Full meeting transcript - September 23, 2025

» to go good evening good evening everyone thank you for coming out tonight for our kershaw county council meeting tuesday september 23 2025 we've been called to order and we're going to be on the agenda to start off tonight we're going to have the opening prayer and invocation and pledge of allegiance by councilman jimmy jones stand dear gracious heavenly father we thank you this opportunity to be here tonight to serve you serve the people of kershaw county dear heavenly father also we we ask that you will help us all show grace and mercy in all our decisions tonight help this county council to understand that we're here to serve the people not be served and dear lord i pray also one thing on a personal note casey browser who's gone through a procedure we ask that you be with her and and hel

» p her healing to where she may come and heal a lot quicker dear lord please let these council members see that all things are not just directly what what they seem to be, to look into it and dig deeper and keep people first, dear Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. If I may, I was going to pray that they listened to me, but I knew that wouldn't do any good. You're doing a good job so far. Don't go too far with it. No, seriously, thank you for that prayer, Mr. Jones. Appreciate that very much. That's item number three. We're on to item number four, adoption of the agenda.

» Do we have a motion? I make a motion we adopt the agenda as presented. Okay, is there a second? I'll second. Do we have a second? Any discussion on the agenda? Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote. All in favor, raise your hand. It's unanimous and it's handed by those who are present and voting with Mr. Brazel absent. I think he's taking care of a family matter briefly. That puts us on to item number 5A. It's a proclamation. I'll make a motion that we have this proclamation regarding the South Carolina State Guard and any presentations related thereto. Is there a second? I'll second. We have a second. Do we have those who are participating present tonight? Yes, sir, please. We'd love to hear from you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Higgs.

» In my personal life, I get the privilege of serving as the Colleton County Administrator. But tonight and throughout this month, we're making our way around South Carolina the thank councils and communities such as ourselves number one is national preparedness month so we want to make sure everyone knows we remain ready and trained to the level should you need us you can feel free to call upon us to help your communities moreover we appreciate the recognition that you're providing to our organization tonight we're mainly uh volunteers we're all volunteer force but we again stand ready to serve as needed so again thank you and we do have a certificate of appreciation for kershaw county council um and thanks for everything you're doing i appreciate that very much um do you have any other memb

» ers with you here tonight or is it yourself stand alone tonight well if you'd like um come up real quick and we'll take a picture with you oh by the way I want to say something about your state guard when I ran the jail you guys really helped and pulled us through a lot of days we had the Carolina Cup and special events like that and I really appreciate the service y'all you gave us then thank you for that sir we're ready and whenever you need us give us a call sir just one moment now that we have councilman rousel with us as well any other comments um questions anything else related to the south carolina state guard chairman yes they would actually send probably 20 people on the caroline cub day and they would work with me at the jail and i really we couldn't have made it without them so t

» hey really were a very important and integral part of our services that we provided back then chairman this is theirs right correct first and foremost I'd like to apologize the frame didn't fit the proclamation so Lauren and I had to work it into the frame so now it's ready we can present it to you properly if you like and we can get another photo if if anyone's willing or that's up to the chairman if you want a photo for your sake you're able to but I just wanted to mention for the South Carolina State Guard from the Revolutionary War to now just familiar with your leadership and volunteer efforts in part because Tom Mulliken used to be your general and for for many years he headed up those efforts whether it was natural disaster or hurricane coming through somebody needed help somewhere t

» he South Carolina State Guard would step up these are folks who have full-time jobs or retired and they show up in South Carolina and in the inner parts and in the near parts to uh to help however they can and so we also want to present you with this do you have Any desire for another picture? I'm all for it. We're going to put it all on our social media and everything. Now that we've got Russell, we'll do that and have you hold this one. And let's move it to a vote. All in favor? It's unanimous with Hannah. Thank you. Thank you, council members. We're back on the agenda. This brings us to item number six. Mr. DuBose for public comments. Mr. Chair, members of council, we have 11 speakers signed up tonight. I believe IT has a program timer that will equally divide the 30 minutes.

» First speaker is Dwayne Gary mobile home intake. Okay, great. Just remind the public This is a time to hear from the public from council. It's not a question and answer and we look forward to hearing from Mr. Dwayne, Gary. Come on up dude. How's everyone doing? Good giving me the chance to talk tonight I want to talk to you all about a mobile intake that the South Carolina Office of Resilience is having at Kershaw County on October the 9th in Elgin at their community center. We're taking mobile intakes for families who have had damage to their home because of Hurricane Helene. We're working with families to help make them whole again, whether it be financially, but we don't give money. We just help build.

» We give resources, and we work with a lot of state agencies and other people, we have a three-step program that we uh enroll people in to help become whole again because of the hurricane so again we're having it on october the 9th from 10 a.m to 6 p.m in elgin south carolina at the community center so if you know anyone or you yourself need help what time was that again please it's from 10 a.m to 6 p.m thank you so if you know anyone that needs any type of help or you yourself need help please come out fill out an intake application and one of our disaster case managers will get in touch with you and we will help you on your road to recovery. Mr.

» Gary you have a minute and 20 seconds left can you please explain the type of citizens that you're looking for real quick and what the process will take for coming in? The type of citizens that we are looking for are low to moderate income families that do not have the means to financially rebuild themselves from the hurricane and um we would need things they have to be homeowners we have different categories we have four tiers the most serious tier is a destroyed home and I am in charge of destroyed homes so every application that goes through the score program goes through me first and I sent it up the chain thanks so much for the information tonight all right so hopefully we'll see you all out there tell someone and we'll be waiting for you thank you thank you do thank you do mr.

» bows next speaker is Zakiya Mikkel zoning data center miss Mikkel what's the next name on the list miss Mikkel yields I guess got it okay next speakers Benjamin Mingo zoning data center mr. Mingo members of the council I stand before you today just wanted to make some comments in reference to the proposed data center that is coming to Kershaw County I just wanted to ask the council have you considered have you considered the ecosystem that would be affected by this have you considered the environment that would be affected by this data center have you considered the economic impact that the status and I would bring and have in our County have you considered how it's going to affect the citizens of Kershaw County? Have you considered if the benefits of this data center will outweigh the burd

» ens that it potentially could bring? I also miss Mikkel I would like to just introduce her she's from the NAACP South Carolina State Conference and she's going to share some more information with the public and with the council how this can bring negative impact to our County so if you haven't considered those things we ask that you please and I pray that you consider and look at all of the detail before a decision will be made thank you sir miss Mikkel was it yes sir mr. DuBose yes ma'am go ahead let's stop one moment so the public can hear do we have a cell phone or something on off thank you go ahead miss Mikkel thank you good evening members of the council I'm Zakiya Mikkel, the Environmental Justice Chair for the SC NAACP State Conference.

» I first like to take a moment to recognize the leadership of President Murphy of the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and President Mingo of the Kershaw County branch of the NAACP for standing with this community in the fight for environmental justice. I'm proud to stand alongside them. I am not a Kershaw County resident, but I do have strong ties to this community.

» My parents bought a home in Kershaw County where they still reside when I was in middle school, and I often joke and say we only slept here as my mother is an educator and we were able to continue to go to school in the districts where she taught for her convenience I spent most of my days in Richland County for school sports and family time but I returned home every evening to the quiet serenity that Kershaw County offers its residents the more I think about it the more I realize it's not true that we only slept in Kershaw we engaged our community attending many events like the lights of Lugoff the Elgin catfish stump and I even remember when Lugoff only had the IGA in the interest of time and an abundance of respect for the agenda I'll try to be brief.

» Today, we're here to be sure that the council is positioned to make an informed decision about the rezoning of the 162-acre parcel of land located at 771 Park Road. Currently zoned residential, the land is being targeted by a Charlotte-based developer, pushing to rezone industrial for a massive data center project. I'm sure we have some Carolina and Clemson fans here. We won't get into the particulars about how the season is going for either team at this time. This is just a demonstration, a point of reference, in case you're having a hard time like I did imagining just how large 162 acres of land is. This parcel is equivalent to 123 football fields. A data center that would occupy that much land is massive.

» I want to be sure that I'm clear about all the negative impacts any data center would bring to Kershaw County, but especially one of this magnitude. I'm gonna speed up. I'm running out of time. Let's start with the environmental impacts. Clearing 162 acres of land will displace birds, animals, and other wildlife while noise and constant light will drive them further away.

» Data centers operate 24 hours a day and require heavy cooling systems and backup generators that create constant noise they also rely on large-scale lighting and security systems that produce steady light pollution these effects harm wildlife and disturb the people who live near the site data centers rely on large diesel backup generators that must be tested daily or weekly these tests release harmful gases including nitrogen oxides particulate matter and carbon monoxide exposure to these pollutants is linked to asthma lung attention heart disease and increased risk of cancer children the elderly and people with existing health conditions are especially vulnerable.

» This site is less than 10 minutes away from Jackson Elementary School and I'm gonna speed up a bit about the energy and cost to residents. Data centers are energy hogs using large amounts of electricity to run their servers and to power cooling systems that prevent overheating. Utilities often pass the cost of this increased demand on to all ratepayers which means everyday residents in Kershaw County will likely see even higher bills. I respect the space so I don't want to continue to speak but I have about two more minutes of remarks.

» Do I have the grace to continue it would require a motion from the council to extend the time period there if they want I would like to extend that because Reverend mango had a minute and 45 left on his time Okay, got emotions or a second There's a second all in favor extending the time period for miss Mikkel by two minutes. Raise your hand It's extended. I'm voting. It's the data center.

» Anyway, the Data center this size will drive up resident bills as utilities pass on the cost of new power infrastructure it will strain the grid for homes and small businesses leaving kershaw county less resilient during peak demand or extreme weather let's examine the economic claims behind this project when we hear development we think new jobs but this project will create only about 15 highly specialized positions unlikely to go to kershaw residents along with temporary construction work that leaves permanent pollution behind finally water system concerns people living near existing data centers and other locations report sediment in their water and decrease water pressure so severe that they cannot flush their toilets.

» These issues raise serious concerns about what could happen to residents near this proposed data center site. It's important to note that this community is already the victim of existing environmental injustice being that they're located right across the street from the landfill, which promotes similar disparity. During the zoning and planning commission hearing, the developers and their zoning attorney told the commission that this project would have a small footprint and would be tucked away.

» It was only after that testimony that one commissioner described it as a clean industry and another reinforced it by calling it very clean before saying, "All right, we're trusting you all on that, but you cannot tuck away 123 football fields worth of land and that is the size of this small project. Trust is not a substitute for due diligence and this community deserves facts, not just promises. You've heard all the risk and harm that a data center would bring to Kershaw County. Now it's up to you to be sure that you are protecting your constituents from experiencing the aforementioned.

» Given all the information that we shared above, we'd ask that the Kershaw County Council deny the rezoning request because the data center will raise energy costs, harm the environment, create an increase in health disparities, put additional strain on the water system, and potentially compromise the resilience of and put added burdens on nearby residents and schools. If for some reason the council is not inclined to immediately deny the rezoning, we would ask that the council request that the South Carolina Office of Resilience conduct a community impact assessment and a resilience assessment and share the results of these assessments with the community before moving forward. This is a vulnerable rural community already facing environmental harms.

