Full meeting transcript - September 23, 2025

» - Good to go. - Good evening, everyone. Thank you for coming out tonight for our Kershaw County Council meeting, Tuesday, September 23, 2025. We've been called to order, and we're gonna be on the agenda. To start off tonight, we're gonna have the opening prayer and invocation and Pledge of Allegiance by Councilman Jimmy Jones. - Let's stand. Dear Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity to be here tonight to serve you, serve the people of Kershaw County. Dear Heavenly Father, also we ask that you will help us all show grace and mercy in all our decisions tonight. Help this county council to understand that we're here to serve the people, not be served.

» And dear Lord, I pray also, one thing on a personal note, Kasey Brouser, who's gone through a procedure, we ask that you be with her and help her healing where she may come and heal a lot quicker. Dear Lord, please let these council members see that all things are not just directly what they seem to be. To look into it and dig deeper and keep people first. Dear Lord, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. - Amen. - I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. - If I may, I was gonna pray that they listened to me, but I knew that wouldn't do any good. - You're doing a good job so far. Don't go too far with it. No, seriously, thank you for that prayer, Mr. Jones.

» Appreciate that very much. That's item number three, we're on to item number four, adoption of the agenda. Do we have a motion? - Make a motion we adopt the agenda as presented. - Okay, is there a second? - I'll second. - Do we have a second? Any discussion on the agenda? Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote. All in favor, raise your hand. It's unanimously handed by those who are present and voting with Mr. Brazel absent. I think he's taking care of a family matter briefly. That puts us on to item number 5A, it's a proclamation. I'll make a motion that we have this proclamation regarding the South Carolina State Guard and any presentations related there too. Is there a second? - I'll second. - We have a second.

» Do we have those who are participating present tonight? Yes, sir, please, we'd love to hear from you. - Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Higgs and my personal life, I get the privilege of serving as the Colleton County Administrator. But tonight and throughout this month, we're making our way around South Carolina to thank councils and communities such as ourselves. Number one, it's National Preparedness Month. So we wanna make sure everyone knows we remain ready and trained to the level should you need us, you can feel free to call upon us to help your communities. Moreover, we appreciate the recognition that you're providing to our organization tonight. We're mainly volunteers, we're all volunteer force, but we again, stand ready to serve as needed.

» So again, thank you. And we do have a Certificate of Appreciation for Kershaw County Council. And thanks for everything you're doing. - I appreciate that very much. Do you have any other members with you here tonight or is it yourself? - Stand alone tonight. - Well, if you'd like, come up real quick and we'll take a picture with you. - Yes. - How are you doing? - You're doing good? - You're doing great. - I appreciate you being here. - Good to see you, sir. - The meeting will be a board, that's contact. - Start playing. - Give me that call for how it is back. So by the way, I want to say something about your state guard. When I ran the jail, you guys really helped and pulled us through a lot of days when we had the Carolina Cup and special events like that.

» And I really appreciate the service y'all you gave us then. - Thank you for that, sir. We're ready and whenever you need us, give us a call. - Thank you. - Sir, just one moment. Now that we have Councilman Brousel with us as well, any other comments, questions, anything else related to the South Carolina State Guard? - Chairman. - Yes, sir. - They would actually send probably 20 people on the Carolina Cup day and they would work with me at the jail and I really, we couldn't have made it without them. So they really were a very important and integral part of our services that we provided back then. - Chairman, this is theirs, right? - Great. - First and foremost, I'd like to apologize. The frame didn't fit the proclamation. So Lauren and I had to work it into the frame.

» So now it's ready, we can present it to you properly if you like and we can get another photo if anyone's willing or that's up to the chairman. - If you want a photo for your sake, you're able to, but I just wanted to mention for the South Carolina State Guard from the Revolutionary War to now, just familiar with your leadership and volunteer efforts in part because Tom Mulliken used to be your general and for many years, he headed up those efforts, whether it was natural disaster or hurricane coming through, if somebody needed help somewhere, the South Carolina State Guard would step up. These are folks who have full-time jobs or retired and they show up in South Carolina and in the hinder parts and in the near parts to help however they can. And so we also want to present you with this.

» Do you have any desire for another picture? - I'm all for it. We're gonna put it all on our social media and everything. - Now that we got Russell, we'll do that and have you hold this one. And let's move it to a vote. All in favor, it's unanimous, Ms. Hannah. - Thank you. - Thank you, council members, we're back on the agenda. This brings us to item number six, Mr. DuBose for public comments. - Mr. Chair, members of council, we have 11 speakers signed up tonight. I believe IT has a program timer that will equally divide the 30 minutes. - Okay. - First speaker is Dwayne Gary, mobile home intake. - Okay, great, just remind the public, this is the time to hear from the public, from council. It's not a question and answer. And we look forward to hearing from Mr. Dwayne Gary.

» Come on up, Duke. - How's everyone doing? - Good evening, Duke. - Good. - Thank you for giving me the chance to talk tonight. I wanna talk to you all about a mobile intake that the South Carolina Office of Resilience is having in Kershaw County on October the 9th and Elgin at their community center. - We're taking mobile intakes for families who have had damage to their home because of Hurricane Helene. We're working with families to help make them whole again, whether it be financially, but we don't give money. We just help build, we get resources, and we work with a lot of state agencies and other people, and we have a three-step program that we enroll people in to help become whole again because of the hurricane. So again, we're having it on October the 9th from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

» in Elgin, South Carolina at the community center. So if you know anyone or you yourself need help from-- - What time was that again, please? - It's from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. - Thank you. - So if you know anyone that needs any type of help or you yourself need help, please come out, fill out an intake application, and one of our disaster case managers will get in touch with you and we will help you on your road to recovery. - Mr. Gary, you have a minute and 20 seconds left. Can you please explain the type of citizens that you're looking for real quick and what the process will take for coming in? - Sure, the type of citizens that we are looking for are low to moderate income families that do not have the means to financially rebuild themselves from the hurricane.

» And we will need things, they have to be home owners. We have different categories. We have four tiers. The most serious tier is a destroyed home. And I am in charge of destroyed homes. So every application that goes through the SCORE program goes through me first and I send it up the chain. - Thanks so much for the information tonight. - All right, so hopefully we'll see you all out there. Tell someone and we will be waiting for you. Thank you. - Thank you, Duke. - Thank you, Duke. - Mr. DuBose. - Next speaker is Zakiya Mickle, Zoning Data Center. - Ms. Mickle, what's the next name on the list? Ms. Mickle Yields, I guess. - Got it, okay. Next speaker is Benjamin Mingo, Zoning Data Center. - Mr. Mingo.

» - Members of the council, I stand before you today, just wanted to make some comments in reference to the proposed data center that is coming to Kershaw County. I just wanted to ask the council, have you considered the ecosystem that would be affected by this? Have you considered the environment that would be affected by this data center? Have you considered the economic impact that this data center would bring and have in our county? Have you considered how it's going to affect the citizens of Kershaw County? Have you considered if the benefits of this data center will outweigh the burdens that it potentially could bring? I also, Ms. Mickle, I would like to just introduce her.

» She's from the NAACP South Carolina State Conference, and she's going to share some more information with the public and with the council, how this can bring negative impact to our county. So if you haven't considered those things, we ask that you please, and I pray that you consider and look at all of the detail before a decision will be made. Thank you, sir. Ms. Mickle, was it? Yes, sir, Mr. DuBose. Yes, ma'am. Go ahead. Let's stop one moment so the public can hear. Do we have a cell phone or something on off? Thank you. Go ahead, Ms. Mickle. Thank you. Good evening, members of the council. I'm Zakiya Mickle, the environmental justice chair for the SC NAACP state conference.

» At first, I'd first like to take a moment to recognize the leadership of President Murphy of the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and President Mingo of the Kershaw County branch of the NAACP for standing with this community in the fight for environmental justice. I'm proud to stand alongside them. I am not a Kershaw County resident, but I do have strong ties to this community. My parents bought a home in Kershaw County where they still reside when I was in middle school, and I often joke and say, we only slept here, as my mother is an educator and we were able to continue to go to school in the districts where she taught for her convenience.

» I spent most of my days in Richland County for school, sports, and family time, but I returned home every evening to the quiet serenity that Kershaw County offers its residents. The more I think about it, the more I realize it's not true that we only slept in Kershaw. We engaged our community, attending many events like the Lights of Blue Golf, the Elgin Catfish Stomp, and I even remember when Blue Golf only had the IGA. In the interest of time and an abundance of respect for the agenda, I'll try to be brief. Today, we're here to be sure that the council was positioned to make an informed decision about the rezoning of the 162-acre parcel of land located at 771 Park Road.

» Currently zoned residential, the land is being targeted by a Charlotte-based developer, pushing to rezone it industrial for a massive data center project. I'm sure we have some Carolina and Clemson fans here. We won't get into the particulars about how the season is going for either team at this time. This is just a demonstration, a point of reference. In case you're having a hard time like I did, imagining just how large 162 acres of land is. This parcel is equivalent to 123 football fields. A data center that would occupy that much land is massive. I want to be sure that I'm clear about all of the negative impacts any data center would bring to Kershaw County, but especially one of this magnitude. I'm going to speed up, I'm running out of time.

» Let's start with the environmental impacts. Clearing 162 acres of land will displace birds, animals, and other wildlife, while noise and constant light will drive them further away. Data centers operate 24 hours a day and require heavy cooling systems and backup generators that create constant noise. They also rely on large-scale lighting and security systems that produce steady light pollution. These effects harm wildlife and disturb the people who live near the site. Data centers rely on large diesel backup generators that must be tested daily or weekly. These tests release harmful gases, including nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and carbon monoxide. Exposure to these pollutants is linked to asthma, lung detection, heart disease, and increased risk of cancer.

» Children, the elderly, and people with existing health conditions are especially vulnerable. This site is less than 10 minutes away from Jackson Elementary School. And I'm going to speed up a bit about the energy and cost to residents. Data centers are energy hogs using large amounts of electricity to run their servers and to power cooling systems that prevent overheating. Utilities often pass the cost of this increased demand on to all ratepayers, which means everyday residents in Kershaw County will likely see even higher bills. I respect the space, so I don't want to continue to speak, but I have about two more minutes of remarks. Do I have the grace to continue? It would require a motion from the council to extend the time period if they wanted to. Mr.

