’Means everything’: York County residents cheer residential building ban in this area
York County hit the pause button Monday night on new homes and apartments in Lake Wylie. That’s a move many in the fast-growing community say is overdue.
“It’s just been a long time coming,” said York County Councilwoman Allison Love.
Council chambers swelled with applause at the final vote, which expands the Lake Wylie overlay district and halts rezoning applications through March 31, 2021. The rule prohibits new apartment, condo and townhome projects not already underway. It also increases minimum lots sizes for homes.
Lake Wylie residents began asking for similar rules several years ago. As an unincorporated area, Lake Wylie has the county council as its most local governing body. Love and predecessors to her seat representing the Lake Wylie and Clover areas repeatedly called for slowed growth, from minor changes to a moratorium.
At times those requests met resistance from others on council -- from concerns about creating rules specific to Lake Wylie to the impact building restrictions might have on business. Even the rules passed Monday drew some early concern about whether rezoning specific to businesses should be allowed.
“Not allowing those has concerned me some,” said Councilman Robert Winkler, who represents much of western York County.
Conversations with county staff since early readings convinced Winkler the right move is to limit all rezoning for the coming months. Many zoning districts allow various forms of residential and commercial growth, making it tricky to single out just the residential pieces.
“I’m going to support it as it’s written,” Winkler said.
Dozens of residents came in recent years to plead for tighter development rules. Dozens showed up Monday to applaud the decision. Resident Mary Williams echoed perhaps the most common concern in recent years — traffic — and thanked council for what was an arduous task to create the new rules. Resident and business owner Kris Frazier thanked council for helping the area catch its breath.
“It’s encouraging to me that the council is looking at studying, which is the purpose of this, studying what infrastructure needs to be improved, where we are, what we need to do and where we need to go forward to support our businesses,” Frazier said.
In a separate move, the county has ongoing work toward a new small area plan for Lake Wylie. It would have more localized development rules. It should be adopted in summer 2020. The county also could draft and approve further changes to the overlay district which now covers not just the S.C. 49 corridor, but works down S.C. 274 past Crowders Creek.
According to the county, there are more than 2,400 home and 250 townhome lots undeveloped but approved for development now. More than 400 more homes, 25 townhomes and almost 300 apartments have been proposed. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates Lake Wylie has a population of 12,170 people. That number is up 38% from the 2010 census.
Of note, the area considered Lake Wylie by the census bureau now fits the same geography as the expanded Lake Wylie overlay recognized with Monday’s council vote. The 2010 census count for Lake Wylie was the smaller geographic area that until Monday night, also fit the county overlay.
The task now for county leaders is to study and provide recommendations on the issues residents repeatedly bring to them — traffic from a road network built without so many people in mind, school population impact from so many homes and apartments, environmental concerns from growth pressures so close to Lake Wylie.
“I appreciate the patience of the people in Lake Wylie,” Love said. “There’s always a process that we have to go through. Some take longer than others, but it’s the end result that we’re looking for.”
While it took longer than she wanted, Love said the result Monday night will be a welcomed one for her constituents.
“This means everything to the people of Lake Wylie,” Love said.
