Petition for Lake Wylie sports complex gets approval, amid questions over who will own the site

The York County Council has approved the first step in setting up a special tax district that would pay for a nearly $7 million athletic complex in the Lake Wylie area.

But council members on Monday night split in approving a petition drive on the question over concerns about who would ultimately run the complex. The county doesn’t want the responsibility, and another legal entity would have to be set up to manage the site before it could be built.

The site next to Crowders Creek Elementary School is owned by York County, but a private group called the Lake Wylie Sports Commission is organizing the drive for the sports complex.

Ron Domurat, who chairs the commission, said the Lake Wylie Athletic Association would manage the facility, “but it’s not our goal to own the park,” he said, leaving open the question of who would.

“If a child falls and breaks their leg, who is responsible for that?” Councilman Michael Johnson asked.

Domurat said the athletic association has general liability insurance for each sport it sponsors and usually gets waivers from property owners such as the Clover school district whose facilities they use. (Although Councilwoman Christi Cox, an attorney, said such liability waivers “aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.”)

Councilman Chad Williams hoped ownership of the site could be turned over to the tax district once voters create one.

“The district is the legal taxing entity,” he said. “It’d be like a fire district owning the fire house.”

The council split 4-2 in approving the petition drive, with Cox and Britt Blackwell voting against the proposal. William “Bump” Roddey was absent from Monday’s meeting.

Others said they were concerned about the ownership situation too, but as Councilman Robert Winkler said, “Right now, we just need to approve a petition that may not even get enough signatures.”

If the complex is ultimately approved by the voters, advocates hope the facility will drive more sports tourism into the area for games and tournaments. Domurat said the next step will be not only collecting signatures but raising an estimated $6,000 to fund the campaign for the sportsplex. Any leftover money would be donated to the Lake Wylie Chamber of Commerce. He doesn’t expect the ownership question to be a barrier to getting support for the complex.

The commission had requested $4.9 million from York County’s hospitality tax funds to pay for basic construction costs of athletic fields at the site. It seemed like a good fit, as the county collects the tax from restaurants in the unincorporated areas of York County, and the sports complex could pull visitors to eateries in Lake Wylie.

But the council was leery of taking on responsibility for a new facility the county won’t own, so in December the council approved only half the requested amount, $2.45 million.

The committee estimates the total cost of the complex to be at $6.9 million, meaning the special tax district will have to provide even more of the total funding.

Because of the funding situation, the council decided to drop the “York County” from the complex’s name, just to avoid any confusion about who runs the property. Instead, the facility would be called the Lake Wylie Sportsplex, Domurat said.

Petitions will begin circulating in 11 Lake Wylie-area precincts, along the same lines as the Bethel Fire District. If petitions are signed by 15 percent of registered voters in the area, or 2,751 people based on the most recent voter rolls, the question of creating the tax district will be placed on the November ballot.

Domurat previously estimated the project could cost $16 a year for the owner of a $100,000 home.

This story was originally published February 1, 2016 at 9:47 PM with the headline "Petition for Lake Wylie sports complex gets approval, amid questions over who will own the site."