» Chairman, I would like to extend that because Reverend Mango had a minute and 45 left on his time, if I may. Okay, you got a motion? Is there a second? Second. There's a second. Thank you. All in favor extending the time period for Ms. Mikkel by two minutes. Raise your hand. I appreciate it. It's extended. I'm voting against the data center anyway, it doesn't matter. Appreciate it. A data center this size will drive up resident bills as utilities pass on the cost of new power infrastructure and it will strain the grid for homes and small businesses, leaving Kershaw County less resilient during peak demand or extreme weather. Let's examine the economic claims behind this project.

» When we hear development, we think new jobs, but this project will create only about 15 highly specialized positions unlikely to go to Kershaw residents, along with temporary construction work that leaves permanent pollution behind. Finally, water system concerns. People living near existing data centers and other locations report sediment in their water and decreased water pressure so severe that they cannot flush their toilets. These issues raise serious concerns about what could happen to residents near this proposed data center site. It's important to note that this community is already the victim of existing environmental injustice, being that they're located right across the street from the landfill, which promotes similar disparity.

» During the zoning and planning commission hearing, the developers and their zoning attorney told the commission that this project would have a small footprint and would be tucked away. It was only after that testimony that one commissioner described it as a clean industry and another reinforced it by calling it very clean before saying, all right, we're trusting y'all on that, but you cannot tuck away 123 football fields worth of land, and that is the size of this small project. Trust is not a substitute for due diligence, and this community deserves facts, not just promises. You've heard all the risk and harm that a data center would bring to Kershaw County. Now it's up to you to be sure that you're protecting your constituents from experiencing the aforementioned.

» Given all the information that we shared above, we'd ask that the Kershaw County Council deny the rezoning request because a data center will raise energy costs, harm the environment, create an increase in health disparities, put additional strain on the water system, and potentially compromise the resilience of and put added burdens on nearby residents and schools. If for some reason the council is not inclined to immediately deny the rezoning, we would ask that the council request that the South Carolina Office of Resilience conduct a community impact assessment and a resilience assessment and share the results of these assessments with the community before moving forward. This is a vulnerable rural community already facing environmental harms.

» Kershaw County cannot responsibly move forward until it is clear and transparent about the impacts of a facility of this magnitude on residents and the environment. Thank you for your time and attention to this pressing matter. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Nicker. Mr. Dubose, who do we have next? Linda, Linda Kanatzer, public hearing is the subject. Ms. Kanatzer. We'll wake up now. Would you all please look at her? Bless you. Chairman Kanatzer, council members. The City of Camden has rescheduled a public hearing on a rezoning issue that was supposed to be held tonight. It will instead be held Monday, September 29th at City Hall. This has enabled many people to attend tonight's Kershaw County Council's public hearing on the comprehensive plan.

» Why do you say should this even matter to you? About a year ago, a group of us had to show up at the city planning committee. And they were talking about a historic equine property. And their comprehensive plan kept that property from being developed with 152 patio homes. Their comprehensive plan prevented that. The property involved in the city's request for rezoning is one that all of you are very familiar with. And quite soon, you will be dealing with the adjoining Kershaw County property. By knowing what will be coming your way, it makes the decisions this council is making regarding the comprehensive plan, the ZLDR, and our temporary moratorium extremely important. Please take the time to get this right. Thank you. Thank you for coming out tonight. Mr.

» DuBose, who's next? Andrew Whitaker, Kershaw County ZLDR, and then a few letters, Ant Discern. Mr. Whitaker. Good evening. The county council, I've seen you for a while. Russell, you've lost some weight. You're very good. Thank you for noticing, especially since WIS is here. I appreciate the opportunity to come here tonight to comment on the data center proposal preliminarily. Congratulations to you all on your near completion of the Kershaw County comprehensive plan, which aligns very well, I see, with Camden's comprehensive plan, which is great. I think we can agree that a good growth guided by a living document comprehensive plan is a smart, specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-based plan in any business plan evaluation.

» But just as important in helping evaluate either residential or commercial development proposals is a very strict ZLDR to ensure standards, site, materials, quality, irrigation, sewer, infrastructure, water, and electricity usage are all known and met. Has Kershaw County Planning and Zoning completed their new ZLDR? And if not, when? Of course, you don't have to answer. These are just questions you should be thinking about. Um, some questions from me as a catch-up for this data center. Why Kershaw County? The answer to me is clear: low cost to them, available land, low cost, huge quantities of water, and a perceived, on their part, limited regulatory resistance and environment. Who are Nexus Ventures LLC of Charlotte? They filed in September of 2024.

» What is their track record of performance for management team and for the company? Who are the equity stakeholders in Terra Networks Ventures LLC and what percentage of each? Are they really from North Carolina? Or is that just where they registered the LLC? Is Terra Networks LLC a vehicle to cloak private equity management stakeholders and track record? This is sometimes done in some places. I'm not saying necessarily in this instance is the case. But that is a methodology of private equity firms.

» When they were founded, how long have they been in the data center business? What are their other model examples of such projects that can be shared? Lastly, what are their one-year, five-year, ten-year water and electricity usage projections here in Kershaw County? And how are they, in a commercial ZLDR, being held to these projections, if it were to be approved, by Kershaw County Council and Kershaw County Planning and Zoning? Lastly, what are the dollar costs and the dollars returned to Kershaw County? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Board. Mr. Dubose. Next speaker is Lashawna Meagley. Ms. Meagley? Did I pronounce that right? Meagley? Yes. Thank you. Please, go ahead. Good evening, Chairman Connell and county council members. My name is Lashawna Meagley, and I am a resident of Cassett.

» As this body prepares to take action on the Kershaw County Comprehensive Plan and map amendment recommendations, I am here tonight to urge you to deny the related rezoning request, Case 2514, for the property at 771 Park Road, which is less than a mile from my home. This community is already carrying a heavy burden. We live near a landfill, and we deal daily with the environmental health and quality of life impacts that come with it. Adding another large-scale industrial project beside it would double down on the harm to a community that has already been asked to sacrifice too much. The recommendation coming before you from Kershaw County Planning and Zoning is not just about a data center.

» While the applicant says they want to build a data center, this rezoning would allow any type of general development use. Once the zoning is changed, there is no guarantee of what might actually be built. That's too much risk for our community to bear. That's the unknown risk. The known risk, the known environmental impacts of the data center, are serious. We're talking about increased noise, lights on 24/7, heavy truck traffic, strain on our water and electricity, and destruction of wildlife habitat. These impacts don't just change the landscape. They directly affect the health, safety, and property values of the family who live here. And let's be clear, the data centers don't bring many permanent jobs. In fact, this project is expected to only create 11. So the tradeoff is massive.

» Our residents face noise, traffic, light pollution, air pollution, and lower property values, while the long-term benefits to the community remain very limited. This rezoning would be an irreversible decision. Once the land is changed to general development, we cannot go back. We rely on you, our elected leaders, to protect the character of our community and to ensure that development is truly in the public's best interest. A core responsibility of your oversight of zoning is to protect residents from incompatible development. If the council allows this rezoning, you will not be protecting us. You will be placing yet another burden on people who have already born enough. I'm asking you to stand with the people that you represent.

» Protect our homes, protect our health, and protect our way of life. When this comes to a vote, do not approve this rezoning. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Meglin. Mr. DuBose, who do we have next? Next speaker is Lynn Conto, Data Center Comp Plan. Ms. Conto. Yes, ma'am. My name is Lynn Conto. I live at 1265 Sanders Creek Road, and I'm 2.6 miles from the data center. This is what a data center sounds like, 24/7. My husband, actually, I'm leaving it on so you can see what somebody would have to live with that lives near it. If you could, please lower it. The folks online won't be able to hear you at all. Oh, but they won't be able to lower it in the houses they live in. Well, we would just like to hear what your comments are tonight. I just wanted to prove a point.

» I had a phone call with my husband, and my husband rarely ever picks a side on anything. He just minds his own business. And he immediately said, "No data center. It'll affect people two to three miles away." I was like, "Wait, we're within two to three miles away." And so I started doing research. The pros and the cons of a data center. Necessity versus want. Somebody wants a data center, but we need clean air, a safe home to live in, and fresh water, plenty of water. And we already have a water issue because of Charlotte Water wanted to route it to another river. Air pollution that's caused by a data center is CO2 and greenhouse gases, nitrous and oxide. It also reduces real estate value for at least 30 plus people surrounding that area.

» So if this data center is going to provide 11 jobs, what about all the other houses that live around there and the value of those houses? It also uses high water consumption, strain on resources. It has been known to dry wells, reduce water pressure, deplete groundwater, and cause environmental hazards. There's high power usage that demands an increase on customer bills. I'm one of the customers in this area, by the way, so I'm not okay with that. Noise pollution is 24/7. There is a low frequency hum continually. There are sound readings. DBA is human audible sound that they hear, but there's also DBC readings, which is rumble or the feel that comes from that. This affects not only humans, but the animals in the area. Please do not do this to the people who live in this area.

» This is like a highway or train continually going by them nonstop. Would you want to live by a highway? I live by a train, but the train doesn't stay going all the time. It's twice or three times a day. Light pollution impacts bird migration near in our girl park. Maybe input impact human sleep patterns. And then you have the problem of what's going to happen with e-waste. Now, what is e-waste? This is when old technology is outdated and then they have to remove it. Are we going to absorb the cost? Is it going to go in our landfill? How are they going to get rid of it? It also has health risks, asthma, heart conditions, and cancer has been linked to these type of data centers. Now, all data centers are the same, but there are- Ms. Kanto? Yes.

» Do you need more time? We are happy to extend it, and I'm happy to bring that motion if you need more time to wrap up. Please. About three more things. Three more things. Well, go ahead. If it's just three more, you can wrap it up. Please do. Three short things. There are nine common health hazards or risks listed by job site care that you need to do research on. Also, you say there's going to be job creation, economic growth, but there are also going to be additional economic losses for the people in the community. So are you going to give to the people coming from outside and take from the people who live there? That's my concern.

