Impact fees, moratorium talks highlight neighboring trend in Fort Mill Township

Three communities, one concern — how to cope as more and more people come.

Monday offers a snapshot into the ongoing task local municipalities face in managing growth. A rundown of the day shows several strategies for keeping pace.

▪ 4 p.m., Fort Mill Town Hall

Fort Mill Town Council meets for a workshop on proposed development impact fees. Items include fee rates and a capital needs list for how the money might be used. Council should begin public hearings and start taking votes later this month.

Council began the impact fee discussion last year as a way for residential and other growth to help pay for itself. The two most problematic areas — whether the town could exempt schools from new construction fees and whether fees would stunt economic growth.

Business leaders recently came out against the fees, but the fees could provide much-needed cash for road construction and other improvements. Council can set overall rates, but they can’t pick and choose which new construction pays which rates. The town must decide if impact fee revenue outweighs potential setbacks in charging fees.

“You really can’t have both,” said Planning Director Joe Cronin told the planning commission last month. “You have to pick essentially one or the other.”

▪ 6:30 p.m., Lancaster County Council Chambers

Lancaster County Council has final reading scheduled for a moratorium in Indian Land. The plan would not allow rezonings in the area for nine months, and could be extended up to a full year. It does not impact ongoing rezoning cases, or ongoing construction.

The county planning commission recommended the moratorium 6-1. Council unanimously passed an initial reading June 22.

“The third reading for the moratorium is on Monday and it should be approved,” county planning director Penelope G. Karagounis said late last week.

The county also has final reading on amendments to a 411-acre on Collins Road, at Hwy. 521. The site received initial approval in 2008 and would allow for 510 new homes, 450 apartments or townhomes and almost 1 million square feet of business space.

There is a public hearing on Covington, which could bring up to 330 homes to Indian Land. Gross builders wants to rezone another property on Fort Mill Highway to allow multi-family housing. Plus a rezoning for property at Calvin Hall Road and Elven Drive in Indian Land, from commercial to multi-family residential.

▪ 7 p.m., Fort Mill Town Hall

Fort Mill Town Council meets in open session. On the agenda are four public hearings, an old business item and three new ones. At stake are annexations of a potential hotel site on I-77 and more than an acre on N. Dobys Bridge Road beside the new, under construction Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. Also, rezonings for an upscale senior living project at Sutton Road and River Crossing Drive, and two acres off of Bozeman Drive from commercial to residential.

▪ 7 p.m., Glennon Center in Tega Cay

The planning commission in Tega Cay meets to discuss and annexation and a code update to its comprehensive plan. The annexation of almost 14 acres off of Stone Village Drive would allow for a patio home project there.

*Note: The York County Zoning Board of Appeals deferred another major decision July 9 that could have an impact in Fort Mill. Owners of 216 acres at 278 Gold Hill Road are seeking an administrative appeal upon hearing land there would not allow for residential construction. Owners contend past decisions show the property would allow residential, a key component to selling the property. The zoning board should hear the appeal Aug. 13.

This story was originally published July 13, 2015 at 12:26 PM with the headline "Impact fees, moratorium talks highlight neighboring trend in Fort Mill Township."