City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Bye.

to have everyone here this evening. It's our tradition prior to gaveling a meeting into order to have a short prayer. You're welcome to join us if you'd like. Tonight, Councilmember Kevin Sutton is going to lead us.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your many blessings and your continued faithfulness to this community. We ask that you would keep your hands upon our police officers and firefighters as they protect us each and every day. They give of themselves while we go about our daily lives and we sleep and they continue to stay on watch. And so we just ask that your hand would be upon them. each and every day as this council comes together now we ask that you would give us wisdom and guidance to make proper decisions for those that we represent we ask it in jesus name amen amen i call this meeting of monday september 14 2026 to order please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance

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 right.

They're going in circles my whole life there. All right, welcome and glad to have everybody tonight. We'll start on item 3A, Proclaim September as Race Equality Month. Tonight we have Kiara Barber, Vice Chair of the Community Relations Council. If you want to come forward. We have a resolution and normally I'd walk up there and give it to you, but that'd take about an hour, so we're not going to do that tonight, but Deputy City Manager Steven Gibson is going to do that. Kiara, if you'll share with the city what this month means.

My name is Kiara Barber and first I would like

Thank you all for your time and your support on behalf of the Community Relations Committee. The Rock Hill Community Relations Committee demonstrates our community's commitment to honoring diverse voices, fostering connection, and empowering our future leaders, advancing racial equity through meaningful engagement. Race Equity Month, the City of Rock Hill Community Relations Council has organized race equality activities since 2002, having served as a cornerstone of Rock Hill's commitment to inclusion, understanding, and community dialogue. The event is traditionally held each September and brings together residents, community organizations, educational institutions, and local leaders to engage in conversations, activities that strengthen race relations and build inclusive communities. Over the years, our programming has evolved from cultural celebrations to educational exhibits, which include panel discussions, community listening sessions and conversations, film screenings focused on civil rights history, historical bus tours, youth engagement activities and service projects, and environmental stewardship activities. With our tangible highlights of creating community quilts, these quilts, I have our quilt with us, these quilts symbolize our community coming together through our squares of life and different life experiences that may vary. So there we go. This year's Food Truck Friday activity will be also for our community to express in drawing what CRC means to them. Looking ahead, we are working on our 2027 MLK Interfaith Program, which will be on January the 18th, 2027, and we are excited to announce that it will be held at the Kenneth Monroe Transformation Center. We are currently working to finalize details and further information will be shared with the public at a later date. In February, we will have our Roots and Rhythm event in partnership with Winthrop University's African American Studies and Association of the Ebonites. The Roots and Rhythm will celebrate the rich cultural diversity of community through music, storytelling, art, and shared experiences. All of these events, both past and future, strengthen community cohesion while highlighting the contributions that make our community unique. We are looking forward to a great year ahead. Thank y'all.

Thank you very much. And to all the members of your committee who work so hard every year, we appreciate you. Thank you.

We want to do the fun group photo.

I don't think you'll see me, but that's probably better. Come on.

That's right.

Thank you. Thank you all.

Good to see you. Thank you again. We'll move on to item 4, consider approving the consent agenda. That's item 4A, minutes of regular session of August 10th, 2026. 4B, second reading and adoption of an ordinance to provide for the disposition by sale of property on Willowbrook Avenue, Rock Hill, South Carolina by the City of Rock Hill to the Housing Development Corporation of Rock Hill. 4C, second reading and adoption of an ordinance to amend the zoning ordinance in the City of Rock Hill code by making certain changes in the official zoning map affecting approximately 2.08 acres Located on Stonewall Avenue and Briarcliff Road from Single Family Residential 5, SF 5 to Office and Institutional OI. 4D, Second Reading and Adoption of an Ordinance to Amend the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Rock Hill Code Chapter 2 Administration Concerning Neighborhood Meeting Requirements. And 4E, Second Reading and Adoption of an Ordinance to Amend the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Rock Hill Code Chapter 4 Land Use Primary Uses Concerning Waste Related Uses.