» Kershaw County cannot responsibly move forward until it is clear and transparent about the impacts of a facility of this magnitude on residents and the environment. Thank you for your time and attention to this pressing matter. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Nicholson. Mr. DuBose, who do we have next? Linda, Linda Knatzer. Public hearing is the subject. Ms. Knatzer. We'll wake up now. Would you all please look at her? Bless you. and Connell, council members. The city of Camden has rescheduled a public hearing on a rezoning issue that was supposed to be held tonight. It will instead be held Monday, September 29th at City Hall. This has enabled many people to attend tonight's Kershaw County Council's public hearing on the comprehensive plan.

» Why do you say should this even matter to you? About a year ago, a group of us had to show up at the city planning committee and they were talking about a historic equine property and their comprehensive plan kept that property from being developed with 152 patio homes. Their comprehensive plan prevented that. The property involved in the city's request for rezoning is one that all of you are very familiar with and quite soon you will be dealing with the adjoining Kershaw County property. By knowing what will be coming your way, it makes the decisions this council is making regarding the comprehensive plan, the ZLDR, and our temporary moratorium extremely important please take the time to get this right thank you thank you for coming out tonight mr.

» DuBose who's next Andrew Whitaker Kershaw County ZLDR and then letters and discern mr. Whitaker good evening I'm seeing you for a while thank you for noticing especially since WIS is here the opportunity to come here tonight to comment on the data center proposal preliminarily congratulations to you all on your near completion of the Kershaw County comprehensive plan which aligns very well I see with Camden's comprehensive plan which is which is great I think we can agree that a good growth guided by a living document comprehensive plan is a smart specific measurable achievable realistic and time-based plan in any business plan evaluation.

» But just as important in helping evaluate either residential or commercial development proposals is a very strict ZLDR to ensure standards, site materials, quality, irrigation, sewer, infrastructure, water, and electricity usage are all known and met. Has Kershaw county planning and zoning completed their new zldr and if not when of course you don't have to answer these are just questions you should be thinking about um some questions from me as a catch-up for this data center why kershaw county the answer to me is clear low cost to them available land low cost huge quantities of water and they perceived on their part limited regulatory resistance and environment who are nexus ventures llc of charlotte they filed in september of 2024.

» what is their track record of performance for management team and for the company who are the equity stakeholders in terror networks ventures llc and what percentage of each are they really from north carolina or is that just where they registered the llc Is Terra Networks LLC a vehicle to cloak private equity management stakeholders and track record? This is sometimes done in some places. I'm not saying necessarily in this instance is the case, but that is the methodology of private equity firms.

» When they were founded, how long have they been in the data center business? What are their other model examples of such projects that can be shared? Lastly, what are their one-year, five-year, ten-year water and electricity usage projections here in kershaw county and how are they in a commercial zldr being held to these projections if it were to be approved by kershaw county council and kershaw county planning and zoning lastly what are the dollar costs and the dollars returned kershaw county thank you thank you mr mr dubose next speaker is lashana meagley miss meagley did i pronounce that right megley yes thank you please go ahead good evening chairman connell and county council members my name is lashana megley and i am a resident of cassett as this body prepares to prepares to take act

» ion on the kershaw county comprehensive plan and map amendment recommendations i'm here tonight to urge you to deny the related zone rezoning request case 2514 for the property at 771 park road which is less than a mile from my home this community is already carrying a heavy burden we live near a landfill and we deal daily with the environmental health and quality of life impacts that come with it adding another large-scale industrial project beside it would double down on the harm to a community that has already been asked to sacrifice too much the recommendation coming before you from Kershaw County Planning and Zoning, it's not just about a data center. While the applicant says they want to build a data center, this rezoning would allow any type of general development use.

» Once the zoning is changed, there is no guarantee of what might actually be built. That's too much risk for our community to bear. That's the unknown risk. The known risk, the known environmental impacts of the data center are serious. We're talking about increased noise lights on 24 7 heavy truck traffic strain on our water and electricity and destruction of wildlife habitat these impacts don't just change the landscape they directly affect the health safety and property values of the family who live here and let's be clear the data centers don't bring many permanent jobs in fact this project is expected to only create 11.

» so the trade-off is massive our residents face noise traffic light pollution air pollution and lower property values while the long-term benefits to the community remain very limited this rezoning would be an irreversible decision once the land is changed to general development we cannot go back we rely on you our elected leaders to protect the character of our community and to ensure that development is truly in the public's best interest. A core responsibility of your oversight of zoning is to protect residents from incompatible development. If the council allows this rezoning, you will not be protecting us. You will be placing yet another burden on people who have already worn enough. I'm asking you to stand with the people that you represent.

» Protect our homes, protect our health, and protect our way of life. When this This comes to a vote. Do not approve this rezoning. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Meglin. Mr. DuBose, who do we have next? Next speaker is Lynn Conto, Data Center, ComPlan. Ms. Conto. Yes, ma'am. My name is Lynn Conto. I live at 1265 Sanders Creek Road, and I'm 2.6 miles from the data center. This is what a data center sounds like 24/7.

» My husband actually, I'm leaving it on so you can see what somebody would have to live with lives near it if you if you could please lower it the folks online won't be able to hear you at all but they won't be able to lower it in the houses they live in but we would just like to hear what your comments are tonight i just wanted to prove a point i have had a phone call with my husband and my husband rarely ever picks a side on anything he just minds his own business and he immediately said no data center it'll affect people two to three miles away i was like wait we're within two three miles away and so i started doing research the pros and the cons of a data center necessity versus want somebody wants a data center but we need clean air a safe home to live in and fresh water plenty of water

» and we already have a water issue because of charlotte water wanted to route it to another river air pollution that's caused by data centers co2 and greenhouse gases, nitrous and oxide. It also reduces real estate value for at least 30 plus people surrounding that area. So if this data center is going to provide 11 jobs, what about all the other houses that live around there and the value of those houses? It also uses high water consumption, strain on resources.

» It has been known to dry wells, reduce water pressure, groundwater and cause environmental hazards there's high power usage that demands an increase on customer bills I'm one of the customers in this area by the way so I'm not okay with that noise pollution is 24/7 there is a low frequency hum continually there are sound ratings DBA is human audible sound that they hear but there's also DBC readings which is rumble or the feel that comes from that this affects not only humans but the animals in the area please do not do this to the people live in this area this is like a highway or train continually going by them non-stop would you want to live by a highway I live by a train but the train doesn't stay going all the time it's twice or three times a day light pollution impacts bird right migr

» ation near in our girl park maybe input impact human sleep patterns and then you have the problem of what's going to happen with e-waste now what is e-waste this is when old technology is outdated and then they have to remove it are we going to absorb the cost is it going to go in our landfill how are they going to get rid of it it also has health risks asthma heart conditions and cancer has been leaked to these type of data centers now all data centers are the same but there is konto um do you need more time we're happy to extend it and i'm happy to bring that motion if you need more time to wrap please about three more things three more things well go ahead if it's just three more you can wrap it up please do three short things um there are nine common health hazards or risk listed by job

» site care that you need to do research on also you say there's going to be job creation economic growth but there are also going to be additional economic losses for the people in the community so are you going to give to the people coming from outside and take from the people who live there that's my concern but what about security you know in a recent situation in blythewood there was a ransomware attack where group space bears actually attacked a local data center in blythewood now they they posted nothing actually happened but it was actually put out in the news this actually occurred there are a lot of factors we don't have any guidelines for in our community and before you make any decisions that's the first thing you need to consider is a guideline for any type of data center coming

» to the county thank you for your time thank you ms conto mr mr. DuBose who do we have next when Gwen Shannon I believe his last name utilities mr. Shannon I think it's Gwen Shannon yes miss Shannon it's going first names going you're welcome miss Shannon yes ma'am I have a small situation and that is utility bill we have a fluctuating utility bill and I'm not sure it's because of the outages which are frequent in our area and it's like you cannot budget yourself when the bill goes from 100 to 200 to 300 it's ridiculous and you call and you cannot get an answer regarding what the problem is so we would like to basically in the Knights Hill area know what is going on and hearing about the data center it's scary it is really scary if we have 100 200 electrical bills with this kind of project.

» We were looking at perhaps a double and the infrastructure in this area cannot handle that. So we're asking you to reconsider if you're planning to vote yes, to vote no. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Shannon. Mr. DuBose. Next speaker is, I believe, last name Matthias Carmichael, maybe. It's difficult to read the first name. Mr.

» Carmichael miss carmichael miss carmichael oh you don't you don't have to get up and talk if you don't want to we're just happy to see your smiling face thanks for coming out tonight that's a beautiful yellow shirt thank you mr dubose who do you have next on the list next speaker is mike munn on data center mr munn yes sir please and did we get mr miss shannon's phone number just so i can check yes it's down a couple council members sounds like sammy has it yes sir chairman board members i'd like to address if you could pull the mic up just a little bit so we can hear you i'd like to address the property which is less than a tenth of a mile from my house i live on 732.

» it's right at my doorstep there's a number of things that i'd like to bring to the board's attention for you to consider and i was a i was a dod employee for a number of years i've been around contracting a number of years i know a lot of contractors and i love how they get in the door and how they massage the system to their benefit. But anyway, the first issue is noise pollution. We need to consider whether they are going to have noise attenuation. The impact of the continual humming of the transformers and the data processing equipment that itself brings. The massive energy consumption, that's probably going to affect my utility bill, which is enough as it is. And I'm sure that we'll probably use Black River Electric.

» Is that going to impact their capability to support the existing infrastructure or will they need to expand? Is it an additional cost to them or is this going to be covered by the development? The heavy water usage, the negative impact on the property value, I would expect that my taxes are going to increase. My value is going to decrease on my property since I'm a tenth of a mile from the property. The increased traffic during and after construction. There's always a delay or deferment in the transportation. The roadways are in fair shape, but I would expect that to probably triple. They haven't been paved in years.

» The increase of traffic during the construction, the interruption of the stop-and-go traffic, the new school, which is less than two-tenths of a mile from there, that's going to impact them and all their kids and their transportation requirements. The environmental degradation, the loss of the green space, the loss of the natural habitats, the risk of the long-term damage to the aqua system. Many of these topics have already been talked about in some detail. And I'm not sure that the board members are aware of all of the intricacies that are included in the initial assumption and analysis versus the long-term growth and possible cancellation of this.

» What's going to happen if the company goes away? What are we going to do? The last thing, since I have four seconds, is don't we already have a county industrial park? Why would that not be considered as a place to put this data center? Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Munn. Mr. DeBose, by my count, we have one more speaker. Melinda Franklin-Moore, rezoning. Ms. Moore. Yes, ma'am. Good evening, members of council. I come to speak to you tonight about the rezoning request for the data center.