» But what about security? You know, in a recent situation in Blythewood, there was a ransomware attack where group space bearers actually attacked a local data center in Blythewood. Now, they posted nothing actually happened, but it was actually put out in the news this actually occurred. There are a lot of factors we don't have any guidelines for in our community. And before you make any decisions, that's the first thing you need to consider is a guideline for any type of data center coming to the county. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Ms. Gonto. Mr. DuBose, who do we have next? Gwen Shannon, I believe his last name, utilities. Mr. Shannon? I think it's Gwen Shannon. Ms. Shannon? Yes. Ms. Shannon. It's Gwen. First name's Gwen. You're welcome, Ms. Shannon. Yes, ma'am.

» I have a small situation, and that is the utility bill. We have a fluctuating utility bill, and I'm not sure if it's because of the outages which are frequent in our area. And it's like you cannot budget yourself when the bill goes from 100 to 200 to 300. It's ridiculous. And you call and you cannot get an answer regarding what the problem is. So we would like to basically, in the Ninth Hill area, know what is going on. And hearing about the data center, it's scary. It is really scary. If we have 100, 200 electrical bills with this kind of project, we were looking at perhaps double. And the infrastructure in this area cannot handle that. So we're asking you to reconsider if you're planning to vote yes, to vote no. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Shannon. Mr. DuBose.

» Next speaker is, I believe, last name Mathias Carmichael, maybe. It's difficult to read the first name. Mr. Carmichael or Ms. Carmichael? Ms. Carmichael. Oh, you don't have to get up and talk if you don't want to. We're just happy to see your smiling face. Thanks for coming out tonight. That's a beautiful yellow shirt. Thank you. Mr. DuBose, who do you have next on the list? Next speaker is Mike Munn on data center. We'll follow up with him. Mr. Munn. Yes, sir, please. And did we get Ms. Shannon's phone number just so I can check? Yes, it's down. A couple council members. Sounds like Sammy has it. Yes, sir. Chairman, board members, I'd like to address the -- If you could pull the mic up just a little bit so we can hear you.

» I'd like to address the property which is less than a tenth of a mile from my house. I live on 732 -- It's right at my doorstep. There are just a number of things that I'd like to bring to the board's attention for you to consider. And I was a DOD employee for a number of years. I've been around contracting a number of years. I know a lot of contractors and I know how they get in the door and how they massage the system to their benefit. But anyway, the first issue is noise pollution. We need to consider whether they are going to have noise attenuation. The impact of the continual humming of the transformers and the data processing equipment that itself brings. The massive energy consumption is -- that's probably going to affect my utility bill, which is enough as it is.

» And I'm sure that it would probably use Black River Electric. Yes. Is that going to impact their capability to support the existing infrastructure or will they need to expand? Is it an additional cost to them? Or is this going to be covered by the development? The heavy water usage. The negative impact on the property value. I would expect that my taxes are going to increase. My value is going to decrease on my property since I'm a tenth of a mile from the property. The increased traffic during and after construction. There's always a delay or deferment in the transportation. The roadways are -- they're in fair shape, but I would expect that to probably triple. They haven't been paved in years. The increase of traffic during the construction. The interruption of the stop and go traffic.

» The new school, which is less than two tenths of a mile from there. That's going to impact them and all their kids and their transportation requirements. The environmental degradation. The loss of the green space. The loss of the natural habitats. The risk of the long-term damage to the aqua system. Many of these topics have already been talked about in some detail. And I'm not sure that the board members are aware of all of the intricacies that are included in the initial assumption and analysis versus the long-term growth and possible cancellation of this.

» What's going to happen if the company goes away? What are we going to do? The last thing, since I have four seconds, is don't we already have a county industrial pulp? Why would that not be considered as a place to put this data center? Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Munn. Mr. Dubose, by my count, we have one more speaker. Melinda Franklin-Moore, rezoning. Ms. Moore. Yes, ma'am. Good evening, members of council. I come to speak to you tonight about the rezoning request for the data center. And it is scheduled to be for general development. There is no such thing as conditional zoning. As other speakers have eloquently stated, you cannot put the genie back in the bottle. So this means if no data center is built or they decide to sell off some of this land, that's it.

» Anything and everything can go out there. And there's nothing that council or planning and zoning or anyone can do about it. Lest we forget about permit levels of waste disposal into the watery river. There's also the matter of the inter-basin transfer from Charlotte, which affects our water flow, our permitting levels, everything about our water. The permitting levels have a finite number. We haven't reached that yet. But in the meantime, if a new disposer comes online, then the other stakeholders have to have a decrease in their permitting level. Folks like Invista are probably not going to sit still for that.

» But I think we are trading our economic development future for what? Our economic development future is directly tied to the amount of waste that we can dispose into the watery river. Treated waste, by the way, not raw sewage or anything like that. And so if that those levels are exceeded or those permit levels are maxed out, we're done. We're done for economic development. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Moore. Mr. DeBose, one point of clarification. I think somebody signed up for the public hearing that's on the agenda, but it appears to be for public comment. Is that correct? Yeah, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I did note a Shonda Johnston signed up for the next matter on your agenda, the public hearing on the MCIP, but the subject was data center. So it may be there.

» I would love to exercise a little bit of grace if you intended to talk on the data center, or did you not intend to speak tonight? Yeah, now would be an appropriate time. What's the name again? Was it Shonda Johnston? Correct, Shonda Johnston. Okay. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Kershaw County residents deserve transparency about the proposed data center. There are no federal or state regulations for AI and no legal framework requiring tech companies to disclose their energy and water consumption. Presently, over 200 environmental safeguards have been rolled back since January of 2025, resulting in a surge of energy and water use that has caught the attention of scientists and lawmakers. Data centers use millions of gallons of drinking water to cool their servers.

» A mid-sized data center can consume around 300,000 gallons of water a day, as much as 1,000 U.S. households. Yet, despite the massive strain on the water supply, the companies operating data centers lack transparency about their water use. A holistic understanding of water stress levels require analysis of both the total use and consumption of water. Water consumption and water use both need to be measured. Most water used in data center cooling evaporates and is lost completely from the local water system. The water is used and lost, making it unsuitable for other uses like drinking or agriculture after its use in the data center. The question has been, why South Carolina? South Carolina has a great deal of water.

» We have over 14,000 miles of rivers, more than 1,400 ponds and lakes, and at least 10 acres in size, and 16 lakes are reservoirs larger than 1,000 acres, 10 acres or more in surface area. Our groundwater, drinking water, potable water supply includes six known aquifers on the southeast coast, three of them major aquifers in the coastal plain. Groundwater only exists, also exists in the Piedmont area. We are not likely to run out of water, at least not in the near future, but we must realize water is our most limited natural resource and prepare now to meet the future needs of our population, industry, and agriculture. We have and will continue to have sufficient water to use, but not enough to waste.

» The Southern Environmental Law Center, known as SCLC, is one of the nation's most powerful defenders of the environment rooted in the south with a long track record. SCLC takes on the toughest environmental challenges in court, in government, and in our communities to protect a southerner's way of life with regards to air, water, climate, wildlife, lands, and people. In March of 2025, the Southern Environmental Law Center did exactly what we need in Aiken County. Ms. Johnson. Yes. I was just going to mention, I see you've got multiple pages there. Do you need some extension? One more. Okay, go ahead. Okay. Under the Freedom of Information Act, the following records were requested, and I sincerely hope that this group will also request the same information.

» The data centers anticipated daily, monthly, and annual water consumption. Proposed or anticipated infrastructure upgrades. Any negotiations between Kershaw County and the developers of the proposed data center, including financial incentives, reduced water and electricity rates, and tax incentives for such. South Carolina is not likely to run out of water, but we do not have any to waste. Thank you, Ms. Johnson. Mr. Chairman. Mr. DuBose. Mr. Chairman. Point of order? Yes, could I please? My point of order one is a compliment to you, which I think you would appreciate. And also, it's just a legal question, which I pretty much know the answer to, but I think these people deserve it, and I think this council could hear it. One, I want to thank you for extending time and letting people talk.

» Yes, sir. I've been through a lot of chairmen's, and some have been as gracious as you, and I just really appreciate that. Number two, this is something, you know, county council, we set the policy. Mr. DuBose, staff put this on the agenda. We didn't put it on the agenda. We can instruct staff not to put it on the agenda and just be done with it, can we not? Mr. Jones, this is not on the agenda. The matter's not on the agenda. No, no, I said, but we can instruct staff not to put it on the agenda, period. We don't want to hear it. I believe a matter properly submitted and heard by the Planning Commission has to be referred to the county council for consideration. Well, I don't like that. Otherwise, governments just wouldn't hear things they don't want to hear.

» Okay, well, we'll hear it, and then we'll vote it down. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Okay, Mr. DuBose, that concludes public comment, correct? Correct. Do you have anybody signed up with the one adjustment that we had for public hearing 7A? Not any longer. Okay, I'll just go ahead and state it, and then we'll open up the public hearing. This is on item number 7A on the agenda. You heard Mr. DuBose call it MCIP, but for most of us, it's a multi-county business park with Lee County. It relates to economic development on a different project, and I will open up the public hearing. We've had no one sign up. Is anyone present who wishes to speak on item number 7A on the agenda? Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing on 7A.

» No, totally unrelated, different project, and anyone who wanted to speak could come up and speak on topics that were germane to the actual agenda item, but it's unrelated to any data center, and we don't have any data center on the agenda for tonight. So we'll close the public hearing on 7A. Mr. DuBose, do we have anybody signed up for the public hearing on 7B regarding the comprehensive plan? Yes, Mr. Chair, we have three speakers. First speaker is Linda Kanitzer. Public hearing is open. Ms. Kanitzer. Chairman Connell, council members. Throughout the county's comprehensive plan update process, I have been very involved. I've been attending planning committee, council meetings, and public forums.

