 |
 |
 |
|
| The following summary minutes have not been approved by Simpsonville City Council. An official copy of the minutes will be available after adopted by City Council at City Hall 118 NE Main St. Simpsonville. Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, notice of this meeting date, time, place and Agenda was posted on the bulletin board at City Hall and faxed to the newspapers, radio stations, television stations and any concerned citizens. |
|
 |
SIMPSONVILLE CITY COUNCIL MINUTES BUSINESS SESSION April 8, 2008 6:30 P.M.
CALL TO ORDER: Mayor: I call the April Business Meeting of Simpsonville City Council to order. I’d like to welcome all of you here. I see some new faces and some old faces, well some familiar faces, I should have said instead of old faces. Thank you all for coming to.
ROLL CALL: Mayor: Ms. Bodkins please call the Roll real quick.
Ms. Bodkins: Yes sir: Councilmember Bridges: Here Councilmember Garrett: Here Councilmember Sanders: Here Councilmember Bagwell: Here Councilmember Curtis: Here Councilmember Larson: Here Mayor Waldrop: Here Thank you Ms. Bodkins
Ms. Bodkins: Yes sir.
INVOCATION Mayor: Is there anyone here who would like to ask blessings on this meeting in your own personal way. All right – hearing – would you like to do that Pastor Boyer.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mayor: Will you all join us now in the Pledge of Allegiance to our Flag.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF 02/12/08 AND 02/26/08 Mayor: All right council members, you have the Minutes of the March 11 th and the March 25 th meetings in your packets. I’m sure you’ve all carefully reviewed those. I’ll entertain a motion in that regard at this time. Mr. Bridges
Mr. Bridges: I move we accept the Minutes as written.
Mayor: Thank you Mr. Bridges, do I hear a second.
Mr. Curtis: Second
Mayor: Mr. Curtis seconds. Thank you Mr. Curtis. Is there any discussion, corrections, additions, spelling errors, anything? All right, hearing none I’ll call for the vote. All in favor signify by saying Aye (AYE) opposed No. Aye’s have it, those minutes are approved and official.
REVIEW OF MONTHLY REPORTS Mayor: We’ve also all had access to the Monthly Reports from our Department Heads and I see some of them back there, maybe all of them. But they’re kind of lost in the crowd. Thank you all for that, we do review those. We do appreciate everything you do and we especially appreciate you communicating with us and keeping us informed about what’s going on in your departments.
CITIZEN COMMENTS Mayor: This is the portion of our program where we invite citizen comments. And for those of you who may be here for your first time, I’ll review the rules for you. If you called ahead and asked to be placed on the Agenda we’ll give you 4 minutes to speak to us about anything that you’ve got on your mind and we’ll respectfully listen. We hope you will respectfully address us. If you came in tonight and signed up when you came in we’ll give you two minutes to speak to us. I’m usually pretty generous with that time unless you start going off on some tangent or you’re repeating yourself or something that others have said, and if that’s the case I’ll be a little stricter with the time. In this meeting, this is our business meeting, so we welcome your comments and we will carefully listen to everything that you have to say but we won’t respond to you and we won’t engage in dialogue with you. We have a meeting called the Workshop Meeting, once each month for that; some of you were here at that time so you know how it works. Now that we have the rules let’s get going. The folks who called ahead and asked to be placed on the Agenda will go first. And by the way let me say one other thing – we have a mixture of issues here tonight and I’m going to try to group them so that instead of bouncing all over the place I’m going to try to pick out who’s speaking on a particular subject and let all of you speak and then go to the next subject and that sort of thing. Now, having said that the first speaker will be Shannon Cooper. Ms. Cooper if you will please give us your address for the record and your time will begin.
• Shannon Cooper – 112 Scarsdale St. Simpsonville , SC 29681 This is my fiancé John Gordon. Tonight I’m here to request the City Council’s attention to the property at 114 Scarsdale Street . In January 2005 the owner Curtis Earps was granted Special Exception to operate an office out of the residential area. I have prepared a statement which I would like to read to you and I’ve also brought copies of some photographs if those could be distributed.
Mayor: If you’ll give those to the City Clerk she’ll distribute those to us. Thank you for that.
Ms. Cooper: Should I continue
Mayor: Yeah – do we need to be looking at the pictures as you talk
Ms. Cooper: Either way – I just don’t want to take up too much time.
Mayor: Oh. No problem. You just continue then.
Ms. Cooper: I was present at the Board of Appeals meeting the night this special exception was granted. At that time I was assured by the Board granting this exception would only be an improvement to our neighborhood. I know that the Board made that recommendation because they believed it was in the best interest of the neighborhood. And the house was in such poor repair and they had been assured by the buyer that the house would only be used for the purpose of an office which houses staff during day to day operations of his painting and drywall business. I recall and I’ve confirmed through meeting notes from the Secretary of the Board of Appeals that there were several conditions attached to this Special Exemption at the time it was granted. There are to be no commercial vehicles on the property. There are to be no painting and drywall supplies or flammable materials on the property. A residential appearance would be maintained and there would be no residents occupying the house, only office staff. Aside from the fact that the front yard is landscaped and is well maintained, these conditions are being grossly defied. The back yard of the home has been turned into a parking lot. Every day there are 12-14 commercial vehicles parked behind that house. Every day. And the back of the house is being used as a location where CBU employees drop off their personal vehicles for the day and pick up their service vehicle to leave and go do the days work. There are buckets of drywall supplies sitting in the grass behind the house. The house is also occupied by, in my observation, at least three renters. And I’ve provided photos of the current appearance of the parking situation. Scarsdale Street is a residential neighborhood and the residents of Scarsdale Street , aside from 114, as well as those who drive past to get to nearby homes should not have to endure the appearance of a fleet of commercial vehicles in a residential neighborhood. It’s truly a disgrace to those of us who care about the places we’ve chosen to call home. Tonight, I formally request that the Special Exception be revoked as a result of the gross defiance of the conditions that have been placed by the Board of Appeals. If revocation may take a long period of time, I further request that the conditions of this Special Exemption be immediately enforced. That the commercial vehicles and equipment be relocated and the parking lot currently behind the house be converted back to a yard. Thank you.
Mayor: Okay, thank you very much, we’ll take that under advisement and pass it on to our esteemed City Attorney over here and I’m sure he’ll talk with us about that.
Ms. Cooper: Thank you.
Mayor: Thank you for coming. All right, next is Roxie Kincannon. And Ms. Kincannon if you would pull the microphone down and give your address for the record.