» it is scheduled to be for general development there is no such thing as conditional zoning as other speakers have eloquently stated you cannot put the genie back in the bottle so this means if no data center is built or they decide to sell off some of this land that's it anything and everything can go out there and there's nothing that council or planning and zoning or anyone can do about it lest we forget about permit levels of waste disposal into the watery river there's also the matter of the inter-basin transfer from charlotte which affects our water flow our permitting levels everything about our water the permitting levels have a finite number we haven't reached that yet but in the meantime if a new disposer comes online then the other stakeholders have to have a decrease in their per

» mitting level folks like invista are probably not going to sit still for that But I think we are trading our economic development future for what? Our economic development future is directly tied to the amount of waste that we can dispose into the watery river. Treated waste, by the way, not raw sewage or anything like that. And so if those levels are exceeded or those permit levels are maxed out, we're done. We're done for economic development. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Moore. Mr. DuBose, one point of clarification. I think somebody signed up for the public hearing that's on the agenda, but it appears to be for public comment. Is that correct? - Yeah, Mr. Chair.

» Yeah, I did note a Shonda Johnston signed up for the next matter on your agenda, the public hearing on the MCIP, but the subject was data center. So it may be there. - Okay. Love to exercise a little bit of grace if you intended to talk on the data center or did you not intend to speak tonight? Yeah, now would be an appropriate time. - What's the name again? - Miss, was it Shonda Johnson? - Correct, Shonda Johnston. - Okay. - Okay.

» ma'am and thank you kershaw resident county residents deserve transparency about the proposed data center there are no federal or state regulations for ai and no legal framework requiring tech companies to disclose their energy and water consumption presently over 200 environmental safeguards have been rolled back since january of 2025 resulting in a surge of energy and water use that has caught the attention of scientists and lawmakers Data centers use millions of gallons of drinking water to cool their servers. A mid-sized data center can consume around 300,000 gallons of water a day, as much as 1,000 U.S. households. Yet despite the massive strain on the water supply, the company's operating data centers lack transparency about their water use.

» A holistic understanding of water stress levels require analysis of both the total use and consumption of water. Water consumption and water use both need to be measured. Most water used in data center cooling evaporates and is lost completely from the local water system. The water is used and lost, making it unsuitable for other uses like drinking or agriculture after its use in the data center. The question has been why South Carolina? South Carolina has a great deal of water. We have over 14,000 miles of rivers, more than 1,400 ponds and lakes, and at least 10 acres in size, and 16 lakes or reservoirs larger than 1,000 acres, 10 acres or more in surface area.

» Our groundwater, drinking water, potable water supply includes six known aquifers on the southeast coast, three of them major aquifers in the coastal plain. Groundwater only exists, also exists in the Piedmont area. We are not likely to run out of water, at least not in the near future, but we must realize water is our most limited natural resource and prepare now to meet the future needs of our population, industry, and agriculture. We have and will continue to have sufficient water to use, but not enough to waste. The Southern Environmental Law Center, known as SELC, is one of the nation's most powerful defenders of the environment, rooted in the South.

» With a long track record, SELC takes on the toughest environmental challenges in court, government and in our communities to protect a southerner's way of life with regards to air water climate wildlife lands and people in march of 2025 the southern environmental law center did exactly what we need in aiken county ms johnson yes i was just going to mention i've i see you've got multiple pages there you need some extension okay go ahead okay Under the Freedom of Information Act, the following records were requested, and I sincerely hope that this group will also request the same information.

» The data centers anticipated daily, monthly, and annual water consumption, proposed or anticipated infrastructure upgrades, any negotiations between Kershaw County and the developers of the proposed data center, including financial incentives, reduce water and electricity rates, or and tax incentives for such. South Carolina is not likely to run out of water, but we do not have any to waste. Thank you, Ms. Johnson. Mr. Chairman. Mr. DeBose. Mr. Chairman. Point of order? Yes, could I please? My point of order, one, is a compliment to you, which I think you would appreciate, and also it's just a legal question, which I pretty much know the answer to, but I think these people deserve it, and I think this council could hear it.

» Well, and I want to thank you for extending time, letting people talk. Yes, sir. I've been through a lot of chairmen, and some of them haven't been as gracious as you, and I just really appreciate that. Number two, this is something, you know, County Council, we set the policy. Mr. DuBose, staff put this on the agenda. We didn't put it on the agenda. We can instruct staff not to put it on the agenda and just be done with it, can we not? Mr. Jones, this is not on the agenda. The matter's not on the agenda. No, no, I said, but we can instruct staff not to put it on the agenda, period. We don't want to hear it. - I believe a matter properly submitted and heard by the Planning Commission has to be referred to the County Council for consideration. - Well, I don't like that.

» - Otherwise, governments just wouldn't hear things they don't wanna hear. - Okay, well, we'll hear it and we'll vote it down. Thank you. - Thank you, Mr. Jones. Okay, Mr. DeBose, that concludes public comment, correct? - Correct. - Do you have anybody signed up with the one adjustment that we had for public hearing 7A? - Not any longer, Mr. Chair. - Okay, I'll just go ahead and state it and then we'll open up the public hearing.

» is on item number seven a on the agenda uh you heard mr bowes call it uh mkip but for um for most of us it's a multi-county business park with lee county relates to economic development on a different uh project and i will open up the public hearing we've had no one sign up as anyone present who wishes to speak on item number 7a on the agenda seeing none we'll close the public hearing on 7a no totally unrelated uh different project and anyone who wanted to speak could come up and and speak on topics that were germane to the actual agenda item, but it's unrelated to any data center. And we don't have a data center on the agenda for tonight. So we'll close the public hearing on 7A. Mr.

» DuBose, do we have anybody signed up for the public hearing on 7B, regarding comprehensive plan? - Yes, Mr. Chair, we have three speakers. First speaker is Linda Kanitzer. - Public hearing's open, Ms. Kanitzer. - Chairman Connell, council members. Throughout the county's comprehensive plan update process, I have been very involved. I've been attending planning committee, council meetings, and public forums. It was two weeks ago tonight, well it was two weeks ago, when I was watching the planning committee meeting from the day before, that I learned the final draft had been posted on the website. During that meeting, it was stated that the final draft had been posted and no comments had been received, just maybe because no one knew about it.

» From what we had been told, the final draft was not to be ready until October. After spending over three hours reviewing the plan and noticing that many of my previous suggestions had not been addressed, I submitted them on the website. At the February 4th public forum, I told the consultants and planning committee members that the information on the polo field was incorrect. It is the second oldest active in the country, not the third oldest, which is still on the final draft. That seems like it's been some time ago, and it's been brought up many times, and it's still wrong. The sign at the polo field, as well as our current comprehensive plan, has it designated a historic property and the second oldest active in the country. This does matter.

» So why hasn't it been corrected? That's a small thing. It's in graphics. Change third to second. It's a big deal. I mean, if you were second in the country on something and somebody kept putting out that you were third, I mean, wouldn't you be a little upset about it? I would be. Also, why are the statistics on population, race, and ethnicity, housing, and housing values from 2021? January 1st of 2028, when this comprehensive plan takes effect, those statistics will be seven years old. that's pretty useless. There are omissions of important places in Kershaw County regarding economic development and support of local businesses. I really have a problem with the grossly overused, with the grossly overused of the D words, diversity and diverse.

» I've suggested replacing those with varied, different choices, alternatives, options, etc. that aren't quite as politically motivated, I guess. When you discuss the second reading on accepting the comprehensive plan update, I request that each of you let us know if you've actually reviewed this document. I still very much prefer our current plan that remains in place for more than two years. It is very specific to Kershaw County's past, present, and future. Isn't that what a comprehensive plan is supposed to do? Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Knatzer. Mr. DuBose. Next speaker is Di DuBose. Ms. DuBose. Yes, ma'am, please. Hi, Mr. Connell and County Council. First of all, I want to thank you, Planning and Zoning, for the time and work done on a new comprehensive plan.

» I particularly like the add-ons given to the rural estate districts and the equine overlays. However, I feel like Linda, it still needs to be tweaked as to several inaccuracies and omissions. For instance, one inaccuracy, most dangerous highways were cited I-20 and Route 521. My research indicates it's I-20, Route 97, Coon, and Flat Rock roads. In the vision section, I'd like to see added preservation and protection to those equine overlays, such as the Springdale Racecourse, the Camden Training Center, the South Carolina Equine Park, the Hunt Country, etc. Under policies and land growth, I'd like to make sure that future growth does not impede the quality of services provided existing taxpayer citizens.

» Under economic development number, equine horse industry brings in $30 million a year to Kershaw County. This needs to be included. Under the urban section, tree buffer zones and footage to go along with that. And besides parks and pocket parks or boutique parks, tree buffers are highly important. Under the parks category, encourage dog parks for citizens, bird watching, walking parks. Another concern and omission, I feel, is regulations and guidelines for solar utilities and wind turbines. It's my understanding we already have four applications for solar utilities, but no guidelines and regulations. And I might be wrong on that, but that's for you to tell me.

» Because of the above-cited inaccuracies and omissions, I would like to defer the second reading of the proposed comprehensive plan and take a bit more time to tweak the existing plan to make it more accurate and more encompassing. Thank you. Oh, and the last thing, P.S., I would like to send a letter to council in planning and zoning indicating these inaccuracies and omissions because I did try in one planning and zoning meeting to express my interest in this, and I was told that they would get to me later, and they never did. So I will send you a letter. Thanks for coming out tonight, Ms. DuBose. We'll look for your letter. Mr. DuBose, is there a last person signed up? Yeah, final speaker is Lynn Conto. Ms. Conto. Yes, ma'am. Sorry, I'm back. No noise this time. I do concur with Ms.

» Knatzer's statement that there's some inaccuracies in the comprehensive plan. That was a lot to address for a group of people in a very short period of time. We're talking about multiple years this plan is going to address, and a comprehensive plan is a vision for a community, and you are given that task to decide on the vision for our community. It's an extremely important task. It's like the holy grail for our community. Think about it. What if somebody came and wanted to put 10,000 homes in our community? Would you be okay with that? How much is too much? A comprehensive plan needs to address many things. I know it can't be specific in everything, but it does need to address what's coming, like the new things that are coming.

» At one point, the horse and carriage was the means of transportation, and that went away, and cars replaced that, and now we have traffic trouble. But there are other things coming in the future, like data centers. In my neighborhood, it's solar farms, but we don't really have very extensive guidance for our solar farms, which concerns me. Everything needs to be environmentally sound. We have to have a limit on the number of sites. There needs to be transparency for companies.

» What's going to happen if they fold? What happens if they sell? Does the comprehensive plan address that? What consultants are you going to hire for future solar farms and data centers and turbine farms or whatever is coming next because i don't know what's coming next but it seems like an awful lot coming lately all at once which is a lot to address for even the group of you so who are we going to hire to help to address those to really know the information we need to know to address it properly so looking through this i noticed some of the things that were suggested perhaps a committee with a site selection consultant a real estate consultant an environmental consultant a traffic consultant and a health consultant because when you have this many things coming at one time you have a lot of

» factors to address and does the comprehensive plan address that because if you don't do it this plan is going to affect us for what the next 10 years and we know something's coming. Are we ready for it? Thank you for your time. Thank you, Ms. Conto. Mr. DuBose, does that conclude? It does. Okay, no votes needed. Seeing no one else wishing to comment on Public Hearing 7B, you're able to come up and speak as long as we're within the time period. If you would share your name, please. Oh, Alex Adams. Mr. Adams.