So moved for approval. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Questions? Hearing and seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Approved. We'll move on to item 5A. Consider Planning Commission recommendation on petition M-2026-10 by Jonathan Nazir, Victory Gardens International, to rezone approximately 0.65 acres, including right-of-way at 641 Crawford Road from single-family residential 4SF4, to Neighborhood Commercial NC. That's tax parcel 600-12-5-006. Shawna.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. So again, this is the rezoned property from SF4. It's a neighborhood commercial at 641 Crawford Road. So this property is located at the southeast corner of Crawford Road and Rock Street. It's generally located on the south side of the city within the Old Town character area. It consists of one parcel that is owned by Victory Gardens International and has an existing building that was built back in 1965. It was previously occupied by non-residential uses such as a laundromat and a neighborhood convenience store, and most recently the pharmacy retail store. That retail store did close in May of 2025. Again, the property is zoned SF4. It's surrounded by other properties that are zoned SF4 and are used for single-family detached uses that are zoned SF4. There's also some neighborhood commercial and office institutional in the area. These include the Emmett Scott Recreation Center, First Calvary Baptist Church, and Robinson Funeral Home. So since the property is zoned SF4, it does not allow for many commercial uses. Therefore, the previous non-residential uses that existed on the property were considered legally non-conforming. If non-conforming uses change or cease for a period of six months or more, they can only be used for The property can only be reused for uses that are allowed in SF4 zoning district unless one of two things happen. So if the property is rezoned to allow for what the property is proposed to be used for or the ZBA can consider reestablishing the non-conforming use in the residential zoning district. So we look at that. We look at each case on its merit. Basically, for this case, since the property is along Crawford Road, which is a collector road, we feel that it's appropriate for it to be zoned NC, whereas there may be another convenience store that's just in the middle of a neighborhood where it's more appropriate to go to the ZBA. In this case, the applicant does want to rezone the property to NC so that it can continue to market the property. The property has two driveways with direct access on the two SCDOT owned and maintained roads, Crawford Road, which is a minor collector, and then Rock Street, which is a local road. There is sidewalk along the frontage of Crawford Road. However, there are no sidewalks along Rock Street. These are just additional photos. This is along that Crawford Road entrance, and this is the Rock Street entrance. So before the public hearing at the Planning Commission on the 1st of this month, we received one phone call from a neighboring property owner just wanted more questions or just had more questions about the request. During the public hearing, there was no one signed up to speak. The applicant was at the public hearing and just went over the proposal that he basically wants to be able to market the property. Unfortunately, after the microburst storm, the store was closed down and then it reopened and then it had to close again due to federal funding being removed. So with that, staff recommends approval of the NC zoning district because it would allow the existing non-residential building to be used for, to continue to be used for non-residential uses. And then additionally, the neighborhood commercial zoning district does allow for those low impact uses and it restricts hours of operation to 10 p.m. and in between 6 a.m. So businesses can't be open in between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Thank you. Thank you, Donna. Any questions for Shawna? What's the wish of council?

Yeah.

I wanted the same thing. Yeah.

I'm not sure if it's ever been a house, but the building was constructed in the 60s, so 1965. It's probably that just the store was allowed in SF4 at that time, or it's been allowed, but at some point we removed the retail use from the SF4 zone and district, so that's what made it legally non-conforming. That's usually how uses become non-conforming, that they were once allowed in the zoning district, but at some point we removed it and it's become non-conforming.

Mayor, I would accept the motion to accept the Planning Commission recommendation. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Questions? Hearing and seeing none, all in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Approved 5B, ordinance to amend the zoning ordinance for the City of Rock Hill code by making certain changes in the official zoning map affecting approximately 0.65 acres located on Crawford Road from single-family residential 4, SF 4 to neighborhood commercial NC.

So moved for first reading.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Questions? Hearing and seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Approved. 6A, resolution. Consider a resolution to support the purposes and goals of the Catawba Watery River Basin Integrated Water Resources Plan as developed by the Catawba Watery Water Management Group. Mr. Bagley.

Mayor, Council, good evening. As you all are aware, the Catawba Watery Water Management Group has been charged for the last 20 years to put forth a study that's done every 10 years that talks about the use of the Catawba Watery. It's a 370 mile stretch all the way from Lake James down to Watery. And basically out of that, the outcomes of that are to look to make sure we have enough water quantity out into the future for drinking purposes, as well as recreation, economic development, all those sort of things. The most recent study also includes a lot of water quality issues. which again, we've spent a lot of time looking at, and it takes about five years to put the study together. So we certainly recommend the support of this, and we need these kind of efforts to make sure everybody in the basin's doing the same things when it comes to drought or water quality issues working between North Carolina and South Carolina for nutrient loadings in the stream flow, that sort of thing as well. I'll be glad to answer any questions.

Any questions for Jimmy?

