County Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. At this time, I'll call to order the April 6, 2026 York County Transportation Committee to order. Uh the first and only item is for uh the committee to approve an intersection name dedication for Lieutenant Larry LV Vaughn at the intersection of Black Street and Dave Law Boulevard. Dean, as I understand it, this request was sent to us from the legislature who made the request and DOT has has followed through um with providing the request to the council.

Yes, ma'am. And then, as all of you are aware, in accordance with current law, they require that the local uh transportation committee allocate the $500 funds in order to erect the memorial signs. Thank you, sir. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion carries. Do we have a motion to um adjourn the transportation motion to motion and a second? All in favor say I. I. We are adjourned.

At this time, I'll call to order the York County Council meeting for April 6, 2026. Uh, our District 2 representative is not here tonight, so we go down the line. Um, in district three, um, Tommy Atkins is being recognized to lead us in the pledge of allegiance and the invocation. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for letting us gather here tonight to do the people's business. Lord, I thank you for this past Easter and the gift of your son. Dear Lord, I pray that you'll bless the Kenry family in their time. And dear Lord, please bless our troops as they go about the people's business. Also, be with us each and every day and help us in our struggles along life's way. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Our first order of business tonight is one that's that's very personal to all of us that sits up here. And I'm going to try to do this without breaking down. Um, but um, for those of you who don't know or are not aware, on March 21st, 2026, our longtime county attorney who has served the county for 23 years unexpectedly passed away. I think it's safe to say that it shook all of us on council and at county at the county staff level. Um, Michael Kendry is one of those people who is is dedicated. He is here and he works hard. Um he always works with professionalism. Um always did it with a mild temperament but had a quick quit and was very smart. It is very difficult tonight to do what we're doing, but I do want to recognize the family, Mr. Kinder's family, his wife Angie, his son Michael Jr., and his son Harrison who are here with us tonight. Um, it is an honor and a privilege to be able to recognize him and to talk about a little bit about what he has done for the community. I do want to say thank you very much to Karen Brogden, to Laura Dover, to all of those who serve in the county attorney's office for helping us put together a proclamation and memoriam to Mr. Kry. And typically what I do is read up here, but tonight I'm going to come down to the bench and I'm going to read the proclamation that was approved uh and that we will present to the family. Um and I'll come down and do that.

I also want to recognize that um the place where Michael uh usually sits at our benches is is also um blacked out with a flower and uh in recognition of him tonight. proclamation in memoriam. Whereas York County celebrates the life and public service of Mr. Michael Kurt Kendry who passed away on March 21st, 2026. And whereas Mr. Kry was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, moved to Georgetown, South Carolina in 1980, and settled in York County in 2011. And whereas Mr. Kindred graduated in 1980 from Germantown Academy Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, attended Ferman University and transferred to the University of South Carolina, where he graduated with a bachelor of arts in 1985 and continued his education at the University of South Carolina School of Law, graduating with a jurist doctor in 1991. And whereas Michael was a member of the wrestling team at Germantown Academy and received a scholarship to continue his wrestling career at Ferman University. I think all of us on council were surprised and just excited to to read that part that we weren't aware of. Whereas Michael was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, an avid Philadelphia Phillies and Philadelphia Eagles fan. enjoyed golfing, swimming, skating, animals, the outdoors, playing fantasy football, and most importantly loved his family. And whereas Michael was a long tenured attorney for over 35 years and served as legal counsel for York County for more than 23 years with the last 15 years as county attorney. And whereas Mr. Kindred

was a loyal and dedicated fixture within York County government, stirring the county through periods of massive growth and change. And whereas Michael embodied the traits of the quintessential southern gentleman with a keen legal mind, a tremendous work ethic, a calm and professional temperament, quick wit, and dedication to serving the citizens of York County. And whereas Michael Kry will be remembered as an impeccable leader, friend, and mentor, and a humble yet effective public servant whose legacy and selfless commitment to others will continue to make a positive impact on the citizens of York County. And now therefore, be it resolved that the York County Council wishes to express its sincere condolences to Michael's family and friends and its deep appreciation for the many contributions of Mr. Michael Kirk Kendry to benefit the citizens of York County. Adopted this the sixth day of April, 2026. If I can hand this to

Thank you. It's always difficult to start a meeting on a note like that. But we do appreciate the family for being here. It it was sudden and um we are going to continue to feel to feel this loss. Um as we move now to our regular order of business, we do have one appearance tonight, no oath of offices. We have Kathleen Evans with AT&T to present York County a check for $100,000 for improvements to Lazy Hawk Road. Good evening, Chairwoman Cox and members of the York County Council, our county manager Edwards, staff and guests. Thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight. AT&T is proud to present York County with a $100,000 contribution to help support improvements on Lazy Hawk Road through the South Carolina Utility Tax Credit Program. This statewide program encourages companies like AT&T to invest in eligible local infrastructure that supports economic development. We picked York County as our partner for

this opportunity. Our investment is more about more than pavement and planning. It's about what strong local infrastructure enables, and that is new business activity, long-term growth, and opportunity for residents. This project is expected to help deliver a $5 million economic impact and bring 146 jobs to the region. exactly the kind of momentum that benefits the families and businesses and strengthens this community. Now, York County leadership and teamwork makes projects like this possible and we appreciate the collaboration I'll mention Lisa too that went into and Trish that went into moving this forward. We are grateful for the chance to support the county's efforts to expand economic opportunities in for its citizens. With that, it is my honor to present this check in the amount of $100,000 to York County to support the Lazy Hawk Road Improvement Project.

Thank you. anytime that we get money to go on roads that it and the taxpayers can certainly appreciate it. You want to get a picture? Let's get a picture.

Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you so much.

Thank you. do want to say thank you for coming tonight and and like I was saying earlier, I know council is excited and we're we always appreciate where when infrastructure is being paid by someone other than our taxpayers. So, we appreciate that. Um we do have public forum session tonight. Public forum is the opportunity for individuals to sign up ahead of the meeting. Um we do uh put a cap on these uh speaking engagements to two minutes. So, if you'll make sure when you come forward after I call your name, if you'll give your name and address and if you'll pay attention to the screen, um we will allow the individual to have two minutes to speak. We ask that you keep your comments um directed towards an item that is within the council jurisdiction and um keep the comments um professional and courteous. Uh we do ask that folks um refrain from clapping or booing, either one, so that folks are respected. If you are here with a group and want to say something as a group, if you could kindly just ask them to stand up, then that's a better way for us to keep the quorum and recognize the group that is here. Um, we also ask that if you are here about a public hearing item, we have several public hearings tonight, that uh you'll be asked to move your comments to the public hearing session so that your comments are captured contemporaneous with the issue as we're addressing the issue. Uh, first individual is Kate Hanower. Good evening, council. I'm Kate Hanower. I live at 596 Cranborn Chase in Fort Mill. I read your full 108 response to the attorney general regarding Silab and the conclusion is unavoidable. It says nothing where it actually matters. Despite all the volume, there is still

not a single lawful appealable zoning compliance approval produced. Your response leans on the idea that zoning compliance may be filed concurrently with civil construction plans, but may be filed does not mean that it actually was filed, reviewed, or approved with public notice and the right to appeal. Those are not minor details. That is the framework that protects this community. and your own documents confirm the gap. The civil construction approval explicitly states it is not zoning compliance. So, we are left with a simple truth. York County approved construction and now allows operations to continue without ever producing the one zoning decision the law requires. So, I'll ask the only question that matters. Where is the zoning compliance approval for Silfab? Because while that gap exists, this facility continues operating as a high-hazard, heavy industrial site handling toxic chemicals in a community that was never given proper notice or the chance to challenge it. This is a failure of zoning law, due process, and accountability. And that responsibility sits with leadership. Accountability starts with the manager. If he won't hold his staff accountable, then you must hold him accountable for that failure. because choosing not to act is still a choice and it has consequences. Thank you.

Thank you ma'am Nesh Patel.

Good evening uh council and respected all council members um and your county members and residents. Uh my name is Ness and I live uh in Westport community. Um I'm here to speak regarding the QTS data center project on Hensmail's highway. I'm deeply concerned that this project is being advanced without regard for the residential com community it borders. So first I must address the total lack of transparency. The new residents are moving into this community and buying new homes near this site with no visible signage informing them that this is a massive data center is getting built. So this is like people are making their biggest investment of their lives, their kids' lives, their family. Um and if this kind of development is hurting them, this is unfair. unfair in terms of health risk, in terms of this facility of this scale is so close to the homes and this is fundamentally unfair to those families whose houses are nearby. And we are talking about constant industrial noise, light pollution and potential long-term health risks uh from nitrogen oxide emissions and massive energy strain. This isn't just about the progress. It's about the health and lives of the people who already live here. So if if we say like in very basic terms like do do any of council members do you like if this kind of data center or um any industrial structure getting built in nearby your house or what impact can you compassate being compassate for the members like or families who are already there their house is near there. Um then think about

that um that we we are setting an example. If you allow this data centers and this big tech companies to do that and saying your county allows us everywhere, let's do more because AI is getting more um and more progressive. Yeah. Thank you, ma'am. Steve Penland.