» It was two weeks ago tonight, well, it was two weeks ago, when I was watching the planning committee meeting from the day before, that I learned the final draft had been posted on the website. During that meeting, it was stated that the final draft had been posted and no comments had been received, just maybe because no one knew about it. From what we had been told, the final draft was not to be ready until October. After spending over three hours reviewing the plan and noticing that many of my previous suggestions had not been addressed, I submitted them on the website. At the February 4th public forum, I told the consultants and planning committee members that the information on the polo field was incorrect.

» It is the second oldest active in the country, not the third oldest, which is still on the final draft. That seems like it's been some time ago, and it's been brought up many times, and it's still wrong. The sign at the polo field, as well as our current comprehensive plan, has it designated a historic property and the second oldest active in the country. This does matter. So why hasn't it been corrected? That's a small thing. It's in graphics. Change third to second. It's a big deal. I mean, if you were second in the country on something and somebody kept putting out that you were third, I mean, wouldn't you be a little upset about it? I would be.

» Also, why are the statistics on population, race and ethnicity, housing and housing values from 2021? January 1st of 2028, when this comprehensive plan takes effect, those statistics will be seven years old. That's pretty useless. There are omissions of important places in Kershaw County regarding economic development and support of local businesses. I really have a problem with the grossly overuse of the D words, diversity and diverse. I've suggested replacing those with varied, different choices, alternatives, options, et cetera, that aren't quite as politically motivated, I guess. When you discuss the second reading on accepting the comprehensive plan update, I request that each of you let us know if you've actually reviewed this document.

» I still very much prefer our current plan that remains in place for more than two years. It is very specific to Kershaw County's past, present and future. Isn't that what a comprehensive plan is supposed to do? Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Gnanser. Mr. DuBose. Next speaker is Di DuBose. Ms. DuBose. Yes, ma'am, please. Hi, Mr. Connell and County Council. First of all, I want to thank you, Planning and Zoning, for the time and work done on a new comprehensive plan. I particularly like the add-ons given to the rural estate districts and the equine overlays. However, I feel like Linda, it still needs to be tweaked as to several inaccuracies and emissions. For instance, one inaccuracy, most dangerous highways were cited I-20 and Route 521.

» My research indicates it's I-20, Route 97, Coon and Flat Rock Roads. In the vision section, I'd like to see added preservation and protection to those equine overlays such as the Springdale Racecourse, the Camden Training Center, the South Carolina Equine Park, the Hunt Country, etc. Under policies and land growth, I'd like to make sure that future growth does not impede the quality of services provided existing taxpayer citizens. Under economic development number, equine horse industry brings in $30 million a year to Kershaw County. This needs to be included. Under the urban section, tree buffer zones and footage to go along with that. And besides parks and pocket parks or boutique parks, tree buffers are highly important.

» Under the parks category, encourage dog parks for citizens, bird watching, walking parks. Another concern and omission, I feel, is regulations and guidelines for solar utilities and wind turbines. It's my understanding we already have four applications for solar utilities, but no guidelines and regulations. And I might be wrong on that, but that's for you to tell me. Because of the above cited inaccuracies and omissions, I would like to defer the second reading of the proposed comprehensive plan and take a bit more time to tweak the existing plan to make it more accurate and more encompassing. Thank you. Oh, and the last thing, PS, I would like to send a letter to council in planning and zoning indicating these inaccuracies and omissions.

» Because I did try in one planning and zoning meeting to express my interest in this. And I was told that they would get to me later and they never did. So I will send you a letter. Thanks for coming out tonight, Ms. DuBose. We'll look for your letter. Mr. DuBose, is there a last person signed up? Yeah, final speaker is Lynn Conte. Ms. Conte. Yes, ma'am. Sorry, I'm back. No noise this time. I do concur with Ms. Knatzer's statement that there's some inaccuracies in the comprehensive plan. That was a lot to address for a group of people in a very short period of time. We're talking about multiple years this plan is going to address. And a comprehensive plan is a vision for a community. And you are given that task to decide on the vision for our community. It's an extremely important task.

» It's like the holy grail for our community. Think about it. What if somebody came and wanted to put 10,000 homes in our community? Would you be okay with that? How much is too much? A comprehensive plan needs to address many things. I know it can't be specific in everything, but it does need to address what's coming. Like the new things that are coming. At one point, the horse and carriage was the means of transportation. And that went away. And cars replaced that. And now we have traffic trouble. But there are other things coming in the future, like data centers. In my neighborhood, it's solar farms. But we don't really have very extensive guidance for our solar farms, which concerns me. Everything needs to be environmentally sound. We have to have a limit on the number of sites.

» There needs to be transparency for companies. What's going to happen if they fold? What happens if they sell? Does the comprehensive plan address that? What consultants are you going to hire for future solar farms and data centers and turbine farms or whatever is coming next? Because I don't know what's coming next. But it seems like an awful lot coming lately all at once, which is a lot to address for even the group of you. So who are we going to hire to help to address those, to really know the information we need to know to address it properly? So looking through this, I noticed some of the things that were suggested. Perhaps a committee with a site selection consultant, a real estate consultant, an environmental consultant, a traffic consultant, and a health consultant.

» Because when you have this many things coming at one time, you have a lot of factors to address. And does the comprehensive plan address that? Because if you don't do it, this plan is going to affect us for what, the next 10 years? And we know something's coming. Are we ready for it? Thank you for your time. Thank you, Ms. Conto. Mr. DuBose, does that conclude? It does. Okay. No votes needed. Seeing no one else wishing to comment on public hearing 7B. No, you're able to come up and speak as long as we're playing the time period. If you would share your name, please. Oh, Alex Adams. Mr. Adams. I live in the county. So I'm kind of worried. But I was just, these two over here.

» What are y'all doing? You mean what are we doing? I'm just asking, because everybody else spoke and y'all looked y'all head down. Especially Schumacher. I'm just saying, like, if everybody's speaking their piece and telling what they feel about the situation, y'all should at least look up. At least to be worried. I'm taking notes. This is the comprehensive plan. Well, say that. And these are the notes. Because people were worried about what you were doing. Sir. It's like, we're worried about this area. Yeah. What's wrong with that? Sir, if you could, the comments need to be germane to item number 7B. Okay, my back. The comprehensive plan. Go ahead. I just believe, like, yes, we are worried about people that moved here. We all lived here, born and raised.

» And we just want the people that lived here to be able to afford the housing that lives here. And we're just worried about that. Like, yes, we want people to develop here. We like what's happening on Broad Street. But we also want to be able to afford to live here. And we understand that people that live in Camden, probably going to move out to Camden, or Cassett. But we just want to be able to afford to live there. But every time we turn around, there's a new housing development going there. So we just want to be able to afford those places. That's my whole piece. And I was just kind of worried about these two people up here. It's just kind of like being very dismissive of it. Because I sat next to the older ladies that were sitting here. And I just wanted to, like, speak their piece.

» So that's all I wanted to say. Thank you. Thank you for your comments tonight. Thank you. Okay. Seeing no further participation in item number 7B on public hearings, Mr. DuBose. I appreciate that very much. I appreciate that very much. Thankfully, I don't have to use that skill set in this room anymore. I appreciate you very much. Mr. DuBose, that concludes public hearing, correct? That does, Mr. Chair. We'll close the public hearing for 7B. Thanks, everyone, for coming out and participating. Gentlemen, that puts us back on the agenda for item number 8A, approval of the minutes. Do we have a motion? Make a motion. Make a motion. We approve the minutes. Mr. Kato has a motion. We've got a second. Any discussion on the minutes? Seeing no discussion, we'll move it to a vote.

» All who are in favor of approving the minutes, raise your hand. Ms. Hanna, it's unanimous. In favor, the minutes are approved. Thanks for putting that together for us, Ms. Hanna. Gentlemen, that takes us to item number 9A. This is a first reading on a rezoning. It's a half-acre parcel located at 1306 Skyview Drive in Camden. Yes, sir. Can we give them a chance to get out so we can hear what's going on, please? A lot of movement going on. Sure. Anybody else need to clear out? I don't want to get accused of something I'm not doing. Good enough, Mr. Tucker? Yes, sir. Thank you. All right. That puts us on the agenda at item number 9A. This is a first reading half-acre parcel located at 1306 Skyview Drive in Camden. The request is from R10 to B2.

» Before we move it to a motion or second, anything we need to know, Mr. Templer? No, sir, other than just this is a church wanting to utilize another part of their parcel in a consistent way with what they already have in use with the church itself. Okay. Do we have a motion on 9A? Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion. Mr. Thompson has a motion. Is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Thompson, you have the floor. Yes, sir. I'm just kind of briefing through, preparing for the meeting. I looked through, and this is -- Pastor Marvin has been a good friend of mine for a long time, and I know he's in the audience today. I'd love to have him come up and kind of address to give an idea about what this rezoning request is for, and what do we have to look forward to if this is approved? Yes, sir.

» Thank you. My name is Marvin Jones. I'm the pastor of Second Chance Fellowship Church, and we have done many things in our community. We've moved to the building 13 years ago that's right beside the Camden IGA. Some of y'all might know it. It used to be the Jehovah's Witness building many years ago. Our church purchased it, and we've been there, like I say, 13 years. The back part that we're looking at getting rezoned, we purchased it about six and a half years ago and probably should have went through the rezoning process then, but we didn't. Since, we have joined with United Way. We, this past winter, we housed six of our homeless people in the church house that we're looking to get in rezoned. We have actually used it during COVID to have outside services.

» We have used it with United Way to be able to give our homeless people food, cook food for them, and give them showers and stuff. We don't know exactly what the next year or five years or ten years is down the road, but we know we're going to do something great for the Lord. Our church is growing, and we feel like we need to be able to rezone this to be able to go forward. Thank you. Yes, sir. Mr. Thompson, you still have the floor. Yes, sir. And the current zoning designation is RD or -- It is -- R10. R10. Yep. All right. So, residential and the rezoning is specifically for the homeless population for continued work doing that. Yes, sir.