So Jimmy, does... Does this document, so I haven't seen the document. I'm sure it's probably some, yeah, I'm not looking for pleasure reading, but does that document, does it go into the classification of droughts and when we're at the various stages and when communities are supposed to issue mandatory drought restrictions and things like that?

Yes, sir, there are really two forms of drought. condition announcements in the state. One, the state of South Carolina can certainly go into it. And they have five levels, excuse me, four levels of drought. Mild, moderate, incipient, extreme. The water management group, which is really managed by Duke Energy because it's a Levin reservoir system. And it was built and designed for hydroelectric power, but of course, obviously, they support the drinking water efforts. Back when the group was formed, Duke Energy was talking about charging everybody that had a withdrawal out of the base and charging them for the use of the water. The City of Rock Hill was one that said, you know, we believe you shouldn't have to do that, that we all have water access. There's been no court case that allows that, but there have been several settlements where people that withdraw do pay the utility provider that built the reservoir for it, and certainly we do admit there's an advantage of pulling water out of the reservoir versus the stream flow of the running river. Out of that agreement, everyone that signed, which we did, there were 70 participants that signed that said if Duke would forego charging people to do that, we would all agree to do these studies. Right about that same time, South Carolina sued North Carolina over water rights for an interbasin transfer with Concord-Cannapolis, the Supreme Court said we had to do these studies as part of that settlement every 10 years. But the resolution of all that was if we agreed to not succumb to Duke's asking us to pay for water usage out of the reservoir, that we would join the group and be a part of their drought management program, which they have to file with FERC that says how much water is released during certain times based on the amount of rainfall we get as well as the reservoir. So it's a formula that was put together that looks at the components of the stream flow, the drought monitor, as well as the reservoir levels. And back in 2010, when that was all signed, everyone agreed to participate. management of that collectively so it's 21 utilities plus duke energy that looks at that and a lot of commercial and manufacturers that are part of that they call it dmag the drought management advisory group so that's the team that looks at it and they've been set established I guess formats for that. It was updated in 2014 and kind of recalibrated because the last general record in 2009 had some things we thought could be tweaked a little bit. So that group tweaked those, refiled that with FERC and said these are the new limits. They kind of broadened it, opened it up a little bit more so that you didn't kind of bounce in and out so much. So yes, sir. I know that's a long answer.

There's really two parts to it.

The Drought Management Advisory Group is the one that we really get by the Catawba Watery. And then we have the state that can also call it. And the state's looking at it on a county by county basis, not so much on the basin level.

So does that document, it requires us... this group can tell the city of Rock Hill that we have to do. I think it recommend.

Yeah, it recommends. They don't tell us what we have to do. It just says that everyone along the Catawba Watery wants Once we've hit a level that FERC has acknowledged, we all have to do something. Now we can decide exactly what we do. So far the group all the way from Lake James down to Watery has done similar things. Like if it's just cut back 5%, we can decide how we cut back 5% and whether we wanna do two waterings a week or one or what have you. But in essence, to fulfill the obligation with FERC and to continue to get the withdrawal out, we do have to do something when we hit those certain triggers. This study is just a study. It doesn't call for all that. All that was already done back whenever everyone signed the relicensing agreement when that was applied to FERC. This is just looking at the implementation of that as well as the usage. So if somebody thinks they need to get another 20 million gallons out, this talks about what are the impacts from that, and it has to coincide with the document, which is updated every 10 years and looks at all those sort of things.

So say Charlotte wants to pull out another 20 million gallons.

35.

35, excuse me, yeah, whatever the number is, and not be able to recycle and put money, water back in, then this document helps facilitate our conversation to go against that.

Correct.

And have a... a plan to make sure everybody is adhering to certain standards.

Correct. So the document didn't really contemplate the Charlotte Water Ask, but it did contemplate the 30 million gallons they already have, as well as a couple others. There are a number of interbasin transfers already. And the study basically said if all of those were to return back to their native basin, it would extend the water supply 38 days in a drought two-stage condition. So those are the kind of things that the document looks at. I've heard a lot of rumors out of the northern counterparts that talk about it supports it, it doesn't support it. It doesn't do that. It just lists the facts.

This is the factual foundation for conversations to come or to be had now. It sets up... Issues that we realize that are issues like interbasin transfers, the way North Carolina's basins are set up as subbasins plays into that, that also just unbridled growth and the impact that that has on sedimentation and everything else as facts rather than people just throwing rocks at each other. Yes, sir.