• Roxie Kincannon – 216 Jones Ave. , Simpsonville , SC 29681 And I’m here on – I spoke with Ms. Cooper. She called me. I was the Secretary of the Board of Appeals at the time this was granted and so when I first heard about this I’ve been riding by that property at 114 Scarsdale . They are blatantly ignoring every condition that BOZA put on that piece of property and it is a disgrace. I don’t know if you all can see it in those pictures. It’s a mess. It’s an embarrassment not just to the neighborhood but the town. And at the time that was granted we had Ms. Cooper came and expressed her concerns. Dot Estes, I guess most of you all know Dot, she wrote a letter which I’ve still got a copy of. Because she was worried about the encroachment of residential. I filed a complaint on line about the property on 2/18 this year and I got back a letter saying that they were going to get with Mr. Earps the property owner in 10 days and blah blah this, that and the other and nothing has happened, because I keep riding by. And I’ve got my copy of the staff’s – I’ve got copies of everything we had except the letter that was sent to the property owner, which my esteemed colleague here, Chairman Dreifort has a copy of that, and we told them they could not erect any buildings, no trucks, trailers on the property, no storage of materials, no storage of flammable materials. They’ve also put up a car shed in the front yard that was not supposed to be put there. And he made out like he was going to put a handicapped access thing. I don’t really know – has he put – I didn’t think so. But any way I want to take this a step further because I feel a personal responsibility since I was a member of the Board at that time that this has happened to that neighborhood. And there are some people that live on that street, like Ms. Dot Steele, she’s lived there as long as I can remember. And that’s a nice neighborhood, and like I say I feel a personal responsibility because we assured these home owners that these were the conditions that we were setting forth and that those conditions could not and would not be violated. I want this guy fined every day that he is not in compliance with the conditions that we set forth. And I’ve discussed this and I believe that we can fine him on a daily basis for codes violation. I want it to start tomorrow. Immediately if not sooner. And I thank you all very very much. But you know this is something that reflects on us because we try to make everybody happy. You can’t always do it, but Mr. Earps has plainly shown that he is not inclined to be a good neighbor, nor a good citizen. And I think it’s high time to hurt him in his pocketbook. I thank you all very much.
Mayor: Thank you Ms. Kincannon. It’s been quite a while since we heard from you but you caught up fast.
Ms. Kincannon: Well thank you. I’ll try to get back up to speed.
Mayor: And we appreciate that. All right, I will begin now with the folks who signed up to speak tonight and let’s see, I’m going to skip first to – we have someone who wants to speak about a Women’s Club event and that would be Ms. Meg Hawes. Ms. Hawes if you’ll approach the podium and give your address for the record please ma’am we’ll allow you to begin.
• Meg Hawes – 223 Deer Spring Lane , Simpsonville , SC 29680 Good evening. Do I need to
Mayor: He just loves giving you orders. He can’t do that
Ms. Hawes: I know even here. I’m here on behalf of the Upstate Women’s Club and this will be our 3 rd year of having Music on the Square. We’ve planned it for May 3 rd , which is a Saturday. We’re going to plan a rain date this year because we kind of got bogged down with rain last year – so we’re going to plan it for that Sunday for a rain date on the 4 th in case we need it. But the City has always been very gracious in assisting us with the program and we were asking again to be able to use the stage so that we could provide a stage for the music. Some of you are new to the council so you might not have attended before, I’ll apologize and back up and tell you the Women’s Club is basically a charitable club and what we do with this music fair is we invite the charities that we support to come and show so that people can come to the event and learn more about those charities. We have Boy’s Home coming or representatives from it coming, Golden Strip Emergency Relief will be there. We’re asking people in the flyers to bring canned goods. We have done a phenomenal job of collecting canned goods for them every year at this. And we’ve also got SC Ovarian Center coming as well – Ovarian Cancer Center will be there. We may have a couple of others. Those are the ones that we have that have agreed to show up this year so far. But it’s a good way for them to show the community who they are. Let them learn about them. We also have a bunch of events for the kids. In the past the City has also allowed or the Fire Department has been very gracious to be there with a Fire Truck. So that’s another thing for kids to see. Last year we able to employ the City Schmooney. So I just wanted to let you all know when the date was and I might be asking for some of these items again, but I just thought it was a great way for the City to show support for some of those good operations hard at work. Oh where is it – it’s in the Upstate Karate parking lot is what I call it. Right across the street as it has been in the past. I hope I’ve covered everything if there’s any questions you all might have for me about that?
Mayor: No, but thank you very much for coming and perhaps next time you come we’ll ask some people to leave the room. For those of you who don’t know this is the wife of our City Administrator – so thank you. Okay, let’s see we have someone here to speak about the Labor Day Festival so Brett Saunders.
• Brett Saunders – 209 White Pine Drive , Simpsonville , SC I’m here on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce to ask the City permission to use the City Park and the fields for the Labor Day Festival. It will be August 29 th through September 1 st . We’re planning on having again, petting zoo, car show, carnival rides, arts and crafts, a volleyball tournament, Sunday night concert and possibly a BBQ cook off. And then the police will be there doing their ID kits like they have in the past. So I know in the past there has been a problem with the fields because of the wear on the volleyball and we just wanted to make sure ahead of time that that wasn’t a problem.
Mayor: Great
Mr. Saunders: Thank you.
Mayor: Thank you. All right let’s see if we have any other subjects before we move on to bigger subjects. All right, well we’ll begin with someone who wants to speak on alcohol. We’ll begin with that. Mr. Brad Whitt.
• Brad Whitt – 213 W. Curtis St. , Temple Baptist Church . I’m going to try to be a civil as I can. I’m a little angry tonight at having to take another Tuesday night out of my schedule, away from my 13 month old daughter to come and spend it with you, but I’m here again as well. A little angry again over what I mentioned last time dealing with the integrity of council. And I’ve talked to several council members regarding the statement when we first dealt with Freedom Weekend Aloft. The assurance was given to us that the only exception would be alcohol used at Heritage Park for Freedom Weekend. And I want to remind you again tonight of the council’s promise. Some of you all are new – you weren’t on that council. But I do think one of the things in our democracy has to be some kind of an accountability for the steps that previous administrations or candidates have had. And I want to remind you about that tonight because it really is going to affect a lot. Not just upon how people view you personally but also about how it’s going to be seeing the council as well. The integrity. A little upset over the apathy to. If you’ll notice tonight there are a lot of empty seats. We’ve dealt with this issue before and had a full room. I think what it is you are sensing the people’s just weariness of having to consistently come back and deal with this issue. And wearing the citizens out of having to come back over and over and over again with the issue of alcohol. And so I’m under no illusions tonight of what’s going to take place. And I am just here tonight to just bring some things to your memory that you know first of all Lord forbid if someone were to get hurt coming out of Heritage Park from an event that I would – I want it on record that I would encourage that family of that person to take every legal means necessary to get full compensation. And some people are trying to say that’s not being Christian. Paul appealed to Caesar and just to remind you of that tonight. The other thing I want to ask people of faith and people who have opposed this to perform some sort of civil protest in the way of perhaps providing free events for paid events. Free materials for paid materials. To schedule events around City sponsored events as a way of protest. Not to be ugly, not to be mean, but to have a way of having your voices heard when you don’t feel like you’re being heard at all. And so tonight I thank you for your consideration and depending upon your vote tonight I look forward to seeing you at Church or at the Alter, one way or the other.
Mayor: Thank you. All right, well next doesn’t really have a topic of discussion but I’m making some assumptions here. Dr. Bill McDonald.