Thank you. My name is Steve Pendlean and my wife Judy and I live at 6457 Campbell Road in York County. Our farm borders the back end of the present QTS data center under construction and two sides of the expansion site that was recently purchased by QTS. At the public meeting on requirements for data center use in industrial zoning districts, I stressed the need to require setback distance to be set to protect all entities of our community and not just residential. I would like to stress to the planning committee members who are formulating their report for the council that protection setbacks should apply to entire parcels measured from all property lines. Data centers are a new breed of invasion and they require setback distances that create true physical separations between industrial use, other use and residential use. A 200 ft vegetable buffer plus a 12t burm and a 500 foot setback from a burm is not excessive at this type of industry. I would request that all attendees stand who will have to support the W the York County data center awareness program and the pitfalls that data centers bring to our county.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir Chris Thompson. Chris Thompson Vanderlakes in York. A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I went to see the QTS data center in Fagetville, Georgia, which is very similar to the one that they are currently building here, but it's already been under construction for about two years. This is a drone photo that I found of the Fagatville campus that we we saw. It was taken four months ago. This photo shows two of 16 data center buildings that QTS has planned for the 615 acre site. They use closed loop cooling systems. So, the size and configuration of this QTS property is a good fit for a comparison purpose for what we have coming in here. This is just one hu there is just one huge difference between theirs in Freyville and ours. These buildings that you see here are 40 feet tall. Ours are going to be 80 feet tall. That is a huge difference. They'll be twice as big as these buildings. We tried to imagine what we saw there and being built in our quiet, peaceful neighborhood, but to be honest, it made us sick to our stomachs. Theirs is a square mile of flattened, treeless land littered with buildings and noisy machines and substations, generators, buses, and people. Oh my goodness. QTS wasn't lying when they said thousands of construction jobs. But unfortunately, these are only temporary jobs. They're to destroy homes, livelihoods, nature, and space. The area around it is just like here, rural with homes, farms, and tucked inside the woods. Except behind those

homes on one side of the road, we see stark white buildings glaring back at us through a thin row of trees. We saw power lines that stretched as far as we could see in either direction. The impact of these data centers goes far beyond the boundaries of the property they lie on. I urge you to go to Fagetville, Georgia. Go see what I saw before you make any more decisions on this. and please pass a moratorum on the data centers in York County. Thank you, ma'am. Uh Stacy Armstrong, I'm gonna let up already.

We typically stick to whoever has signed up on the sheet. So, we have a rather than the early

our clerk our clerk picks it up and brings it over to us and so we follow we're rely on them to do their process and we up here do oursy Armstrong um 1705 Wedgefield Drive, Rock Hill, South Carolina. I live 350 feet from ground zero at QTS. My home is 700ish feet from ground zero at QTS. Um, speaking of the structure, um, we have been habitually and repeatedly, um, assaulted with noise, which our county is ineffective at both recording at the level that we're hearing it, and being there present, and we don't want to put a huge strain on the resources that you guys have all provided, but I don't know what else to do. I did call this weekend to see if I could at my own expense put something on my property line and I was told because my property is not directly abuing it that I would get alter alternative noises and it would not be permissible um at my property line which is just across the rideway from QTS. Now the rideway is also owned by a neighbor um so it is a second property line. He uses it for his cows which he has not been able to use since QTS has come in. Um so I foyed the noise study you guys had done and this was um this study well actually just the map of the study was on the board. It was on the whiteboard at the last planning meeting. It looked like this. It is a noise study that was performed by Arup which is a company that does this type of noise modeling. They only studied interestingly enough one item of the of the production of this company is the chillers. They have 550 chillers planned. They only speak to the chiller noise. This is the noise they say is the regular noise. Everything else is is included is the exemptions which includes

any electrical noise, any noise other than the chiller noise. So no generator noise. Um, this map was also what was left out of that meeting was the little information at the bottom saying that it was only with the projections from simultaneously in portions of the Northstar data louvered walls changing to impervious which I've been told we have louvered walls. This is only with impervious walls that can they meet this even on paper. Thank you. So, okay. Thank you. Uh, I can't make this out. Clark Larky Wells. Clarks.

Hi, Clark Wells is my name and I live at 3657 Henry's Knob in Clover. I'm here tonight because I'm very concerned about the environmental and community impacts plus the frustrating lack of transparency with related to the QTS data center project. It's been very hard to know what to believe about this situation between what we're hearing from county council QTS and the extensive Facebook chatter. So instead, I decided to read a book, which is what I would much rather be doing than standing here tonight. But I'm going to share some things from this book that I read called Empire of AI by Karen How. It's based on over 300 interviews with around 260 people in the AI industry and based on extensive correspondence and documentation. The main thing I've learned is that York County isn't alone. We are just the next target for the expansion of an exploitive and destructive industry created around a technology that no one fully understands. As more and more communities around across the country and the world have seen the impacts of data centers on their lives and push back against it, data center developers have come up with a formula for continuing business as usual in new communities. So tell me if any of this sounds familiar. They've entered communities in secrecy under shell companies. They've donated to community programs to dampen resistance and they've made promises to cities about the sustainability of their facilities before walking them back one by one after projects have broken ground

and are more difficult to reverse. So to me, this means we can't believe anything QTS says about their impacts to our community and we need clear, measurable, and enforceable standards to hold them accountable. Until we have those, we need a moratorum on data centers in York County.

Thank you, ma'am. Tammy Noret. Hello, my name is Tammy Norett and my residence is 1432 Dove Landing Road in York, South Carolina. Everything that I'm going to talk about is pretty much already been discussed and you are all aware of everything that we are in disagreements on. My concern now is what are we going to do with the rest of these? The additional 400, how are we going to handle those? Due diligence is what got us here today. the lack of it was already grandfathered in. Now we're finding out uhoh we wasn't ready for this all of us. So my concern now is first off coming to the others keep in mind a pending ordinance doctrine which is mostly followed when the new property comes ground making sure that they have to follow the new guidelines that shouldn't be started yet. So everything that takes place shouldn't be fathered in grandfathered into these old guidelines hoping they will follow the new ones since it's not started. Second is the seaweight decibb sound the noise is very effective. So we have to consider that 65 dpcs is a much better protection for the sleep and your property. I don't want AI centers here. I have a feeling we're all agreeing on that. The problem is we're at a point now. Now what do we do? Um the next part is heat islands. We're we're aware of the heat islands. Um we have to consider this especially the gentleman that was up here earlier. The temperatures we have to consider that when they come for the next I'm sure this going to go this way. Then we have to have an exit strategy. Exit strategy is what if something bottoms out? What if this doesn't take dies out? What's

going to happen to this property? the zombie property. They need to be considered that they have to come to a decommissioning bond. They have to provide the land to be back the way it was like it was. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. U Rebecca Si. Good evening. My name is Rebecca Sichi and I live at the Allison Acres Community of Rock Hill. I'm here tonight to speak on the proposed zoning guidance dated the beginning of February by York County Development that was proposed at the special meeting. I want I want to be clear, this document did not come out of nowhere. It had to exist from somewhere. Someone had to create it. But what was initially proposed and provided by the York County Development was so insufficient that it forced a group of residents to step in, do the research, start building a found foundational zoning recommendation ourselves through multiple iterations as many of you guys have seen through email traffic that I've provided. Ultimately finalizing a document that we dated March 19th. And as you know things are consistently changing and developing over time with knowledge that comes out. The efforts we have put together on this single document um address how much actually was missing initially from the proposal from your staff and what the expectation should have been to help support you guys as councilmen and me council members to help make this better and make the guidance better overall for the county. And while progress has been made to at least get us some guidance started and initiated, that isn't overlooked. But the current amendment guidance still leaves too much open to interpretation where our community needs certainty. It cannot be vague. This is not a small project. We understand that this is a largecale industrial uh data center with long-term impacts to nearby residents, specifically many of us that live right

next to it and see the impacts every single day among many other people in the community that drive past it every day, but we get to gloriously hear it every single day, night, and throughout the entire day. When it comes to noise, water usage, generator operations, setback distances, these can't be flexible. The amount of guidance that has been proposed is not sufficient. And I cannot say this enough. It must be enforceable and clearly defined, measurable, and ensure that it allows law enforcement and zoning to move forward on it if it is not supported. Thank you,

Scott Cookenower. Uh, hey everybody. Scott Cover 122 West Oak Street in beautiful Whiteville Park neighborhood in downtown Fort Mill. I'm gonna make Mr. Couch happy. I'm going to do my two minutes here and defer my six minutes. So, you got a basketball game to watch. So, don't want to keep you from that. But anyway, great things in Fort Mill. Um, St. Patrick's Day had about 6,000 people downtown. Uh, set a stage up. Uh, I'm gonna call him Jam Lee Hart. Jamie Lee used to sing at the Long Branch. A friend of mine lived in back neighborhood. done his floors, done his family's floors. Uh now he's threshold band. But uh so Jamie's 67 years old. He had a fiveway bypass the other day.

Survived it um all of a sudden. So it was awesome to be able to uh be on the stage with uh Jamie Lee Hart and Jamie Tomlinson uh from that standpoint. So Strawberry Festival is coming up. Um going to be a big event. It's back to two nights in Fort Mill. So uh anyway, it's a it's a big thing again. And then uh just at the last meeting we just had some hiccups with sign in. So it sounds like um working on that getting that resolved and everything. So but anyway thanks for everything y'all do and appreciate. Hope everyone had a good Easter. Thank you, sir. Ken Si insichi 1923 Hans Mill Highway Alfred Hitchcock once said, "Happiness is a small house with a big kitchen." My family and friends are going to laugh because for years I've been working on that kitchen. A 24-hour schedule tends to slow progress, but I keep plugging away. And I used to see a light at the end of the tunnel, but that light's gone now. U the kitchen, the dream kitchen that I built for my wife, uh will be for whoever buys our home next. Um I feel home used to be a my peace, a place to decompress. I worked 24-hour shift. And after a night of being up all night, it uh a night that ranged from babies being born to uh somebody taking their last breath, cats stuck in trees to people hanging from those trees. Um peace is no longer there, though. I get to go to work every day. I get to deal with problems at work and then I come home and I have my own problems. Um I can't even I can't even lay in bed in the morning without hearing

It's not going to work then. Well, it's jackhammers. It's nothing but jackhammers throughout the day. Trucks speeding up and down the road. Thousands of trucks. I don't know. Somebody had said in in some comment that uh there will be no uh dirt coming in or out. Well, that's an absolute lie. So, either they were lied to or were being lied to because thousands of trucks a day pass my house. Jake breaks, jackhammers, backup alarms, blasting rock grinders are just a few things. So, my question is, when do I get peace? When am I allowed to go home from work and just have some peace? Easter was the first day that I didn't hear anything. And to be quite honest, it went from not being able to hear anything to rage because I knew that that wasn't going to be what today was.