» Or are you not allowed to do that within the current zoning? Well, we are, but we want to make sure that with our insurance and with everything that we're covered completely. Because, like I say, we really don't know exactly what we're going to do in the future. So, we -- United Way came to us this past winter and asked if we could keep our homeless people for two weeks. It seemed like every time we went to let them out -- we always let them out on a Sunday -- it was cold. So, we ended up letting them stay there three months.

» So, we would rather be able to have -- because the IGA is there, our church is there, and some of the other businesses is there -- we'd rather go ahead and have it re-zoned so that if this winter we keep five or six homeless people, you know, it might be four or five months. And so, we want to make sure that we're keeping up with everything. Since the sanctuary is zoned as a business, we'd rather go ahead and get this piece of property zoned as a business, too. Yes, sir. Thank you so much. And, Pastor Jones, like I said, I've known you for -- you and your brother for a long time and appreciate all y'all have done for the community. I mean, you are a staple church in the community, but not only that, the services that you provide to the community.

» I've been to your church and associated buildings multiple times with Boy Scout troop events, other community events. He's constantly looking to better the community. I love what you're doing. I appreciate it, and I thank you for coming to us. One last question, just for clarification. Have you spoken with surrounding property owners about the rezoning and let them know the plans, and is there any pushback or negative comments from any surrounding property owners? Yes, sir. We're really good friends with everyone in the community, and everybody knows exactly what we're doing, because we always invite them. We'll deliver -- we got a 70-year-old guy that's got Parkinson, and we call him Cookie.

» And he cooks our hamburgers and hot dogs for our homeless people, and whatever we have left over, we take it through the community. And all of them, they really appreciate everything that we do. So I think everybody in our community loves us. So, you know, some of them come to the church, and some of them just -- we just kind of feed them some of the times, and so it just seems like kind of a happy family in a sense. Yes, sir. Thank you, Pastor. I really appreciate your time. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. And Mr. Cato, if you could just all -- any other questions or comments on this one, or for the pastor? Just reiterate what Brent said. I hear all good things about this church.

» I've known you for a long time, and your wife, and you all do a lot of great things there, and I appreciate what you do. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Cato. Any other comments or questions? Yes. Thank you. Mr. Jones, yes. Pastor Jones, I just want to say personally thank you, you know, to see a man of God actually putting action into his words, and I appreciate that. That's no easy undertaking that you're doing, and I know that firsthand. I just want to say thank you. Thank you, Pastor Jones. I just have one question before we move to a vote. I hear you on wanting to align the zoning with your current zoning. You said it's already business-related for the church.

» Is there, like, a business relationship that already has been developed with United Way, or is it strictly charitable? I'm just wondering why to be, too. Is it -- Well, just because we're trying to figure out exactly what all we're supposed to do to build God's kingdom. So we have -- a big part of it is that we have joined United Way. And United Way, we're -- you know, it's kind of a partnership. So the people comes and they take showers and stuff. And so we don't really know exactly what we're going to do. We've even talked about maybe having breakfast for our homeless people every day. And so with doing that and with our insurance, we -- so we have to carry two different insurance policies. Because we've got, you know, business with our sanctuary.

» And then, on the other hand, with our -- we call it the church house. It's a residential. So we'd rather just go ahead and put them together and have it all commercialized. Okay. Thanks. I just got a few questions about it. And I'm sure you'll get some more. Yes, sir. But appreciate your commentary and answering questions on first reading. Any other comments or discussion before we vote? No, I'm all in. All right. We'll move this one to a vote on 9A. If you're in favor, raise your hand on 9A on the agenda. Ms. Hennett's unanimous by those present and voting. It passes on 9A. And I have one question. So this is the first time I've ever done this. Okay. So what's the next step? Well, you have three -- you have three readings. Okay. So the readings occur consecutively at council meetings.

» Okay. And so in two weeks at the next scheduled meeting, you'll have another reading. So second reading. And then third reading is the time when it ultimately passes and would be rezoned if it passes on third reading. Okay. Probably November because of the -- Yeah. The difference in scheduling. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank y'all so much. Thank you, Pastor, for coming out tonight. Gentlemen, that takes us to item number 9B. This is second reading regarding the comprehensive plan. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. Mr. Shoemake has a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Mr. Tucker has a second. Mr. Shoemake. Yeah. So obviously there's been a lot of talk tonight on the comprehensive plan. If I can just take a minute, you know, just want to clarify something.

» For the folks who may see me looking down, I do look down a lot because I take copious notes. That's why I know we had 12 speakers. Duke about the mobile intake. Our number three and number two person switched. Our NAACP lady who lived in Kershaw but felt like she only lived here temporarily because she went to school. Talked about 123 football fields being the size of a data center. Ms. Kanatza talked about the public hearing that Camden did that they postponed. Mr. Whittaker worried about the private equity funding. Ms. Medley-Toss talked about the comprehensive plan. Ms. Kanto brought up the volume issue with her phone. Ms. Gwen Shannon talked about the utility bills, although she lived in Knightsville Road. Probably a Camden issue. Our next speaker didn't speak. Mr.

» Nunn spoke about the data center. Ms. Moore talked about general development being a problem. And Ms. Johnson also spoke at length about the data center. Followed by Ms. Kanatza, Ms. DuBose, and Ms. Kanto on the comp plan public hearing. I can assure you I've read every piece of paper up here and listened to everyone who spoke. So, that being said, I think second reading makes sense for the comprehensive plan. There are some issues in there. Ms. Kanatza, if you can get us something to show, just as bluntly I haven't seen the data, that it's the second, just something we can hang our hat on, that it's the second largest polo field, that's an easy fix to make. And again, I'm sure it's posted there, but just shoot that to me directly. That's an easy fix to make on third reading.

» You know, I do have some concerns with the comp plan. I think that, in my opinion, maybe it doesn't go quite far enough to make our goal to make sure residential growth isn't too explosive. But I do think we're in a good document. Something that is important to note is we can change this thing. It is a living document. Those who talked about the ZLDR being the lifeblood, that's our next step. We actually have our first ZLDR rewrite committee meeting. I believe it was Mr. Whitaker that asked about that. Our first ZLDR rewrite committee meeting is September 30th. So we're going to start the process of redrafting these zoning codes. So if in that process we find some things that need to marry up against the comprehensive plan, we can do that. And I think it was Ms.

» Kanatzer who mentioned that this comprehensive plan will technically be effective upon third reading. Our old comprehensive plan is valid until the date that she mentioned, but this comprehensive plan will actually step in its place upon third reading. So I think it's a good start. We want to get something passed now because if we start writing our ZLDR without this – if we start passing our ZLDR, we start writing it. But if we start passage of the ZLDR before the comp plan is passed, then we run the risk of someone coming in legally and saying, well, you weren't – you did not comport with your comp plan because you were under the old comp plan. This does a pretty good job of laying out some of those agriculture, equine protections, the residential growth.

» Those are just some of the big things they've done that are different than the last comp plan. So it's important that we get something passed. I think this is a great start. It may need some work around the edges and it may take three readings, but we can always come back and adjust it. So again, that was a little more time than I intended to take, but again, I just wanted to make everyone – I want to make it clear to everyone that I listened to everything and read everything before I come in here. That's all I have. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Shoemake. Mr. Tucker, you have the second. I guess he said it all. I don't need to say anything. He didn't write it down. I do want to reiterate the timeframe on this document.

» Even if it passes third reading, the thing that you must understand – and this is probably what we don't do a good job at because I've sit through a couple of these – is it's a moving living document that we update stuff. We need to get it correct, and I wrote down the corrections on the highway information, the polo fields, so forth and so on. My notes are right here as well. I'm not going to bore to read those back over with you. But when you come and speak and we hear you, staff hears you. Mr. Templer makes notes. Our clerk to counsel makes notes. These don't fall on deaf ear, as you may want to think sometime. But also remember that it's a process. It doesn't happen overnight. So with that, I'll be supporting second reading tonight. Mr. Chairman, if I may. Yes, sir. Mr. Brazel.

» I'll agree with Councilman Shoemate and Councilman Tucker. I'm not a big fan of government bureaucracy and detailed rules. I think the people of this county make up the most important document, living, breathing document that we have. Not the government, not this comprehensive plan. I know that we have to have one legally by state law. I'm happy to support it tonight because in all reality, it is not the government that dictates how well this community and this county is going to do it to us. And it's everybody in this room. So I'll support it and I'll be happy to support it. But it doesn't need to get any more detailed than it is. If we need to fix a problem, we can fix it in code and three readings. And we've done that.

» Councilman Shoemate and I have collaborated and fixed things within weeks and made vast improvements. So I'm completely fine with passing this tonight. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. Any other council member comments, questions? Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. If I could, I'm very interested. I want to highlight the benefits of Kershaw County and the beautiful place. The reason we all live here and we love it. And if it is the second oldest Palo Field, not the third, I would like to have that documentation. Mr. Templer, if you wouldn't mind, maybe connect to Ms. Knatzer and getting the actual documentation because I would love to update that. That's a big check mark on behalf of Kershaw County's history.

» And then also, I know that it was mentioned multiple times about during the update liking the old plan. The old plan being better than the new comprehensive plan that is drafted. The old comprehensive plan was drafted prior to state statute requiring another element of comprehensive plan guidance, which is resilience. And it's not a specific chapter. It's meant to be inclusive throughout the entire plan. So, according to state statute, we have to have an updated plan based upon it. And updates are every five years and then a full rewrite is 10.

» And so, we -- and I'd like to also highlight, staff, if you wouldn't mind, when did we start the rewrite process, the exact date, and how many public meetings? I know that's probably a hard answer, but if you have a roundabout off the top of your head, that'd be wonderful just for the public and can be aware. We have Mr. Rizkowski here and Mr. Templer, however you want to -- I'll ask Joey to come up just instead of guessing. Good evening, council. So, this project started in all earnest. It started in May of 2022. And throughout that time, we had probably about half a dozen community meetings.

» And then we got to February of this year, 2025, and that's when it was decided that the -- there was some more massaging of the document and to give the planning commission an extended chance to review it. So, we held eight additional public workshops or meetings that were part of regular meetings that were advertised in the local paper and on the website, of course. And unfortunately, we only had about seven public members from the public. And some of those seven were repetitive visitors attend those eight additional meetings. However, the planning commission worked very diligently to incorporate changes and edits into the document as a reflection of the comments that had been received during that time. Thank you, Joey. I really appreciate it. That's all my questions. Thank you, Mr.