• Dr. Bill McDonald – Cathedral Community Church – 130 Neely Ferry Rd Hi everyone. I look at what is happening in Greenville . I look at what happens in Mauldin, I look at what happens in Simpsonville and Ft. Inn to a lesser degree and I see all of this urban sprawl and it bothers me the way things are just being taken up. But, even more than that I see the encroachment of the world coming in and taking over what was once at least a semblance of adherence to the Christian faith. And I was thinking, you’re going to have to excuse me for just a moment because I’m going to be a little factitious okay. I was just thinking about this park. The park is a wonderful, wonderful acquisition to the community. It’s a wonderful accent. You have, you and the past administrations have done a beautiful job and I praise you for that, for looking out after us. But this coming at this time really disturbs me and I was thinking, there’s a great park over there built for the citizens of our area. It’s good – it lacks something – and then I just began to think what does it lack – what does it lack? Well what we need over there is maybe is more drinking or drunks. If we had more drunks we could have less children coming over there because the parents wouldn’t want the children to come where there are drunks. If we had more drunks we could hire more law enforcement people. Over the years I’ve found law enforcement are usually the people who fight liquor stores coming in and bars and dives coming in. They fight it as much as or more than anybody else. And we have to have more and it might put more policemen to work. If we had more drunks and more drinking in the park Simpsonville could build a more modern jail and make it bigger. If we had more drunks we could have more car accidents in the area and roll backs and the auto repair shops would do a great business. Maybe add some workers to their payroll. If we had more drunks we could have more fights, because I’ve never seen a drunk yet when they got drunk that they didn’t want to fight someone. And you know what in the Army I’ve seen some pretty good fights, if they weren’t too drunk. Of course this is factitious. And a very serious subject. And I know that you are serious people and you take this seriously as I do. I urge you to vote no on this. It’s not in the interest of the community nor the people to do this. Vote no on liquor in the park bill. Do the right thing. Place the welfare of the people above any other concern. Thank you.
Mayor: Thank you. All right – Past Jack Boyer
• Pastor Jack Boyer – 801 Powderhorn – Fellowship Baptist Church Thank you for the privilege. I respect and appreciate every one of you and the responsibility. And I pray for you. I would like to just read mine because of time constraints. Mr. Mayor we learned last meeting that your decision to support alcohol sales was in part based on the commitment you made to businesses when the City levied an Accommodations, Food and Beverage Tax. I understand that the goal is to bring the maximum number of people to spend the maximum amount of money. I would also like to submit to you that a large number of this very community in our City will not attend, myself being one of them, because of alcohol consumption. And the thinking that’s involved in this is that the end justifies the means and I believe that’s called pragmatism. Unwise tolerance and profit from moral evils which increase the risk of potential driving while under the influence deaths and injuries cannot justify City and Business revenue. Mayor and members of the City Council your primary responsibility is to provide for the safety and stability of the lives of the citizens which elected to you. Mr. Mayor and Council you do not govern the interest to our City an amphitheater. You’re primarily responsible to us even before business revenue. I live in the Powderhorn subdivision adjacent to Heritage Park . During Freedom Weekend Aloft I could hear the music from my front porch quite loudly. And I’ll also tell you that I enjoyed the fireworks and different things like that to. But we have a quiet neighborhood and police have been called when noise levels exceed fairness. And I want to thank the Simpsonville Police Department for doing such a good job of patrolling our neighborhood. Mr. Mayor and Council a family, friendly environment will not exist in the park as long as alcohol is being drank in front of highly impressionable children. The need to learn the difference between right and wrong. This issue cannot be painted gray it is black and white. Children cannot go to bars and restaurants have their bars in separate areas. When does wrong become wrong. When God says so. It is not a family friendly environment that allows children to see adults behaving in a disrespectful manner because they are drinking. Mr. Mayor and Council money gained by compromise with changing, tolerant opinions does not provide an answer to families painful problems that are sometimes related to alcohol and moral laxness. And I deal with those issues in my ministry. You said that you are not forcing anyone to drink and seemingly washing the City’s hands in guilt in providing beer and wine at amphitheater shows. It is the City’s responsibility to enhance and strengthen family values. My point is by making this decision what values are you teaching our citizens and what values are we teaching our children. I beg you to use righteous judgment. Jesus said in John 7:24 “Judge not according to the appearance but judge righteous. Righteous judgment is based on truth and the spirit of truth which is consistent with the mind, will, character and being of God. How does God vote tonight? We will hear his vote when we give an account of our actions here tonight before his throne of judgment. I ask you with all earnestness to search your conscience. Our culture’s post modern and post Christian values are being imposed on the unsuspecting public by the entertainment industry and has been so done for decades. The entertainment company SMG will promote wrong values on a naïve and unsuspecting public of Simpsonville youth and families. It is the responsibility of City government to care for the welfare of its families according to law and justice. It is not the place of City government to entertain its citizens with alcohol festive occasions. Our situation with the amphitheater is not unlike the Children of Israel while they waited for Moses to come down from the mountain where God gave the 10 Commandments. The Bible reports in Exodus 32:6 and they rose up early on the morrow and they offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings and the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. Moses broke those 10 Commandments when he saw this error. They worshiped an idol, the golden calf. I fear the City has built an alter of sorts, but to who and to what – the God of money and business revenue. We are wrongly being asked, we in the Christian community are wrongly being asked to hold our convictions to a minimum and the convictions of our forefathers with as much slackness as possible. There is developing tonight before our very eyes a zero tolerance for Biblical discernment of what is best for our City and I pray you – I think you know that I care about each of you greatly and I beg you to consider our heart here in your heart. Thank you.
Mayor: Thank you. All right, next is David Rullapah – I believe. And David while we want to hear everything you have to say we – I’m going to start limiting time because somebody took enough time for his whole Church. (Laughter)
Pastor Boyer: Thank you Mayor. I apologize.
• David Rullopah – 507 Sellwood Circle Simpsonville Before I speak I’d like to give to the County Clerk at least 54 good signatures of Simpsonville citizens that oppose what is coming forth for beer and wine to be in the amphitheater. And by the way I do take note at the last meeting there were 3 of us that did speak in opposition. There was nobody who spoke in support. And I know it was reported that there were some 100 that were contacted. I’m curious if I may sir, to see how many are here tonight that would stand and say we oppose what’s going to be voted on. We want to say No to beer and wine in the amphitheater in Heritage Park and then see if there’s any in support. So anybody that’s against would you please stand – against beer and wine in the amphitheater. Okay – I think we can all count. Is there anybody here who’s in support – we’ll give you a fair chance. So the rest are non-committed. Well sir I’d like to tell a little story and I’ll make it short. It’s the story of the frog and the crocodile. It’s an old story about a frog who wanted to cross to the other side of a swift flowing, snake infested river. And he was offered a ride on the back of a crocodile. The frog was concerned that the croc would eat him on the way over so the croc told him to ride on his tail where he would be safe. But once in the creek the croc could not steer without using his tail so he asked the frog to get up on his back. The frog couldn’t see much from the croc’s back so the croc invited him to hop on his head so he could watch the crossing. After all the croc reasoned – or the frog reasoned, I’ll be able to leap off the croc’s head before he can eat me. The croc then complained of his notes tickling because a piece of cattail had swept into it. And he asked the frog to check his nose for fear he would sneeze and send the frog flying into the river. There was a tear that seeped out of his eye as he was holding back a mighty sneeze. It’s the least I can do the frog thought to repay the croc for bringing me over. So he hopped onto the crocodile’s snout to check his nostrils. I don’t see he began – and just then there was a terrific chomp – the frog disappeared, the crocodile licked his lips and said I feel much better already and returned home. Now how about this – the other side of the river members of the Council is the perceived income from the managed activities at the amphitheater. The offer of a ride is SMG’s promise to control drinking with trained personnel and to stop beer or wine sales one-half hour before the end of the event. How long does beer and wine stay in somebody’s blood stream? Generally speaking people metabolize blood – or alcohol at the rate of ½ ounce per hour. The amount roughly contained in 12 ounces of beer or 4 ounces of wine. If you consume 3 beers regardless of how long it took you to drink them it would take you 3 hours to become completely free of alcohol. Once it has been absorbed from the intestines it has to be metabolized by the liver and the liver can only metabolize ½ ounce of alcohol an hour. The river is alcohol; the snakes in the river are the drivers who will drive under the influence. N. Augusta Chronicle, November 23, 2004 reported that alcohol related traffic deaths in 2003 were about 23 deaths for every 100,000 people in South Carolina . While the national average was only 15 per 100,000. The National Safety Traffic Administration ranked SC as 3 rd in the nation in 2006. And in December 2007 the Post Courier of Charleston reported a study that was released by MADD who stated SC was the second worst state in the Nation based on the percent of total traffic fatalities that involve a drunk driver. Only Wisconsin was worse. There’s many things other that we could bring about. The fatalities in Greenville County are first in the State. Check the record. Now I just want to make one other thought here – in 2005 more secondary routes in SC experienced these collisions and more accident fatalities than any other type of road. On one of these secondary roads W. Georgia Road coming into the City – I’ll be done in just a moment sir – is a sign for our City Limits and on the bottom of the sign it says Simpsonville a strong community for children. If you pass this ordinance I’m going to ask that we change that sign to read Beware – Simpsonville roads are a potential death trap to you and your family. You’re going to stand before God in Heaven one day and if he’s sovereign we must obey him. I urge you members of the City Council to consider the frog. Don’t be one. Thank you.
