okay.

Yeah. They, they, uh, they filed their notice of intent to rehabilitate, which, uh, this, because it's a credit against state taxes, um, it is, uh, administered by the South Carolina department of revenue. And so they filed about 18 months ago with that organization. Um, and, um, so this resolution essentially, would affirm for the state that nothing in our records would indicate that the building's not eligible. You were just confirming its eligibility for the credits, which would become real after the point at which the full renovation is totally complete, which it is almost, it's close to complete.

What do they intend to use? I mean, I know it's going to be warehouse space of some sort, but is it specific to a company or is it...

It's not specific to an individual company that I know of. There's an auto-related business nearby that they may have some interaction with there.

One of them collision-placed fixed cars. Yeah.

Chris, the backside of that building runs up to what?

I believe it's called Greenville Street. Is it? Yes. Greenville Street that comes off of Arch, runs along the back there. Really can't see it off of Greenville much.

So the main portion of that, I guess the forward-facing part of that building would be Wofford Street?

That's correct. It's not accessed off the rear. It is. You can?

Yeah. I was by there last week. They made tremendous improvements to the area other than a gate.

You can't access it. You can't even see over it.

Good. Any other questions? Do I hear a motion? Because that wasn't a public hearing, was it? Yeah.

Do I hear a motion? Mr. Mayor, I make a motion we approve the resolution as read.

Second. All in favor?

Aye.

Any that opposed? Ayes have it. Awesome, awesome. Item eight, staff update.

Mr. Story. Mr. Mayor, I've got a real short list today. I just want to thank the event team. Since we were last together, we had what we think may be a record crowd for Red, White, and Boom. about 8,000 folks actually in the ballpark itself and others, of course, watching from blocks nearby. And so tremendously successful America 250 sort of special edition of our red, white, and blue. And just want to thank the team for all their efforts for that. And certainly welcome any questions that you all have on any other topics, but no other substantive updates.

I tell you, Chris, with Red, White and Boom, we were out early. We, Shay and I, did the parade over in Converse Heights and went downtown for the kickoff with the Bon Jovi experience and the parade down to the park. And once you got to the park, and we all know how hot it was. You had a cooling station, which was the city bus running with AC, free waters everywhere. It was just really special just for the staff and the team to see that need, just that forward thinking to place a bus out there for you to sit on and cool down and grab a, you know, bottled water. Not anything stronger than water, Jamie. but it was it was special and to have those 8 200 inside the park and and the ones all around but good good stuff good stuff i know you really got ruth when you said that awesome awesome any other questions all right thank you you guys rolling and city council update

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to say that I did enjoy the little activity for my being there for the 250th birthday celebration in the part of Arnett Park. So I think that we did a wonderful job in putting on the events. And thank you to the event staff. Also, I want to thank each and every one of you who are here with us today and hope to see you again in two weeks.

All right, Councilman Palmer. Yes, sir. Mr. Mayor, there's there's a lot to talk about, but I think I'll keep my remarks brief and focused. As you pointed out earlier, South Carolina is in mourning at the loss of our senior senator. And I think we can all agree that regardless of politics, Senator Graham led a great American life. He loved this country. He served his country admirably and was a consequential figure in its history. And so I think one of the things that I've been particularly—that's particularly impressed me over the course of the last 48 hours is the tributes he's poured in for Senator Graham. has been the fact that the tributes are coming from friend and foe alike. Fierce advocates that were supporters of his as well as staunch adversaries who fought with him tooth and nail on a daily basis. have all spoken with great admiration for his ability to work across the aisles and to interact with civility and respect for people that he did not agree with. And so, you know, I think that's a powerful lesson for all of us as we engage civically and we do so both at the state and local level. And so I think, you know, irregardless or regardless of the politics of it, part of his legacy will be that civility and respect and it's a lesson for all of us. Thank you for that. He was a great person, just a great overall human being.

