County Council - Regular Meeting

All right, we're going to move into our public hearings, starting out with Item 1A, Extend Moratorium in Historic Districts.

Good afternoon. Just a simple request that whatever moratorium extension that my family's property is opted out of it. Thank you.

All right. Moving on to item 1B, North Charleston City District Easement 4350 Azalea Drive.

All right, no one signed up. Moving on to 1C, amend Charleston-Colleton multi-county business park agreement to add a new parcel.

All right, moving on to 1D, Charleston Harbor, Holding Company, LLC, 1998 pilot agreements, assignment and assumption, hotel and marina.

Since we didn't have any signed up, we'll move on to 1E, FY27, County Budget Amendment.

I need a little help. All right. Moving on to 1F, James Island Public Service District General Obligation Bonds.

All right, no one signed up. Moving on to 1G, amendments to the Charleston County Zoning and Land Development Regulations Ordinance, or ZELDA, round six.

Okay, this time we're going to move into our public comments period. Each speaker is afforded two minutes to speak, and we ask that you all keep in mind the public comments code of conduct that you agreed to when you signed in.

All right, well now we'll move into our county council meeting and we'll start with a prayer from Mr. Moody and the pledge by Mr. Sass.

We welcome your presence here tonight. We thank you for the needed rain and ask you to bless our meeting. We thank you for engaged and passionate citizens who come forward on behalf of their community. We also thank you for our council members who serve their communities and we especially lift up our staff and first responders who keep our county safe. We ask you to watch over our proceedings and that your will be done here tonight. In your precious name we pray, amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. 3A and B. All right. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Ayes have it. Moving on to item four, Mr. Moody.

So at this time, is Sergeant Taylor here tonight?

Okay, and at this time, I'd like to invite Ms. Geraldine Minter to come forward, Lieutenant Jean Frazier's daughter, to receive a resolution presented by Mr. Pryor.

Ms. Minter, I wanted to speak to you directly. If you'd come up here in just a minute.

He was my lieutenant, and he was an awesome man. He mentored me. I worked Union Heights and Ackaby and all those areas up there, and he took good care of me. And then I also got to enjoy his company down at the federal courthouse when I was a federal agent and see him all the time and will miss him greatly. And he was so fortunate to have such an awesome dad.

I'd like to recognize former Councilwoman Ms. Johnson. Absolutely. Thank you for reaching out to me as well.

Thank you, Mr. Boykin. On item 4A, I thank this council for their support. You may recall I had brought an issue to council a couple weeks ago, and we voted to send to the Planning Commission my motion, mentioned some recommendations to Planning Commission on how to tighten up our subdivision policy within our planning department. My prior motion was after meeting with the attorney, Chairman Boyk and Mr. Sass joined that meeting as well. I think we decided that that motion was maybe a little too tight and did not include staff, which was never my intention. Therefore, it also really didn't tak

Properly moved and seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. All right. Moving on to item five. Third reading of ordinance is 5A, extension of moratorium on historic districts.

No, this is third reading. I mean, in favor. So we're going to vote in just a second. I'm going to make it final. Okay. You want to call the roll? Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am.

I would simply like to, I know this is not the time for a speech, but certainly I do agree that there are protections that the historic preservation commissions afford for historic settlement communities and certainly I believe the process itself is robust. I have been resolute by saying that the early on the communities really should trust these processes because the processes were there and certainly, you know, almost begging and pleading for the communities to come on board. And so when we find these levels of protections available, The communities themselves have to come to a place where w

Okay, 5B, North Charleston Sewer District Easement Request. Third reading.

5C amends Charleston-Colleton multi-county business park agreement to add a new parcel. Third reading.

This has nothing to do with adding a company. Just this... Extended because I know I voted. I didn't vote. I recuse myself on Okay, I'm I okay I Want to make sure I want to make sure for you as well, yeah Well, I'm a recusal yes, sir, I think you do need to recuse yourself on this one before so I recuse myself from it, okay, I

5D, Charleston Harbor, Holding Company, LLC, 1998 Pilot Agreements, Assignments, and Assumptions Hotel. Third reading.

5E, Charleston Harbor Holding Company LLC, 1998, pilot agreements and assignments and assumption for the marina.

Now 5F, FY27 budget amendments, third reading.

All right. Moving on to the second reading of Ordinances 6A, James Island Public Service District General Obligation Bonds.

the ordinance passes second reading with eight eyes one absent all right moving the committee recommendations the first reading ordinances second any discussion i'm sorry there's some partials that we put in the names of these that we're putting in because we just did seven i mean we just did five um See, right? So who are the companies that's going to be in there? Because I want to make sure River's Landing is not in this.

No problem. Any further? All right. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.

Oh, Mr. Butler-Tarrant. I need to read the ordinance here.