Mayor: Thank you. And I trust everybody got to say everything they wanted to say. So – let’s see we will shift subjects now. So the next speaker will be George Hicks. Mr. Hicks – okay – If you will state your address for the record please sir you may begin.
• George Hicks – 22 Boxelder Lane , Simpsonville , SC I was coming to speak concerning the request for rezoning and acquisition of the Century Plastics and the adjacent property. Last – I believe it was last Tuesday I attended the Zoning Commission – they addressed this before it came here and it was voted 4-2 by that Commission to disapprove it. And during the course of that meeting it was stated – I mean there was an appeal that there be some communication between the residents and also the Company in order to have a meeting of the minds. Therefore, it surprised me – considering that the Zoning Commission voted 4-2 not to approve it that within a week we were coming – I mean we’re here today to have the first reading of this particular ordinance. When I look at the number of my fellow residents in our Neely Forest community who are here it shows that there’s a concern about the safety of our community whether it be a concern about traffic or environmental issues. At the meeting last week one thing that was resolved was Mr. Morabito the owner of Century Plastics he addressed the noise problem that – well my house is right across the parking lot from there and I mean on a consistent basis between 6:00 am and 6:30 in the morning when they would have their shift changes I would hear – I mean car radios and vehicle radios blasting and I thank Mr. Morabito for addressing that – it’s been a quieter week. But there’s a bigger issue than noise with one neighbor and again I would just ask that there be a sensitivity to the homeowners in our neighborhood and to have confidence in the decision that the Zoning Commission had since they see this more often than me as a homeowner in Simpsonville. Thank you.
Mayor: Okay, thank you. Next is Michael Proffitt
• Michael Proffitt – 200 Boxelder Lane Simpsonville SC I’m also here to speak about the Century Plastics expansion – possibly the rezoning. I to attended the rezoning meeting last week. When I called the Planning Commission to find out what the hearing was about initially I was told that the owner of the Century Plastics wanted to build an office and tap into the City sewer. I came to the hearing and found out he wants to build a 50,000 sq ft warehouse in my back yard. I don’t want that and neither do my neighbors. As George mentioned a while ago, we agreed that we would try to talk to the owner of Century Plastics. He has a blatant disregard for our feelings, for what we think. He does not have any intent in sharing to the community what his intents are. We request that the Council adamantly vote no to the rezoning of that property. That property has been tried to be rezoned by the County – the County has twice or three times turned that rezoning request down. We ask that this annexation rezoning be a positive no. Thank you.
Mayor: Thank you. All right, Mr. Amos Irwin • AMOS Irwin – 13 Chinaberry Lane , Simpsonville , SC I come before you as a tax payer and I come before you as a land owner, and I come before you as a resident of Neely Forest. But I also come here before you as a father and a grandfather. Now you all are looking at me like what has that got to do with what we’re talking about. Well for one thing the Century Plastics want to come into the City. Because, I think and I feel that they want to come in so they can expand their business. They bought some land that’s coded as residential. But if they come into the City they’ll be able to change that and expand their plant. Now what’s going to happen with that when they expand it – and we went to the meeting last Tuesday to. Well first of all, if you expand it you’re going to have more truck traffic. Now when I’m talking about trucks I’m talking about 18 wheelers coming down a residential street. The streets now are potholed, the asphalt is coming up and there’s not room enough for all the cars to go on it. Now, also they come through Plain Elementary School , which concerns me as a father and grandfather for the safety of the kids. Now they say that the traffic will not increase. Well I don’t believe it. I think it will increase. Which will increase the road damage and everything because of the weight of it. Number 2 the noise – now I get up every morning and walk my dog and I can hear these cowboys up there in their little whatever they do to – forklifts – they’re making noises and doing wheelies and everything. Well that will increase okay. And some of the neighbors live closer than I do and they can hear it far worse. I’m on top of the hill and they’re on the bottom and that will increase. Now what I’m really concerned about is the children. There has been one accident and I cannot say it was Century Plastics but there was an accident that blocked our road for about 6 hours about two years ago. So if they come into – we’re opposed to it and I’d like for our Neeley Forest people to stand up – these are the people that are concerned about it. Thank you that’s good. So that’s what we’re concerned about – that they’ll come in and they’ll increase their business. The truck traffic will increase the damage to the roads, the noise pollution, the environmental pollution and that’s what we’re opposed of. Thank you very much.
Mayor: Thank you sir. All right Dominic Morabito.
• Dominic Morabito – 103 Coralvine Road , Simpsonville , SC I’m afraid to get up here.
Mayor: Oh don’t be afraid we’re not too tough.