» I live in the county, so I'm kind of worried, but I was just, these two over here, what are y'all doing? You mean, what are we doing? I'm just asking because everybody else spoke and y'all looked your head down especially schumacher i'm just saying like if everybody's speaking their piece and telling you what they feel about the situation y'all should at least look up at least to be worried i'm just thinking this is the comprehensive plan well say that and these are the people who are worried about what you are doing so it's like we're worried about this area yeah what's wrong with that sir if you could the comments need to be germane to item number seven the comprehensive plan go ahead i just believe like yes we are worried about people that moved here we all lived here born and raised and

» we just want the people that lived here to be able to afford the housing that lives here and we're just worried about that like yes we want people to develop here we like what's happened on broad street but we also want to be able to afford to live here and we understand that people live in camden probably going to move out to camp or cash it but we just want to be able to afford to live there but every time we turn around there's a new housing development going there so we just want to be able to afford those places that's my whole piece and i was just kind of worried about these two people up here just kind of like being very dismissive of it because i sat next to the older ladies that are sitting here and i just wanted to like speak their piece so that's all i wanted to say thank you tha

» nk you for your comments tonight thank you okay seeing no um no further participation in item number 7b on public hearings mr debose i i appreciate that very much i appreciate that very much thankfully i don't have to use that skill set in this room anymore i appreciate you very much mr dubose that concludes uh public hearing correct that does we'll close the public hearing for 7b thanks everyone for coming out and participating gentlemen that puts us back on the agenda for item number eight a approval of the minutes do we have a motion mr has a motion we've got a second any discussion on the minutes see no discussion we'll move it to a vote all who are in favor of approving the minutes raise your hand this hand that's unanimous in favor the minutes are approved thanks for putting that toge

» ther for us miss hannah gentlemen that takes us to item number 9a this is a first reading on a rezoning it's a half acre parcel located at 1306 skywood skyview driving cam yes sir can we uh give them a chance to get out so we can hear what's going on please a lot of movement going on sure anybody else have uh need to clear out i don't want to get accused of something i'm not doing good enough mr tucker yes sir thank you all right that puts us on the agenda uh and item number 9A. This is a first reading half acre parcel located at 1306 Skyview Drive in Camden. The request is from R10 to B2. Before we move it to a motion or second, anything we need to know, Mr. Templer? No, sir.

» Other than just this is a church wanting to utilize another part of their parcel in a consistent way with what they already have in use with the church itself. Okay. Do we have a motion on 9A? Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion. Mr. Thompson has a motion. Is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Cato, second. Mr. Thomason, you have the floor. Yes, sir. Just kind of briefing through, preparing for the meeting. I looked through, and this is Pastor Marvin has been a good friend of mine for a long time, and I know he's in the audience today. I'd love to have him come up and kind of address to give an idea about what this rezoning request is for and what do we have to look forward to if this is approved. Yes, sir. Thank you. My name is Marvin Jones.

» I'm the pastor of Second Chance Fellowship Church, and we have done many things in our community. We've moved to the building 13 years ago that's right beside the Camden IGA. Some of y'all might know it. It used to be the Jehovah's Witness building many years ago. Our church purchased it, and we've been there, like I say, 13 years. The back part that we're looking at getting rezoned, we purchased it about six and a half years ago, and probably should have went through the rezoning process then, but we didn't. Since, we have joined with United Way. So this past winter, we housed six of our homeless people in the church house that we're looking to get rezoned. We have actually used it during COVID to have outside services.

» We have used it with United Way to be able to give our homeless people food. cook food for them, and give them showers and stuff, and we don't know exactly what the next year or five years or ten years is down the road, but we know we're going to do something great for the Lord. Our church is growing, and we feel like we need to be able to rezone this to be able to go forward. Thank you. Yes, sir. Mr. Thompson, you still have the floor.

» Yes, sir, and the current zoning designation is rd or it is uh r10 r10 all right so residential and the rezoning is specifically for the homeless population for continued work doing that um are you not allowed to do that within the current zoning well we are but we want to make sure that with our insurance and with everything that we were covered completely uh because like i say we really don't know exactly what we're going to do in the future so uh we united way came to us uh this past winter and asked if we could keep our homeless people for two weeks it seemed like every time we went to let them out we always let them out on a sunday uh it was cold so we end up letting them stay there three months um so we would rather be able to have because the iga is there our church is there and some

» of the other businesses is there we'd rather go ahead and have it rezone so that if this winter we keep five or six homeless people and it might be four or five months and so we want to make sure that we're uh we're keeping up with everything since the the sanctuary is uh zoned as a business we'd rather go ahead and go ahead and get this piece of property zoned as a business too yes sir thank you so much and and pastor jones is like i said i've known you for you and your brother for a long time and appreciate all y'all have done for the community i mean um you are staple church in the community but not only that the the services that you provide to the community i've been to your church and associated buildings multiple times with boy scout troop events other community events constantly loo

» king to better the community um i love what you're doing i appreciate it and i thank you for coming to us one one last question just so for clarification have you spoken with surrounding property owners about the rezoning and let them know the plans and is there any pushback or negative comments from any surrounding property owners sir we uh we're really good friends uh with everyone in the community and everybody knows exactly what we're doing because we always invite them we'll we'll deliver uh we got a 70 year old guy that's It's got Parkinson's, and we call him Cookie. And he cooks our hamburgers and hot dogs for our homeless people. And whatever we have left over, we take it through the community. And all of them, they really appreciate everything that we do.

» So I think everybody in our community loves us. So some of them come to the church, and some of them just, we just kind of feed them some of the times. And so it just seems like kind of a happy family in a sense. Yes, sir. Thank you, Pastor. really appreciate your time yes sir thank you mr thompson mr cato if you could just all any other questions or comments on this one or for the pastor just reiterate what brent said uh hear all good things about this church i've known you for a long time and your wife and uh y'all do a lot of great things there and i appreciate what you do thank you thank you mr cato any other comments or questions just thank you thank you mr mr jones yes pastor jones i just want to say personally thank you you know to see a man of god actually putting action into his wo

» rds and i appreciate that that's no easy undertaking that you're doing and i know that firsthand i just want to say thank you thank you pastor jones i just have one question before we move to a vote um i hear you on wanting to align the zoning with your current zoning you said it's already business related for the church is there a like a business relationship that would that already has been developed with United Way or strictly charitable I'm just wondering why to be - is it well just because we're we're trying to figure out exactly what all we're supposed to do to build God's kingdom so we have a big part of it is that we have joined United Way and United Way we're you know it's it's kind of a partnership so the people comes and they take showers and stuff and so we don't really know exa

» ctly what we're going to do we've even talked about maybe having breakfast for a homeless people every day and so with doing that and with our insurance we so we have to carry two different insurance policies because we got you know business with their sanctuary and then on the other hand with our church we call it a church house it's a residential so we rather just go ahead and put them together and have it all commercialized okay thanks i just got a few questions about it and i'm sure you'll get some more yes sir but um appreciate your commentary and answering questions on first reading any other comments or discussion before i'm all in all right we'll move this one to a vote on 9a if you're in favor raise your hand on 9a on the agenda ms hennett's unanimous by those present in voting it

» passes on 9a and i have one question so this is the first time i've ever done this okay so what's the next step uh well Well, you have three readings, so the readings occur consecutively at council meetings. Okay. And so in two weeks at the next scheduled meeting, you'll have another reading, so second reading. And then third reading is the time when it ultimately passes and would be rezoned if it passes on third reading. Okay. That will be in November because of the schedule. Yeah, the difference in scheduling. Okay. Thank you all so much. Thank you, Pastor, for coming out tonight. Gentlemen, that takes us to item number 9B. This is second reading regarding the comprehensive plan. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. - Mr. Shoemake has a motion, do we have a second? - Second. - Mr.

» Tucker has a second, Mr. Shoemake. - Yeah, so obviously there's been a lot of talk tonight on the comprehensive plan. If I can just take a minute, you know, just want to clarify something for the folks who may see me looking down. I do look down a lot 'cause I take copious notes. That's why I know we had 12 speakers, Duke about the mobile intake, our number three and number two person switched, Our NAACP lady who lived in Kershaw, but felt like she only lived here temporarily 'cause she went to school, talked about 123 football fields being the size of a data center. Ms. Knatza talked about the public hearing that Camden did that they postponed. Mr. Whitaker worried about the private equity funding. Ms. Medley-Doss talked about a comprehensive plan. Ms.

» Conto brought up the volume issue with her phone. Ms. Gwen Shannon talked about her utility bills, although she lived in Knights Hill Road, probably a Camden issue. Our next speaker didn't speak. Mr. Nunn spoke about the data center. Ms. Moore talked about general development being a problem, and Ms. Johnson also spoke at length about the data center, followed by Ms. Knatzer, Ms. DeBose, and Ms. Canto on the comp plan public hearing. I can assure you I've read every piece of paper up here and listened to everyone who spoke. So, that being said, I think second reading makes sense for the comprehensive plan. There are some issues in there. Ms.

» Knatzer, if you can get us something to show, just as bluntly, I haven't seen the data, that it's the second, just so we can hang our hat on, it's the second largest polo field that's an easy fix to make um and again i'm sure it's posted there but just shoot that to me directly that's an easy fix to make on third reading you know i i do have some concerns with the comp plan i think that in my opinion maybe it doesn't go quite far enough to make our goal uh to make sure residential growth isn't too explosive but i do think we're in a good document something that is important to note is we can change this thing it is a living document. Those who talked about the ZLDR being the lifeblood, that's our next step. We actually have our first ZLDR rewrite committee meeting. I believe it was Mr.

» Whitaker that asked about that. Our first ZLDR rewrite committee meeting is September 30th. So we're going to start the process of redrafting these zoning codes. So if in that process we find some things that need to marry up against the comprehensive plan, we can do that. And I think it was Ms. Knatzer who mentioned that this comprehensive plan will technically be effective upon third reading. Our old comprehensive plan is valid until the date that she mentioned, but this comprehensive plan will actually step in its place upon third reading. So I think it's a good start.

» We want to get something passed now because if we start writing our ZLDR without this, if we start passing our ZLDR, we start writing it, but if we start passage of the ZLDR before the comp plan is passed, then we run the risk of someone coming in legally and saying, well, you did not comport with your comp plan because you're under the old comp plan. This does a pretty good job of laying out some of those agriculture equine protections, the residential growth. Those are just some of the big things they've done that are different than the last comp plan. So it's important that we get something passed. I think this is a great start. It may need some work around the edges and it may take three readings, but we can always come back and adjust it.

