Fort Mill will get more of a say in how federal dollars are spent on roads.
The local group in charge of federal transportation money will grow. So will Fort Mill’s input in those decisions.
Given population change from the 2020 Census and increasing road needs throughout urbanized York and Lancaster counties, the Rock Hill-Fort Mill Area Transportation Study will expand its policy committee. Fort Mill will gain influence, as will the area of public transit.
“It is going to be more important in the years ahead,” RFATS administrator David Hooper said of transit.
What is the policy committee?
Public officials and transportation experts make up the policy committee that decides how to allocate federal transportation dollars throughout Rock Hill, Fort Mill, Tega Cay, Lake Wylie and Indian Land. The group updates its membership after and based on decennial census data.
Prior to Friday’s vote, the committee had 12 members. The mayors of Rock Hill, Fort Mill and Tega Cay serve. Two York County Council and one Lancaster County Council members serve. So does the Catawba Indian Nation chief, plus two state legislators and one representative from the South Carolina Department of Transportation.
Rock Hill had two additional representatives, both Rock Hill City Council members. One served a dual role as a transit representative when federal requirements changed in recent years to require one.
Historically, areas like Tega Cay, the Catawba Indian Nation and even Fort Mill haven’t had the population figures to warrant a full seat on the committee. Larger areas like Rock Hill and York County ceded some of their already multi-seat representation to bring in voices from those smaller areas.
The committee decides RFATS decisions that, along with groups like Pennies for Progress and the state infrastructure bank, fund many of the largest and most expensive road jobs in York (or Lancaster) county.
What changes?
A decision Friday will expand voting membership from 12 to 15 seats. Fort Mill, York County and Lancaster County each add a representative. SCDOT loses its voting seat and becomes an ex-officio member, so Fort Mill can have a second seat despite population figures that still put it closer to one.
Hooper said separate federal changes mean public transit decisions moving forward will be made out of the Rock Hill metro rather than a combination of Rock Hill and Charlotte, as it most recently was.
“That’s fundamentally different,” Hooper said.
The added Fort Mill seat comes in part due to geography, not just population counts.
“There’s a strong argument for doing that, outside of these numbers,” Hooper said.
Fort Mill road impact
Massive York County population growth in the past decade can be misleading, Hooper said, as it’s largely concentrated in unincorporated Fort Mill. Areas like Baxter, the Carowinds corridor and the I-77 area between Fort Mill and Tega Cay are drivers of the extra county seat on the policy committee.
Plus, Fort Mill is central to the planning area for federal resources. It’s between the massive Charlotte area and Rock Hill, the most populous area in York County. Traffic from Tega Cay on one side and Indian Land on the other puts pressure on Fort Mill.
“Fort Mill, whether it wants it or not, is going to have through traffic traveling through its jurisdiction,” Hooper said. “It’s a daily reality.”
Fort Mill has three major interstate interchanges. It has the U.S. 21 corridor, identified by planners as the likeliest route for future mass transit to connect the Charlotte and Rock Hill metros. Fort Mill Mayor Guynn Savage said population counts strictly within town limits don’t account for all those factors.
“It doesn’t take into account trip counts,” Savage said. “And trip counts (through Fort Mill) are excessive.”
Catawba seat, plus York and Clover
There were options presented that would’ve created further change, from Tega Cay not having a full vote on the committee to Catawba India Nation having none at all. That plan gathered no support. Policy members said partial votes aren’t preferable and the only federally recognized tribe in South Carolina is significant to the area beyond its sole population count.
Chief Bill Harris said similar discussion happened in past decades when the group reorganized its membership.
“The consensus came down to, the Catawba does bring something to the table,” Harris said.
In recent months there’s been discussion related to Clover and York. Both have population bases now that could warrant their inclusion in the RFATS planning area. Yet, Hooper and other said, there are reasons Clover and York may not want to participate.
They operate now in a similar road funding setup, but for rural areas. Clover and York roads would likely fare better on prioritized lists with similar rural projects, the thinking goes, than they would in comparison to much larger projects in Rock Hill or Fort Mill.
There was some concern from the committee about growing membership. State Sen. Michael Johnson recalled times when he served as a York County representative, and there were proxy votes from certain areas as member didn’t make all the meetings.
“I worry that growing the group is going to create further problems,” Johnson said.
Hooper said participation is a concern, given the type of transportation decisions that likely await in coming years.
“The decisions are going to get harder at this point,” Hooper said, “not easier.”