Mr. Morabito: I own Century Plastics. The stuff that these people are saying – some of it’s true and some of it’s not true. The noise that this fellow was indicating before was true. We went down there and we got a hold of all employees and we cut that noise out. Hopefully Mr. Hicks he’s happy. The second thing is that we were never denied rezoning on that property. We were denied rezoning on the property across the street from them. The County said we weren’t able to move manufacturing across Neeley Ferry Road . That’s the only one that we were denied. The trucks coming down Neeley Ferry Road – we’ve been there for 25 years. They’ve been coming down there for 25 years. These people live their 15 years. The longest they’ve been there is 15 years. They say the road’s too narrow. It’s too narrow for my trucks. It might be too narrow for their cars. The building we intend to build is supposed to reduce that. I hope it would reduce that. I don’t say it’s going to reduce all the trucks. The trucks have to come there but we can get them off the road. That building’s a 50,000 sq ft building that we want rezoned to I-1 that’s manufacturing and warehousing. And the trucks that come there will be off the road in that building. So if we don’t do this we’re going to get more because I’ve got to ship more stuff to the warehouse. We have an off-site warehouse on Old Stage Road that we ship to. I don’t see how we’re going to calm this thing down if we don’t do something about it. I’ve not hurt these people. The trucks coming down Neeley Ferry Road they’re coming down with a lot of speed. I asked the Simpsonville Police Department if they’d help us out and they have and I thank them. They put a sign up there and hopefully we’ll get some radar going. People say they can see through the trees. Well the leaves fall off the trees so they can see our building – so I offered to put greenery out there such as Leland Cypress or something. It’s going to take them a while to grow because they’re up on a hill. Forklifts. We’re required by OSHA to have a back up bell on every forklift. That’s something we can’t stop. I don’t know where he’s getting these wheelies from. But we do have back up bells on the – and they’ve got to be there – I mean it’s against the law for us to take these bells off. There’s no question about it they’re going to make noise. The addition that he’s talking to. That was an office. It was strictly office and we have a warehouse down below. And yes we want to hook onto sewer and that’s why we want to get into the City. We’d like to hook up onto the sewer. No other reason. Not to build anything, not to get away with this. We can go with the County but we just can’t get on the sewer that way. We need to get on the sewer. We’d like to get on the sewer. If we could get on the sewer without going through the City I would gladly do that but we can’t. So I understood by David. DHEC we’ve got a neighbor down there that says we damaged her car with our pellets. These pellets blew to Chinaberry Lane from our building and melted on her car. Well these pellets don’t melt until they’re 400 degrees – if these things melted on her car at 400 degrees she needs to call the Fire Department not DHEC. She says we damaged her pool. We didn’t damage her pool. We didn’t put no sediment in her pool. No way. The pellets that were on her car came from residue off her shingles and that’s it. She said she seen a cloud of smoke a chemical cloud coming off our building. Not true again. We have a cooling tower that cools down our machinery. In the summer time it heats up. When the fan starts it blows a puff of condensation out. That’s the only smoke that she seen. If somebody would only speak – I told these people to go to Ryan’s and talk this thing out – nobody wanted to do that. I went outside last week and asked how about we get together – they turned around and walked off. The trucks that are on the road – you know years ago the trucks were only 48 foot in length – now they’re 53. They used to come out without no sleepers – now they’re on the road trucks. So they’re very long – they go out on the road – I can’t help that. I’d do anything to help these people but we need that building – we need that building to slow the trucks down. They don’t get it – they really don’t. We’re not going nowhere. One guy said I was going to try to run over his kids. You know we would run over his children. It’s not my responsibility if his children are out on Neeley Ferry Road I wouldn’t want my kids out there. We need to slow the trucks down. We’re not damaging their road. There’s a lot of cars and trucks that go past us – way past us up to Harrison Bridge . They aren’t all our trucks. Has anybody ever counted how many trucks go up there? No. We got a counter going now. We won’t get no results for a week or so. But we need that building. You know so many jobs we’re losing in this country. From January to March we lost 250,000 jobs in this country. In the month of March alone we lost 80,000 and here we are we’re going to try to stop a little plant from trying to expand a little bit. We got a problem and it’s not me. Thank you.
Mayor: Okay thank you. Those are all the folks that we had wanting to speak tonight. And like I said earlier I hope everybody got to say everything they wanted to say and we were happy to hear it. And I’m sure we’ll have more conversation about what was said tonight.
CITY ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT Mayor: All right next item on the Agenda is the City Administrator’s Report. Mr. Administrator
Mr. Hawes: Yes sir, Mayor. First of all I’m going to lead off with some infrastructure projects that we have underway and a few updates on those. Contractors are close to completing work on the Hunters Woods Drive sewer project. The new surface layer of asphalt pavement is being placed this week. Curb replacement and finishing will continue for the next two weeks or so. The City received and executed the C-Funds grant contract for the engineering and resurfacing of Davenport Road . The project is now in design and engineering with construction to follow hopefully late this summer. The project will add 3 feet of pavement to each side of the road and re-grade the section near Hunters Hill Drive . The City is also working with the School District of Greenville County to secure funding for the installation of sidewalks along Stokes Road near Hillcrest Middle School . Either a safe passage to school grant or some of the School District ’s C-Funds monies may be utilized for this project.
Heritage Park and Amphitheater Construction – Crews continue to install the underground water and electrical connections to serve festival vendors. We are completing a new trellis style entrance to the amphitheater at its main gate. You may also notice 7 new picnic table huts inside the amphitheater at the front birm. We’re also calling those Carter’s Cabanas by the way. Joe basically designed those.
Mayor: I don’t see him here right now for us to brag on him but
Mr. Hawes: He’s slipped out. Those were a neat design. These will add some shaded areas and are located near the newly planted Chinese Pistachio trees. A total of 58 new trees have been planted in the amphitheater. These were provided through a State Forestry Grant that we received last year. Concrete work for the premium seating area inside the first ring of the amphitheater should start in the next two weeks or so. Lighting platforms will be poured at that time as well. Delay sound and removable seats are currently being spec’d by the GM.
FY 2008-2009 Operating Budget – I am receiving final departmental budget submittals this week. I will then prepare a City-wide budget for your review at the Budget Workshop April 24 th at 6:30 pm. Included in the budget will be a Fire District levy increase to support – will be a possible Fire District levy increase to support the addition of a heavy rescue vehicle in response to the County discontinuing those operations and requiring Municipalities to pick them up. A Resolution to request this change for the County is included in tonight’s agenda. This is a similar resolution to that passed last year by City Council and I expect next year and years beyond a similar type of Resolution on a yearly basis.
Event Information – there will be a budget workshop meeting as I previously mentioned Thursday, April 24 th at – it’s actually 6:30 p.m. and next regular Council Meeting is Tuesday, April 22 nd . And in Council Comments I’ll be glad to take any questions you all might have.
Mayor: Fantastic. Good report. Lot of exciting things going on. Well we’re moving into Council Comments now so we’ll move to Council Comments at which time you can ask questions of the City Administrator about his report.
COUNCIL COMMENTS Mayor: Ms. Bagwell I see your finger.
Ms. Bagwell: I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to you and Joe Carter for coming out to Hunters Woods and working with us on the paving out there as we had an issue. And to let you know that they have completed that paving on the street. It is done. So –
Mr. Hawes: Okay – curbing to follow
Ms. Bagwell: We look forward to getting the curbing taken care of.
Mayor: Okay – anyone else. Mr. Curtis
Mr. Curtis: I’d like to add my thanks to hers. I know I spoke with you several times on that and I appreciate all the efforts both yourself and Joe Carter and everyone else has worked on.
Mayor: Okay – next – Mr. Larson
Mr. Larson: Have we had any more progress on the Capewood Place drainage.
Mr. Hawes: Yes the engineering is finishing up on that and they expect to have that installed within about two weeks. That’s what the word is right now. They’ve hired the contractor – A1 Construction to do the work.
Mr. Larson: Okay. And have we seen the site plan or how they’re going to correct that
Mr. Hawes: Our City Permitting and inspections will oversee that entire project and I believe they do have the plans.
Mayor: Okay anyone else. Ms. Sanders.
Ms. Sanders: Have we contacted or been in contact with DOT recently about the right turn lane in front of Ruby Tuesday’s. Is that right Ruby Tuesday’s.