Thank you, sir. I'm sorry is probably better.

That that concludes our public forum session. On behalf of council, I do want to say we appreciate folks who come out and express their concerns. One of the things that we've been talking about and that I anticipate us having some more discussion about is how do we how do we make better use of the this time because it doesn't make sense sometimes when things are said and there's no response because that's the way we've structured this is that the way we've structured it is to is a time to listen and not to respond. Um so I think we're going to be trying to figure out a way to evaluate that. I also would say that there are public pages um some folks who've asked about um getting the information at least from the county side. There are public pages dedicated to these matters that are on the county manager um department page so that you can get the information directly from the county as to the positions on those things and want to make sure that folks are aware of that as well as the fact that um when it comes to um certain matters council has been u advised on legal matters to not speak publicly but to speak through statements um and so we continue to do that on the on the pages that are dedicated to that. So that concludes our public forum session. Um the next item is for us to approve consent agenda item number six. Um I've requested to be left out. Um which we will move to item number two in new business. Is there any other motion on that

motion to approve? Second. Motion and a second to approve as amended. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none on the consent agenda is approved. Our first public hearing tonight is a reasonzoning action and hold a public hearing and consider first reading case number 26-04 tax map number 581000068 to reszone from RMX10 to RUD 8.38 acres in district 2. Yes, sir.

Good evening council. Tom Snow, long-range planner. Uh so this project uh taking place off of Santar Drive, just south of the Duke Energy Nuclear Facility. The applicant proposes to subdivide the space and build six large lot homes. Again, uh this is about an 8 acre space, so you're looking at a little over an acre per lot. Um here's the submitted site plan. Again, all the lots kind of keeping uh in scale and character with those around them, those pre-existing residences that border Lake WY as it is. It is zoned RMX 10. Again, searching to go to RUD and kind of match those properties that are just across Santar Drive. And the feature land use shows that with rural residential as designation. We recommend approval of this request given it's consistent with the comp plan future land use map. It abuts another RUD zoned property. It will create lots of similar scale to those surrounding uh and allow the construction of attached single family homes similar to the neighboring properties by 6 to1 vote. Planning commission also recommended approval.

Are there any questions for staff before we open public hearing?

Thank you sir. Is there anyone here who wishes to speak against this resoning? Hi, my name is William Larry Bergen. I live adjacent to this property, 2224 Duck Cove Lane. And we uh if you remember when Premier Properties came and developed all of that, there was a lot of disruption in the community uh with the concern over the bridge and being able to evacuate. And none of my neighbors who are right back here that are adjacent to this property, we didn't go to the bridge and protest. We didn't object to anything because we actually believed that planning got it right by saying that no homes could be built there. I mean, no lots could be less than five acres. I actually looked at buying this myself and I was told by the premier realtor that that was a limitation to this land. So, um, I I wrote a I've got to beg. I just turned 70, so I got to read. I'm not going to try to bring everything from memory. So, um, but, uh, the rest of the lots out there is part of the same development. We're limited to five acres or more by York County planning. We think planning got it right to limit density and traffic on that 1acre bridge road, one lane bridge road past the reactor and allowing this resoning would undercut both the reading and the spirit of that. And that just because this parcel was sold earlier that the planning department imposed that on the remaining lot should not exempt it for having to conform to that no less than 5 acres requirement. Um, so and I don't know if any of my neighbors want to speak or not or if they felt I was loud enough. So, thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you, sir. Um, I'm a little bit confused. I I do want to ask planning staff this because what I'm seeing is that the parcel that's being requested to be reszoned is RMX10, which allows for much higher density than RUD. This is not an AGC parcel going to RUD. So, can can I just get clarification on that? Um, thank you. Yeah, that was that was my question. Yes. So, you're correct. Uh, as it is being residential mix 10, you're looking at a minimum of 10,000 square foot lots. Um, so you could have a much higher magnitude of houses built here.

Okay. Just so just so we're clear and the public understands this, it's currently zoned RMX10. That would allow a lot more houses than what is being asked to reszone to RUD. That's exactly correct. And RUD requires at least uh a one acre lot. Correct. Okay. Thank you, sir. All right. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak against this resoning? Is there anyone who wishes to speak in favor? Move to close. Second. Second. We have a mo motion and a second to close the public hearing. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed?

Hearing none. The public hearing is closed. Do we have a new motion? Motion to approve. Second. Motion and a second to approve. First reading. Do we have any discussion? Have a quick question. Um, at the 8.38 acres as it's zoned right now, off top of your head, how many homes could be permitted if we just stayed there? Six. Uh, general math going um, you know, RMX 10 allows about four dwelling units per acre. So you about what is that? 32. Okay. 30 homes. Okay. So the current zoning would allow 32 homes.

That's without accounting force and easements, right? Wow. And I think just following up because it's the same question we're all asking. RUD would allow eight. That's right. Okay. Well, actually it would allow six depending on how much road frontage you have. It may allow up to six before it goes into a major subdivision at seven. Is that correct? Yes. And because this property was a part of um Lexi Point subdivision, uh it is limited to the number of divisions it's allowed before it becomes considered a major subdivision.

Well, the reason why I asked the question because sometimes, you know, people don't understand what the changes are, how they affect going one way versus what could be there now. Just showing a comparison of if it stayed like this, someone could conceivably put a lot more homes there than what they're reszoning it down to now. Just to give neighbors and people who are looking and listening an idea what's going on, this actually helps people who don't want to see a lot more homes come there. That was my point. Yeah, this I mean this is an opportunity to to mitigate some of the future traffic on this. So,

any other discussion? We've actually closed public hearing. I will say that we have um two more readings on this item and you can reach out to staff um with specific questions on the matter. But

if you sir if if anyone who has questions about this resoning in the classifications if you'll make sure that you speak with our staff person who just spoke and also understand that this this will be this still requires two more readings before council before it's approved that there is additional time and you can sign up on the two minutes as well. Um if you'll make sure to connect with them so that they can understand that sir I would appreciate that. Uh again, this is first reading tonight and this is um based upon the information that we've been provided. What the applicant is requesting is to change their property to RUD, which would effectively take uh what would have been allowed somewhere around 40 homes. Wait, did you say 30 32

30 30 homes um and reducing it to less than I mean there's eight acres, so less than eight, however you do the the divisions. So Understood, sir. I I've got to follow our process. If you'll speak with our if you'll speak with our our individual and and you um on planning staff to get educated on that. We still have two more readings. All those in favor of first reading, say I

I opposed. Um motion carries for first reading. Second public hearing item is reszoning action. Hold a public hearing and consider first reading case number 26-06 tax map number 65000000000336 to reszone from PD to GC 1.776 acres in district 1. This property is off Highway 160 just outside city of TK uh south of the Goodwill and the applicant proposes to build two drive-through ccentric business operations here by this parcel in half and this is somewhat what it would look like. Um again because they're drive-through centric you have to have the roads wrapping around them. Uh you can see they propose access to the Goodwill to the north. um as well as access onto Highway 160 in a joint cooperation with what will be the property of the south. Um you can kind of see it on the site plan on the bottom, but they also intend to connect down to that property as well. So as far as zoning goes, um a lot of these are actually part of the same PD. That's what this blue is. Um otherwise you have a lot of commercial uses that are centered around Highway 160. Uh so this PD is the Stoneacres PD established in 2008 and it was intended to be a commercial and retail park. Um however not really never really got off the ground. Um a lot of the properties have been uh split up or used for other things. And the property we're actually talking about is uh retail parcel A right here at the top. There is all designated for neighborhood residential development according to the future land use map. And given that while it's not entirely consistent, again, neighborhood residential is looking for more suburban development, um we do see that this property is next to other GC properties,

uh and it wouldn't really be appropriate for residences given its only access point is onto the highway. Um it's going to allow for development of that space given it's a non-functional PD as it is. Um and allow for flexibility otherwise uh according to modern commercial development standards. Unanimous vote, planning commission recommends approval. Any questions for staff? Yeah. You got one question. Can you go back two slides? Uh, you were right there. Okay. So, when I was looking at what you were showing, um, there's going to be two entrances. One off of is it Vendor Springs Road and then one off of 160? Correct. Based on what I'm seeing.

Uh, so if that would is contingent on the property to the south um once it's developed. Okay. But but the access points are are Can you go back to that slide that Yeah. No, right there. But you've got But it's the property to the far left here. And again, you've got Okay. But it's not accessing right into the residential development. Correct. Or is that just off of Van Vandor? Just Vandor. Vendor. Okay. That's what I thought. Okay. And this is the old PD. So these standards are what we're zoning out of so that we can change these conditions. Yeah, understood. Okay. All right. Okay. Very good. Thank you.

I I do have a question. So are you basically the use in the PD is the same use in the GC, right? That's right. A lot of the impetus behind this is to give them um more wiggle room when it comes to things like buffer yards. Um, and in because this was established 2008, it's also held to 2008 zoning cone standards, um, which don't really match up with what modern standards are. I guess I'm I'm questioning is this the why didn't they just amend the PD instead of requesting? So, are they asking to parcel out some portion of the PD and treat it solely as GC?

So, somewhat the parcel exists as as it is standalone. It's just under the same conditions that are detailed within the PD. Um, and really it's best zoning practice to get everything to a base district when appropriate. And it's been staff's uh decision as well as when working with the applicant that this would be best for the site. Is there still a portion of this that's not that's part of a PD that has not been developed? Yeah. So you see on the zoning map here, a lot of these southern parcels here are still held to the standards of that old PD.

Okay. Any other questions? No.