So Paul, are you comfortable with us approving, obviously Jimmy's the brains of the operation and the smartest one here, but are you good with us signing with, I just, I'm being asked to support a document I've never seen.

Well, first of all, I will agree, Jimmy's smarter. Do we need to vote on that? Maybe not anyone else, but certainly smarter than I am. But secondly, it's a resolution, and so the resolution contains some aspirational language. There are other documents that would be more pertinent to your question, but not this one.

Okay.

Thank you. Any further discussion?

What's the wish of counsel?

Motion to consider the resolution.

Second.

We have a motion to second. Any further discussion? Questions? Hearing or seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Approved. Thank you. We'll move on to item 7A, consider extension of a partnership agreement between the City of Rock Hill Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Department and Independent Soccer Club. Mr. Bagley.

Yes, sir, Mayor. You know, we currently have an agreement with... It's independent soccer club. They now call themselves the football club, CFC. But basically, they rent 12 weekends a year of the Manchester Fields. And as part of that agreement, they also manage our youth soccer programs as part of that program. So this is an extension of that agreement. They had proposed a 10-year extension. because they were talking about doing some additional work out there. Certainly, we've talked about some of that in the executive sessions. It's currently a five-year agreement with the ability to go to attend should they bring forward some additional programming that's not something that they typically have done in the past.

This empowers the city manager to negotiate that from five to ten years if and when there's some value brought to the table, correct? Yes, sir.

So was there a document in our packet on this? No, there wasn't.

I can certainly provide it. It should have been in there. So what are we? I have a copy. I'll be glad to.

I mean, is the agreement going to come at a future date that we all approve, or are we being asked to approve that tonight?

You're being asked to approve it tonight with the city manager's ability to edit it based on our conversations in the executive session.

I'm glad to approve something I've never seen. I think it's an extension of the existing agreement, if I understand correctly. Correct.

We did add the language to extend it the additional five years, as well as the... one percent adder I believe is what went into starting in year three to go forward I think we had asked could they do a annual increase each year and that's in there as well but I apologize if it didn't get copied in the agenda and we can certainly do that okay

make a motion to defer second make a motion We have a motion by Council Member Black, second by Council Member Sutton to defer item 7A so we can make sure we're all comfortable with what we're voting on.

Fair enough? Yeah, we can do that. That's not a problem. All right. Apology for that. Thank you.

Yeah. Any further discussion, questions, hearing or seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Approved. All right. Mr. Herman, consider a request to reduce the speed limit on multiple roads within Country Club Estates from 30 miles per hour to 25 miles per hour. Chris Herman. Aye.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Council Members. Tonight in front of you is a request coming from the City's Traffic Commission as well as the Country Club Estates Neighborhood. Residents from the Country Club Estates Neighborhood attended the May Traffic Commission meeting this year and noted significant concerns regarding safety and speeding in their neighborhood area. Traffic Commission reviewed those concerns and some data presented by staff that I'll cover in just a moment. But the majority of the discussion points topped at three main points. The first is what you see outlined on screen here in the different colors. There's a variation of speed limits within the neighborhood area. In bright green, Country Club Drive and Sherwood Circle are posted 25 mile per hour speed limit zones in bright blue. A number of other roadways throughout the neighborhood area are unposted residential roadways. So according to city ordinance, those are 30 mile per hour speed limit zones. And then Harper Galt Road on the far left that is posted as a 35 mile per hour speed limit zone. So Traffic Commission in the last few years has looked at that and that creates a little bit of, not a little bit, but it does create uncertainty when it comes to enforcement efforts where Rock Hill Police Department or other agencies don't have the clarity they really desire when trying to enforce the speed limit because there is plausible deniability from drivers as to what the speed limit actually is on any of the given roadways in the neighborhood area. The second main point made by the Traffic Commission was related to the SC 72 or Saluda Road widening project underway by York County Pennies for Progress. That construction project seems to be changing driver travel patterns in that area. The construction traffic seems to be pushing more traffic through the neighborhood in order to access Rock Hill Country Club or the school there off of Oakdale Road. And then the widening project has two main points that will probably exacerbate that. And this was a point made by Traffic Commission. The western end of Country Club Drive is planned to be closed and disconnected from SC 72. So a cul-de-sac will be constructed just north of the church there. And then Harper Gault Road is to be disconnected from SC 72 and a cul-de-sac will be constructed north of the Country Club there. Those will probably lead to more drivers going through the neighborhood area, especially to access the Rock Hill Country Club in that area. So the neighborhood is quite concerned with those changes that they're starting to see already. The third main point made by Traffic Commission is the majority of all of the roadways in this neighborhood area are owned and maintained by SCDOT. So any recommendation from Traffic Commission had to go through SCDOT for their support and approval. So other than the concerns noted and the discussion points I just made, Traffic Commission also reviewed some information provided by staff. A traffic study was completed in May of this year, which showed approximately 62% of drivers on Country Club Drive were traveling above the posted 25 mile per hour speed limit. And then collision data was reviewed showing four collisions occurred in the neighborhood area between 2021 and 2025. So there were some points made by Traffic Commission and ultimately they recommended approval and implementation of a 25 mile per hour neighborhood wide speed limit. for SCDOT and the City Council to consider. SCDOT has already reviewed this and what they have approved is shown here on screen. They would prefer the posted speed limit on Harper Galt Road remain at 35 miles per hour at this time. They would like to evaluate that later on when the work with the pennies project has been completed. and they can consider changes at a later time to something that may come back to city council later on if this is all approved tonight otherwise in green is shown the 25 mile per hour speed limit for the neighborhood-wide area that would be implemented if approved by city council tonight any questions for chris yeah i've probably got a lot of questions i mean whoever decided to close harper gulf is