» Thompson. Questions, comments from counsel, Mr. Jones. Thank you, Joey. I have a little bit of -- just a little different take on you. I think you should be as close to right as right can be. I know Mr. Shoemaker and I had a conversation today, and I really appreciate it. And we don't disagree that -- second reading, I don't have a problem. But third reading, we are -- and yes, it will be read. It will be looked through. This is not my first rodeo with a comprehensive plan. I can remember 10 years ago when that one was written, I read through. I didn't like it. I voted against all three readings. Now, however, this is a different council. I have a little bit more respect for this council than I did the past councils.

» They've been, to me, very -- we may not agree on a lot of things, but they've been very upfront and straightforward with me, even if they didn't like some of it. But I will vote for second reading tonight, and I don't know how I'll vote for third reading. But I think it's very important, the issues that you folks brought up. I think it's very important when we have public meetings and people drop things in the suggestion box that those things are addressed. And I know there were some concerns and questions about that, and I know that for a fact. But having said all that, I am going to support second reading to keep it moving through. It will be read. Your concerns will be addressed. And I have some concerns over that as well, too, but we'll get into that. As Mr.

» Chimak and I said on third reading, we'll get a lot deeper into it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Mr. Cato. I just want to thank the ones that spoke tonight on the reference to the comprehensive plan. But I don't want to dismiss the hard work that's been done on this comprehensive plan. There has been a lot of time and a lot of hard work put into this and a lot of public meetings and a lot of different stuff, a lot of different workings have taken place to get this done. And yes, I appreciate all the corrections that were brought up tonight that we need to look at before third reading. But I have all faith that this will be ready to go by the third reading. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cato. I'll piggyback on that.

» I'm very grateful for the time that folks put in to volunteer on these commissions, particularly the planning commission and others who have participated at public hearings or otherwise and staff. We literally could not do it. You know, this is a part-time job serving on county council. Most of it has full-time jobs or feel like we have a full-time life after retirement anyway. And so that volunteer service is essential in getting us to this point where we can work on the comprehensive plan. Before we move to a vote, I just had a few comments on the data that's used. The data generally would be pulled from 2021 reports because the country only does the census every 10 years or so. And so you have a 2020 census that occurs.

» They usually don't crunch the numbers and bring the data to municipalities or states to use until 2021. And so that's really what we have to pull from unless we, by happenstance, are able to get some DOT numbers through traffic counts at a particular intersection. Sometimes we can glean that information and include it in some of the valuations we're making. Or if we develop that data internally through permits that are submitted and we can kind of see trends that are occurring in certain areas. But we really have to rely on that census data that occurs every 10 years. And so that's why you would see that report and that grouping of data being used in forming the comprehensive plan. And many of the decisions that we make.

» Any other comments or questions from council members? Seeing none, we'll move to a vote. All in favor on the second reading. Raise your hand in favor. Ms. Hennett's unanimous. It passes on second reading. That's 9B. Passes. That takes us to item number 9C. This is second reading on a joint multi-county business park with Lee County under SC code 4-1-170. We've already had first reading on September 9th. Is there a motion? Make a motion that we approve second reading, Mr. Chair. Mr. Tucker has the motion on second reading. Is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Shoemake has a second. Anything to bring up we haven't already covered, Mr. Tucker? No, sir. Not for me. Mr. Shoemake, you have the second? Nothing. Okay.

» Any other discussion or questions from council members? I always just like to point out this is a clarification for the public. Anytime we do this, it's just to support an economic development project. It's basically just legal language, correct? Mr. DuBose? 100% correct. And that's all state law that we're just having to comply with, correct? Correct. Placing these parks that are subject to economic incentives into these parks allows them to get recoupment from infrastructure. They put in infrastructure and also additional job credit. So yeah, it's all in furtherance of economic development. All right, so. Just lawyers. It's a lot of legalese and I've read it a lot over the last five years. And at the end of the day, it's real simple.

» It's economic development equals jobs equals a better Kershaw County. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. Mr. Jones. If I may, about economic development, I think we've put a lot of money into it and get very little out of it. Well, just in response to that comment, I think we've had roughly $80 million in investment over the last 18 months or so. Jeff Burgess is not in here. And several jobs. And thankfully, some of the projects have actually been homegrown Kershaw County, like laser form and others that have grown. They were giving me's. Sir? They were sort of giving me. They were going to happen anyway. Okay. Well, I'm not going to argue with you. But unless there was a philo, I know many of them wouldn't have invested.

» So I'm grateful for that opportunity and for jobs being created in the community. And to those who are listening or watching, you know, keep bringing good jobs, high paying jobs to Kershaw County. We need it. I parodied this many times, but we have roughly 10,000 plus people that leave every day out of 30,000 plus full time workers and they go work somewhere else. So they travel away from their family. They leave the area. They spend their money for lunch or dinner or, you know, whatever present you need to get for that last minute birthday gift somewhere else. And I'd like for those folks to be able to stay close to home if they want to. So I welcome the jobs and the business investment. Any other questions or comments from council? Okay. Seeing none. That brings us to a vote.

» All in favor, raise your hand on second reading. Ms. Hanna, it passes. It's unanimous. All right. This brings us to item number 9D on the agenda. This is a third reading regarding improvement and clarification procedures for timelines applicable to text amendments under our zoning, the ZLDR. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. Mr. Shoemake has the motion. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Tucker has a second. Mr. Shoemake. Yeah, we're third reading. We've explained this, but it's fairly short. This just cleans up our ZLDR in relation to the planning commission to note that there's a 30-day window after referral that it comes back to us. If it's not heard. And it allows us shorter timeframes for public hearings if they're allowed by statute. Is that fairly straightforward? Okay. Mr.

» Tucker, you have the second. Anything further? No, sir. Thank you. All right. The lines are stricken out where the added text was put in. Yes, sir. Thank you. Any other council members have comments or questions? Seeing none, we'll move it to a vote. All in favor on third reading 9D, raise your hand. We have Shoemake, Tucker, Brazel, Connell, Cato, Tomlinson in favor. All opposed? Mr. Jones opposed. It passes on third reading. That's 9D. Item number 10A, for discussion, placed on the agenda by Mr. Tucker. Do we have a motion? Finance Committee report. Yes, sir. I'd like to make a motion to give a report from the Finance Committee on our projects and our fees, if we may, please. Okay. Is there a second? I'll second. You have the floor, Mr. Tucker, for discussion.

» Thank you so very, very much. We've been promising the public and this group here that we would give you a report on the projects that we have. So what I would like to do, if I can, is pass out some information for you. The Finance Committee actually met last Friday to go over with staff and so on. The papers you have before you, let's do the boat ramp first, if you don't mind. It should be the expenditures. Mr. Tucker, are these on the screen so the folks can see them? No, sir. They're not. Can we make that happen? Well, we can make that happen next time because I don't think we can scan them in now. Okay. But they're for public information. I know that. I didn't get them scanned in, in time, Mr. Jones. Thank you. You're welcome.

» So on the boat ramp, as you can see, the expenditures, then it has the fund sourcing. This project is about to come to a close. I think they've done all the paving and we hopefully will be closing on this project this month, at the end of the month, and hopefully soon having a ribbon cutting. If all goes well, we will be about $65,000, $66,000 to the good. You can see the funding sources where we took out state grant, council motion on A-tax, ARPA money, A-tax, and then capital funding, including our contingencies. So that's kind of a breakdown on that. Along with that, the finance committee also has the purchase orders and change orders of everything that took place on this project. I don't have that tonight to share, but if you want to dig deeper down into that, we do have that.

» Staff has that as well. So they'll be happy to share that with you. Any questions on the boat ramp? Okay. Hearing none. Will it be completed again? Sir. Thursday. It's almost basically done now. Okay. It's not open yet. Thank you. It's not open. I'm saying at the end of the month, Mr. Jones, it could be sooner, but at least by the end of the month. Thank you. Mr. Tucker, I'll just mention that we're trying to figure out a ribbon cutting date that might align with some existing event or if there's something we can bring down there for public interest and benefit. We're working on that. And as soon as we know, we'll set up a date that works for everybody. Okay. Sounds great.

» Let me also say this for public record, because there was a lot of stuff on the internet and a lot of chatter in the community. This council, this staff did not pay two or three times to pour that boat ramp down there. You can tell by the cost of this that it did not increase to the 2 million or whatever people were saying. I don't have Facebook or any of that. I Facebook every second and fourth Tuesday with you when I come into these meetings. That's the best I'm going to be able to get. With that being said, though, this is why we wanted, as the Finance Committee, wanted to dive into these projects so we can be responsible for your monies and what were these projects along with staff and have a better understanding. So, and I thank staff for helping us get this organized and understood.

» Anything from my colleagues? Shumate or Thompson? On the boat ramps. On the boat ramps. If I could clarify what Councilman Tucker just said, the concrete was replaced on two different occasions at no cost to Kershaw County because it was inadequate and insufficient. So, it did get replaced, just not on Kershaw County's dime. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Brazel. All right. Before you on the next is give you the list of the other projects. It gives you the summary of the opera funds, which was by us appointed to these projects. We will park $10,500, $10,561,000. Boyd Field and Copeland Field $1.68. Kershaw County West at $1.745. That total is $13,993,516.87. So, that's all our projects. That is the other three projects was left.

» We had a total of four projects going at one time, which was a lot for this county. But these are things we had opportunities to do with opera money. You know, the opera money came from during, you know, COVID and all that. So, we were on a timeline where we have to spend these monies or we lose these monies. We have to turn them back in. And staff has done a great job about dealing with that and handling that. So, I wanted to point that out. Also, in here in your project funding, you're going to see where the Health District gave six million. We used six million out of the opera funds. We used 1.5 out of the capital fund. Out of the capital fund, some of that is rollover money.