Ms. Bagwell: Yeah Ruby Tuesday’s
Mr. Hawes: Oh yes Grandview at Fairview
Ms. Sanders: Have we had any response other than non-responsive
Mr. Hawes: No – yes we have had a response. I spoke with Eric Dillon who is the District Engineer for DOT and they are working to get designs to our Public Works Department to do some changes there with regard to creating that right turn lane. Also they’re looking at the off-ram onto Fairview from South bound I-385 to hopefully alleviate the situation where you’re sort of thrown out into traffic and then have to swing back around to make a right turn onto Grandview because of the hatch mark pavement. They’re looking at a couple of scenarios there to improve that situation as well. Because those are the two I think sticking points with regard to design at those intersections.
Ms. Sanders: Have they given you any kind of a time frame.
Mr. Hawes: No. I tried to work it out of him when I talked to him on the phone
Ms. Sanders: I realize they’re largely non-committal –
Mr. Hawes: We’ll keep in contact
Ms. Sanders: Thank you that’s what I was after.
Mayor: Okay Mr. Larson
Mr. Larson: What’s the progress on streetscape.
Mr. Hawes: Streetscape’s moving right along. We’re still looking to be finished by Freedom Weekend Aloft. The medians portion of the project which is Phase III should begin next week. They’re going to dig up the street and start placing the medians. You can see the marks in the street for the location of the medians if you look carefully. You can see sort of a curved white mark through the road. These medians will be placed – basically removing the asphalt and the 12” of sub-surface concrete there because it used to be Hwy 276 – so you’ve got a lot of digging to get down to the ground. But once that’s done and the curbing placed in the median then we’ll be able to fill that in with some plantings, some trees and obviously we’ll be running irrigation to that as well. So that will be underway starting next week. The utility poles should be coming down within four weeks according to Duke Power. The poles and all the underground utilities should be completed in a 4-week time frame. And the decorative street lights, about 38 of those will begin being installed in the project area in that time frame.
Mr. Larson: What about the cross walks?
Mr. Hawes: Cross walks will follow as soon as the underground is complete.
Mayor: Well my question – okay – I’ll go ahead and recognize – maybe you’ll ask my question so go ahead. Mr. Bridges
Mr. Bridges: Are those arms on the poles adjustable upwards and downwards
Mr. Hawes: Not that I’m aware of – they’re designed to be at exactly the height the street lights are by specs – what the traffic signals are supposed to be at by spec for the location. It’s interesting if you drive up at night it almost looks like the lights are hanging from those arms because they’re at exactly the level where they’re hanging on the wires and I think they’ve done a fine job of getting them to the right level.
Mr. Bridges: The reason I ask that question is because someone mentioned to me the other day that they drove up to it and it looked like they were going to run into it – I don’t know where they were
Mr. Hawes: They might have been in a high vehicle.
Mayor: Yeah what was he driving
Mr. Bridges: A truck maybe
Mr. Hawes: My understanding is they are to SCDOT spec and SCDOT has approved the design and the location so it’s really something that we’re not going to override I don’t believe.
Mayor: Okay well my question is about that to. I know you and I have talked daily and sometimes nightly but I think everybody here ought to know. I read in the paper the other day your comments about asking everybody to be patient as we dig Main Street up and do these things but you didn’t give many specifics so I know the Police Chief is here tonight and I know that you all have discussed this. How about sharing with us how you plan to manage the traffic that’s coming through town as that construction is going on in the middle of the street. I mean that’s going to be a real toughie and I’m not sure just asking for patience was strong enough you probably should have begged for patience. But just tell us about that if you don’t mind.
Mr. Hawes: Well if you’d like I can call the Police Chief up but we are –
Mayor: Yeah let’s put him on the spot.
Chief Reece: I was going to defer to the City Administrator
Mayor: Well I see it sort of as a tag team so why don’t you go first and then
Mr. Hawes: Well we are looking at doing some detours while the work – the medians which will close the two center lanes of the highway as it is right now. We’re looking to try to defer any of the thru traffic through on a detour either on Main Street or on Hedge depending on the situation. Most likely Hedge because it connects to a light on the South end and you don’t have to cross the railroad tracks to do it that way. So we’re working out with the Public Works exactly what the time frame will be with regard to the location to the installation of the medians. There are going to be four separate locations of median installation and while those are on going yes two lanes will be closed.
Chief Reece: And I suspect that most of the time during the day time you’ll see our traffic guys out there. I mean there just going to have to be because it is literally going to be like pulling teeth out there I am sure. And I would certainly beg the public to give us time to get it done because I do think once we complete that project and we get those lights all synchronized I think it’ll flow just fine. You know I think most folks know now not to get in that left lane unless you’re making a left turn. So I think between the detours and us having some guys out there, especially – maybe not all day but especially at peak times in the morning and peak times in the afternoon I think it will go a long way in helping us alleviate some of it. But I hope that maybe half of the traffic will go the detour and maybe the other half the officers out there will deal with it. So I think we’ll be all right.
Mayor: And again how – about how long will we be during that particular part of the pain. Is that something?
Mr. Hawes:` We’re looking at 3-4 weeks of installation for the medians.
Mayor: You got that many men.
Chief: I hope – I hope – I’ve got my fingers crossed. I hope I can get them to do a lot of that work at night. I think if they do a lot of the digging at night it would certainly alleviate it. And then maybe during the daytime we could cone some of that area off. But there’s some work that they’re just going to have to do I’m sure during the day time. Maybe with a combination of all those things we can make it as – more bearable I guess.
Mayor: Have we given a heads up to all of our businesses up and down Main Street . Well and even some of the residences. Are we in contact with those folks and have we sent out some sort of schedule. Say you can expect us to start here and (TAPE CHANGED SIDES)
All right great. Does anyone else have anything – a question or comment about that. Don’t run away too quickly we may have some more here. While we’ve got him does anybody else have anything.
Mr. Larson: How is the detour going to work?
Chief: We’re talking about a couple of scenarios. Detouring them onto Hedge Street and also detouring them onto Old S. Main Street. It just depended on which way traffic is flowing and we could possibly have two detours. And our goal is – I guess if we could get half of the traffic to go one way and the other half stay on the road it would certainly alleviate that but we’re looking at two detours probably.
Mayor: Anyone else. One more thing. Is it unreasonable to think about – and you may have already thought of this. An electronic sign at the upper end of town and the lower end of town saying if you could go another way go another way or something to that affect. Warning
Chief: Yeah, warning stay off Main Street .
Mayor: Is that something that maybe DOT would help us with – after all this is a State Road .
Mr. Hawes: We could look into that – yeah we could look into that certainly.
Mr. Curtis: Congested Traffic Ahead
Mayor: There you go.
Mr. Hawes: Yeah I don’t think we necessarily want to tell people not to come through Simpsonville but just say construction and congestion.
Mayor: Well better to make them mad before they get in it than have them mad at you after they get in it.
Mr. Hawes: Oh I agree.
Mayor: Okay. Well I know you’ve thought it all through and I know it’s going to be a great plan and I just wanted to make sure that everybody was kind of prepared for it so I think the more we talk about it
Chief Reece: We’ve thought about it. I’m sure we’re going to have some issues but yeah we’ve thought about it.