Crazy. I mean, the neighbors are correct. You're dumping all that traffic in the country club. So whoever at the state, whoever designed that was nuts. I don't know if it's too late to change it, but that makes no sense to me. But I don't know that changing all of these streets to 25, I mean, I'm a little bit concerned about the precedent we're setting. neighborhoods all over the town and are we just going to spend a fortune putting signs up that you've just put a slide up that shows 60 something percent of the people aren't driving 25 miles per hour the signs and 25 mile per hour speed limit is doing no good on Country Club Drive sure so I mean historically do we even still have a traffic unit with the police department mm-hmm I mean that's been the best thing we've ever been able to change traffic uh habits and how people are driving is when you just sit in the country club with several cars and you flood that neighborhood with police cars for a week and you change driver habits but i just don't know that you're getting ready to do anything to help the neighborhood just by changing it to 25 you're just going to spend a bunch of money putting signs up And we're gonna do that all over town.

Understood. I think from the Traffic Commission standpoint, they're trying to provide as much clarity as possible to the enforcement agencies so that there's no deniability of what the speed limit actually is on any of the given roadways. And to the point about the signs, we tried to limit it as much as possible just to the roads that are accessing the main points in and out of ingress and egress for the neighborhood so that every time you go in, you see this is neighborhood-wide for every roadway within the area. In this instance, there's a couple of more added. That was a preference by SCDOT in an effort to try to address kind of that pattern being caused with the country club traffic.

How much is a sign?

Ranges between 25 to 50 bucks. We have, the Public Works Department has a sign department, plus whatever staff time it takes to make them and post them.

And if I'm not mistaken, people from Country Club came to the traffic commission meeting, and so they have had the police to come out and to sit and to no avail. People are still speeding into Country Club community. And also with the increase in traffic, because people are trying to avoid the construction that's going on on Saluda Street, that this is just, seeming to be a continual problem that's growing and growing. And it doesn't seem like it's going to be to no avail because we don't know how long that construction is going to last. I mean, we have an end date, but who's to say that things may come up that will prolong that And I've gone through Country Club several times, and I've seen what they've been talking about, you know, just having the incontinuity of what traffic is in the area and just seeing the people speed travel through there, because I've gone through Country Club to have meetings during lunch hour, and you would think things would calm down, but it's not. And so just for... the country clubs, you know, peace of mind and safety, I think we should be able to oblige them by reducing the speed limit.

Chris, once 72 is done, the numbers of cars that are cutting, using it as a cut-through should come down somewhere.

With the closure of Harper Golf, we think it'll actually increase. Will people actually go past Harper Golf and then to Oakdale to get back towards the country club? Depends. With as many out-of-town events, swimming and golfing events there, as well as weddings and what have you, their phone devices may tell them turn on country club and go through the neighborhood.

And you know, humans being creatures of habit, they're getting used to going through Country Club as a cutoff to go to Oakdale, so people may continue to get used to going that route and just not go the other route anymore.

