Hospitality tax group OKs $1M for Lake Wylie water park

York County’s hospitality tax advisory committee will recommend York County Council approve $1 million to fund the outdoor water park planned on Crowders Creek.

The recommendation will be presented to Council, along with questions for the water park project leaders, at the April 6 meeting.

“It’s just a good quality of life project,” said Tom Smith, who represents Lake Wylie on the committee, but recused himself from the vote because his company donated to the water park.

Clover School District and Upper Palmetto YMCA leaders pitched their plan March 17 at the committee’s meeting. The district committed to $14 million for an aquatic center near Crowders Creek Elementary School in a voter-approved March 2014 bond referendum vote. That money won’t pay for the $3.5 million outdoor features, including a water park and Olympic-size outdoor pool. The district will pay for the outdoor pool with reserve funds, but not the water park, which costs $1.7 million.

“The cost estimates to do the things we want to do is more,” said Superintendent Marc Sosne. “There is a gap.”

Frank “Moe” Bell, Upper Palmetto director, said the full outdoor offering will attract major swim meets and tourist dollars. The hospitality tax comes from a 2-percent charge on food and drink in unincorporated areas of the county, like Lake Wylie, and must be spent on tourism-generating projects.

“An outdoor pool, everything changes,” Bell said. “We think this pool will be the premier pool people will want to come to. We’ll be the preferred choice.”

Bell said four large swim meets a year would bring in 700 participants each. That’s 1,650 visitors spending more than two days at events and about $95 per day, or $1.57 million annually.

“They’re two- and three-day meets, and they’re not just a few hours,” Bell said.

Lisa Meadows, director for the Rock Hill/York County Convention & Visitors Bureau, echoed Bell in saying the actual economic impact could be higher.

“That’s probably a little bit on the conservative side,” she said.

Linda McCallum, director of the Lake Wylie YMCA, said the hospitality tax will see the benefit.

“You’ll have to go to local restaurants to eat,” she said.

The advisory group unanimously voted to approve $1 million. Bell asked for $250,000 per year for four years. The group will recommend $125,000 over eight years.

“We’re benefiting the people who are paying the tax and the residents who are paying the tax,” said group member Hannah Davis.

The YMCA still has work to do. It has $343,000 pledged from the community, leaving $357,000 remaining. Sosne said bids to build the aquatic center would be solicited within a week of the March 17 advisory group meeting, and opened mid-April.

County Council meets twice in April. Council’s decision will be a key factor in whether the water park is part of the plan when construction begins in May.

“We need to hear from County Council by the middle of April,” Sosne said.

This story was originally published March 18, 2015 at 2:30 PM with the headline "Hospitality tax group OKs $1M for Lake Wylie water park."