All right. Thank you, sir. Is there anyone here who wishes to speak against this resoning? If you'll come forward and give your name and address. Hello everybody. My name is Jacquel and Albby. I live at 848 Gentle Winds Court in Fort Mill, South Carolina in the Fieldstone community. And um what's being proposed is going to butt right up against my home. I live at the very end of Gentle Winds Court. Um and I'm definitely opposed to anything being built there that's not going to be residential. Um just some kind of questions I would have um not only for York County but for the gentleman who was up here speaking if a proper traffic assessment or study was done because highway 160 is already extremely congested and Boris Springs we only have two ways in and out. either we go down Boris um Bendor Springs out to 160 or it goes back out the other end of the neighborhood onto Gold Hill Road which is already extremely congested. And I also, you know, just have some questions as far as um again, you know, that's not just myself. There's 216 town homes that are going to be impacted by this and wanted to ask also, you know, what measures are going to be put in place to address uh food smells, odors, are they're going to have exhaust fans that are going to be directed toward the residential properties. Um noise levels are going to be um an issue. Um especially, you know, when the cars are driving in, their lights are going to be pointed right into our town community. I don't know if you guys would like to live in something like that, but I know my neighbors and I would not. Um, lighting that's going to be on those parcels. Um, is it going to impede, you know, our enjoyment of our property going forward? Because, you know, it's

going to constantly be like it's daylight there. Trash management, like what's the trash um all the dumpsters and stuff? I mean, I'm sure it's going to bring more rodents and roaches. So, that's another thing we're going to have to contend with. Um, and again, like I said, uh, the traffic is more of the concern than anything else because I really don't feel like a proper assessment was done. And if you guys were to happen to drive out there and look at what they're proposing versus what reality is, you would see what I'm talking about. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Anyone else wish to speak against this resoning? Right. Is there anyone who wishes to speak in favor? Good evening. My name is Molly Kilpatrick and I actually represent the applicant for this property. Um, we are requesting to reszone this from the plan development to the general commercial zoning to uh meet the current zoning standards that are in place today and this will be consistent with some other development that's been done on Highway 160. Um, a couple things that I just wanted to point out on the site plan. We will have an eight foot tall fence as well as a landscape buffer in between the residential to cut down on any um light pollution from headlights or anything like that. Additionally, we will have a phototric light plan that um makes sure that there is zero light pollution across the property lines. Um I believe that there are some questions about the access um on to 160. We are currently coordinating that with um the department of transportation. So, we will certainly be meeting any requirements that they have for that uh driveway access on the 160. Are there any other questions that I can answer for you guys? Typically, council doesn't engage with questions back and forth and we'll if you have questions, we can ask management um once we close public hearing.

Okay. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak in favor? If Well, normally we don't go back and forth, but we got a small crowds here, so if there's something Justin Murray. I live at 845 Gentleman's I'm neighbors with Jackie that just spoke. The one thing Can you speak into the mic? I'm having trouble hearing you.

I um live at Gentleman's Court at the end of gentleman's court right next to Jackie. One thing that I want to mention is, you know, the representative said that they were going to build a fence and also a buffer. Now, we have the Goodwill that was built. The Goodwill came in. They also built a fence and a buffer, but it's cleared out the entire woods. We see lights all day. That trash compactor from Goodwill runs all day. I'm at the end of the street. It's a It's a nuisance. They came to us. They took out the tree line. We were supposed to have a buffer and now we have another property coming. They're going to take out the trees, drive-thrus. I mean, we're I feel like everything I know it's developing, but everything is being developed and We we just have no peace like this other gentleman said. Everything's coming to us and we have no peace in our neighborhood. We're supposed to have a a buffer and hopefully if there's any zoning, you know, you guys look at the look at that fact and try to protect the residents that live there. So that's all that's all I ask for. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Anyone else wish to speak in favor of this resoning? Move to close. Second. We have a motion and a second to close public hearing. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing? None. The public hearing is closed. Do we have a new motion? Motion to approve. Second. Motion and a second to approve. Any discussion?

Um yeah, just you know this is first reading. Um there's we've got two other readings after this. Um there's going to be some additional questions that I'm going to have on this property. Um, I think that, um, again, the conversation around the light, pollution, the sound, etc. Um, is is is a a very valid and concerning item for for our residents here. Um, the question I have, I guess, is that do we know at this time what may go into this location? Has it been indicated at all at this point? Uh the applicant has suggested it would be uh drive-through coffee shop and ice cream shop.

A coffee shop and coffee shop and an ice cream shop. Okay, got any other discussion? Thank you. Okay, I have a quick question. So, I know one of the neighbors mentioned about traffic. Um I'm sure at this point they haven't been required to do a TIA. Correct. So that will come later.

Yes. Um they've we've already done a lot of extensive work uh getting the commercial development standards especially for you know traffic and roadway access. But yeah the full TIA um I don't know exactly what stage that's at, but I know it's in the works and we can get that information to you. Now with the PD currently in place, what was the PD established for? What was the proposal or what was projected to go there?

So actually the uses suggested by the applicant could be done within the PD as it is. Um just a lot of the site design would become complicated. Um for instance, we don't have regulation for that um drive uh drive-through bypass lane. Um, so, um, yeah, so it's still commercial retail space and could be developed in that way. So, regardless of if we say yes or no to this change, they can still build what they want to build, do what they're going to do, but it just makes it more difficult logistic-wise to make it work. That's correct. Thank you.

While you're still while you're still up there, I will ask this question. Um it does sound like um the the byite zoning that's allowed for this parcel would allow for commercial. That's what it's designated for under the PD. Is that correct? Yeah. The PD specifies certain uses which include there there was some comment about they want it to be homes. That's not even what it's currently zoned for. Right. I guess my question is does does changing this midstream from a PD to a designated GC reduce the amount of buffer? Does it does it reduce the amount of protection that would be provided to the next door neighbors at all?

Um, our modern standards are much more stringent about buffer yards and and uh protections like that. Um, I can get the exact details for you uh in the coming days, but I don't have it on hand right now. Yeah, I'd like I'd like to know that if this provides some added protection or if it's a just a doesn't impact at all. I have one more question. When was this PD established? Uh 2008. Was that 2008? Any idea where the when these homes went in that's sitting behind it? I I wish I knew off the top of my head. I'm sorry. Okay.

I'll just make one comment. So eventually there will be three parcels that be developed here probably general commercial as you see up and down Highway 160. I guess in a way we have an opportunity to take a look at this just like uh highway 49 the Buster Boy Bridge coming out of Lake Wy there. There's only one secondary road that I'm aware of. I think it's Nautical Drive on Highway 49. And somewhat the same thing's happening here. All the traffic is on 160. You got curb cuts coming out. We're going to have three curb cuts here on these three properties. And I know that's just part of it, but um sure would like to see us do some no no offense to planning, but as a county to require more of these collector roads to collect the traffic so that they come out on Vandor and get out this way and not three more curb cuts to slow down traffic on 160. It's unfortunate that it's laid out like this, but it's this way up and down the entire corridor.

Uh I will say you don't really have to respond. I'm just making a comment. Can you go back to the to the existing PUD just so I can take a look at that one more time? So, I guess on this PUD, am I right? And I'm sorry we keep throwing a bunch of questions, but the these two parcels, parcel A and parcel B, is that is that two parcels in the next one? So, you're dividing it up. This shows like one one access point for the both of those parcels and now you're proposing two access points for the two parcels

instead of treating them together. Yeah. So, so all we're looking at is partial A is going to be divided. Um actually in within the site plan, uh they do have the bottom two parcels. This would be between this is the border between that parcel A and parcel B. Um, and the idea is actually to keep it similar to what the original PD had where these share a curb cut onto 160. That makes sense. And in fact, in this plan, uh, they don't have a curb cut into 160 for this, uh, northern property that be created either. They will be using the access from the Goodwill and access to the south from the site. Okay. Thank you for explaining.

I'm not sure I got I'm not sure I'm taking it down. What are is what we're proposing going to actually create more curb cuts? Not to the extent. No, no, we're going to share. We're going to share one. A and B. We're going to share one. I guess retail A and retail B are two different parcels, right? That's right. This shows one access point off of 160, right? Mhm. Are you saying? And all we're approving tonight is A. Yes, ma'am. Where's the access point for A in the new proposal?

Should be the same place. So, so these two, this red and black both compose A as it is. Um, the idea is going to be to divide this and this northern property that'll be created will only have access to the north out of goodwill and access to the south uh into the other property that's created. So, this is A1 uh A2 and then this would be B. So, actually the access points will look very similar to what was in the established PD um with one access onto 160 that's kind of down the line down the center and then one off of uh the side road there. Okay, thank you sir. That's better. Okay, wait a minute. That's good.

So So um where's Goodwill here? Goodwill is this property here where it says single family residential, but it's not. Yeah, that's Goodwill. Yes. Yes. Okay. Okay. And so there's access off 160 into Goodwill. Yes. Yeah. Okay. And so now there's going to be another access into A off of 160. You're saying it'll be very similar to this where it's right between A and B. they will share the one access point.

Okay. So, is there any kind of um criteria for an access point that's going to be at a and then right next right down the way is Goodwill because I know going in and out of Goodwill is extremely busy and do you have any kind of numbers of what uh this company I saw Dutch Brothers um anticipate in their traffic? Um, that is all going to be detailed within the TIA. Unfortunately, I don't have that information for you at this very moment, but we can certainly get that for you.

Okay. But anyway, going back to the original question. So, the the number of footage from the going into a and then going into Goodwill. Is there a any kind of There are uh driveway separation requirements um that have to be adhered to and given the speed of Highway 160. I think it's um a good distance. I don't know the exact number off the top of my head, but it's I mean, is it doable there? Have you checked that out?

Uh that's a good question for our u commercial development team. Uh, as far as I I it's very likely that actually this driveway is as as close as it could possibly be to where that other um the Goodwill access point is. Okay. But you will check that out. Yes, ma'am. Okay. And and some of these questions that y'all are asking, we'll make sure that we respond with answers before the next meeting. So, we'll capture these questions, make sure you have this information. Okay. Okay.

Well, why did they decide other than putting that other off 160 access? Why didn't they just You got two major roads there. Have a front edge road connector between on the back side. I'm not sure I understand what you're suggesting. Do you mean? Uh, well, when you turn down van door, you got the two arrows going in. All that lines right up across all the way across there. Why not a frontage road there? So, you just have those two access points instead of adding this third one in.