So, yeah, I agree with Councilman Sutton to the degree that changing speed limits doesn't automatically change behavior. The people who speed, they're not really paying attention to the speed limit anyway. One of the things I think we focused on was two big points in my mind was the consistency and clarity, but the officer did say, hey, when we go out there and try to do enforcement, part of it's 30, part of it's 25, whatever it is, I think they feel better. One, it would be, you know, if you're going 40 in a 25, it's a bigger hit to you than if you're going 40 in a 35, or a 30. So I think it gives them a little bit more teeth maybe to curve that down to some degree. But I do think that, you know, I think over in our Crawford Road somewhere, we went to 25 in a neighborhood. So I think maybe this council needs to look at it and say, hey, what is... what is best for neighborhoods, because this is going to open up a can of worms. My neighborhood's 25 already, but are we going to go, because everybody's going to come by and think that going from 30 or 35 down to 25 is automatically going to fix their neighborhood.

Right. It's the people in the neighborhood that are the biggest problem.

Right, that's right. And so, yeah, I mean, I've had somebody call and complain about speeding, and we got somebody out there, and they ended up getting the ticket. So this was a number of years ago. So... think it's a it's a it's almost a lose-lose situation but in this situation I think for the consistency and if we I do think it will be need to be followed by enforcement to try to change those habits but a bigger picture is are we gonna open up a can of worms and every neighborhood is gonna walk 25 and think of this gonna solve their problems I don't think that's gonna work but when we just changed citywide from 35 to 30 not that long I mean it I

This is gonna make somebody feel good if this passes tonight, but it's not gonna do anything to change anything about their neighborhood.

Not really.

Is it possible for us to petition or to take a vote to ask DOT to keep Harper Gault open?

I don't think at this point it can be done. I got notice early last week that Pennies for Progress were working with the contractor, and they've given their 30-day notice to implement the all-way stop at Harper-Gault and Oakdale, and then once that is implemented, the closure of Harper-Gault would proceed. I think it's an SEDOT call, and I think they were kind of Making it twofold one. There's not a roadway to try to properly align that with on 72 because all of these roadways along 72 They've been trying to realign and get them kind of more 90 degree angle along each intersection and then the plans for the signal to be implemented at Oakdale I think the closure of Harper galt really kind of trips that that warrant that they have to meet for the number of cars going through the signal and

So will you be able to go off of 72 back to Oakdale, the new real line intersection, go back to Harper-Gault, left into the Country Club, or is that gonna be closed too? It has been called a second.

You'd be able to take left and go into Harper-Gault, and then your choice to get back out, either Country Club Drive or back towards Oakdale.

Question's gonna be where your phone takes you. Correct. If you're not from here.

Hopefully that engineer won't be working with DOT much longer. Yeah, that one. That was just an idiot making that decision.

all right we have uh any other discussion we don't have a motion do we we don't but i would like to make a motion that we change the speed limit in country club um to 25 miles per hour second we have a motion to second any further discussion

Questions? Hearing and seeing none, all in favor please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

No.

Approved. We'll move on to item 7C. Consider approval of a one-time strategic investment to support Winthrop University's engineering program. Lise Brown, Economic Development Director.

