York County Council rejects Knowledge Park agreement, will renegotiate with Rock Hill

After months of deliberation and review, the fate of Knowledge Park’s tax district came up for a vote before the York County Council on Monday. But rather than reach a final decision, council members voted unanimously to go back to the negotiating table with the city of Rock Hill.

Council members voted to reject a proposal from Rock Hill officials to extend the project’s special tax district for an additional 10 years, a proposal a special council committee had been reviewing since January. Instead, the council voted to have County Manager Bill Shanahan and County Attorney Michael Kendree renegotiate the agreement with the city.

The extension has been held up while the council weighed whether the county would forgo additional tax revenue for another decade in order to fund infrastructure improvements in the area once home to the Bleachery between Winthrop University and Rock Hill’s downtown business district.

In September, the council sent a letter formally objecting to the proposal, asking the city for more information. In January, the council set up a committee to review the documents the city provided.

Earlier Monday evening, that committee voted unanimously to reject a proposal from the city to extend the tax district out to 2039, and instead recommended to the full council that York County consider a new round of negotiations with the city. The committee of Christi Cox, William “Bump” Roddey and Robert Winkler met for about 45 minutes in executive session with the county attorney before taking a 3-0 vote to decline Rock Hill’s proposal.

“I’ve spent hundreds of hours looking at (what the city provided), and I still don’t think I have all the details I would need,” said Cox, citing specifically the city’s agreement with the developer which will not be finalized until the extension is in place.

“That’s like asking the bank for a loan without having the contract in hand,” she said.

The council met in executive session for 20 minutes to consider its options for renegotiating the city’s initial extension proposal. Roddey and Winkler both said they were in favor of some version of the tax district moving forward.

Both York County and the school district have to agree to forgo tax revenue for the life of the district to pay for any improvements the city makes.

Councilmen Bruce Henderson and Michael Johnson said they were not inclined to support the proposal as made by Rock Hill. Henderson said there was “no way I would want to approve this as is,” while Johnson said he would need to see “significant changes” to the proposal going forward.

City leaders in Rock Hill said the development plan for the former downtown industrial site is needed to attract businesses and boost economic development. Rock Hill Mayor Doug Echols was one of about a dozen people to speak about the extension prior to the County Council’s vote Monday.

“The public improvement is already underway, with road and sidewalk improvements, with streetscaping,” Echols said, “all in an area with the worst public infrastructure in York County, because it was the oldest.”

Echols said while the County Council was still in executive session that he is unsure what other information the city will be able to provide that it hasn’t already, but that the city is willing to give York County whatever it needs to feel comfortable approving the extension.

Many of those who spoke Monday night were in favor of the extension, including several Rock Hill business leaders who agree Knowledge Park would be a boon to the area’s economy. Rock Hill schools Superintendent Kelly Pew likewise spoke in favor of the park.

“We are successful if our kids are successful and stay in our school district and our community to work,” Pew said.

While those speakers didn’t get a definitive answer on Monday, council Chairman Britt Blackwell told his fellow council members the process by which York County dealt with the question has been an important informative experience for the public and the officials involved in making the decision.

“This is a great example of government the way it should be,” Blackwell said.

This story was originally published April 6, 2015 at 11:04 PM with the headline "York County Council rejects Knowledge Park agreement, will renegotiate with Rock Hill."