Mayor: Well as long as we handle them with a spirit of helpfulness I’m sure we’ll be okay. Thank you Chief I appreciate it. We still have Council Comments – does anybody have anything else to talk about. All right. Ms. Sanders
Ms. Sanders: I know that there are a lot of folks here with a lot of varied opinions and feelings this evening. There’s something that I haven’t heard in any of the discussions we’ve had about alcohol and I’d like to draw a clear distinction between what I feel is the role of government and the role of Church. For government the Council you see up here is a reflection of the citizens of Simpsonville. We reflect their values and morals. The people either possess morality or they do not. We cannot create morality for our citizens. We merely represent them that morality. I believe it’s the role of the Church or religion to promote morality and character not government. It’s the job of the Church to win hearts, minds and soles away from things the Church deems immoral and again it’s not the job of government. We’re not dictators nor would you want us to be. Freedom has made our Nation great. People have the freedom to do right and they have the freedom to do wrong and then take the consequences. We all have the blessed freedom to believe the way we choose. Our job as Council is to make the rules that allow us to live peacefully in society and not to dictate moral views. I understand the serious spiritual concerns of the pastors and Church members have regarding alcohol. There’s away to do away with this issue entirely. It’s to eliminate the demand for the product. Denying someone alcohol is a very different thing that having someone not desirous of it. That’s what I think would be the long-term solution to this problem that keeps cropping up. That’s all I have.
Mayor: Okay. Thank you very much. And with that – that is a great segway into the next item on the Agenda.
OLD BUSINESS ORDINANCES – 2 nd Reading Mayor: Under Old Business – Mr. Hawes tell us about the ordinance regarding Beer and Wine at the amphitheater.
Mr. Hawes: Mayor and Council, SMG is the company that the City of Simpsonville has employed to run the operations of the amphitheater and to bring performers to town. National level performs. Has requested that alcohol sales be allowed within the fenced confines of the amphitheater. They basically feel that will be a necessity for the continued health of the amphitheater, its operation and to bring the level of performers that in other venues expect that and they expect that in the locations where they perform. And Greenville County we certainly have the Bi-Lo Center, we have Palmetto Expo, the West End Field. All of these are City owned or government owned facilities that make the availability of alcoholic beverages for those who choose to consume them. So we as a result of that request have drafted a change to the City’s Ordinance, Section 4.4 that you have before you and that is up for second reading.
Mayor: Okay thank you Mr. Hawes. I’ll call for a motion so we can begin discussions. Ms. Bagwell.
Ms. Bagwell: I move that we pass Ordinance No. 2008-01 regarding beer and wine at the amphitheater.
Mayor: Thank you Ms. Bagwell do I hear a second
Mr. Larson: Second
Mayor: Mr. Larson seconds. All right the floor is open for discussion. Ms. Bagwell.
Ms. Bagwell: I stated in the first meeting that we had concerning this vote – that I had spoken with numerous – numerous – well over 100 people concerning this issue and this has been an issue that I have thought about. From my own personal perspective I have prayed about. I have spoken with many Pastors. I have spoken with many Church members. I have spoken with some who don’t attend Church at all and overwhelmingly I received the response once people realize that we are talking about the sale of beer and wine within the confines of that fenced area with a cut-off limit of 30 minutes prior to the end of an event where if you choose not to go see a large act – it’s probably not an act you would take your children to any way. A concert that you may or may not take your children to but if you would take them to a concert of the magnitude we’re talking about you probably we wouldn’t mind being around the sale of beer and wine. If you would take them to O’Charley’s or Applebee’s you probably wouldn’t have an issue with it either. These are the responses I have received from many many different citizens. That is why I have chosen to make the stand – to take the stand I’m taking. You will probably never see me with a cup of beer or a cup of wine in my hand as I drink neither. But I don’t believe I have the right to impose what I choose to do or not to do on someone else.
Mayor: Thank you. Anyone else. Mr. Bridges
Mr. Bridges: I’ve wrestled with this for quite a while now and I have the greatest respect for all of those who spoke opposing it. And frankly the easiest thing for me to do is to vote No. Quite frankly I enjoyed the attention I got when I stood up against the alcohol sales downtown and actually at Heritage Park itself. But since I really believe that we need to do this to make this project go I think it would be unfair to the other people on Council – they’re going to have to take a lot of heat and I feel like I should share some of that. So you know now how I’m going to vote. But I just want you to know that I do have peace about this with my Lord and Savior.
Mayor: Thank you. Anyone else. Mr. Larson
Mr. Larson: I just wanted to say I appreciate Mr. Bridges and Ms. Sanders and Ms. Bagwell being willing to take a stand and speak what they feel is true. I agree with Ms. Sanders statement earlier about the role of government and the roll of the Church. I appreciate everyone coming out and being willing to show how you feel and I’m going to have to vote for it.
Mayor: Okay thank you Mr. Larson. Anyone else. Well you all know how I feel about it because most of you have been here before and you certainly read the paper and some of the other things. But I want to talk about tonight – what I’ve heard here tonight and what I’ve heard here from the people who have opposed this. And by the way I’ve continued to talk with people and still the people that oppose it are in the vast minority of the people I’ve spoken with. And I know some of you have made the case tonight that you have a Church full of people and there are people out there that oppose this and you’ve made a lot of other good points that I understand. I respectfully disagree with a lot of them and I’m not going to enter into any long oratory about why I think I’m right and I think you’re wrong. We’re just going to have to disagree. But what I keep hearing from those who oppose it is you focus on the minority of folks. Last year we had 175,000 people at our Freedom Weekend Aloft event down there and that was our first experiment with serving alcohol. I believe that that didn’t affect or influence any of our children that were down there. Any of our people that were done there in any negative way. I believe that because I just saw a lot of families having a lot of fun and no one called me. And trust me people call me – you called me. And people don’t hesitate to call me and these other folks up here. No one called me and said they had concern about the way alcohol was served down there or was handled down there. And certainly in the amphitheater where we had control of that it just wasn’t a problem. Yes we had a handful of folks who were irresponsible with it. But I think we should focus on the 174,995 that didn’t have a problem with it. That acted responsibly like government has to assume everyone will do. Not only at our level of government but at all levels of government you have to assume that your constituents are responsible adults. If not there would be laws against everything. You can’t legislate against everything. You can’t legislate against evil. So my point is that I think that it was a very successful experiment last year. I don’t expect the problems that some folks have mentioned here. I will touch on one that is a very legitimate concern and that is people leaving there after having consumed alcohol and being on the streets. I’m not going to embarrass the Police Chief again by having him come back up here but I think if you’ll talk to him before you leave here tonight he will explain to you what our policy is in handling someone that we see – that his men see that are not fit to drive. We don’t put them on the street. We don’t allow them to be on the street. We have a process for handling that and he’ll tell you about that. So again, I think we can do this successfully. I think we can do it as well if not better than a lot of the arenas and places I’m sure many of you have gone. So I continue to support it. I have not heard any compelling evidence that would cause me to change my mind. Just like Mr. Bridges said I’m at peace with my Lord and I’m going to vote in favor of this. So having said all that does anyone else have anything else to say. If not I’ll remind council this is the second and final reading on this and I’ll call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying Aye (AYE) opposed No (NO). Ms. Sanders and Mr. Curtis voted in the negative all others in the affirmative. The Resolution passes. Well it’s not a Resolution it’s an Ordinance passes and we will here forward serve beer and wine at our amphitheater only.