So, as it is, the the third access point will be to the Goodwill. Um, it will look very similar to this given the site plan we have now. Um, and I believe that is how it will be given the separation requirements both from the intersection and from the pre-existing commercial driveways. So, in you know what you're saying is kind of what's being done um, you know, given that the roadway rather than being a true back alley back here, it will just kind of piggyback off of the development of this property to the south.

Yeah. just seems like if they had done that that worked a lot better when it comes to traffic. I do have one question I think is important. I apologize. I should ask it earlier, but have we considered deceleration lanes on these properties for those right turnins? And I I can explain why I'm asking the question, but has that been considered?

Um I'm not sure. I have not been to Dutch Brothers Coffee, but apparently it's really good coffee. Last night I came into town about 7:30 last night on Selenise and there were at least 15 cars in line and 10 of those were out on Selenise waiting to get in there last night to get coffee. So I can't imagine that happening on 160. So, it's a good thing that they obviously have good coffee, but I do think we ought to take a look at the traffic at other locations and and encourage DOT to maybe consider addressing that so that we can keep traffic moving on 160. Yeah. I mean, they even had the police there directing traffic.

I think I think any of the new stuff has has a has a learning curve, but in this particular case, the motion on the table is to approve first reading. Yeah, there have been a lot of questions that council has asked to get

information before. Second. Um, all those in favor of the motion say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries for first reading. Item number three, resoning action. Hold a public hearing and consider first reading case number 26-07 tax map number 71900 0. Reszone from light industrial to GC 50.803 acres in district 7. Um, as we approach this public hearing and first reading, I do want to make clear, this is something that was provided that council became aware of is that the apparently a notice um was contained the wrong information. So, we will be having um public hearing at third reading, which I understand is May 4th. Um but at this time if there are folks that want to speak after we get the intro introduction because of the way it was posted uh we'll move forward as we normally have. Thank you sir. So uh this case is 50 acres at the intersection of good gold hill and highway 21. So the applicant proposes uh to allow future commercial development in anticipation of the gold hill being bifurcated or bifrocating the parcel after realignment with that highway 21 uh bypass. Uh so you can actually kind of see in the aerial already uh area has been cleared for in expectation of that project and that will essentially segment off uh this uh group of trees here as a new median. Uh here's a plan given to us by our transportation group. Um so again, this is where Gold Hill is currently and would run and meet up here and you kind of get this diagonal intersection. The idea is it's going to round off here and square off this intersection and make it a lot safer.

So this area is zoned light industrial. Uh you can see lots of general commercial uses and uh zoning right along Highway 21. future land use given its proximity at I77. Uh it's of course marked for I77 corridor employment. Uh we find this consistent with comp plan future land use map. There are adjacent GC properties and will not exclude the expected land uses. Um the scale of potential commercial development could also possibly meet the employment value expectations within the designation and it has the opportunity to develop into a cohesive business park. Unanimous vote planning commission recommends approval.

Thank you sir. Any questions for staff? All right. Thank you, sir. Because we have announced this is a public hearing, is there anyone here who wish to speak against this request? Is there anyone who wishes to speak in favor?

Uh, hey everybody, Scott Coconut, 122 West Oak Street, beautiful White Park neighborhood, downtown Fort Mill. Uh, yeah, this will be a good idea for us bringing this into GC uh in the Fort Mill school district. So, uh it would be more appropriate uh as this is a GC property. There are a few only one um prohibited use that I was a little concerned about. A couple other special exemptions, but as big as our county is, there's always going to have things like that. So, and uh the road improvement on that project was uh definitely a big help to bringing that around, lining that up as a true interchange. So, anyway, thank you'all for your time. Thanks,

sir. Anyone else? My name is Stephen Arcra Jr. I live at 112 East Liberty Street in York. Uh my mailing address is in care of K&L Gates LLP, uh 300 South Triion Street, Sweet 1000 Charlotte, North Carolina 28202. I am the applicant for this resoning case. Um, the property is owned by VU Banks Limited Partnership and as it is presently zoned LI, the owner desires to have it resoned to GC which conforms with what his family has always wanted this property to be. Uh, Mr. Eubanks uh lead Eubanks would be here tonight except for the fact he now lives in Synica and does not drive at night. Um however, each of you have been forwarded a letter to council which sets out in detail uh the history of this property and the reasons for his desire to have it reszoned. You also have been forwarded a letter from Gray uh Young uh superintendent of Fort Mill School District number four, which uh states that the school board trustees voted unanimously to approve this resoning. In the interest of time, I will not rehash what is in those letters, but I do want to tell you about uh the history of this property. Um the property is a portion of a large tract exceeding 300 acres that was held

intact by the Eubanks family for over 100 years. Lee Eubanks father, Thomas Hall Eubanks, lived on the property with his wife and farmed it for over 60 years. He was a prominent and civic-minded citizen of York County. Uh, in fact, he was asked to serve and did serve on a citizens committee in the 1970s, which resulted in the recommendation and adoption of York County's first zoning ordinance. He cooperated with the county uh in a number of ways including the installation of a main sewer line across this property uh and which was much needed. U in 1992 he was convinced to zone this property or to agree to reszone the property through LII uh being assured by the county that that was the most flexible zoning at the time. In fact, it allowed for residential zoning uh use. It also allowed for these u particular uh GC uses that he requests now. But as you well know uh the county u not with his permission u made a text change. though that these uses now are no longer permitted and like industrial um will open up a can of worms as you can uh well understand u in because of recent history um after Mr. Thomas Eubanks retired. Um, Leu Banks um secured a contract to sell uh most of this property to u PY the home builder for a low density high-end uh residential subdivision but due to uh

the opposition of a lot of residential owners in the area also opposition from the economic development office of the county py pulled that resoning request. So, uh, prior to that was back in 2017. Prior to 2016, Mr. Eubanks had discussions with the school district about selling a part part of this property uh to it for the construction of new schools. Um and as a matter of fact there was a track that was sold to the school district by the family limited partnership where the existing elementary school is. Later the school district came back to him and asked for the um purchase of an adjoining track where the uh present um uh uh uh middle school was under construction and at that time Mr. Eubanks donated 28 acres to the school district to be held as the Thomas Hall um uh natural preserve and that's was in honor of his great uncle uh Tom Hall for whom the main artery street in Fort Mill is named. Um he then um was approached and sold to Rockefeller Group the northern portion of the property. He was assured at that time that Rockefeller Group would develop it for warehouses and distribution centers. If he had known that one of those buildings would have been used for manufacturing of solar panels which necessarily entailed the use of hazardous chemicals, he would have never agreed to sell to the Rockefeller group which later sold the track to exit Development Group. Uh Lee Eubanks is mortified by what has

come about as a result of that manufacturing operation and he thus desires to have its remaining property resone to GC so that not only undesirable manufacturing operations would be prohibited on this 50 acres but also warehouse and distribution centers would be prohibited thereby eliminating heavy truck traffic. Also, GC would permit the kind of retail, medical office, and restaurant use that is much needed in the area so that the residents would no longer need to cross I77 uh to the west to take advantage of those services. But Lee Eubanks has learned his lesson. If the GC resoning is approved, he intends to record a declaration of restricted covenants that would take priority over any current and future resoning, eliminating not only warehouse distribution, light and heavy manufacturing, but also some of the uses allowed in the present GC classification, which would be permitted as special exceptions or conditional uses such as adult businesses, transition additional housing, emergency shelters, zoos, and the like. His vision is for this property to be a business park, uh, mixeduse business park. Now, that would make business sense for a reputable developer. Anyway, however, for that to happen, the GC resoning must be approved. I want to emphasize this is not a condition to the resoning which my good friend Michael Kendry would remind me countless times when I would ask for it. Reszoning uh uh on condition is not recognized under the state comprehensive planning act and

maybe some of the case law decisions of courts would not recognize it. However, the imposition of these restricted covenants would be conditioned upon the resoning. I thank you for your attention and I ask you for your support. Thank you, sir. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak in favor? Not. Do we have a motion to close? Motion closed. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Public hearing is closed. Do we have a new motion? I make a motion that we approve. Second. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion?

Well, I just want to say thank you. You have given the community a much needed gift and I have expressed this to you before to tell uh Mr. Eubanks that we are indebted to him. I have had so many people call me, email me, and just just I cannot tell you how happy they are. Um it's a breath of fresh air. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any other discussion? I certainly support this and appreciate the applicant's request. All those in favor say I. Any opposed?

Hearing none. Motion carries unanimously. We move now to our fourth public hearing item. Reszoning action. Hold a public hearing and consider first reading case number 26-08 tax map number 6480000009 10 22 26 30 33 38 and 41 to amend the conditions from a previous reszoning case 14.06 acres in district 1.

Yeah. So this collection of properties is off Highway 160 northeast side of the county. Um and like you said uh this is a particular case we are trying to reszone to amend some conditions that were previously uh placed on this in case 259. Um and the whole objective of this just to amend uh some of the phrasing so that property which is originally restricted to just town homes will also allow a multif family concept. So the current deed restriction um you can see the specific language is age restricted town home community. Uh the applicant is requesting to go to age restricted single family attached homes or multif family units. Uh this will ultimately give them a lot more flexibility um in how they develop the site. Uh so this is the previous site plan. I don't believe much of it is going to change at least that is what the applicant has suggested. Um some of the amenities I think will move but the number of dwelling units uh should remain about similar. So again this was reszoned all to RMX6 to allow town homes and that town home concept um given it was part of this transitional area where we see a lot of uh expect a lot of density to come into the county. So, we recommend approval of this request. And while the comp plan doesn't have a lot of bearing on this, just given that we're moving within the same zone, just changing conditions, um, this will afford the applicant more flexibility and development and marketability of the site. Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval.

