Petition will ask taxpayers to fund new sports complex in Lake Wylie

Taxpayers don’t often get the chance to choose directly what taxes they want to pay.

But residents of Lake Wylie will get that decision when a petition begins circulating to pay for a new sports complex.

York County Council on Monday will consider giving its approval to a petition to circulate in 11 voting precincts in the Lake Wylie area. If 15 percent of registered voters in the area sign on, all voters will have a chance to approve a special tax district to fund the multi-sports complex that would be built near Crowders Creek Elementary School.

A private planning committee would have called the facility the York County Sports Complex. But the county council will discuss dropping the “York County” from the name after council members voted to cut back the county’s contribution to the project.

The committee had requested $4.9 million from county hospitality tax funds to pay for basic construction costs of athletic fields at the site. Instead, leery of taking on responsibility for a new facility, the council voted in December to provide only $2.45 million for the project. Proponents estimate the total cost of the complex at $6.9 million.

Ron Domurat, who chairs the committee behind the complex, said he now prefers to call it the Lake Wylie Sportsplex.

“(Councilman) Chad Williams recommended we change it at the last meeting just because it’s not county property,” Domurat said.

Instead, voters will have to decide whether to pay for it themselves. A special tax district would be created along the lines of the Bethel Fire District for residents to pay for a 10-year bond, which Domurat previously estimated could cost $16 a year for the owner of a $100,000 home.

If the minimum number of voters sign the petition – 2,751 based on the most recent rolls – Lake Wylie voters will decide in November whether they want to take on the cost of the complex themselves. The county hospitality money is contingent on the tax district being approved.

Fall is later than committee members had hoped to get the issue before voters, but Domurat thinks it’s worthwhile to get the increased attention from sharing the ballot with a presidential election.

“It puts us about six months behind,” he said. “We had hoped to break ground in the spring of 2017 and be open by August... . Now we may not be able to open until the spring of 2018.”

That causes Domurat some concern, since another condition of the hospitality funding is that it be spent within 18 months. “We may need some leniency on that,” he said.

The proposed tax district would cover an area running from Paraham Road east to the lakeshore between the state line and the boundary with the Rock Hill school district. Voting precincts within the district – the ones targeted in the petition drive – would be Allison Creek, Bethel, Bethel School, Lakeshore, Mill Creek, New Home, Pole Branch, River’s Edge, River Hills, Rock Creek and Wylie.

This story was originally published January 31, 2016 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Petition will ask taxpayers to fund new sports complex in Lake Wylie."