Before we go into New Business we need to Amend the Agenda because we had two speakers tonight to ask for permission – the Chamber of Commerce has asked for permission to use the City Park for their Labor Day Festival and we had a request from the Women’s Club to be allowed to hold an event in the Town Square, and you all heard the details of that. So I’ll entertain a motion to Amend the Agenda so that we can pass a resolution to either grant or deny those. Ms. Sanders.
Ms. Sanders: I move we Amend the Agenda to discuss those matters.
Mayor: Thank you Ms. Sanders do I hear a second.
Mr. Larson: Second
Mayor: Mr. Larson seconds. We’ll give him some points. All right any discussion. All right hearing none I’ll call for the vote. All those in favor signify by saying Aye (AYE) opposed NO. Aye’s have it the Agenda has been amended and we will deal with first the Women’s Club event. And I’ll entertain a Motion in that regard. Ms. Bagwell
Ms. Bagwell: I move that we allow the Upstate Women’s Club to use Town Square on Saturday, May 3 rd I believe was the date and to be able to if that does rain they will have access to that on May 4 th .
Mayor: Okay do I hear a second.
Mayor: Mr. Bridges seconds. Any discussion. Hearing none I’ll call for the vote. All in favor signify by saying Aye (AYE) opposed No. The Aye’s have it it’s unanimous. So Mr. Hawes you can pass that along when you get home tonight that that was approved.
Okay, now I’ll entertain a motion regarding the Labor Day Festival complete with BBQ I heard someone say which is kind of exciting to me. I’ll entertain a motion. Mr. Larson
Mr. Larson: I make the motion that we approve the request to let the Chamber of Commerce use the Simpsonville City Park for Labor Day Festival.
Mayor: Thank you Mr. Larson. Do I hear a second?
Mr. Curtis: Second
Mayor: Mr. Curtis seconds. Any discussion. Hearing none I’ll call for the vote. All in favor signify by saying Aye (AYE) opposed No. Aye’s have it it’s unanimous. We’ll see you on Labor Day.
NEW BUSINESS RESOLUTIONS R-2008-04 – Resolution Fire District Mayor: Now we’ll go to the next item on the Agenda and that is a resolution regarding our Fire District Agreement. Mr. Hawes tell us a little about that before we move forward.
Mr. Hawes: Yes sir, Mayor and Council. You have before you a Resolution and attachment regarding an updated Capital Improvement Plan for the Fire District service area. City Council last year adopted the 10-year CIP or Capital Improvement Program per our contract with the County. We are planning to approach the Planning Finance Committee on April 28 th to request the funding to provide the necessary services in the Fire District. Any millage adjustment in the Fire District would not apply to residents inside the City Limits. What this resolution is basically saying is that City Council agrees to move forward with the Fire Department and in the Fire Service area fund these capital improvements as they can be funded. It does not encumber the City to fund anything specifically at this point. It’s basically to give the County Council an indication that the City is serious about capital improvements in the Fire District.
Mayor: Okay. I’ll entertain a motion in that regard.
Mr. Curtis: Mayor I’ll make a motion that we approve the Resolution, I believe this R-2008-04 for the Fire District
Mayor: Correct. All right do I hear a second
Mr. Garrett: Second
Mayor: Mr. Garrett seconds. Any discussion. All right you explained it pretty well Mr. Hawes. So all those in favor signify by saying Aye(AYE) opposed No. Aye’s have it it’s unanimous.
ORDINANCES – 1 st Reading • AXZ-2008-02 – Century Plastics County S-1 and RS to City I-1 Mayor: Mr. Dyrhaug it’s your turn. Are we warmed up tonight. We need to start warming up –
Mr. Dyrhaug: It’s the City Attorney’s fault. I’m kidding
Mayor: It must be all those part-time jobs he’s got. Maybe we should move on to –
Mr. Dyrhaug: I can start without this.
Mayor: Well how long will it take that to warm up.
Mr. Dyrhaug: It will just take a few seconds to log on –
Mayor: Okay we’ll stick with the Agenda then. Go ahead. We probably need a break. Take a deep breath.
Mr. Dyrhaug: All right this next item is in regards to a signed petition that we received requesting annexation into the City. This petition includes two properties which are owned by Dominic Morabito and Juanita Sullivan. And the purpose for this request has been to connect to City sewer facilities as has been indicated here tonight. The property owners of these properties have requested that these properties be rezoned from S-1 which is Service and RS in the County to I-1 in the City. The S-1 zoned property is presently used for light manufacturing of plastic products and the RS zoned property is presently vacant. The applicant’s light manufacturing operations are currently permitted within the S-1 zoning district in the County. However these operations would not be permitted within the S-1 zoning district of the City and that’s the reason that he’s requested the I-1. In terms of permitted uses the S-1 zoning district in the County is comparable to the I-1 zoning district in the City. Therefore staff has encouraged the applicant to request that zoning district because the present land use of the property more appropriately conforms to the City requirements for the I-1 district. In essence there really would not be a change in uses between the S-1 in the County and the I-1 in the City because they are near mirror image of each other.
A public hearing for this agenda item was held last week on April 1 st . At this public hearing 10 residents from Neeley Forest subdivision spoke out in opposition to this request and rezoning. Several more residents were in attendance and the following issues were sited by the residents who spoke as reasons for their opposition. First was objection to the noise that comes from the personal automobiles or radios of workers when they leave the business and when they arrive. Second was objection to the noise that comes from the forklifts that operate on the site. Third were concerns regarding traffic on Neeley Ferry Road , especially as it pertains to trucks. Fourth is opinions that the buffering between this facility and the Neeley Forest subdivision is insufficient. Fifth there’s opinions that the storm water management on the site is insufficient. Sixth there were concerns regarding the growth of this facility and seventh there were concerns regarding how their properties would be impacted. As was indicated here tonight at the public hearing proceeding the Planning Commission went against the recommendation of staff and by a count of 4-2 voted to recommend denial of this requested rezoning. However, I want to note that the motion was made fairly abruptly and the staff nor the applicant was afforded the opportunity to respond to those issues that were brought up in that meeting.
I just want to take a moment now to address some of those and Mr. Morabito’s already done a good job of addressing some of these so I won’t necessarily touch on all the ones he’s touched on. Let me just start out by saying that most if not all the issues sited by the residents of the Neeley Forest subdivision are issues that are a result of the applicant’s facility having been developed 25 years ago in that location within the County. If the applicant’s request is turned down these issues will remain and perhaps even worsen. Trucks will continue to frequently travel between this facility and the applicant’s facility that he indicated on Old Stage Road. The existing buffer that was described as inadequate will remain in its current state. There will be no storm water management improvements that will be made to this property. And there will not be an opportunity for staff to work with the applicant in improving the circulation and accessibility of this site for his trucks.
However, by annexing and rezoning these properties into the City, Staff and applicant will have the opportunity to work together to resolve these issues. I want to note that the applicant’s facility at Neeley Ferry Road was developed about 25 years ago as we’ve heard tonight. This was almost 10 years prior to the development of the Neeley Forest subdivision. Therefore every resident of the Neeley Forest subdivision chose to invest in their property and move to that subdivision knowing that their subdivision was next to a light manufacturing business. I say that because if I understand correctly these residents are saying that it was okay for them to develop and to move into the back yard of Mr. Morabito. But, at the same time they oppose to Mr. Morabito doing anything in their back yard. To me this is absurd. I want to indicate that staff fully supports this annexation and rezoning petition for the following reasons. •&n |