» What do I mean by rollover money? Projects we didn't get done the year before, such as the lighting in the parking lot in Kershaw West. That was done this year. It was in the process of being done. And those monies total about almost $900,000. It was $872,310 that got rolled over so we can complete these projects for this year. So, overall, we're in excellent shape. I'm not ashamed to admit some of our shortcomings that also took place, which was on the Boyd and Copeland field. So, we actually had budget $800,000 for that project. That project came in at 1.6 due to a couple things. Council approved the project at a higher bid than what we had budget for. And back on April the 8th is when we did it at that meeting. Thank God for your opera funds that was earning taxes.

» We're able to get the taxes interest, earning interest. We're able to get that interest pulled back into the capital fund and substitute that where there was no increase to the taxpayers or any increase to anybody. And then we also, on these ball fields, what's not noted is that Musco is our lighting company. And Mr. Templer can go into more detail if you like on this. So, when we bid these ball fields and projects, lighting is not included on that initial bid. That is bid out through them, which is a state bid, which no one else can do it as cheap as these guys. We kind of have a contract with them through the state and we're very fortunate to have the high-tech lighting that they provide us that can work remote and off our phones and all that good stuff.

» But it's still cheaper than being an initial bid. Would you like to elaborate, Mr. Minister? Yes, sir. We just found an opportunity to save money. We broke the lighting items out of the bids because it took the middleman out. These are on state contracts, so we saw savings opportunities and went for that. Thank you, sir. So, that is pretty much my projects report that I would like to ask my colleagues on finance, Mr. Thomason and Mr. Shoemate, if they have any questions or any comments. I don't have any, Mr. Tucker. Thank you. I've got one question. I defer. I just wanted to point out that I think what the big takeaway here is we were able to make what has been and for some time will be the greatest recreation improvement in the history of Kershaw County for sure.

» And we've been able to do that with six million federal dollars that had to be committed for one-time uses and spent a certain amount of time. They couldn't go to recurring funds. We did it with six million in matching funds that were only designated for this purpose. We did it with 448,000 from CTC to help fix the roads out by Woodward Park. And we did it with some rollover money and $150,000 in tourism tax dollars that can only be used for recreation and tourism stuff. So without raising millage, without an impact on taxpayers on a millage base, we're able to pull together multiple different funding pools, grants, and combine that smartly into the greatest improvement that Kershaw County Recreation is going to see in a long time and has ever seen in history. Mr.

» Any other comments or questions for our finance chairman? Mr. Kato. I just want to thank everybody for their hard work. And I want to add to what Mr. Shoemake said because I can look at this and be proud of the fact that it's completed projects. They weren't halfway done. We made sure and found a way that we got these projects done the way we wanted them done the first time. We didn't leave something off and say we'll come back later and fix it and have to worry about it six years down the road. We got them completed at one time. And it was much needed projects and I'll speak for my district, especially in the northern end of the county. It was much needed for our recreation up on that end of the county. So I thank you all for what you're doing. Thank you, Mr. Kato.

» Any other comments or questions? Just still the one question, sir. Yes, sir. Councilman Tucker, did we borrow any money for any of these projects? No, sir. Did we bond any money? No, sir. Did we pay for everything with cash? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We owe no one one of these projects and Councilman Kato hit it on the head. I have been here as we piecemeal parks. We do a little bit here and then we go seven, eight years. And by the time we get back to building onto the next project, it darned it doesn't cave in. So you're basically starting over to bring it back up to usable standards and then you add on. So I am proud to be a part of this body that made some decisions in our recreation throughout the county.

» Because we touched the west watery area, Camden area, and the northern end of the county with all our recreation projects. We left nobody out. So that's something to be proud of and stick your chest out. And yes, I'm one of the proud seven, so. Councilman, do you know that somebody told me it would cost $40 million just to do a recreational facility for baseball? See, that's where the problem lies. You stay on Facebook, I don't do Facebook. No, sir. No, sir. They were a member of this body. They are no longer a member of this body. Okay. And we did it and we did it. We did it well and we did it for the citizens of Kershaw County. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. So if there's no further... Mr.

» Tucker, before you get on to the next topic on fees, I just wanted to mention and give some thanks to MUSC for participating with the Health Services District on funding. Yes, thank you. That's an overarching effort by the Health Services District and MUSC, our local hospital, to fund an outdoor recreation project at Woodward Park and an indoor recreation project with the Health Services District and likely future YMCA in the Lugoff area. So we're very thankful for them to participate as well and see our local hospital get involved in recreation and athletics as health. And then I want to mention that, you know, I was very sad to be away from y'all for two years, but I'm very thankful for the time I had over at the State House.

» And particularly because of the state grant that came for the watery boat ramp. I see we've got Senator Blackman here. This is just an example, Senator, thanks for being here tonight, of how a local delegation can make such a difference. Whenever we do that ribbon cutting, that entire delegation I served with has got to come out because we had to fight tooth and nail against Greenville and Charleston and Richland and Lexington counties and those delegations to procure funds to try to make this project happen. I'm so thankful that the staff and the council has worked towards a quality project and avoided waste on this. I think it's going to be well used. I'm sorry to interrupt you. No, no, no, no.

» Are we talking fees next? Yes, we're talking fees next, but great recognition and I appreciate you pointing those things out as well. So any other questions from my colleagues up here? Okay. All right. Well, I want to say thanks to the Finance Committee as well. We also was charged with looking into the fee structure. We had a little issue with that and I'm happy to remind everyone that that was recognized by Councilman Brasel, rectified by staff, refunded by Kershaw County. So that means it's all is well and all is good. With that being said, you have an example in front of you of the inspection process for the Kershaw County Building Department. And this is for, as you read, the example is for a stick-built home with a crawl space.

» So depending on what type of home you build will also determine your inspections. But remember, when you pull that permit on your levels of inspection, you're going to have a freebie. They'll come out and initially look at your work. And then after that, they start calculating up what they call re-inspections. Okay. So if you did everything perfect, the staff would have to come out for your footing inspection, your foundation inspection, your rough-in inspection, your permanent power connection, and then final inspection. So that's one, two, three, four, five, six times they'll come out. Now, if you fail any portions of that, it is going to be a re-inspection. And this is when the fees start coming into play, where you'll pay $50 for your first re-inspection fee.

» Then your next re-inspection fee is $100. The next one's $200. The next one's $400. And it will cap at $400. And every inspection you fail from there will be a $400 re-inspection fee. It will not be any astronomical numbers that we were doing before. The text is clear on what we pass, and that's what we're going to go by and govern ourselves. You know I don't agree with that. And govern ourselves accordingly. And it's okay, Mr. Jones. That's not the first time we disagree. With that being said, I want to thank Mr. Joe and his department planning and zoning. What I did not realize when we were going over this is how many times we actually sent our people out to do inspections and re-inspections.

» And what was becoming of this, some of y'all are asking, well, why are we doubling? Because I see a lot of new faces in here tonight that I normally don't see, and I'm happy to see you. We don't want to become where our staff is doing QA, quality control over our builders and our subcontractors. And we talked about this in LIMP last meeting when we were sitting up here. They need to come out. We don't have a huge staff. We are a growing county. I don't know what census is going to look like because we're just halfway there in 2025. And we were already grown over 15% for this county already. So it's going to be crazy by the time we get to 2030. I'm just telling you, the numbers will be off the chart. We'll be in the top three most growing counties out of the 46.

» I can guarantee you come census time. But with that being said, the inspectors need to come out, inspect, and move on to the next home. Or we're going to have a staff the size of Richland to do inspections. And that's what we can't afford because that will be on your dime. We need to do quality inspections, but we don't need to be the QA guard for people building homes. They need to have their game plan, their coach, their contractor, their whoever, superintendent, whoever's in charge. That is their job to make sure that they get this right and make sure it meets Kershaw County guidelines that you want the people we hire for you to approve. And if it's not right, I don't have a problem with them failing.

» So this is the information that we came back with, and we just want to give clarity on it. Happy for my colleagues to join me on anything that they want to add and happy to take questions. Any questions, comments? Mr. Cato. I've got one question that I don't see on here. And I tell you, I know since I've been on council that I know there's been probably more than just one incident, but I do know of one. And it's on the stop work order. And I see that we have a residential commercial fee for the stop or to lift the stop work order. Joey may have to answer this question. But I know in this particular instance, the stop work order was violated, but I don't see a penalty. What is the penalty for a company violating a stop work order? I cannot answer that, Mr. Cato. Yeah, me neither.

» That's a good question. Can we have, Mr. Administrator have? Yeah, I'll get Joey up. Okay. Mr. Rizkowski. Notice of violation, stuff like that. Yes, Mr. Templar is correct. But if somebody violates the stop work order, then the next step is to issue a notice of violation with corrective action within 15 or 30 days, depending upon the nature of the violation. And then if at that point they don't comply, it is a summons issued by code enforcement, and then the county attorney's office gets involved with bringing this to a court hearing across the street. I didn't know if there was a penalty. I didn't see a penalty fee. I didn't know how that was handled with the stop work orders. Right. But I know that was a problem when I first took office. Sure.

» I just wanted to know how we was handling that. No, it's a great question. I've got a question, some comments. Mr. Jones. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Joey, you know, what I'm hearing in the public is that, you know, I hear about the quality control and that whenever staff will go out, they're not there to do what Q&A or whatever. That's why they put a stop work order on it. But what I hear is that they're not told what they need to do, and they feel like they've done it all, and then they get written up, and then the staff comes back out, and there's something else they find that is in violation. So there seems to be, you know, he and she said situation.

» I know that the deputy county administrator has said that he was looking into, as they did for the -- and it's a shame that we have to go here and do this, guys. But when you're dealing with government, you're dealing with citizens, I believe in transparency, I believe in sunshine and putting it all out there, putting body cams on the inspectors, because there's been a lot of comments made, in all fairness, you know, from your side, from their side. And we, as a council, we don't know. And -- but I hope that y'all are moving forward with the body cameras on the building inspectors. I think that would really resolve a lot of our issues. Yes, sir. We are. Okay. Thank you. Wow. Any other comments or questions? That's all, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your time. Thank you very much, Mr.