» So again, there's a little more time than I intended to take, but again, I just want to make everyone, I want to make it clear to everyone that I listen to everything and read everything before I come in here. That's all I have. Thanks. thank you shoot mr. Shoemake mr. Tucker you had the second yes he said it all I don't need to say anything I'm running down the I do want to reiterate the timeframe on this document even if it passes third reading the thing that you must understand and this is probably what we don't do a good job at because I've sit through a couple of these is it's a moving living document that we update stuff we need to get it correct and I wrote down the corrections on you You know, the highway information, the polo fields, so forth and so on.

» My notes are right here as well. I'm not going to bore to read those back over with you. But when you come and speak and we hear you, staff hears you. Mr. Templer makes notes. Our clerk to council make notes. These don't fall on deaf ear, as you may want to think sometime. But also remember that it's a process. It doesn't happen overnight. With that, I'll be supporting second reading tonight. Mr. Chairman, if I may.

» yes sir mr brazel um i'll agree with councilman shoemate and councilman tucker i'm not a big fan of government bureaucracy and detailed rules i think the people of this county make up the most important document living breathing document that we have not the government not this comprehensive plan i know that we have to have one legally by state law i'm happy to support it tonight because in all reality it is not the government that dictates how well this community and this county is going to do it to us and it's everybody in this room so i'll support it i'll be happy to support it but it doesn't need to get any more detailed than it is if we need to fix a problem we can fix it in code in three readings and we've done that councilman shoemake and i have collaborated and and fixed things with

» in weeks and made vast improvements so i'm completely fine with passing this tonight thank you mr brazel any other council member comments questions yes sir mr chairman yes sir if i could i'd i'm very interested i want to highlight the benefits of kershaw county and the beautiful place the reason we all live here and we love it um and if it is the second oldest pillow field not the third i would like to have that documentation uh mr templer if you wouldn't mind maybe connect to him miss conatzer and getting the actual documentation because i would love to update that that's a that's a big check mark on behalf of kershaw county's history and then also with i know that it was mentioned multiple times about um during the update liking the old plan the old plan being better than the new compreh

» ensive plan that is drafted the old comprehensive plan was drafted prior to state statute requiring another element of comprehensive plan guidance which is resilience and it's not a specific chapter it's meant to be inclusive throughout the entire plan so according to state statute we have to have an updated plan based upon it and updates are every five years and then a full rewrite is ten and so we and i'd like to also highlight um staff if you wouldn't mind when did we start the rewrite process the exact date and how many public meetings i know that's probably a hard answer but if you have a roundabout off the top of your head that'd be wonderful just for the public and can be aware we have mr ruskowski here and mr templer however you want to i'll have joey to come up just instead of yes

» uh good evening council so this project started uh in all earnest it started in may of 2022 and throughout that time we had probably about half a dozen community meetings and then we got to february of this year 2025 and that's when it was decided that the there was some more massaging of the document and and to give the planning commission an extended chance to to review it so we held eight additional uh public workshops or meetings that were part of regular meetings that were advertised in the local paper and on the website of course and unfortunately we only had about seven public members from the public and some of those seven were repetitive uh visitors uh attend those eight additional meetings however uh the planning commission worked very diligently to incorporate changes and edits i

» nto the document as a reflection of the comments that had been received during that time thank you joe i really appreciate it that's all my questions thank you mr thompson any other questions comments from council mr jones thank you joey i have a little bit of just a little different take on you i think you should be as close to right as right can be i know mr schumacher and i had a conversation today and i really appreciate it and we don't disagree that second reading i don't have a problem but third reading we are and yes it will be read it will be looked through uh this is not my first rodeo with a comprehensive plan i remember 10 years ago when that one was written i read through i didn't like it i voted against all three readings now however this is a different council i have a little

» bit more respect for this council than i did the past councils they've been to me very we may not agree on a lot of things but they've been very upfront and straightforward with me even if they didn't like some of it but i will vote for a second reading tonight and i don't know how i'll vote for third reading but i think it's very important the issues that you folks brought up i think it's very important when we have public meetings if people drop things in the suggestion box that those things are addressed and i know there was some concerns and questions about that and i know that for a fact but having said all that i am going to support second reading to keep it moving through it will be read your concerns will be addressed and i have some concerns other than that as well too but we'll ge

» t into that as the mr schumacher and i said on third reading we'll get a lot deeper into it thank you thank you mr jones mr cato i just want to thank the ones that spoke tonight on the reference to the comprehensive plan but i don't want to to dismiss the hard work that's been done on this comprehensive plan there has been a lot of time and a lot of hard work put into this and a lot of public meetings and a lot of a lot of different stuff a lot of different workings have taken place to get this done and and uh yes i appreciate all the corrections that that were brought up tonight that we need to look at before third reading but i i have all faith this will be ready to go by the third reading thank you thank you mr cato i'll piggyback on that i'm very grateful for the the time that folks put

» in to volunteer on these commissions particularly the planning commission and others who have participated at public hearings or otherwise in staff we literally could not do it you know this is a part-time job serving on county council most of it has full-time jobs or feel like we have a full-time life after retirement anyway and so that volunteer service is essential in getting us to this point where we can work on the comprehensive plan before we move it to a vote i just had a few comments on the data that's used the data generally would be pulled from 2021 reports because the country only does the census every 10 years or so so you have a 2020 census that occurs they usually don't crunch the numbers and bring the data to municipalities or states to use until 2021 and so that's really wha

» t we have to pull from unless we by happenstance are able to get some dot numbers through traffic counts at a particular intersection sometimes we can glean that information and include it in some of the of the evaluations we're making or if we develop that data internally through permits that are submitted and we can kind of see trends that are occurring in certain areas but we really have to rely on that census data that occurs every 10 years and so that's why you would see that that report and that grouping of data being used in forming the comprehensive plan and many of the decisions that we make any other comments or questions from council members seeing none we'll move to a vote all in favor on the second reading raise your hand in favor miss hannah it's unanimous passes on second rea

» ding that's 9b passes that takes us to item number 9c this is second reading on a joint multi-county business park with lee county under sc code 4-1-170 we've already had first reading on september 9th is there a motion make a motion that we approve second reading mr chair mr tucker has the motion on second reading is there a second i'll say mr shoemake has a second anything to bring up we haven't already covered mr tucker no sir not for me mr shoemake you have the second nothing okay any other discussion or questions from council members i always just like to point out this is a clarification um for the public anytime we we do this it's just to support an economic development project it's it's uh basically just legal language correct mr dubose 100 correct and that's that's all state law th

» at we're just having to comply with correct correct placing these uh parks that are subject to economic incentives into these parks allows them to get recoupment from infrastructure that they put in infrastructure and also additional job credit so yeah it's all in furtherance of economic development all right so just lawyers it's it's it's it's a lot of legalese and i've i've read it a lot over the last five years and at the end of the day it's real simple it's economic development equals jobs equals a better kershaw county so thank you thank you mr brazel mr jones if i may about economic development i think we've put a lot of money into and get very little out of it well just in response to that comment i think we've had roughly 80 million dollars in investment over the last 18 months or s

» o jeff burgess is not in here in several jobs and thankfully some of the projects have actually been homegrown kershaw county like laser form and others that have grown they would give me sir they would sort of give me they they were they were going to happen anyway okay well i'm not going to argue with you but unless there was a philo i know many of them wouldn't have invested so i'm grateful for that opportunity and for jobs being created in the community and to those who are listening or watching you know keep bringing good jobs high paying jobs to kershaw county we need it um i paired it this many times but we have roughly 10 000 plus people that leave every day out of 30 000 plus full-time workers and they go work somewhere else so they travel away from their family they leave the area

» they spend their money for lunch or dinner or you know whatever present you need to get for um for that last minute birthday gift somewhere else and um i'd like for those folks to be able to stay closer home if they want to so i welcome the jobs and the uh the business investment any other questions or comments from council okay seeing none that brings us to uh a vote all in favor raise your hand on second reading miss hannah it passes it's unanimous all right this brings us to item number 9d on the agenda this is a third reading regarding um improvement and clarification procedures for timelines applicable to text amendments under our zoning the zldr do we have a motion i'll make a motion mr shoemake has the motion is there a second second mr tucker has a second mr shoemake yeah this we're

» third reading we've explained this but it's fairly short this just cleans up our zldr uh in relation to the planning commission to note that there's a 30-day window after referral that it comes back to us if it's not heard and it allows us shorter time frames for pub for public hearings if they're allowed by statute is that fairly straightforward okay mr tucker you have the second anything further uh no sir that's you see where your lines are stricken out where the uh added text was uh put in yes sir thank you um any other council members have comments or questions seeing none we'll move it to a vote all in favor on third Third reading, 9D, raise your hand. We have Shoemake, Tucker, Brazel, Connell, Cato, Tomlinson in favor. All opposed? Mr. Jones, opposed. It passes on third reading.

» That's 9D. Item number 10A, for discussion, placed on the agenda by Mr. Tucker. We have a motion. Finance Committee report. - Yes, sir, I'd like to make a motion to give a report from the Finance Committee on our projects and our fees, if we may, please. - Okay, is there a second? - I'll second. - You have the floor, Mr. Tucker, for discussion. - Thank you so very, very much. We've been promising the public in this group here that we would give you a report on the projects that we have. So what I would like to do, if I can, is pass out some information for you. The Finance Committee, I actually met...

» - Anybody missing one? actually met last friday um to go over with staff and so um the papers you have before you uh let's do the uh boat ramp first if you don't mind it should be the expenditures mr tucker yes are these on the screen so the folks can see uh no sir they're not can we make that happen uh next time because i don't think we can scan them in now okay but they're for public information i know that i didn't get them scanned in in time mr jones thank you you're welcome um so Also on the boat ramp, as you can see, the expenditures, then it has the fund sourcing. This project is about to come to a close. I think they've done all the paving, and we hopefully will be closing on this project this month, at the end of the month, and hopefully soon having a ribbon cutting.

» If all goes well, we will be about $65,000, $66,000 to the good. You can see the funding sources where we took out state grant, council motion on ATACs, money a tax and then capital funding including our contingencies so that's kind of breakdown on that along with that the Finance Committee also has the purchase orders and change orders of everything that took place on this project I don't have that tonight this year but if you want to dig deeper down into that we do have that staff has that as well so they'll be happy to share that with you. Any questions on the boat ramp? Okay, hearing none. When will it be completed again? Sir? Thursday. It's almost, it's basically done now. Okay. It's not open yet. Thank you. It's not open. I'm saying at the end of the month, Mr.

