Downtown parking. Keeping the Complex? More homes. Where Fort Mill candidates stand.

Five candidates for two seats in Fort Mill, all looking for enough votes Nov. 7 to take their place on Fort Mill Town Council.

Incumbent Trudie Heemsoth faces challengers Julia Beilsmith and Patti Rumsey for an at-large seat. Incumbent Larry Huntley takes on challenger John Beilsmith, Julia’s husband, for Ward 3. Councilman Jamie Shirey runs unopposed for his Ward 1 seat.

So, what are their takes on some of Fort Mill’s pressing issues just ahead of the election? Take a look in part two of our two-part series based on an informal roundtable discussion we invited the candidates to recently:

Parking on Main

Downtown is an up-and-coming area of town. Candidates want to keep that momentum going. For Rumsey, downtown was a first stop when she moved here.

“I went downtown, and I just started introducing myself to downtown merchants,” she said. “My heart is downtown. I want to live in a place where I can easily walk downtown, I can easily walk Main Street, I can see businesses thriving. That’s the kind of legacy I’d like to leave to my children.”

But with new restaurants and businesses in recent years — and a restaurant, brewery and bakery on the way — there is a growing problem that doesn’t quite fit into little white lines.

“We realize that there is a problem with parking,” Heemsoth said. “Nobody knows that any more than we do.”

Parking is the main concern Rumsey said she hears from merchants, and getting people to understand there’s parking to the rear of businesses “is a little tricky.” One suggestion? Putting more parked cars and fewer driving ones on Main Street.

“I think the biggest thing would be to take that state highway back out,” Rumsey said. “In other words make that not a state highway. Is there a way that we can make that just walking, or a one-way street?”

Heemsoth and Huntley say council members have discussed making Main one-way. Heemsoth said that conversation has come up “numerous times” over the years and there “are a few things in the works” related to traffic flow on main. More detail comes in another parking solution.

“We are thinking about making parking over there (below) where the veterans memorial is,” Huntley said.

Heemsoth said council isn’t considering paving it.

“At this point we’re not looking to do any paving or anything, but we’re looking at possibly putting down gravel,” she said.

Part of the reason involves the somewhat sloped site, beside a large hill leading to train tracks.

“One of the biggest producers of stormwater runoff is asphalt parking lots,” Huntley said. “So that’s why we’re thinking about doing gravel, crushed stone.”

Rumsey said it bothers her so few people know they can buy a cup of coffee on Main inside an art gallery and studio, or find decor and other items. She wants the town to shift the way it thinks about its downtown. How to attract more small business?

“Making a beautiful space for them is really important,” Rumsey said.

The Complex

It hasn’t been a gathering spot quite as long as Main Street, but for decades the recreation complex on Tom Hall Street has been a central amenity for the town. It hosts youth sports. Seniors and swimmers congregate there. Tennis is there, as are trails leading into the Anne Springs Close Greenway. Yet its future is uncertain.

The 40-year-old facility, now known as the Anne Springs Close Greenway Recreation Complex, would need a major capital investment to operate past 2020. In communications with members, Leroy Springs & Co. has indicated it could sell the property and invest proceeds into its newer, larger recreational offering — the Anne Springs Close Greenway.

The town signed a 10-year lease on the facility in 2010. Meaning the incoming council members could decide what comes next.

“It’s an exciting opportunity for us,” Julia Beilsmith said.

“For us to keep it, and then add onto it. To divert some of the traffic, allowing people to bike to work across, through the Greenway if we put paths through there. It would be an excellent opportunity for us to take some of the pressure off the roadways.”

She favors the town working with Leroy Springs & Co. to preserve a site people already know and enjoy.

“We have a great opportunity to make it an awesome space for people that like the outdoors and want to not drive to work every day,” Julia Beilsmith said.

If incumbents are a little mum on the future of the complex, there is a reason for it.

“There is discussion going on,” Heemsoth said.

Council has met in executive session during recent months to discuss contractual matters with the company, though information from those closed door meetings doesn’t indicate if it’s the complex specifically being discussed. At its Oct. 23 meeting, council had an executive session item to talk about a “proposed contractual matter” with LSC and the Fort Mill School District.

At one point the town proposed using school district money for an aquatics center, already approved through a past bond referendum, to upgrade the complex and its existing pools. Town leaders have stated they would like to keep the complex open — if possible.

Without getting into details, Huntley said Julia Beilsmith “might be predicting the future” with her comments about keeping the complex.

Heemsoth said it’s clear to current council members that town residents would like to keep it.

“Just go out there and talk to some of the ladies that do ‘swimnastics’ in the morning, and tell them that it’s going away,” she said. “You will hear some things.”

What’s more definite is, at one point, the town had an opportunity to take ownership. Leroy Springs & Co. offered the town the complex building, but not the surrounding land including ballfields, in 2009. Huntley is the only candidate now who was on council then.