Any questions for staff? So, on this property here, um, are these properties ex what is currently on these properties right now? um very very sparse um I believe abandoned residences uh and otherwise woodland. And how many units are are we looking at four to five dwellings in each incident? So we're talking Okay.

Yeah. This is and these were all part of the pre the already approved concept. Um again, if this resoning doesn't go through, they will still be beholden to the conditions of the previous one, which still allow uh this site plan. Right. So, this is a this has been brought back and this was one that was previously approved, correct? That's right. Yeah. Any other questions for staff?

There was a picture you were showing a second ago showing the There we go. Lighthouse Avenue. It's just another one of those examples where we're creating more curb cuts and not utilizing secondary roads. Uh the applicant has also shared a lot of concern about curb cuts on to 160 um and have done a lot in their site plan to limit the number of those. Can you can you go back to the um the verbiage that exists the conditioned keep going right there? All right. So, there's a current deed restriction that it's limited to age restricted town homes and the requested condition is age restricted homes. Um and so the significance of this is solely it it preserves the requirement that you have to have age restricted. Is that is that going to be deed restricted or is it

Yeah, the age restriction will remain. Um all that's changing is uh element of it being forced to be town homes. Um which is I mean kind of another phrase for multif family units, but we do define town homes very specifically in code. Um, and it will also allow single family attached homes. Um, so that can allow duplex, triplex. Again, it'll just give them some more wiggle room when they're designing their site so they don't have to have so many units directly um next to one another. Um, it'll also allow them to do um market them as condos rather than town homes. Um, and again, it's just more flexibility on the marketability side. So, so this request is not to reszone the property.

It is technically a resoning because the previous resoning had that condition that they had to be town homes and all that they're requesting now is to stay within RMX6, which does allow the same dwelling units per acre. Um, but instead of having to town homes, it will also include attached homes and multif family units. So, so just again, I mean, I heard you say that they're similar, but how how are the number of dwelling units, how are they going to remain the same? As far as I understand, they should remain similar. Um, so there's no, this request is not increasing any um density at all.

Not beyond what was approved in 259 last year. Yeah. What was the same drawing basically? Yeah. Any other questions for staff before we open public hearing? Hearing none. Thank you, sir. Is there anyone here who wishes to speak against this resoning? Well, it's not resoning, this change of conditions. Is there anyone who wishes to speak in favor?

Good evening. My name is Sarah Shirley. I'm with Kimley Horn. Um I 580 Kingsley Park Drive in Fort Mill. I'm here tonight with Bob Bennett with Stanley Martin and we can help address some of that clarification. York County zoning ordinance has a very specific definition of town home and it basically just means that you have to have a lot surrounding the building itself. You have to have a sideyard on one side if you're an end unit. You have to have a front yard and a rear yard. The way that the age restricted communities are set up for Stanley Martin is that we want to do a a condo style u property division. So essentially it's brick to brick and that is the lot itself. So it's not you won't have apartments one above one another. The person who owns the town home unit will own the first floor and the second floor if there is a second floor and that's the lot itself. So, to Thomas's point, it's not an ask for an increase in density. It's about how the site is laid out. Um, it allows for the HOA to take over more of the maintenance of the property. So, people have less maintenance on their own lot. The front yard, the rear yard is taken care of by the HOA. So, it's it's a very specific designation. If zoning code wasn't written the way that it was, we wouldn't even have the condition to ask or to change. But it's purely about how that design plays out. So in actuality, the uh plan that Thomas had shown earlier, the condition change, thank you. Allows us to actually build it the way that it's shown on this plan. If we were to convert all of these units to town homes, um we'd actually lose a lot more space or homes on the property, um it would just be a lot more open space without any added value. Um instead of having all of the property in

HOA maintenance, it would be in private homeowner maintenance and they would be responsible to take care of their own property. Um did want to address the curb cut um concern. We have had a tier 2 TIA completed and approved by York County and SC DOT. And so that northern entrance that you see is our only main entrance. Uh the southern one will actually be an emergency access only and gated off. And there is a um full u two-way two two-way left turn lane. There are other names for it um that are not appropriate anymore. Uh but it's basically that middle lane that allows you to make left turns in both directions. uh directly in front of our property. Um and I just wanted to make sure I address those. It it is a very specific designation, but no increase in density. It's just flexibility in design and the ability for the HOA to maintain all of the open space.

And thank you for your time. Thank you, ma'am. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak in favor?

Uh hey, Scott Cober on 122 West Oak Street. Uh, I own uh residential properties in retirement communities and uh actually going to cut down a tree in the front yard and res it for my mother-in-law in she rents it from us in Sun City the orchards. Uh so it's a town home, I'm responsible for that. If it's a condo, uh the HOA is more responsible for it. So there are advantages especially in retirement communities um for that. We also own properties in condos and basically once the pipe leaves your unit it's on the HOA whereas in a town home community that drain pipe your sewer line is on you till it gets to the road. So uh especially in age restricted neighborhoods condos are just nice on on that type of person. Hey thanks for your time.

Thank you sir. Do we have a motion to close public hearing? Motion to close. Second. Second. Motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Public hearing is closed. Do we have a new motion? Motion to approve. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion?

No. I think that you know I know one of the things that happened during the um initial phase of this I know that that you met with the neighborhoods across the road etc. So there was um some very positive outcomes with those conversations. So I do appreciate you meeting. Thank you. Any other discussion? All those in favor say I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion carries unanimously. We move now to our um fifth public hearing item reszoning action. Hold a public hearing and consider first reading case number 26-09 tax map number 5760000007 to reszone from UD to GC.81 acres in district 2.

All right. This is a commercial property on Charlotte Highway um just before Buster Boyd Bridge and across from Camp Thunderbird. So, the applicant is proposing to expand the permitted commercial uses of this multi-tenant mall to widen the potential tenant base. Um it actually has four individual units in it as it is. So, zoning, you can tell a lot of this is UD. Um Thunderbird is there with the RUD. Um most of these are commercial developments and this parcel kind of acts as an out parcel to the larger scale retail behind it. Um and I also want to point out that this other property uh was already zoned GC um and that's commensurate with the previous resoning for very similar purpose again just to expand the allowed uses from what UD permits. Um future land use designates this space within the village center um and otherwise single family residential. uh village center. Uh it's kind of a rare designation. Uh we're looking for more um close hypercharacteristic um walkable commercial development very small scale but um with some regional drawn regional character. So while it's not consistent with that necessarily um we do see the areas dominated by uh these general business operations that don't really fit into village center from the u beginning. Um again that nearby property uh associated with case 2330 was reszoned for a similar purpose. It's not going to change the primary functions of this site and will remove an instance of the legacy UD district planning commission unanially voted for approval.

Any questions for staff? I always have concern when I see not consistent with the comp plan. That concerns me. And what doesn't make sense to me is that what you're telling me is that everything around it is currently being used as GC already. Why is it not consistent with where with what's going on here? Because it's not changing a use. It's getting rid of UD which doesn't exist which basically allowed everything and and I just ask you to comment on that.

Yeah. So in when it comes to the future land use plan um its interaction with UD is kind of minimal. Um originally it was supposed to be one to one with that municipal infill um designation but we've since moved away from that and in this case in particular again the village center is kind of a rare designation. Um and in this case it's quite aspirational. Um, a lot of these properties pre-existed and were commercial. And the idea and the hope behind placing this node here was that it would develop into um, something smaller scale, more walkable, and have some kind of mixeduse element to it. Um, again, trying to kind of piggyback off of the fact that that campground already exists and try and get some regional draw and some regional interest in the space. Um, but certainly that has not uh, happened. And this resoning, while it doesn't necessarily preclude this property from ever fulfilling that role, GC is a little more intense than what we would expect to see here within that designation.

Is there anywhere in the county that's village center that's actually used as a village center? I mean, a lot of them, I would say, are, you know, they're they're in municipal space a lot of the time. Um, but you know, you have some very quaint spaces in Baxter Village that I think fulfills the village center uh idea. Um, I would say there are even some spaces um in Lake Wy, some roads that are that are a little more walkable. Um, Kingsley is certain certainly a good example, but again, that's that's more municipal.

Is there any development that's prompting this? Um, I'm not sure about when the exact timing of this this node. Uh, that's something I can get an answer for you within the coming week. And just again, the properties on either side of this parcel in red and to the back, are they all being used as as general commercial today? Essentially, these are all large retail, you know, large lot commercial uses. Um, if if I could snap my fingers and remove all UD from this map, this would probably all be GC. Thank you, sir. Any other questions?

All right. Is there anyone here who wishes to speak against this reszoning? Is there anyone who wishes to speak in favor? Motion to close public hearing. Second. Motion and a second to close public hearing. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Do we have a new motion? Motion to approve. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I.

Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion carries unanimously. Item number six, council to hold a public hearing and consider third reading of an ordinance authorizing the execution and delivery of a development agreement by and between York County, South Carolina, and Clover School District. Number two, both political subdivisions of the state of South Carolina for the development of two schools and a pertinent facility and for mitigation of traffic impacts derived there from on tax map parcel 4880000001 comprised of 172.42 acres on Cannonball Run and Liberty Hill Road West pursuant to the South Carolina Local Government Development Agreement Act to provide for public hearings and to provide for other matters relating there too. I will just say for council's benefit, this is something that I was unaware of until we did the agenda meeting apparently that this type of development requires two public hearings and so we have heard this and we have this has been brought before us. Um and um so this is the second public hearing. Is there anything from management?

No, madam chair. Are there any questions from council at all before we open the public hearing? Okay. Is there anyone here who wishes to speak against this matter? Is there anyone who wishes to speak in favor? Motion to close. Motion and a second to close public hearing. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Public hearing is closed. Do we have a new motion? Motion to approve. Second. Motion and a second to approve. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion approves unanimously. We move do not have any old business. We move to first item of new business, update on land use code diagnostics and revisions.