» Jones, it could be sooner, but at least by the end of the month. Thank you. Mr. Tucker, I'll just mention that we're trying to figure out a ribbon cutting date that might align up with, align with some existing event, or if there's something we can bring down there for public interest and benefit we're working on that and as soon as we know we'll set up a date that works for everybody okay sounds great let me also say this for public record because there was a lot of stuff on the internet a lot of chatter in the community this council this staff did not pay two or three times to pour that boat ramp down there you can tell by the the cost of this that it did not increase to the two million or whatever people were saying I don't have Facebook or any of that I Facebook every second and fourth

» Tuesday with you when I come into these meetings that's the best I'm gonna be able to get with that being said though this is why we wanted as the Finance Committee want to dive into these projects so we can be responsible for your monies and what were these projects along with staff and have a better understanding so and I thank staff for helping us get this organized and understood anything for my colleagues uh just you may or thompson on the boat if i could clarify what would councilman tucker just said the con concrete was replaced on two different occasions at no cost to kershaw county because it was inadequate and insufficient so it did get replaced just not on kershaw county's dime yes sir thank you mr brazel all right before you on the next is give you the list of the other projects

» um it gives you the summary of the opera funds which was uh by us appointed to these projects we'll park ten five ten million five hundred and sixty one thousand void field and copeland field one point six eight kershaw county west at one point seven four five that total is thirteen million nine hundred ninety three thousand five hundred 16.87 so that's all our projects that is the other three projects was left we had a total of four projects going at one time which was a lot uh for this county uh but these are things we had opportunities to do with opera money you know the opera money came from during you know covet and all that so we were on a timeline where we have to spend these monies or we lose these monies we'll have to turn them back in and staff has done a great job about dealing w

» ith that and handling that so i wanted to point that out also in here in your project funding you're going to see where the health district gave 6 million we use 6 million out of the opera funds we use 1.5 out of the capital fund out of the capital fund some of that is rollover money what do i mean by rollover money projects we didn't get done the year before such as the lighting and the parking lot in kershaw west that was done this year is in the process of being done and those monies total about almost 900 000 it's 872 310 dollars that got rolled over so we can complete these projects for this year so um overall we're in excellent shape um i'm not ashamed to admit some of our shortcomings that also took place um which was on the boyd and copeland field um we actually um had budget eight

» hundred thousand dollars for that project that project came in at 1.6 um due to a couple things uh council approved the project at a higher bid than what we had budget for um and back on april the 8th is when we did it at that meeting um thank god for your opera funds that was earning taxes were able to get the taxes interest earning interest we're able to get that interest pulled back into the capital fund and substitute that there was no increase to the taxpayers or any increase to anybody and then we also on these ball fields what's not noted is that musco is our lighting company and mr temper can go into more detail if you like on this so when we bid these ball fields and projects lighting is not included on that initial bid that is bit out through them which is a state bid which no one

» else can do it as cheap as these guys we kind of have a contract with them through the state and we're very fortunate to have the high tech lighting that they provide us that can work remote remote and off our phones and all that good stuff but it's still cheaper than being an initial bid you'd like to elaborate mr administrator yes Yes, sir. We just found an opportunity to save money. We broke the lighting items out of the bids because it took the middleman out. These are on State contracts, so we saw savings opportunities and went for that. Thank you, sir. That is pretty much my projects report that I would like to ask my colleagues on finance, Mr. Thomason and Mr. Shumate, if they have any questions or any comments.

» comments i don't have any mr tucker thank you okay i've got one question i defer i i just wanted to uh point out that i think what the big takeaway here is we we were able to make what has gone what has been and for some time will be the greatest uh recreation improvement in the history of kershaw county for sure and we've been able to do that with six million federal dollars that had to be committed for one-time uses and spent a certain amount of time they couldn't go to recurring funds we did it with six million in uh matching funds that were only designated for this purpose we did it with 448 000 from ctc to help fix the roads out by woodward park and we did it with uh some rollover money and 150 000 in tourism tax dollars that can only be used for recreation and tourism stuff so without

» raising millage without an impact on taxpayers on a village base we're able to to pull together multiple different funding pools grants and combine that smartly into the greatest improvement the curzio county recreation is going to see in a long time and has ever seen in history mr any other comments or questions for you know the finance chairman i just want to thank everybody for their hard work because the one and i want to add to what mr shoemake said because i can look at this and be proud of the fact that it's completed projects they weren't halfway done we made sure and found a way that we got these projects done the way we wanted them done the first time we didn't leave something off and say we'll come back later and fix it and have to worry about it six years down the road we got th

» em completed at one time and it was much needed projects and i'll speak for my district especially especially in the northern end of the county it was much needed for our recreation up on that end of the county so i thank y'all for what you're doing thank you mr cato any other comments or questions just just still the one question sir yes sir um councilman tucker did we borrow any money for any of these projects oh no sir we did we bond any money no sir did we pay for everything with cash yes sir yes sir we owe no one one of these projects and uh councilman cato hit it on the head i have been here as we piece mill parks we do a little bit here and then we go seven eight years and by the time we get back to building on to the next project it during there done cave in so you're basically star

» ting over to bring it back up to usable standards and then you add on so i am proud to be a part of this body that made some decisions in our recreation throughout the county because we touched the west watery area camden area and the northern end of the county with all our recreation projects we left nobody out so that's something to be proud of and stick your chest out and yes i'm one of the proud seven so councilman do you know that somebody told me it would cost 40 million dollars just to do a recreational facility for baseball see that's where the problem lies you stay on facebook i don't do this no no sir they were no sure they were a member of this body they are no longer a member of this body and we did it and we did it we did it well and we did it for the citizens of kershaw county

» thank you you're welcome thank you so if there's no mr before you get on to the next topic on fees i just wanted to mention um and and give some thanks to musc for participating with the health services district yes on funding um that's that's an overarching effort by the health services district and musc our local hospital to fund a outdoor recreation project at woodward park and a indoor recreation project with the health services district and likely future ymca in the lugo area so we're very thankful for them to participate as well see our local hospital get involved in in recreation and athletics as health and then i want to mention that you know i was very sad to be away from y'all for two years but i'm very thankful for the time i had over at the state house in particular because of t

» he state grant that came for the watery boat ramp i see we've got senator blackman here this is just an example senator thanks for being here tonight of how a local delegation can make such a difference whenever we do that ribbon cutting that entire delegation i served with has got to come out because we had to fight tooth and nail against greenville and charleston and richland lexington counties and those delegations to procure funds to try to make this project happen i'm so thankful that the staff and the council has worked towards a quality project and avoided waste on this i think it's going to be well used i'm sorry to interrupt you no no no are we talking fees next yes we're talking fees next but um great recognition and um i um i appreciate you pointing those things out as well um so

» if any any other questions from my colleagues up here okay all right well i want to say thanks to the finance committee as well we also was charged with looking into the fee structure we had a little issue with that and i'm happy to remind everyone that that was recognized by councilman brazil rectified by staff refunded by kershaw County so that means it's all as well and all is good with that being said you have an example in front of you of the inspection process for the Kershaw County building department and this is for as you read the examples for stick built home with a crawl space so depending on what type of home you build will also determine your inspections but remember when you pull that permit on your levels of inspection you're gonna have a freebie they'll come out and initiall

» y look at your work and then after that they start calculating up what they call reinspections okay so if you did everything perfect the staff would have to come out for your footing inspection your foundation inspection your rough-in inspection your permanent power connection and then final inspection so that's one two three four five six times they'll come out now if If you fail any portions of that, it is going to be a re-inspection, and this is when the fees start coming into play, where you'll pay $50 for your first re-inspection fee, then your next re-inspection fee is $100, the next one's $200, the next one's $400, and it will cap at $400, and every inspection you fail from there will be a $400 re-inspection fee.

» It will not be any astronomical numbers that we were doing before the text is clear on what we pass, and that's what we're going to go by and govern ourselves. You know I don't agree with that. And govern ourselves accordingly. And it's okay, Mr. Jones. That's not the first time we disagree. With that being said, I want to thank Mr. Joe and his department, planning and zoning. What I did not realize when we were going over this is how many times we actually sent our people out to do inspections and re-inspections. And what was becoming of this, some of you are asking, well, why are we doubling? Because I see a lot of new faces in here tonight that I normally don't see, and I'm happy to see you.

» We don't want to become where our staff is doing QA, quality control over our builders and our subcontractors. And we talked about this in length last meeting when we were sitting up here. They need to come out. We don't have a huge staff. We are a growing county. I don't know what census is going to look like because we're just halfway there in 2025, and we've already grown over 15% for this county already. So it's going to be crazy by the time we get to 2030. I'm just telling you the numbers will be off the chart. We'll be in the top three most growing counties out of the 46. I can about guarantee you it'll come census time.

» But with that being said, the inspectors need to come out, inspect, and move on to the next home, or we're going to have a staff the size of Richland to do inspections. And that's what we can't afford, because that will be on your dime. We need to do quality inspections, but we don't need to be the QA guard for people building homes. They need to have their game plan, their coach, their contractor, their whoever, superintendent, Whoever's in charge, that is their job to make sure that they get this right and make sure it meets Kershaw County guidelines that you want the people we hire for you to approve. And if it's not right, I don't have a problem with them failing. So this is the information that we came back with, and we just want to give clarity on it.

» Happy for my colleagues to join me on anything that they want to add, and happy to take questions. Any questions, comments? Mr. Cato. I've got one question that I don't see on here, and I tell you, I know since I've been on council, that I know there's been probably more than just one incident, but I do know of one, and it's on the stop work order, and I see that we have a residential commercial fee for the stop or to lift the stop work order. Joey may have to answer this question, but I know on this particular instance, the stop work order was violated, but I don't see a penalty. What is the penalty for a company violating a stop work order? I cannot answer that, Mr. Cato. Yeah, me neither. That's a good question. Can we have Mr. Administrator have? Yeah, I'll get Joey up. Okay. Mr.

» Rizkowski. A notice of violation. Yes, Mr. Templar is correct. If somebody violates the stop work order, then the next step is to issue a notice of violation with corrective action within 15 or 30 days, depending upon the nature of the violation. And then if at that point they don't comply, it is a summons issued by code enforcement, and then the county attorney's office gets involved with bringing this to a court hearing across the street. I didn't know if there was a penalty. I didn't see a penalty fee. I didn't know how that was handled with the stop work orders, but I know that was a problem when I first took office. I just wanted to know how we was handling that. No, it's a great question. I've got a question, some comments. Mr. Jones. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. Mr.

» Joey, you know, what I'm hearing in the public is that, you know, I hear about the quality control and that whenever staff will go out, they're not there to do a Q&A or whatever. That's why they put a self-work order on it. But what I hear is that they're not told what they need to do, and they feel like they've done it all, and then they get written up, and then the staff comes back out, and there's something else they find that is in violation. So there seems to be, you know, a he and she said situation.

» I know that the deputy county administrator has said that he was looking into, as they did for the, and it's a shame that we have to go here and do this, guys, but when you're dealing with government and you're dealing with citizens, I believe in transparency, I believe in sunshine and putting it all out there, putting body cams on the inspectors, because there's been a lot of comments made, in all fairness, you know, from your side, from their side, and we as a council, We don't know, but I hope that y'all are moving forward with the body cameras on the building inspectors. I think that would really resolve a lot of our issues. Yes, sir, we are. Okay, thank you. Any other comments or questions? That's all, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your time. Thank you very much, Mr.

