You’re wondering who to pick for Tega Cay mayor. How do you feel about new homes?

It took a dozen questions, even two posed one candidate to the other, but contrast emerged as Dottie Hersey and David O’Neal made their cases Monday night to be the next mayor of Tega Cay.

A packed Glennon Center listened as the two Tega Cay City Council members largely agreed on issues facing the city during a public forum, but one major challenge offered insight into how both might steer the city.

What to do with all this residential growth?

O’Neal, mayor pro tem and a retired U.S. Army veteran, has a clear philosophy.

“Whenever we annex a piece of property, it comes in complete,” O’Neal said. “It comes in ready, like a plug-and-play. Everything you get, you plug it in, and it works.”

He points to Windhaven, at one time about 400 planned homes where the city negotiated not just land but money for a park. Along with land for a water tower and school. Now the number of homes might be half the original amount proposed, which O’Neal likes, but the city could be on the hook for half the park money and the water tower.

“When I say ‘plug-and-play,’ that’s what I mean,” O’Neal said. “Everything that you need comes with it.”

Hersey said she and O’Neal are “of the same mind” with many in the community, in being concerned about residential growth. The eight-year councilwoman, also general counsel for an aerospace defense company, also sees a role for new rooftops.

“The Windhaven developer has provided land to us to build a water tower, they’ve provided land to us for our city lift station, and they have provided the land for a park,” Hersey said. “So while they didn’t perhaps give us everything that Mr. O’Neal thinks they should have or would like to see, it’s not always just that easy.”

Land for a middle school at Windhaven is “pretty priceless,” she added, and the city benefits when residential projects come into the city rather than residing just outside municipal limits. Hersey said it’s important to remember developers are companies with bottom lines, too. And without residential construction, commercial — probably the theme of the forum, which earlier included seven Tega Cay City Council candidates — won’t come.

“(Residential growth) that we’ve supported has really been as a draw for the commercial base,” Hersey said. “That is where the tax base can really be expanded.”

Still, O’Neal believes more can be done.

“Just giving us the land, to me, isn’t enough,” he said. “If it’s land for a park, it ought to be a park. If it’s going to be land for a water tower, it ought to be the water tower comes with it.”

The reason another water tower, for instance, is needed is because of the same development proposing land for one, O’Neal said.

“When you come to the table, you bring everything you want with you,” he said.

Hersey or O’Neal will replace George Sheppard, who ends his second term as mayor in the coming months. The candidates agree on many issues. Neither wants a proposed bridge from Rock Hill to Fort Mill, an oft-floated plan by the regional transportation group (Tega Cay has a seat) charged with allocating federal money. Both say the two city water and sewer systems should remain separate, and taxes should remain low.

Both want more commercial development.

And both candidates said they want improved collaboration with municipalities, their school district and other bodies in the area where decisions made impact Tega Cay residents. Hersey spoke about municipal alliances, perhaps for parks and recreation or commercial recruiting. Like reaching out to the Kingsley development in Fort Mill for ideas on how they are bringing in companies.

“We live all around each other and among each other and between each other,” Hersey said. “We need Fort Mill and York County, and to some degree even Rock Hill.”

Still, the difference between candidates could come down, for some voters, to the growth question.

“I want to take the city in a different direction,” O’Neal said. “I think we’ve had too much residential growth.”

Hersey questions how much difference that stance might mean for her opponent.

“We’re really almost at the end of the residential growth, so the fact that you’re coming in now to say that as mayor you’re going to change it or stop it, I don’t think is really possible,” she said.

O’Neal agreed decisions will be different, but he believes there is plenty left to decide.

“There is not a whole lot more we can do,” he said.

“There’s just not much left, but we can increase lot sizes. We can increase setbacks. We can stop the high-intensity, the very compact growth versus more separation between houses. Maybe going to traditional houses if we have to do any houses at all — and concentrate on commercial.”

Concentrating on commercial growth and infrastructure, Hersey agreed, is what the city needs. She believes that’s what she and council have been doing.

“We just need to keep it going in the same direction,” she said.

Hersey admitted after her first term on council, she was “naive on some things” but has learned plenty since. She plans to keep learning, and to take a big picture view of major issues facing the city.

“Governance is not really rocket science, but it is common sense,” Hersey said. “It’s an inquisitive mind. It’s a search for information, and it’s the ability to put all the puzzle pieces together and make a decision.”

This story was originally published October 26, 2017 at 7:18 PM with the headline "You’re wondering who to pick for Tega Cay mayor. How do you feel about new homes?."