Mayor Pro Tem. Yes, I got up on yesterday morning and I saw that flashing across the television and I thought it was out of order. And I asked Horace to come in and I said, God, do you see this? My heart goes out to Lindsey Graham's family. It also goes out to the family of Nolan Wells. My heart goes out to them as well. I just want to really take a moment to explain something. I've had a lot of phone calls and I've gotten a lot of text messages from friends who are very upset about something that they have seen on Facebook. and so and they are questioning me about it and I just want to kind of explain something. I moved back to Spartanburg in February of 2007 after being away for 32 years. Horace retired, got from the Air Force in 1996 after 21 years of service and we lived in Florida up until 2007. And we moved back to Spartanburg mainly because his mother was ill. And that's why we came back. But once I returned to Spartanburg, I got busy cleaning up our neighborhood I chose to live in this neighborhood because there were a lot of homes that were really run down. And the first thing that I did before I started unpacking, I was cleaning up my neighborhood. Starting in 2007, I wanted to know more about Spartanburg because I did not know, so I enrolled in every class, session, and tours that were offered because I wanted to know much more about the city and the county of Spartanburg as possible. The BMW plant was built during my absence in 1994, and for a couple of years after returning, I just assumed the plant was in Greenville County because of its location. I spoke this assumption in a class, in a session that I was taking during the early years of my return. Because of this error, an elected official has posted on his Facebook page that I am not fit for public office because I did not know that BMW was in Spartanburg County rather than Greenville County. I ask for the sake of our community, especially the young people who look up to our elected officials, please try and set a more positive image for our city. And that's it. Thank you.

Thank you, Ruth. Thank you for clearing that up. Councilwoman Rogers.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for being here. I am coming off vacation time myself with family. I was able to spend some time on the north tip, northwestern tip of Washington on an island with about the size city of Spartanburg. It was just an amazing experience to literally be on an island that was very connected by ferry to all these surrounding islands, but to see so many similarities to the place that we love and call home and that my uncle and my aunt have really loved where they've been for the last 30 years. I look forward to comparing and contrasting and bringing some thoughts. But it is definitely a sustainable community that really interacts with nature, respects the fact that they're on the coast, and leans into surrounding islands. There's transit. There's multiple farmers markets. There's events. There was a sailboating competition this weekend, which was beautiful to see. uh... just to share with you it's it's uh... pleasure to you not only serve and witness this community and care about all the events all the time the event staff is doing so much communications thank you uh... but also to just pick up and go to a place that that reminded me so much of the home that i appreciate uh... i hope everyone had a lovely holiday And one last thing. I think we've all said it. I will finish. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilwoman Brown.

Mr. Mayor, things are pretty quiet, so thank you all for being here. Appreciate it.

Awesome, awesome. Councilman former and I had the opportunity to be at Duncan Park this past Saturday for the 100 year of Duncan Park Stadium. outstanding event that morning we had little ones out there participating practicing playing a little baseball they had a program around 11 a college game one two o'clock went on that afternoon and as was spoken during the program you had the privilege if you wanted to to go downtown uh to watch a spartanburg game so spartanburg was full of baseball on this past saturday but to recognize the 100th anniversary of Duncan Park was special as well. We had some great attendance. Again, thanks staff for being a part of it and thank all the partners from um friends of duncan park piles i'm not going to start naming because i'm going to leave someone off but it's plenty of partners and they know who they are and we do truly appreciate them as i continue to look at ms riley one very important thing i forgot to mention riley is a 5.0 student as well so you know just add that to the checklist Just add that one on. That wasn't you quite there. So, again, and the sentiments were made about Lindsey Graham. Again, regardless of which side of the table you sat, Lindsey was a good person. He was a good person. He did a lot for our country, no matter which way you look at it. bmw is one of them you know he's very instrumental in helping bmw come this way so again thank you all for being here we do have an executive session so do i hear my commercial executive session second all in favor all right let's go let's go thank you guys for being here in the audience