» Tucker, Finance Chair. You're quite welcome, sir. No votes required on 10A. That takes us to item number 10B, placed on the agenda by Mr. Jones. Okay. Is there a motion? Yes, I so move. All right, for discussion on planning and zoning, 10B, is there a second? Second. And, Mr. Chair, if I may, I'd like to let Mr. – what's his name down there? Brazel, let him handle it. What's his name? Mr. Brazel. What's his name? All those moments. I'm sorry, Russell. You know how I feel about you. You're okay, Jimmy. Go ahead. So I think Councilman Jones has had his questions answered. It just so happened that I had a planning and zoning question come up, And, Joey, I hate to do this to you, I'm sorry.

» Would you mind just for a point of clarification for me with the situation so I don't have to bug you later? Did that work, Mr. Templer? Okay. So I'm going to refer to a document regarding water quality buffers in timber harvesting. They're referred to as SMZs, streamside management zones. we've got a document section five three point six it's one two three four five six seven it's eight pages so it's it's quite a bit of information regarding if you subdivide or or i suppose if you're building a subdivision how you are to buffer and protect water quality and of course i agree with doing those things um is is that what is this like a development document so those regulations are spread throughout the code and what that document represents is basically just our effort to be more customer serv

» ice friendly by uh having people come through different parts of the code and we've just assembled it all together into one document okay and everything related to water quality so when was that um put in place what date does it have a date on it that has been in place for several years i believe even before i came here that was oh yeah it says here uh december 15th of 2010.

» yes sir so my simple question is this i had bought a parcel of land from from some family members and we i bought like half the parcel and when we surveyed it we surveyed past the creek and we showed on the map a delineated um hundred i think it's a hundred foot buffer on the creeks if it's for a perennial creek yes that's correct so so if i'm surveying the creek or if i'm i'm surveying left or right of the creek what what we need to see is a a buffer delineated on on the map is that right that is where the regulations require yes sir okay but it's not on the ground sort of thing no what we we've been very flexible uh because it's very expensive to get surveys of large tracts of land that have water features on them so what we do is we uh note what that buffer is we have them note that and

» then do a general uh uh you know from the top of the bank measurement and show that but if they were to actually go in and develop the property then at that time we would require the delineation of that buffer when they go to develop a physical delineation correct yes sir okay but but if i'm if i'm breaking up 800 acres into two 400 acre tracks and i use the creek as a boundary um and we take a surveying instrument and we shoot points down the creek basically i can delineate 50 or 55 feet on either side of in a mapping software situation to show a buffer um on a map and that would be that would be it and and it would be noted as well what the specific regulation is and correct that's fine okay that purpose yeah but for that and that was that was all i needed was to um was to clarify the dif

» ference between uh developing developing a parcel into a housing development versus just breaking apart acreage for timber trusts conservation timber farm that sort of thing so that was the only thing i needed to clarify and you did that perfectly and i thank you um i know we've had some hard conversations i appreciate your willingness to have those hard conversations and i appreciate what we got out of our last conversation that i know wasn't real pleasant and um warm and fuzzy but i'm going to tell you what we got from our administrator at friday was a wonderful explanation um very similar to the one we received today that i have no issues with um i have no issues with the way we're doing our re-inspections um in accordance to how it was explained to me so i thank you for that and um i wa

» nt to tell you all of your staff that works for you represents planning and zoning in various ways and in wonderful ways and i just wanted to say thank you to every one of your staff members that work for you joey you've got a you've got a wonderful staff here in kershaw county i do i do i'm very proud of them yes sir thank you i appreciate you being here tonight for this thank you thank you mr ruskowski thank you mr brazel no votes required is this discussion only that moves us to council member briefings we'll start with mr cato please i'm going to be brief tonight i i wanted to mention that i had an opportunity to speak at the bethune lions club uh really had a great conversation had about 16 or 17 people there that night and we talked about everything from planning and zoning to recreat

» ion to what the future holds for kershaw county or even some possible economic and development issues but we had a great conversation and a great time i had a great time spending it there at the lions club and i appreciate their invite secondly i want to say happy birthday to miss ginger farmer she's back here our clerk of court and you know I gotta say she's here at just about every meeting and as a department head not thinking that I really do and just want to give a shout out to our senator Alan Blackman he's back here the chairman mentioned him earlier thank you for what you do and thank you for working with us the way you do that ends my report Thank You mr. Cato mr. Tomlinson please thank Mr. Chairman. I'd like to start off by thanking staff.

» I know that staff, we put a lot on staff and y'all always respond in the positive. So thank you for all you do. I really appreciate your time. Senator, good to see you. Welcome to the to the big city of Camden. Appreciate you being here. I wanted to just to highlight Dwayne Gary's public comments. The South Carolina Office of Resilience disaster case management mobile intake october the 9th 10 a.m to 6 p.m elgin community center if you have or know anyone who's been affected by helene however small or as big there's no reason not to go in and apply all they can say is no so go in get your application in the dcm will be there to guide you step by step through the process it's the liaison between the federal funding that comes in the guidance and the individual constituent here in kershaw cou

» nty they do a great job also i wanted to thank my colleagues tonight um i know we heard a lot about data centers i'm sure everybody up here has gotten multiple calls about them the past couple weeks and i appreciate us kind of postponing this and the delay is not not a means to an end the delay is so we can better understand how data centers impact kershaw county our citizens our environmental impacts and what the future looks like we've heard a lot of concerns electricity usage water usage pollutants different things but i would like to ask how many people who came and spoke utilized ai to draft their comments or got their information off of ai i know when i just did a google search that's where mine came from so just because you can you know everybody can do a brief search but every diffe

» rent industry data center in general same with any other industry that we have in kershaw county is tailored and does not fit the model that a quick google search says so we are up here to understand the impacts and that's what our decisions are going to be the impacts going forward whether it's to the citizen the environmental the noise that is why we're postponing and i really appreciate my colleagues for doing that looking forward to learn more about it. And just while we're sitting here, my son has just got an update. He scored four goals in the soccer game so far. I think we're up about seven to nothing. I texted the coach and told him to sit him on the bench. He's done for the night. So thank y'all for being here. I really appreciate it. Look forward to seeing y'all again.

» Thank you, Mr. Thomason. Mr. Jones, please. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the county council. We have certainly have a difference of outlook on county government. We have a different opinion when it comes to certain issues. You know, also i was staff here for many years i retired kershaw county i was a department head i ran the jail and ran a bunch of other agencies up under it i know county government i know what public service is and i'm just going to tell you that uh i support our staff we have some good stuff but we also have some staff that takes advantage of the system and i'm gonna hold them accountable and i'm not gonna play footsie with them up here it is what it is and when you get repeated complaints after complaints after complaints for the last year and nothing's been res

» olved then i'm not doing my job or somebody's not doing theirs but i want to make sure that uh people when people call they get a speedy they get a speedy return phone call from staff i want to make sure that they have their their undivided attention if a citizen has a problem you know i've always told council members up here let's put people first not money but anyway it's probably best i don't say too much right now i have some more coming down the road I can assure you that and I'll have the data to back it up. But Mr. Chairman, thank you very much and appreciate your time Listening, mr. Jones. Thank you. Mr. Shoemaker. Yeah a couple things Happy birthday ginger. Hi. I can never see you because you're always sitting right there.

» So I never I never realized you're here So happy birthday and senator Blackmon. Thank you For those of you who don't know senator Blackmon before he was a senator was on Lancaster County Council So he's you know, it's all too well chair. Oh, yeah knows all too. Well Still one of the most enlightening discussions I had on jail fundings with you and I still need to circle back on that because that's A great mystery. We're still trying to crack over here in Kershaw So maybe you can give us some of that Senate money to build a new jail as long as you're here So thank you for being here senator really do appreciate it Smart growth committee a lot of talk about zoning and land development regulations the LDR.

» It's the Bible for what can actually happen we have a wonderful committee that's been formed and We are having our first meeting on September 30th at 5:00 p.m. In that meeting. We're gonna sort of set the agenda We're not really in that meeting going to have any specific discussions on actual rewrites that meeting is an organizational meeting It'll be our first time to get together and really just set a schedule Work with staff to figure out how we're gonna go about this process So it's really kind of a an agreement to agree We're just gonna get everything in line and then we'll have a meeting schedule posted so people will know when our regular meetings are And of course, there'll be public comment periods and all those things akin to the comprehensive plan I think she left but miss Shanno

» n. I did want to mention Is I think she lives in Camden. So if she is listening to this I hate to be the guy that's just kind of kicking the can but the utility she's referring to would be Solely based in the city of Camden the county wouldn't have any role in those utilities based on where she said she lives So I just wanted to mention that for her um and then lastly uh the data center comments you know miss linda moore i don't know if she's still in here but she said it best that you know the question that's coming in front of us next month is not do we build a data center it's really important that we understand the question in front of us is do we take a rule district and rezone it into general development now i'm not going to opine on data centers today very much but generally speaking

» i have been against and most of us have been against rezoning a rural district into general development and the reason for that is what mr moore said which is once you rezone you don't get to unring that bell so it doesn't matter if it's the best use any of us could have ever thought of a factory that produces no waste that employs a thousand people that already live here right if that fell through after rezoning at that point that district can be housing development an apartment complex it is our most permissive land use so to the extent of data center is a good idea there's other ways to do it and to the extent it's a bad idea there's other ways to address that too i do want to say on the data center point we're all i think doing our homework on it we've all gotten a lot of calls about it

» as mr thompson correctly and accurately said and you know one thing two points i want to note is a lot of the newer data centers are using reclaimed water kind of like your radiator does and also in terms of the impact on electricity i think it's important that if we do data centers we make sure that we're setting an ordinance so that that data center isn't taking away from the grid and raising people's power bills the flip side of that and i think it's important to understand this is what we can't do is sit up here and say hey you can't do anything with your land we have a moratorium on residential growth but that will expire even if it's extended it legally can't last forever at some point these folks who own 100 acres who wish to divest themselves of it and do something with it will be a

» ble to so the question is what does that use look like and i say that not to say that it should be data centers i say that to say that if we can come up with economic projects that bring money into kershaw county that are not a detriment that do something that increases our tax base without having the incumbent residential growth the infrastructure tax uh taxation on infrastructure school uh school growth that's a good use that we should look at not saying that is data centers because i started a lot of homework to do myself but i would just caution against this idea that with these hundred 200 acre parcels out in camden around the north part of kershaw that nothing will ever be built there that's just not going to happen we are as mr tucker pointed out the seventh fastest growing county in

» kershaw our senator here is from one of the few that are ahead of us which is lancaster um lancaster edgefield spartanburg all border counties that border a state and are close to a major city the other three jasper berkeley and ori are along the coast we're the only county not contiguous to an ocean or another state that's growing the way we're growing so it's very important to understand the growth is coming our job is not to stop it even if we wanted to it's to manage it and make sure it looks the way it needs to look so we don't lose those things to make this community great enough for all these people to come in and share their passions uh speeches so that's all that i have um look forward to seeing you guys in a couple weeks thank you mr schumacher mr tucker our finance chair thank yo

» u mr chair um i want to first start off by um always welcoming my friend senator blackman uh always enjoy seeing you um and fight for us when you get back over there in january we need all your help you can bring us yeah happy birthday miss farmer yes ma'am wish you many more um i want to make sure that i get zero credit for what took place tonight in public comment i had no idea that this room would be full of people in the cameras because i did not talk to anyone but i do want to come in and thank the president of the local chapter of the naacp reverend benny mango for organizing and speaking up and coming before us to address your concerns and your issues and that means a lot i'll be talking with you later as always but i appreciate that and all who showed up members and residents i know

» all of you may not be members of the nwcp you need to be but um that's a that's a plug for you there red and so uh with that i want to thank them for coming and being vocal about their positions and their property and health and stuff because that's important and I own land out in the Cassidary as well with my family as you've heard me say many and many times before that's where my father was born and that's where he rests right out there at Heiko Church so with that being said Mr.