Good evening, Mayor, members of council. I'm going to kind of cover this item C and D together. And I'm grateful for our partners at York Tech and both Winthrop for being here tonight. Over the last couple of years, we've been really, really successful in the recruitment of industry. And I know sometimes people hear the word industry and they get a little nervous. But the... Beauty in all that we've been able to recruit is it's been a really good mix of different types of uses. These are not a lot of businesses that I think are bad for our community. I think we're really, really proud of the companies that we've been able to recruit. And it's great that it's billions of dollars, but at the end of the day, these are jobs, and these are jobs that, for the most part, are going to go to people in this community because they're not being recruited from elsewhere. They're being created here. And how have we been successful in this? It really is down to three major areas in my mind. Partnerships, we have great support from the Department of Commerce, the Governor's Office. Our regional alliances, so we're in two, the 77 Alliance, which is kind of the five counties in this part of the state, as well as the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, who are our biggest advocates in really helping how we pull the Charlotte area into this part of South Carolina. We have a number of other partners, governmental and non-governmental, but really these partnerships, we have great communication. We had some site selectors in today and it was again just a really good vibe of we're all here to support each other. The second area of why we've been so successful is we have really good product and utility capacity, things that Jimmy worries about and we're grateful for his brain and making sure we have clean water. I think we all take for granted just the power that our utility system has done and Really, we've had a really proactive engagement with our property owners trying to figure out what's the right zoning, where are the right areas, and what are the right projects. But the thing that really sticks out to me most in the request for these two items is our workforce. At the end of the day, we can recruit all day long, we can have sites, but if there are no people to take the jobs, we will lose every project every time. The state of South Carolina has done a phenomenal job with ReadySC in supporting the South Carolina technical college system with economic development projects, and it's really been focused entirely on how we help get especially manufacturing jobs here where there's a lower level of entry. People are able to get upskilled and take these jobs. In addition to that, we are grateful that our partners here when we have a need, and one of those is Winthrop University and some of their forward-facing programs, that they've looked at things like knowing that aviation is an important skill set that's needed with Charlotte Douglas Airport 25 minutes away, making sure that there's a good pipeline from students in Clover maybe that are learning about aviation and how they can go to Winthrop and get a degree in that and their pilot's license in four years. Out of this, it's still pretty early days, but the key performance indicators, y'all know I love data, are really positive that we've seen per capita income increase, we've seen a decrease in the percentage of people in poverty in our area, and we have really, really good interest from even our high school levels that health sciences and engineering are two of the top areas of focus. So the request tonight is to do a one-time strategic investment, one for Winthrop University and one for York Technical College. On Winthrop's side, it's about an advanced manufacturing engineering bachelor's degree. Winthrop historically has been a teacher's college and done more liberal kind of studies. This is really going to push them into a different arena than they've been before. I can tell you as we get requests, RFIs that will come in and companies are looking, engineering is always a question they ask and we're kind of in a doughnut hole here because there is no engineering really that people can see in a local institution. So we really feel like this is an important step that Winthrop's taking. In addition, York Technical College, there is currently no life science training program or facility in the state of South Carolina. And I think that one of the things we've learned through the process with OctoPharma is, you know, this is very specialized, it's very niche, but there are so many great opportunities for more life science companies. The state will of course help out, specific to OctoPharma, with about 10,000 square feet at York Tech. York Tech has bought the BTC, which is across the street from them, but they've already earmarked an additional 20,000 square feet to try to enhance the life science training programs they're gonna have. We really know that these programs are going to take millions of dollars to pull off, and what we're offering is just a drop in the bucket, but we really wanted to publicly share our support for our partnerships with both of these institutions and be the first ones to stand up and say, come on, join us. We really have to do more to invest in our higher education.

Thank you. Any questions for Lisa?

Can you combine C and D, consider approval of both of them at the same time, or do we gotta separate them out?

Yeah, we can combine them. Yeah, combine them.

consider the one-time approval of strategic investment to support Winthrop and York Technical College. Second. Second.

I have a motion and a second to approve both items 7C and 7D with a one-time investment from, not from tax receipts, but from our investment, our economic development fund, which is monies that we've obtained through sales of real properties, settlement of lawsuits, and other things that have generated income, not from the taxpayers directly.

Yes, sir.

And the opportunity of this is to invest in both Winthrop University and York Technical College to continue to see what we've seen opportunity arise. Any discussion in that regard? I'm going to, so I'd love for anybody else to say something.

Yeah, I'll just say a couple things. As a property owner myself of some property that one day may be developed, you hear a At least I may be a little off, but one thing that keeps resonating is two things. One is when a company wants to locate here, is the government functional, right? Rocchio, yes. Other entities, I'm not so sure. So that's a hurdle we've got to overcome. The other thing is, Employees do you have the employees? Do you have the training? Do you have people skilled workers that can actually do the job if we come here? So I think you know with us really going down that path of life sciences We've got to put out people that we can answer that question Yes, we got people here that we're can train up. So I think this is really a good investment out of our economic development fund and because I think it will pay huge dividends for the next opto-pharma or something similar as well.

Well said.

Do we have a number that we're investing, or are we just saying we're investing?

So the request is for $250,000 for each entity, so half a million in total. Thank you. And again, that is not going to make all of these programs work. It's just going to help hopefully get enough public support and momentum for them to be able to continue to fundraise, use their foundations, and move that forward.

I'm up on my time.

