Lake Wylie overlay resurfaces for growth plan

York County Council isn’t any closer to limiting residential construction in Lake Wylie.

Council held a lengthy discussion Monday night on whether to bring up a new ordinance, just after a similar discussion on a moratorium for the unincorporated Fort Mill Township. Councilman Bruce Henderson proposed what he sees as a compromise for Lake Wylie between doing nothing and an all-out moratorium.

Not everyone agreed.

“This is basically another moratorium that’s going to slow jobs down and kill jobs,” said Councilman William “Bump” Roddey.

Roddey had another suggestion for limiting residential construction in Lake Wylie. One he’s advocated for some time.

“My easiest answer is, incorporate,” Roddey said. “Take your destiny into your own hands.”

Roddey believes Lake Wylie has enough people and a large enough tax base to create its own municipality. It’s unfair, he said, to have the county as a whole managing everything in Lake Wylie when Council members from outside areas have to make specific growth decisions there.

“It’s so unfair when we get so many issues from that area, and the solution would be if you had that municipality,” Roddey said.

Councilman Bruce Henderson, who represents Lake Wylie, agreed with some Council concerns regarding the Fort Mill moratorium. An overlay for Lake Wylie is a better fit, Henderson says.

“He knows his district better than I do,” Henderson said, referencing Councilman Michael Johnson who brought up the moratorium for his own district. “And I feel like that I know mine.”

Henderson’s plan would reduce building density of four residential zoning classifications within a new overlay to 25 percent of the land area or 35 homes annually, whichever comes first. It would provide for conditional zoning for multi-level, multi-family buildings and hotels to at least a mile from the Lake Wylie shoreline.

“I’m still trying to get my mind around limiting four areas, four zoning classifications, to 35 homes a year,” Roddey said. “I’m trying to see, what does that look like?”

Chairman Britt Blackwell and Roddey voted against first reading of the moratorium and said they wouldn’t support similar restrictions in Lake Wylie.

“I’m just not into government takeover of business,” Blackwell said.

Other members were more open to ideas. Some Council members wanted a group formed to look at the larger issue of growth management brought up by the moratorium, and say Lake Wylie should be included in that group’s efforts. Other members pointed to an existing document already laden with community input.

“If we can dust off the old overlay that we talked about before that we never got to vote on, let’s dust it off and bring it back out,” said Councilman Robert Winkler.

A Lake Wylie overlay was discussed last year as a means of limiting growth, but county planners opted not to bring it to Council in favor of land use changes that apply countywide. The discussion came as the county worked on its comprehensive plan and a separate land-use code overhaul.

In 2014, proposed overlay changes limiting residential construction stalled when the county planning commission voted not to recommend them to Council. A year earlier, the planning commission voted against a Lake Wylie Area Plan formed after numerous public meetings and workshops, ensuring the plan never reached Council.

Henderson, as recent conversation turned to more discussion and formation of groups to look into growth, argued Lake Wylie residents have had their hopes up too many times just to see the issue shelved again.

“We’re borderlining taxation without representation,” he said. “And it cannot, it must not and it will not continue.”

Councilman Chad Williams agreed with Winkler that reviving the most recent overlay discussion could be a step.

“That’s one of the opportunities we had to do something about growth, but didn’t,” Williams said.

For Henderson, bringing up the past overlay wouldn’t help. His latest plan is for a smaller area, fixing what he sees as a main reason the prior overlay failure.

“We knowwhat killed the last one was how big it was,” Henderson said.

Planning staff began looking into a larger watershed overlay for Lake Wylie last year as part of the decision not to incorporate specific Lake Wylie restrictions into the county overhaul. Audra Miller, county planning director, told Council she hasn’t made headway yet.

“I’ve not made any progress on it, but it is still on my agenda to do,” she said.

Miller said a larger discussion will be April 26 during a workshop on the new county comprehensive plan. That discussion “should result in ordinances” that will impact residential construction options in fast-growing areas of the county. Miller is concerned the comprehensive plan changes would be in conflict with the ideas Henderson presented.

The Councilman disagrees, saying people concerned about the negative business impact from a moratorium should see the value in what he proposes.

“Something has to be done to slow down,” Henderson said. “Well, here’s your compromise.”

This story was originally published April 21, 2016 at 10:29 PM with the headline "Lake Wylie overlay resurfaces for growth plan."