» Chairman you were mighty gracious today and I appreciate it but let me duly note when people come in late and don't know what the heck they're talking about probably should not be the people that approach the podium and accuse council members of what they're doing because I did take offense to that because I write a lot and I'm never going to apologize for that because I have to approve minutes I have to make notes so I can have conversations with whoever it may be later on and talk like I know something not like I didn't hear anything or didn't remember anything so with that being said and my colleague who expressed it so eloquently earlier when it looks like we may not be doing something behind this dais don't take it for face value ask the question afterwards or before what are you doing

» because i'm happy to show you and tell you and my papers are all written up and they're going to stay that way because i have to know what's going on tonight in order to review minutes and to make phone calls and return conversations that's that's due back to people as they come up so um i think that covers me for tonight i thank all of you and i hope that you have a oh data centers um I learned a lot tonight from the speakers um there's a lot more to learn and that I will do my due diligence on um I um I want to make sure and my colleagues can tell you this that I'm hearing from all sides of the story that's what I'm doing now I am collecting data to hear from everybody and then I can sit and have conversations and agree or disagree in whatever ways that I know that best represent the peop

» le and that's the way this will go. I can't sit here and tell you and band my fists on the desk that data centers are completely bad. They do have a lot of bad things that come with them but let me tell you what they don't bring. They don't bring people so there's no taxing on the school system, the garbage system, police system, things of that nature and they do bring in a revenue. Now I'm not going to sell out for that but those some of the good things that they do do that I do know off my conversations and in my due diligence so with that being said I hear your concerns I hear them loud and I will be in touch with you as a group or at least through Reverend mango and the state I'm speaking on your behalf that concludes my remarks Thank You mr.

» Tucker vice-chairman Brazel chairman Connell thank you appreciate the meeting night and dialogue and it's good to hear from the public um councilman shoemake thank you for letting us know that the the smart growth meetings are going to begin at the end of the month that's something actually that crossed my mind and i was hoping that they were about to begin because we've got a lot of work to do and i want to be a part of that regarding the data center it's interesting it seems like there's a lot of public talk about something that we haven't even been briefed on yet somebody called me last night or the night before and said what in the world's going on with this data center and i said well as soon as i find out i'll let you know but frankly i haven't been briefed and we need to be briefed i

» f that in fact is the case and i look forward to being briefed so i took it upon myself to reach out today and gathered some information the information that i did gather was minute in the amount that i need before i can make a decision but i will say that i was told it's a closed loop water system so i think much like a a water furnace a new age water furnace cooling system for your home it's it's a loop of water that just continues to run it's not what you would refer to in the heating and cooling industry as a pump and dump in other words water in and then water out that's what i was told that could be incorrect information but the gentleman that told me should have that knowledge specifically correct so that was a positive i was also informed that black river electric would be the power

» provider so i would need to ask them the questions would this affect users in a positive or negative manner it could be a financial uh windfall for them i don't have any idea if it would be if it if it helped the co-op become a co-op can't be profitable but if it helped them provide power and it wasn't a strain and it helped the citizens maybe that's a neutral situation so that's something else that i would have to ask of black river electric and those are things that we have not heard yet it's 160 acres i know on a site if you develop the entire site you're not going to use the entire site so i'd like to know specifically how large the buildings are what sort of buffers would be around them and i personally would want to visit a data center and put my eyes and ears on one because i would h

» ave to accept being able to live next to one if i voted yes and i can't do that unless i actually put my eyes and ears on one so that's what it's going to take for me to support something like that just to give you a little bit of information that's in my in my mind and in my thoughts i would never want to put anyone in a situation that devalued their home never want to put anybody in a situation that something was not good for kershaw county as a whole so all of those things will be addressed and i see that many of you are still here with that had the concerns and everything that was spoken about is very valid and appreciated and there's work to be done and a lot of discussion to be had it may have to be pushed back even farther and as far as a rezoning all those valid points regarding rez

» oning you know if we rezone it to general development you could do anything i think there's an opportunity for a development agreement with kershaw county and the landowner and the developer which is apparently an llc from charlotte that is going to be building and potentially holding the data center that could allow us to enter into an agreement to where if they did not complete the data center if they didn't do exactly what they told us they were going to do then nothing would change zoning would not change but i think that would have to be in a development agreement to be legal i'd like to ask our legal counsel is that correct am i using the right terminology i don't want to say the wrong thing because i know some things are illegal and some things are legal you can accomplish a lot in a

» development agreement it does provide more certitude revision of zoning again would be something i'd have to look at i don't know that i've seen a revision but certainly seen development agreements where a property owner and developer agreed to restrictive covenants that forego a lot of potential uses in the rezoned district again certainly something we can explore and discuss okay so i i would like to see a document that would protect uh kershaw county and the citizens if something were not to go through correctly i think that's only fair to the people that live in the community if this project were to move forward that it's not a bait and switch and that everything's done correctly and properly and that buffers and if there's any anything to do with sound any concern for sound all of that

» would have to be addressed uh before before i could support it so i know i got a little bit elaborate in my comments but i think it warrants an elaborate explanation as to where my thoughts are um closing on that i'd like to say thank you to all of our firemen and women that fought the royal textile mill we just lost a historical building i'm not sure how long it's been since they've ceased operations there but it hasn't been terribly long so i know that that was a catastrophic loss for a company for holdings company and um i know there's big pieces of ash all over the city um pretty catastrophic and the fact that they got it put out and no one was harmed that i've heard of is fabulous i think they just did a great job and i just wanted to highlight them and their efforts and the way everyb

» ody i'm sure collaborated because one fire department didn't do that that was a huge collaboration and just a real shocking event so um councilman cato i wanted to thank you for the work you do with uh caset water if i'm not mistaken don't you work with the or connected to you're with bethune um i reached out to you in an email regarding caset water for liberty hill and i think you you said you could help with that okay you live you live a little bit more in that world than than i do um liberty hill has some concerns regarding fire hydrants that they're not sure if they work they're on the fringe of the county will glover gave me some great information i would like to plan a town hall sometimes maybe early to mid-november and have as many ems fire and rescue providers there to work with the

» community and i'd like to find out if the fire hydrants are actually are actually serviceable and wet and have water to them and i think it would take maybe a collaboration from kershaw county and um cassette water i believe is the provider so um senator you being here i'd like to invite you to that town hall i'll reach out to you in private and glad to see you tonight didn't see you in the back back there for the longest didn't know you were in here so appreciate you being here tonight um appreciate what you do and the fact that you go to columbia every day is uh quite the haul ginger farmer uh happy birthday to you she's still in here hey yeah she's quiet by there happy birthday to you um and with that that concludes my report thank you thank you mr brazel um i really don't have anything

» tonight i know that surprises y'all i'm typically long-winded so with that we will move to administrators briefing mr templar you you have anything for us yes sir just real quick uh i always give these uh updates on projects and everything so i figured i would just switch it up a little bit throw some completion aspect ratios to these so boat ramp is about 99 completed we'll work on punch list material or items rather for that we will work on a a ribbon cutting over there because it's going to be a really neat facility over there uh woodward park improvements 50 to 60 percent overall um again the uh finish line is 3 january 2026 so 60 overall but there's a lot that's a very busy 60 we've got buildings going upward irrigation curbs sidewalks uh utilities being installed inside the buildings

» that have been uh completed so moving on to boyd young and copeland parks are about 90 complete there was just a lot of site work out there fencing uh lighting and things like that so that that was a little bit uh quicker out there that is november 8 is the estimated completion date there uh plus or minus of with all of these dates with obviously rain and other kind of issues uh you know just going back to woodward park we talk about the things that uh we that were unexpected and things of that nature we went to go drill for uh water for irrigation out there and i think we hit rock at 15 feet so hopefully it was a boulder i don't know we'll see maybe we get past it and we don't have to go all the way through rock to get down to water so it's the uh unknowns when you're going underground ker

» shaw west parking lot and driveway is about 85 percent complete uh there's a lot of grading and storm walks driveway uh all of the uh amenities that goes with that uh proof rolls and things of that nature so that one's gonna look to be completed november seventh uh now with a lot of these we are racing the uh paving season we don't get to pave all year round because of the temperatures that need to be existing about 50 degrees or so above and uh when we want to pave if we want to have a quality application so gives you a little bit of uh some kind of percentile of where we are on that and i'll include that in my friday brief to y'all the royal textile thank you mr brazel for pointing out the the amazing work done by everybody involved uh the uh there's a statewide mobilization to get uh ass

» istance from other departments that's how large of a fire that was absolutely lucky to have uh will glover on our team uh he comes from Sumter, and those were not a rare occasion over there, so he had experience in that. Of course, the other folks coming from Sumter, Lee, Lancaster, Lugov, Camden. I thought there was a Columbia or a Lexington, but I'm not sure. They needed aerials over there.

» Unfortunately, we did lose a really, really neat building built in 1905, and it took something that hot and that devastating to take that thing down so big loss to the community fortunately no one was hurt uh continuing to go with the investigations over there that was a city function everybody else was assisting but that was their fire ground but i was proud of our team for being able to lean in and all fire entities in kershaw county to lean in and go over there and respond safely so amazing work by everybody that is my report sir thanks for mentioning that you know a lot of memories were lost too uh my dad and so many others in kershaw county that was either their first job or something like that a lot of hard labor put in over there at the mill and um was just kind of commiserating with

» my dad over lost that building thanks for your report and just on behalf of the council i know i can say we appreciate the uh the weekly reports we're getting in written form that's been very helpful very helpful mr dubose any legal briefing beyond what we have for executive session nope standard response executive session all right with that gentlemen we have three items for executive session uh a is a personal employment matter b is regarding a matter subject to attorney client privilege and c is a personal employment matter all under section 30-4-70 of the sc code for the public benefit and before we have a vote we're going to executive session we anticipate a possible vote on item number 14c possible vote on item number 14c is there do we have a motion to go into executive session i'll

» make a motion we're going executive session mr cato second mr tucker has a second any discussion seeing none we move to a vote on executive session raise your hand if you're in favor ms hannett's unanimous on executive session we are in executive session seek a motion to leave executive session i will make that motion we have a second second there's a second any discussion seeing none all in favor of exiting executive session raise your hand we are out of executive session only thing left is to adjourn is there a motion to adjourn make a motion we adjourn mr. Cato is there a second second we have a second see any discussion there's none move it to a vote all in favor it passes by those who are present and voting