All right, moving to the consent agenda, a motion.

Move to approve, well, are there any that we need to?

Oh, sorry, excuse me. We apologize. That's okay.

OK. Are there any on this list of A through O that need to be voted on by itself?

All right. Move to approve 8A through N. OK. Do I have a second?

Second. OK. Any discussion? All right. Myself and Ms. Honeycutt will be recused from 8M, as in Mary, because we were the travelers. All right. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ayes have it. Okay.

Second. All right. Properly moved and seconded.

I had a question. I think this was the one that I think I commented last week, that other parties are buying this, that there likely will be a comeback to us next week or next year or sometime. Not that you don't.

I'm going to support it tonight, but I will not support a takeout later. Thank you.

Any further discussion on 8-0? All right. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ayes have it.

Hope to approve 9A, B, C, and E. All right. Nope, nope, nope. Not E, please. A, B, C. A, B, C. All right.

Motions for A through C. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Ayes have it. All right. 9D. Do I have a motion?

What you asked for 9D. 9D. Committee recommendation.

I'll second it. All right. Any discussion? Mr. Milton, I heard you first.

Well, you know, again, vehemently I am for the LCRT. I would like to say that publicly by vehemently oppose the eminent domain by CARTA. of the property in question. I think that if we are able to allow these parties to work this out on their own, and I know this is a legal matter, so I'm not even getting involved in it. it would be in the best interest of all. I do feel that we've heard things tonight that should concern all of us to an extent, to at least pause and take a step back and come to some healthy resolution on our own based on our internal positions. But I'm not going to support th

Okay. Mr. Pryor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, too, like Mr. Milton and support the LCRT, but some of my concerns is we are waiting on $360 million from the federal government. There's no telling that that money is going to ever come because of the way where this war is going on now and all the budget cuts. I just don't want to see... I just don't want it to end up like it was in the Kenhoy area. I think some of you remember when the South Carolina porch was over at Kenhoy, and they forced those people out. And what, a year or so later, they decided, well, we're going to move to North Charleston

Okay. All right. Well, that's my, you know, I voted no on last week, Thursday, and I'm going to vote no again tonight because those are my concerns. I spoke to Mr. Mitchum about some of these concerns, but I'm just worried about the federal government. They've let us down so many times, and we started this back in 2016, and we still hadn't done the first shovel yet. So I just wanted to be up front. to know that I support the LCRT, but I'd like to see us get as much as we can, because if they buy this property in the fields, does the property go back to the exchange club, or is it on the market

Yes, and that's what I would like to see the parties do if this goes through tonight. Maybe sit down and talk with them and do something. And I think it would be a win-win for everybody, even the community. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

thank you mr moody question mr samson after that yeah i was listening to mr darby's music um just mute them i turned my thing off i did turn the speaker off as well just mute them mr thigpen um yeah we've heard from from both sides very passionate um you know they both have compelling arguments One of my follow-up questions was, follow-up to Mr. Worman's, was we hear from a lot of people, just move it. It's the same tax map number. Why can't you just move it? Was that originally where it was supposed to be, where they're offering now? I don't know. You tell me. But they said, well, I can't jus

Setting aside what the folks said tonight, which was concerning about the legal fees, this was not a listed project in 2016, but I think it was pretty well implied that transit funding was going to be spent for LCRT. Is that your recollection? That was a little before my...

So like any other wood project listed, we would pursue that? Yes, sir. How much of that to whatever has been spent to date do you know?

Thank you. Mr. Meade, I'll add to this. We had Mr. Mitchum here last week. He further explained, absent the environmental work not being done, that that's where the four lanes go to two lanes, and that extensive work would have to be done to meet DOT requirements to allow any left turns out of there. So that was yet another issue with that other part. So we'd have to widen? We'd have to do road construction and stuff to make it all work. So I'm not sure what that cost would involve. And also, that was $1 million a month for any delays. And we had to, he had to account for where that money was

90 was on here and it was approved. No, no, I'm just going to say it was requested to be deferred by Mr. Wehrman, so we're not taking it up tonight.

Now we'll move on to council comments, starting with Mr. Moody.

Yeah, thank you, sir. I first wanted to lift up that nice lady who had a great message for us tonight. Lift up people. Lift people up. That was a good message. I also wanted to thank Mrs. Zimmerman. Hey, we agree. I am with you. The Old Town improvements and Savannah Highway intersections, which bisects a great proportion of Mr. Middleton's district and mine, long overdue. And so I'm excited those are going to get going. And then one thing that I wanted this council, we got a blue sheet this week from the administrator about a Greenbelt project that's been three years old, Ms. Hamm. I'd like t

Madam Attorney? No, sir. Well, with that, we are adjourned.