Lancaster County Council - Regular Meeting

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege of gathering tonight to serve our community. Grant us wisdom in our decisions, humility in our disagreements, and courage to always do what is right for the people we have been entrusted to represent. As we mark the 25th anniversary of September 11th, we remember the innocent lives murdered, the families who still carry that loss, and the first responders and ordinary Americans who showed extraordinary courage. May we never forget their sacrifice, and may we never take for granted the freedom, unity, and blessings of this great nation. Guide our

Mr. Chair, I make a motion to amend the agenda to move item six, which is special presentations ahead of five citizens comment.

Get up here and stick your chest out. Stick your chest out. Charlie, now we should photobomb him.

Mr. Chairman, I'd like to hear from the coach. I'd like to hear from the coach to tell you something about his team now. I mean, that's...

I miss you too, Alan. I'm now her favorite. You might be number two.

Okay. I move to approve consent agenda item 7A, 7B, 7C, and 7D.

All right, a motion to move to postpone consent agenda items 7E and 7F until the October 26, 2026 council meeting.

Let me tell you this. In 2027, Lancaster County will be opening our new detention center out on Highway 9. After serving in the US Army for 32 years, Sheriff Willerford L. served as a military police officer returning to Lancaster County and serving 32 years with the Sheriff's Department. 13 years as the sheriff replacing Nae Parks. In 1997, Sheriff Williford Fell was awarded the Order of the Palmetto, the highest civilian of honor in the state of South Carolina. In 2018, Sheriff Fell was inducted into the South Carolina Law Enforcement Officers Hall of Fame. And I think there's no better way

I would. I don't know whether anyone else up here would know Sheriff Fell, Senior Sheriff Fell. But I did. And I had the opportunity to work with him. fair fine great man and i tell you right now you see barry there he is just like his dad so neat to the point if you wanted to see a neat sheriff that will fulfill was a very neat well-spoken community-oriented man and uh it's great for lancaster county all right mr chairman i'd like to make that motion and i'll say that double second

When you see bad, you're looking at, well, y'all. Steve read part of the stuff that's on this proclamation.

I'm not gonna read it all, but it really touches on all the . Sheriff, you can't name cell blocks after councilmen.

A couple of comments. After listening to the comments from the citizens, you know, I voted in favor of it at the first reading because I wanted to hear more and just kind of listen to the thoughts of the folks that was concerned. And I do agree with, I think one citizen mentioned the developer's risk. And my thought was, what's going to happen in two years? Because the economy is not getting any better. So what's going to happen in two years? Will the developer come back and ask for another extension? So I think it's not our risk to take. It's the developer's risk. Because as someone said, tha

Hearing no discussion. Is there going to be a presentation on it?

Yeah, this is in my district. And I guess I had a couple of questions as this site is surrounded by residential and it's single family residential for the most part and then townhomes on one side where it's directly adjacent. Across the street, you have unique loom. So I guess for me, the first question was, what are the uses that are gonna be put here? Because if I look at the uses for neighborhood business district, there's a lot of uses that could drive some concerns for me, including schools for vocational, art and dance studios, and it looks like it's professional service, so I'm trying t

Would it work with professional business district?

I would recommend that we probably go to professional business district as opposed to a neighborhood business district if we're gonna go this direction. My other concern was similar to the comments that have been made previously about we're this close to going through the new UDO. Why are we doing this now? We're about a month away from the new UDO. I would recommend for the applicant, if the applicant so desires, let's wait till we get to that new UDO and then review it under those parameters. So that's gonna be my first motion is I'm gonna make a motion to delay this until the second Novembe

Yeah. And that's why I'm saying, would you be okay with waiting for the new UDO? Or is there an urgency that it needs to happen right now?

Okay, that probably should have been informed about that.

but if they rezone to the new professional business district right now, wouldn't they be grandfathered and vested rights into the professional business? So that's why I'm saying, like, right, that's why I'm saying to delay it for the new UDO, and that way we can review it under the new parameters, unless there was some reason for an urgency to try to get it in right now. It's only about a month away. it would fall under the final determination would be planning staff would be able to advise you where it would fall based off of the new uses under the udo the new udo so mr chair how do we clean

I think that's what she's explaining. Okay.

if this process is restarted what are you looking at four to six months

At least. It would not go four to six months because it would just have to go back to the planning commission and they just have to schedule. Yeah. And then the three readings. So it would be a month because it would have to go back to the.

And then I have a concern if you're going to ask this gentleman to go back through rezoning, are you going to charge him again?

No. No. I would recommend that we waive those fees.

If you don't want to move, my recommendation would then be to go to the professional business district and then you would be under that zoning district going forward. You'd be vested rights under that one. No.

Yeah, but neighborhood business does not make sense. Cuz if we're doing professional services, neighborhood business is gonna add a whole slew of other uses that could impact the direct neighbors that are single family homes.

Can we not grandfather in if we move forward with this request?

What would be more beneficial to the applicant?

And it's not necessarily what's in the best interest of the applicant, but what's in the best interest of the constituents and the people that are actually living there.

That too, but hold up. That too, but he's in a position here that we've got to make a decision on where it falls. I think we need to also understand that that's going to put him in a position. We've got to always recognize the constituents with whatever we decide. Right.

So is the delay in the costs on the new application or what's the concern with the costs?

My concern is if we move forward with this and then we can change it later and we decide to, he's gonna go back and have the delay even more because we've now spent the two weeks between this hearing and the next one.

So Jenny, if we approve this now under the neighborhood business, does it fall under the neighborhood business of the current UDO or would it be the current or the new UDO?

I don't think so, cuz I think it would be vested based off of the time frame of when- Two different things.

I think if that's the case, then that makes sense. Let's just confirm what the professional services and that there's not a lesser use that doesn't have to be the neighborhood business that would still meet those requirements. And we can talk about it for the next one. But even if we're following under that pattern, if we approve it under the new UDO and it's consistent with the new UDO, than if the plans would have to fall under the new UDO. And we are approving this based off of that understanding, so that if that is not the understanding, this is not approved. Understood.

Okay. Yeah, we can go back and check. I just wanted to check it.

There's not a fire suppression system in that building.

So if down the road there ever is a system installed, it's got to be a separate meter anyway, doesn't it?

Probably about $100,000 water meter for a fire suppression system or more.