Yes. Uh, assistant county manager Tom Couch is going to provide y'all an update. We've been working with the planning department for a few months on a number of items. This was one of them. Uh, I've sent y'all a couple different memos uh related to some of the things we're working on. We wanted to share those verbally with you uh tonight and share some ideas in terms of areas of the code that uh Tom and I and and the planning director Jonathan Buono believe we should be looking into potentially updating uh just to share feedback with y'all uh and then for y'all to have the opportunity in the future at a at a future meeting to maybe share other ideas y'all have. But tonight, our goal was just to share where we're at with y'all in person. uh and then we can finish this conversation at a later date. But with that, I'll hand it off uh to Tom.

Thank you, Mr. County Manager. Good evening, Madame Chair and members of council. Uh I've been asked by county manager and the chair to address this issue this evening, and I'll be uh brief, not in my interest, but for your convenience. Uh in August we as you know initiated a change in planning and development services that included improving customer service, process improvement and staff performance. There's always more to be done and there will be more done but I believe we've made measurable pro progress in these areas which gives us now the opportunity to initiate improvements in community outreach. But my main topic for this evening, land use code diagnostics and revisions. What we want to help council to do is to decode recode. And if we do it right, the benefits will complement everything that we all want to achieve. We're not going to propose a a full code rewrite, but instead we're going to work on focused efforts that are targeted at creating consistent and predictable outcomes. And this will be over time, but we want what we want to do over the spring and maybe part of the summer is hit your highest prior priorities early. And just to give you some context, if you look at it from a bigger view or broader areas where we're trying to seek your direction, you know, we we ask or we ask ourselves certain questions. Do we have language that reflects today's market? And are we going through the right processes whether it's for our use tables definitions where we can fix our language in such a way where we can better determine if we can have land uses that are by right determined by special exception or conditional use

right size and right fit everything. I think we need to look at our core development standards whether they're things like parking design buffers and then where can we streamline processes without where we can be more efficient but where we don't sacrifice transparency. Now, some specific examples that I've heard in a little under the year and a half that I I've been here, such topics as special events or event venues, they need to be fixed, trade services uses, allowing manufactured homes in RSF40, tree preservation, accessory dwelling units, tiny homes, uh self- storage units, fixing the split zoning issue issues on our zoning maps. And I could go on and on, but that isn't the intent of what my presentation is. And I'll explain why in a moment. But why does it matter? As I said before, when the codes are aligned with your priorities, we have more consistent and predictable outcomes. When we're not aligned, we have more appeals, more variances, more friction, and less certainty. So, I think what we are really asking for at the management level and from planning and development services is we need your feedback and specifically and we're going to help you guide you through that in in coming days and weeks. Where are you seeing the friction? Where is the code too rigid or too permissive? What should we prioritize first? So I believe the next steps as we've been ascertaining and discerning discerning the process we would kind of like we did with the rural zoning project like to

send each of you a brief survey. We will give the ideas and the examples whether it's in a broader context or more specific context that I just spoke about. Uh then we want to bring back to you a phase work program based on your direction and hopefully get an immediate referral to the planning and zoning commission and then over the summer if not sooner depending upon how much feedback that you give us and what the complexity is of what you want to fix. uh we want P&Z by midsummer, late summer hopefully to report back to the council and then at that time we can schedule reviews by the planning commission and hopefully get on the path to council adoption. But I think the one thing that I should emphasize and this is important. If we can do fix a lot of I don't know if I want to call it big stuff but your major priorities first. Uh we think that it's prudent that at least once a year that we go through this exercise. But hopefully if we do this right the first time and do it now, when we do those annual reviews and make those annual fixes, they'll be a lot less difficult and a lot less tenuous. So I'll conclude there. Are there any questions or comments?

Thank you, Mr. Couch. Yeah, real quick. Come. Um, so when you say get feedback from us, Tommy, I appreciate that. Um, how about the feedback from the public? How how was that being received in when people have comments to planning, zoning? Um how was that being tracked and and are and are we out like are we basically doing a survey pushing a survey out also that people can do it online etc. We can go as far as you want it to go. I mean, we can follow stat the minimum statutory requirements where, you know, there's going to be open meetings and notices and

then you go through the zoning changes through three ratings and all, but um we can and we can include that as part of our survey and how far do you want to go with with public uh comment feedback and and kind of have you know answering that question with the rural zoning project, you know, that was one of the things we discussed with y'all and the more public input you do, the the longer it takes. So, I think that's something to keep in mind. We're willing to put that into a survey. We send y'all to give your feedback, but but yes, that that is an implication. Yeah, I just I mean again, the public input is, you know, to me is first in line. So, we got we've got to get that in.

And that and that's a very credible statement, but maybe for expediency, what I can suggest is we we start with the survey mechanisms with council first. And then from there, um, depending upon breadth and the context of what we're looking at, you all can determine if we need to do more extensive public comment. But the county manager is correct. We tried to uh expedite the rural zoning project. And I think we effectively did it in just under six months.

Any other comments? My understanding, I appreciate giving us the update. Um, Mr. Couch, I do think that, you know, a 600page zoning code is is is a lot and council took this um, very seriously two years ago to look at ways to simplify it to make it more user friendly, to make it address the issues that really are are the issues. And so, as I understand, the next phase of we've had some changes and progress with some things. this is the next phase where we're going to dig in a little bit more, take a look at it and use our workshops to to find other ways to to build on this. Is that is that your approach?

And again, if we can get a big chunk done in what we're wanting to do in coming months, as I said earlier, we probably need to do an annual review and then maybe some of the topics won't be so difficult to deal with. But we're committing. We're committed. I'm sorry. Like I said, to recode, decode. And I will say I was a little bit overwhelmed when I first saw 600page zoning code. But now that I've been here 15 16 months, there's actually some good things in it. And then the other thing we want to do, we just don't want to ignore the zoning code either. Um, storm water is a different animal, but we need to look at our land development code because it's clo closely associated uh with with the zoning code. But I think uh we want to look at those two particular uh codes closely and storm water again as we talked about in the budget retreat, different animal, different time, but we'll be revisiting it. So just to summarize our next step as staff, we're going to send council a survey and then once we hear from you all about your ideas and we connect those with ours, what we'll do is we'll we'll connect it to a future workshop date where we can have a further discussion

and I'm very positive that we've come this far or we're ready to do this now. Yeah. Thank you so much for sir. Yes, for sure.

Um we do have item number six in consent that was brought out for the second item of new business. The item number six is council to provide a stoppple certification of fee and loot tax agreement between York County and Mountain SC LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, formerly MR EIC, South Carolina LLC, a South Carolina limited liability company. Um, I requested that we pull this out of consent, especially considering that there's community who's who's asking for um, more transparency when it comes to the FO agreements and to share that information. My understanding is that this FO agreement was passed before any of us was even on council was done in 2010. But um I thought it might I thought it was important for um if you want to come forward and and just share a little bit of of the background on that and then the the need for this item on the agenda.

Happy to do so. Great to see you all. Like I haven't been here in a while. So it's good to see you and um happy to address any questions you may have. Just wrote some notes here and I felt probably best just to read through those to give you kind of perspective in the history. As uh general Cox mentioned, this was a FEO agreement done in 2010. Essentially, what you're looking at is the stople certificate tied to an existing fee on that property. Um just some terms on that. This was a 30-year fee on a tax agreement that was done where the assessment ratio is at 6% for the property. That's pretty standard for what we do for um really just about any project uh is to reduce that assessment ratio. and uh the property owner currently is pursuing financing and their lender which is mentioned in that certificate is just requiring to confirm the status of the agreement. So it's not anything that would affect the agreement. Um they are in compliance. They have met their investment amount tied to it. It's just us as a partner in a a body of that part of the agreement. we would just confirm that they're in compliance and that we are basically stating that this agreement is in place. Beyond that, it's it's pretty straightforward and simple. It's a standard administrative step usually that that we would do and we've done in the past.

And this this concerns an existing business that currently operates in the county. Is that correct? That's correct. Um FedEx is a tenant in that facility. Okay. And just to be clear, none of what this is is none of what we're approving tonight modifies the existing agreement. It doesn't modify the agreement and there's no new financial obligations. Correct. That is absolutely correct. I think this might be helpful just for the general public. This would be like if you're refinancing your home. Um there the bank is just making sure that everything is in order and that there's no issues there. And so they're asking us just to confirm that they're in compliance with the agreement that we and they're in compliance as well. They are okay. Any other questions?

All right. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Motion and a second. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion carries. Um my understanding is that Mr. Cocenau who is Hang on. Let me find where I'm at. Um we do not have any committee or other reports. We do have citizen concerns, but my understanding is that that you do not need to move forward. Okay. Um any council member new non-aggenda comments before we go into executive session?

Yeah. One real quick here. Um again, I do want to thank um you know, people that came in to speak around regards to SOFAB in regards to QTS. We continue appreciate your feedback as we move as uh we hear your concerns. We do appreciate that. Again, I do want to state I do continue to support the public, the students, um, and also the school district in their request to cease manufacturing uh, per the school district's request. I also want to state that u when it comes to QTS, I know that we've uh referred it over to planning and I do want to recommend because the state is also involved looking at um uh data centers that I do recommend that when it does go to planning that you would look at actually implementing a moratorum on on data centers just because there's so much activity around that uh especially our at our level and at the state level that I do recommend a moratorum. So I just want to pass that along and that's it. Thank you.

Any other comments? Duly noted.