So last year, I don't know if it was a calendar year or a fiscal year, but the state of South Carolina announced they had nine billion dollars in private investment coming into the state of South Carolina. It was a record year for our state from 2024 to 2026. So far the city of Rock Hill has contributed 2.4 billion dollars of private investment coming into our community. Some in tax increment districts, some not. And the result of that is we see jobs coming from everywhere, paying wages that we haven't seen in our community in my lifetime. And I'm older than most of the people up here. I think we're right at it. And it's something we're proud of. But what really is important, what really we... I gave you off the hook. what's really important for us and what I think everybody up here behind the name tags as well as city management and so many people that are involved at York Technical College and Winthrop University is it is great to have all these jobs these however many jobs are coming into our community but what's our calling is to make sure that those jobs go to our people and the only way those jobs go to our people is if we as a community stand up and invest in this opportunity to train our people so that they can take these jobs, so they can afford a house, so they can afford to send their kids to college, so they can afford to have the life that we should all have living in a community as good as this one is. I'm proud to support this. Thank you, Lisa, for you and your team and the city manager for putting this together. There'll be a press conference tomorrow where we, in effect, hand off this money to both Winthrop and York Tech and basically say we've done our part to get here and we're going to turn it over to the experts so you can make sure our people get these jobs. So with that I'm very appreciative of everybody supporting this regard. We've got a motion, we've got a second. Any further discussion? Questions? Hearing and seeing none, all in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Approved. We have the president of York Tech. We'd love for you to come up and say a word if you'd like. Dr. Moore. Welcome, as always.

Thank you. It's wonderful to be here, Mr. Mayor and City Council. We really could not be more grateful. And I know one of the things Lisa said is while this is going to be an enterprise that costs millions of dollars, this is a dramatic investment, a very significant investment that will help us. Much of what we have to do is move a lot of this forward before we have any revenue coming in to help support it. And that is what this kind of a significant contribution helps us do, is really grow this life sciences ecosystem and this In this case, and it's an ecosystem we're really developing and helping with the vision of the city. So all of you, I could not be more grateful for the money, but we could also not be more grateful for the vision that you've set forward that is going to ensure that we bring an entire ecosystem for the life sciences from entrepreneurship and translation to commercialization and research and development. and workforce and companies coming in, it is gonna be amazing. And it is thanks to your vision letting this happen. We're excited to be a part of it. We are always talking about being future ready at York Tech. So this is quite significant and we are quite grateful for your vision and your contribution. So thank you very, very much.

Thank you, Dr. Moore. I didn't see anybody from Winthrop here, but I didn't wanna, yeah, please come on forward, I'm sorry. Sebastian, I didn't see you there. Sebastian van Delden, who's our provost. The provost. Yes, please.

Thanks for the opportunity to talk, especially after you voted. It takes a little bit of pressure. Just to echo President Moore, we are so appreciative of the support to get Winthrop's first real engineering program started. This is a unique program. Another university in South Carolina has an advanced manufacturing engineering program. So we're breaking new ground, new territory for the state of South Carolina right here in Rock Hill. And Winthrop is uniquely positioned to offer this degree because it leverages our cybersecurity, material science, data science, and machine learning coursework all infused throughout the curriculum. We've shown at the Atlas Copco, the Nucor, the Scheffler, the Cummins, the BMW, and many more companies They're all very excited about it. We're excited about it. And it's going to be made possible thanks to your support. So we really appreciate it.

Thank you very much. All right. So we voted. We'll move on to item eight. Announce our Smart Switch and Customer Connect winners. Congratulations, Lauren Taylor Bright and James Hannah Jr. Each of you will receive a $50 credit on your next utility bill. Are there any City Council reports or miscellaneous business?

I would really note miscellaneous business, but I just wanted to acknowledge someone. Jesse Lee Adams was born on September the 10th on 1949. Mr. Adams lost his life two months after he enrolled into the Army. He lost his life in the Vietnam War. He just recently had a birthday. Just wanted to acknowledge him. The one thing about Mr. Adams is that he was married prior to going into the military, and his wife was pregnant at the time, and he was never able to see or meet his son. So, to the Adams family, just wanted to say belated happy birthday and the ultimate sacrifice that Mr. Adams did. He gave his life for our country, for our rights.

Thank you for sharing. Yes, sir. To the city manager, we had the Mr. Hall speaker concerning the record service. So is that going to, I assume you are compiling information maybe for us of where we are today, maybe where the county and state are, and then bring that back to us.

You'll include the last time we did a bump in that as well. Yeah. Okay. Perfect. Okay, we're in executive session, so we're going to head back behind doors. We'll see you again in a few weeks. Thank you all for coming.