“It wasn’t a very good deal at the time, and I voted against it,” he said.

Huntley didn’t like how that proposal could’ve put the building in town hands for 50 years, but if LSC didn’t like something the town was doing, it could take it back, he said. Discussions now, he said, are “totally different.”

“It’s just a whole different ballgame now,” Huntley said.

Town land for sale

A recent hot button issue involves town-owned land that could be developed into a new residential subdivision. Eight properties at almost 90 acres were submitted for annexation, with Fort Mill owning about two-thirds of the acreage as a former landfill. Recent plans would have 133 homes there.

John Beilsmith, who lives in a subdivision beside the property, said he’s approach the issue the way he would other growth-related cases. He would want details, and to listen.

“I would want to hear from the fellow citizens,” John Beilsmith said.

The site in question has limited access, which is why the town has owned it for but not used it in years. John Beilsmith wants to know what the developer would do for access, along with related questions, before deciding whether to proceed with the new homes plan.

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t be,” he said. “I mean, yeah, hey if it’s going to bring money to the town and it’s going to bring good residents to the area, then I’m for it. But what are we doing, what are we requiring from that builder or from that buildout that may not happen for 10 years, 20 years? What are they going to do for the community to better it?”

Julia Beilsmith said having a county or other planning board come in when the town owns the property, could help. She has concerns about conflicts of interest. She likens a decision by the town on selling, annexing and rezoning to a bank choosing its own zoning for land it owns.

“I think that’s how we’re looking at it as a community,” Julia Beilsmith said.

Often, a case in favor of new residential projects in Fort Mill is, without annexation the town doesn’t have a say on what gets built. Huntley referenced a past case in which the county allowed mobile homes and about four times the number of homes ultimately approved by Fort Mill with an annexation and rezoning.

“I don’t think you want to get the county involved in this,” He said.

Much of the property from the ongoing decision lies in floodplains. Candidates say they’d like to see the best use of land there, where homes can’t go.

“That’s what they do with a lot of floodplains,” Julia Beilsmith said. “They put soccer fields or ballfields. It’s totally usable property that way.”

Realtors on council

With so much attention on the residential market and marketability of Fort Mill, candidates say they aren’t overly concerned with real estate agents serving on council.

“Knowing the mayor is a real estate agent, that’s a big deal,” Rumsey, herself a Realtor, said. “But from what I saw from attending town meetings, is that they’re going to call each other out. The council doesn’t have a problem holding each other accountable.”

Builders or building industry professionals on planning commissions has been a similar topic at the county and local levels of late. Mayor Guynn Savage and Councilman Jamie Shirey work in real estate, but Heemsoth is more concerned about the people they are than their business cards.

“It depends on the individual council member,” she said. “We have two on the council now. And those two people, I have all the confidence in the world. I don’t think that they would do anything that was not qualified or was not just.”

Rumsey said voters have to trust the people they vote for, regardless of occupation, will make decisions in the best interests of the town. Some candidates say at least some knowledge of real estate could serve the town well. Huntley, whose first house cost $15,500 and can’t imagine the prices now, said the public push to approve fewer homes on larger lots could have impacts beyond just reducing residences.

“With the land value like it is in Fort Mill, if you have three houses per acre or less, you are talking about a $300,000 house,” Huntley said. “You have to. And what we’re doing is pricing out newlyweds that are just coming in. That’s something we need to think about.”

Rumsey said she already sees issues with people looking for lower-priced homes in Fort Mill.

“We get clients that call and I don’t have an answer for them in Fort Mill,” she said. “There is not $130,000 answer for them in Fort Mill.”

Branding Fort Mill

Various communities brand themselves, through festivals or funding certain types of tourism. So, how should Fort Mill brand itself?

“We’re an excellent place to raise a family,” Julia Beilsmith said.

With the Anne Springs Close Greenway and festivals here, plus lower taxes than Charlotte and a strong school system, she sees a family-first vision for the town.

“We have cool things to do, and you then have the availability to drive to Charlotte very easily if you want to go see a show,” Julia Beilsmith said. “There’s plenty of opportunities for that.”

Heemsoth said the Greenway and the school system are “two of the bigger draws.” Rumsey agrees. They’re the reason she moved here.

“Schools, again, was probably the cement,” Rumsey said. “But honestly Anne Springs (Greenway) was my deciding factor.”

Even with all the difficulty planning for and dealing with growth, Huntley sees some value in being known as a growing community, too. He sometimes speaks with elected officials from smaller, more rural areas in the lower part of the state through municipal events. Areas seeing nowhere near the community growth Fort Mill is.

“They would give their left and right arm to have just one of our problems,” Huntley said. “And they would love to have them all. To them, a traffic jam is when you see more than three cars at any one time.”

This story was originally published October 24, 2017 at 2:52 PM with the headline "Downtown parking. Keeping the Complex? More homes. Where Fort Mill candidates stand.."