Yes, please. Um, so first thing I wanted to mention on the data center QTS specifically that that that purchase and the zoning was by right. Correct. It was by right. So they had the right to actually build a data center on the property. The existing property, not the one that's being purchased, but the existing property. I want to clarify that because that was brought up tonight. Uh number two, there was mention of Atlanta, the QTS site, and the QTS site is on 998, one of them is on 99 acres in Atlanta. It's 1.56 miles square and it's 40 feet. So that's one of the reasons why we encourage the height to be increased to 80 feet. I'm not on that committee that brought the recommendation to council, but I did vote for it. And we suggested 80 feet so that you have less of a footprint on the ground, right? You take it up, it's either up or it's out, right? So you have a larger footprint, the the theoretically the shorter the building is. Plus, from a sound perspective, even though after we've heard how our ordinance work and I'm actually talking louder than the sound the sound could be, uh, based on our ordinance, but the sound is 80 ft up. It's not necessarily down on the ground. So, I think we have to take that in consideration. And I just explained this because of the logic that went behind increasing the height of a data center uh up to 80 feet. um the noise during construction, you know, unfortunately, I mean, I feel for the residents around there that are affected by the noise from the construction, but there just is noise with construction. It's just part of um I hate to say progress, but it's part of construction. Um the last thing I want to mention, well, one more thing on that. I want to remind citizens that own land, citizens that own land in York

County, if you're concerned about what's going to happen to that land now, you should be concerned about what happens to that land when you pass away and you pass it to your heirs. So you have an opportunity to put that land under deed restrictions. You can put in a conservation easement. You can protect that land so that what you're grappling with while you're alive doesn't happen to other people when you pass away. So you do have an opportunity to correct that with the land that you own. So please don't forget that. I'll keep reminding um citizens that do own land and own parcels of land at that particular point. Last thing I wanted to mention is that um as we talk about data centers, we've talked about we're asking we sent it back to did we send it to planning commission or planning committee?

Planning committee. Planning and zoning committee.

Planning and zoning committee. So, Councilman Linton and I have been talking about this a lot, and he keeps saying to me, he said, "Why why are you treating one industry different than another?" And the more I thought about it, I thought, you know what, he's right. I think what we need to do when we're looking at restrictions, it's applied across the board. So, if you use a certain amount of water, then we should have some type of restriction regardless of the industry for water. If you're using a certain amount of power, then you would have the same restriction. Here's why I say this. 10 years ago, if somebody had asked you, what is AI? What is a data center? 2022, only 7% of businesses even used AI. Today, only 23. Three more years from now, it's expected to be over 60% using AI. So, there's something on the horizon we're not even aware of. So, I think he's right. I think we need to look at this universally at any industry that comes in here. That's that can be a bit of a disruptor on in this case water, electricity, and then I I keep mentioning decommissioning. It even came up tonight. Somebody mentioned that. But this is an enormous building. You obviously can't tear the building down, but you could. But what could you use the building for if they did? if they were out of business a few years from now. If Elon Musk is right and we're going to have cool cooling centers in space because it's so cold. There's some underwater today. I mean, you have to think about you don't have to, but it would behoove us to think out of the box and apply it to any industry that comes in the future that we're even unaware of that could be having the same type of impact. So I would ask the the planning committee to think about this and some of the comments that we've made but apply it to all industries which would include data centers. Thank you.

Any other council member new knowledge? Yeah, I wasn't going to say nothing, but I am. Um, I just want to address the problem with all the hatred and the keyboard warrior I know and everything else. And we're sitting here with all the information on any given subject. and some of the stuff that's being made up and said and whatnot. It It's kind of hard to believe that people celebrated Easter and took one day and then they were right back at all the hatred and the nasty talks and all that. And the bad thing is is well over 90% of it isn't true. So, you know, don't sit there and say you praised and worshiped the Lord one minute and then you living for the devil the next. Um, it's getting kind of agg monotonous and you get kind of tired of it and this ain't no easy job at any given time. But somebody has to make a decision. Whether you don't agree with the decision or not, somebody still had to make the decision. That's about all I got to say.

Any other comments?

I'd like to make a couple. Um, first of all, again, I want to say thank you to the Eubanks um for their decision to reszone that property. Um it truly does mean a a lot to my community. And I also want to say that um you know we still comments that we have um made tonight from the um Musil Fab group is um still valid, very valid. and we hope to see some results in uh some investigations and some questions answered that they're um that everybody has concerns about. So, I believe that that's going to happen and I think Tom and I are still standing firm with our community on this. Thank you. I want to go back and poke Tommy a little bit. Some people didn't even take Easter off.

I agree.

Um I know we started our meeting off with um with a um a somber and sad moment uh with Michael Kendrick. I look at I look at that situation and try to put a different light on it. Um because we in this community, we in this world find so much to fight over that in the end is very inconsequential to why we're here on this earth and the things that we can do to make things better for not just ourselves but for everybody else. But sometimes people take the opportunity to continue to fight to continue to fight to continue to fight and we forget about all the blessings that we've been we've enjoyed that we're going to receive. Um, so I I just want people to remember um your purpose in life, whether it's counsel, whether it's cooking, whether it's hiking, whatever your mission is outside of coming here. It's life's bigger than what goes on in this chamber. And so many people miss that opportunity to really enjoy it. and then you look up one day and things not going so well with your health, things not going so well with your family, so well with your job. Um, just remember it's it's it's a lot more to this world than the problems that we're fighting and grappling with. You know, love the people that you're around. Love your neighbors, love your job, love your your your family. If we we start getting back and building off things that we love and around people that we love, it makes life a lot easier. But some people build up their their empire, their whatever, off hatred, off fighting. And I don't like to fight. I don't like to fight. I don't like to see people fighting. Um

I I've been here for quite a while. I was Michael was here when I when I came on board. And when you work with someone as long as I've been here, 14 years, that's your extended family. I've been on my job for 28 years. That's my extended family. It's not easy to move on um past someone that you work with, you spend time with. It's is very difficult. And we need to have those moments that we reflect on what people mean to us individually. You know, he may not meant the same thing to anyone else up here or anyone sitting out there, but to his family, to his friends, to the co-workers. Everybody means something to somebody. And I want to make sure that we are injecting love and gratitude and thanks and even forgiveness when things don't go our way. When people are pitted against us, it's so much more that we can be doing to make life better for everyone. And I just want people to remember those types of situations, instances where things didn't go your way. Remember to reach out and love on those people that that whatever that decision was that affected you or them. Men those fences. Make things better. Because tomorrow is coming for those who

are left behind. We got to we got to remember that like Tommy said, these are not easy jobs. And it doesn't make it even it doesn't make it easier. no way, no how. When every time you stroll a Facebook post or read something someone says about you or your family, it makes it really, really difficult to come up here and sit and make good decisions without holding those who are perpetrating half-truths, untruths against people personal lives, against their personal families. It's not easy. You got to have some thick skin. You got to have something about you. But at the end of the day, we're all human. If you cut me, I bleed the same blood that you going to bleed. So, let's just remember to to build our foundation on what we can be proud of, that we can love on each other and still be neighbors when we walk out of this chamber. Whether we you agree with the decisions that we make or not, we still going to be here. You're still going to live here. I don't see no one packing up, moving because of decision that we've made. And I don't see people moving into New York County because of decisions that we made. People move here and want to live here because we have a great community that wants to be great. Nobody comes does this job to try to hurt anybody, harm anybody, or or do anything to offend anybody. So, I guess that's just just my message. Yeah.

Thank you, sir. Let me say one other thing. No, sir. Please. Well, all I was going to say, we're going to let everybody do it twice. Please. No. Well, I was just going to say the same ones that hung Jesus on the cross were praising them three days prior to it.

Thank you, sir. Every I think everybody has spoken now on agenda and I appreciate the comments and it's a hard job sitting up here to be the person to call two minutes or to fellow council member. We've already spoken once and that job weighs heavy on all of us um to do the right thing to be honest to be straightforward and um when folks don't believe that that's when it's difficult. I do think that one of the reasons why we put on the agenda an update on the planning and zoning code was because some of the questions that are being raised from council should we extend this to other uses. Those are things I mean whether you like it or not council doesn't have a magic wand. We have lane that we have to go in. We have certain statutory and local authority that we act in. The same is true for the county manager. The same is true for the county attorney. The same is true for the state. There are different lanes and folks have to understand those lanes and understand the areas that they're that they are in and to use that that power appropriately to make sure the information is accurate, truthful, and that you're making decisions that are in the best interest of the community and to use um so I think it is difficult sometimes though when you have um some folks who are saying things um personally attacking when the information is not true and that's that's probably the hardest job of council right now um as I see it is um social media and things like that that will share information that is not accurate and how to address that. And I think the county is trying to do a better job of of being more putting stuff on on on the u the website um responding as quickly as possible to things. Um and but at the end of the day, we do have to um act within the

scope that we have been granted. I mean that's that's constitutional um state constitutional and US constitutional. And learning those processes is key. Folks who get out there and just say you can wave a magic wand, that's not that's not the way it works. And that applies to even discussions about um how we simplify our zoning code, which tonight we got an update on. Um, when there is an ordinance, this is just an example. When there's a pending ordinance doctrine, you have to stay within the confines of what was pro what was proposed in the pending ordinance doctrine and you can't go outside of that. But what we can do, and what has been done is we've heard these these comments about should we look at other areas? Should we look at the use code? Should we go in there and and and make changes to this? Yes, we can do that. we have to do it through the right process, which is to come here to um make sure that the public is aware of what we're doing. We go through our workshops and that's the process that that takes. Um you can't just insert it and add it midstream to to an existing um ordinance that's being considered. I didn't mean to get off on that diet trial, but I do think it's important because we're consistently hearing some of the same things. And I I do think that it's important that um that folks understand um that that we operate within parameters and advice that's provided as well. So um having said all that, uh do we have a motion for executive session?

Uh yes, we have three actually. Uh, receipt of legal advice general litigation update. Receipt of legal advice contractual matter um in county uh attorney, excuse me. Receipt of legal advice, consider settlement in project number 17228-003, track 97. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. Any opposed? We will go into executive session.

Council is out of executive session. No action was taken. Do we have any motions? Yeah, two motions. Motion to approve amendment to 2024 CP-46-04 30 mediation settlement agreement. Second motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Motion to approve extension to building permit application deadline by 30 days. So that the deadline is May 24th, 2026. Motion to approve. Second. Second. Motion second. Do you got what you need, Karen? Motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries unanimously. Motion to adjurnn. Second. All those in favor say I. I. We are adjourned.