» Tucker, Finance Chair. All right. Welcome, sir. required on 10 a that takes us to item number 10 B placed on the agenda by mr. Jones okay their motion yes I so move all right for discussion on planning and setting 10 B is there a second second and mr. chair if I may I'd like to let mr. Tom what's his name down there Brazel let him handle it what's his name is your brazel I'm sorry Russell you know I feel about you okay Jimmy go ahead so I think Councilman Jones has had his questions answered it just so happened that I had a planning and zoning question come up and Joey I hate to do this to you I'm sorry would you would you mind just for a point of clarification for me with the situation so I don't have to bug you later that work mr.

» jimpler okay so I'm going to refer to a document regarding water quality buffers in in timber harvesting they're referred to as SMZs streamside management zones we've got a document section 5 3.6 it's 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 it's 8 pages so it's it's quite a bit of information regarding if you subdivide or I suppose if you're building a subdivision how you are to buffer and protect water quality and of course I agree with doing those things is that what this is this like a development document so those regulations are spread throughout the code and what that document represents is basically just our effort to be more customer service friendly by having people come through different parts of the code and we've just assembled it all together into one document okay and everything related to water qualit

» y so what when was that put in place what date does it have a date on it mmm that has been in place for several years I believe even before I came here that was oh yeah it says here December 15th of 2010 yes sir so my simple question is this I had bought a parcel of land from from some family members and we I bought like half the parcel and when we surveyed it we surveyed past the creek and we showed on the map a delineated hundred I think it's a hundred foot buffer on the creeks if it's for perennial creek yes that's correct so so if I'm surveying the creek or if I'm surveying left or right of the creek what what we need to see is a a buffer delineated on on the map is that right that is where the regulations require yes sir okay but it's not on the ground sort of thing no what we we've be

» en very flexible because it's very expensive to get surveys of large tracts of land that have water features on them so what we do is we note what that buffer is we have them note that and then do a general you know from the top of the bank measurement and show that but if they were to actually go in and develop the property then at that time we would require the delineation of that buffer when they go to develop a physical delineation correct yes okay but but if I'm if I'm breaking up 800 acres into two 400 acre tracks and I use the creek as a boundary and we take a surveying instrument and we shoot points down the creek basically I can delineate 50 or 55 feet on either side of in a mapping software situation to show a buffer on a map and that would be that would be it and and it would be

» noted as well what the specific regulation is and correct that's fine okay that purpose yeah but but for that and and that was that was all I needed was to was to clarify the difference between developing developing a parcel into a housing development versus just breaking apart acreage for timber trusts conservation timber farm that sort of thing so that was the only thing I needed to clarify and you did that perfectly and I thank you I know we've had some hard conversations I appreciate your willingness to have those hard conversations and I appreciate what we got out of our last conversation that I know wasn't real pleasant and warm and fuzzy but I'm going to tell you what we got from our administrator at Friday was a wonderful explanation very similar to the one we received today that I

» have no issues with I have no issues with the way we're doing our re-inspections um in in accordance to how it was explained to me so I thank you for that and um I want to tell you all of your staff that works for you represents planning and zoning in various ways and in wonderful ways and I just wanted to say thank you to every one of your staff members that work for you Joey you've got a you've got a wonderful staff here in Kershaw County I do I do I'm very proud of them yes sir thank you I appreciate you being here tonight for this thank you thank you Mr. Ruskowski thank you Mr. Brazel no votes required is this discussion only that moves us to council member briefings we'll start with Mr.

» Cato please I'm going to be brief tonight I I wanted to mention that I had an opportunity to speak at the Bethune Lions Club uh really had a great conversation had about 16 or 17 people there that night and we talked about everything from planning and zoning to recreation to what the future holds for Kershaw County or even some possible economic and development issues but we had a great conversation and a great time I had a great time spending it there at the Lions Club and I appreciate their invite secondly I want to say happy birthday to Miss Ginger Farmer she's back here our clerk of court and uh you know I gotta say she's here at just about every meeting and and as a department head and I thank you for that I really do and uh just want to give a shout out to our senator uh Alan Blackman

» he's back here uh the chairman mentioned him earlier thank you for what you do and thank you for working with us the way you do that ends my report thank you Mr. Cato Mr. Tomlinson please thank you Mr. Chairman um I'd like to start off by thanking staff I know that staff we put a lot on staff and y'all always respond in the positive um so thank you for all you do I really appreciate your time senator good to see you welcome to the to the big city of Camden uh appreciate you being here I wanted to just to highlight um Dwayne Gary's public comments um the South Carolina office of resilience disaster case management mobile intake October the 9th 10 a.m to 6 p.m Elgin Community Center if you have or know anyone who's been affected by healing however as small or as big there's no reason not to g

» o in and apply all they can say is no so go in get your application in the DCM will be there to guide you step by step through the process it's the liaison between the federal funding that comes in the guidance and the individual constituent here in Kershaw County they do a great job also I wanted to thank my colleagues tonight um I know we heard a lot about data centers I'm sure everybody up here has gotten multiple calls about them um the past couple of weeks and I appreciate us kind of postponing this and the delay is not not a means to an end the delay is so we can better understand how data centers impact Kershaw County our citizens our environmental impacts and what the future looks like we've heard a lot of concerns electricity usage water usage pollutants different things but I woul

» d like to ask how many people who came and spoke utilized AI to draft their comments or got their information off of AI I know when I just did a Google search that's where mine came from so just because you can you know everybody can do a brief search but every different industry data center in general same with any other industry that we have in Kershaw County is tailored and does not fit the model that a quick google search says so we are up here to understand the impacts and that's what our decisions are going to be the impacts going forward whether it's to the citizen the environmental the noise that is why we're postponing and I really appreciate my colleagues for doing that I'm looking forward to learn more about it and just while we're sitting here my son has just got an update he sc

» ored four goals in the soccer game so far I think we're up about seven or nothing I texted the coach and told him to sit him on the bench he's done for the night so thank you all for being here I really appreciate it look forward to seeing y'all again thank you Mr. Thomason Mr. Jones please thank you Mr.

» Chairman members of county council we have certainly have a difference of outlook on county government we have a different opinion when it comes to certain issues you know I also I was staff here for many years I retired Kershaw County I was department head I ran the jail and ran a bunch of other agencies up under it I know county government I know what public service is and I'm just going to tell you that uh I support our staff we have some good staff but we also have some staff that takes advantage of the system and I'm going to hold them accountable and I'm not going to play footsie with them up here it is what it is and when you get repeated complaints after complaints after complaints for the last year and nothing's been resolved then I'm not doing my job or somebody's not doing theirs

» but I want to make sure that uh people when people call they get a speedy a speedy return phone call from staff I want to make sure that they have it they're they're undivided attention if a citizen has a problem you know I've always told council members up here let's put people first not money but anyway it's probably best I don't say too much right now I have some more coming down the road I can assure you of that and I'll have the data to back it up but Mr. Chairman thank you very much and appreciate your time and listening Mr. Jones thank you Mr.

» Shoemake yeah a couple things um happy birthday ginger I can never see you because you're always sitting right there so I never I never realized you're here so happy birthday and Senator Blackman thank you uh for those of you who don't know Senator Blackman before he was a senator was on Lancaster County Council so uh he's he knows all too well chair knows all too well um still one of the most enlightening discussions I had on jail fundings with you and I still need to circle back on that because that's a great mystery we're still trying to crack over here in Kershaw so maybe you can give us some of that senate money to build a new jail as long as you're here so thank you for being here Senator really do appreciate it um smart growth committee a lot of talk about zoning and land development

» regulations the LDR it's the bible for what can actually happen we have a wonderful committee uh that's been formed and um we are having our first meeting on September 30th at 5 p.m uh in that meeting we're going to sort of set the agenda we're not really in that meeting going going to have any specific discussions on actual rewrites that meeting is an organizational meeting it'll be our first time to get together and really just set a schedule uh work with staff to figure out how we're going to go about this process so it's really kind of a an agreement to agree we're just going to get everything in line and then we'll have a meeting schedule posted so people will know when our regular meetings are um and of course there'll be public comment periods and all those things akin to the compreh

» ensive plan um i think she left but uh miss shannon i did want to mention uh is uh i think she lives in camden so if she is listening to this um i hate to be the guy that's just kind of kicking the can but uh the utility she's referring to would be solely based in the city of camden the county wouldn't have any role on those utilities uh based on where she said she lives so i just wanted to mention that for her um and then lastly uh the data center comments you know miss linda moore i don't know if she's still in here but she said it best that you know the question that's coming in front of us next month is not do we build a data center it's really important that we understand the question in front of us is do we take a uh a rural district and rezone it into general development now i'm not

» going to opine on data centers uh today very much but generally speaking i have been against and most of us have been against rezoning a rural district into general development and the reason for that is what ms moore said which is once you rezone you don't get to unring that bell so it doesn't matter if it's the best use any of us could have ever thought of a factory that produces no waste that employs a thousand people that already live here right if that fell through after rezoning at that point that district can be housing development an apartment complex it is our most permissive land use so to the extent of data center is a good idea there's other ways to do it and to the extent it's a bad idea there's other ways to address that too i do want to say on the data center point we're all

» i think doing our homework on it uh we've all gotten a lot of calls about it as mr tomlinson correctly and accurately said and you know one thing our two points i want to note is a lot of the newer data centers are using reclaimed water kind of like your radiator does and also in terms of the impact on electricity i think it's important that if we do data centers we make sure that we're setting an ordinance so that that data center isn't taking away from the grid and raising people's power bills the flip side of that and i think it's important to understand this is what we can't do is sit up here and say hey you can't do anything with your land we have a moratorium on residential growth but that will expire even if it's extended it legally can't last forever at some point these folks who ow

» n 100 acres who wish to divest themselves of of it and do something with it will be able to so the question is what does that use look like and i say that not to say that it should be data centers i say that to say that if we can come up with economic projects that bring money into kershaw county that are not a detriment that do something that increases our tax base without having the incumbent residential growth the infrastructure tax taxation on infrastructure school school growth that's a good use that we should look at not saying that is data centers because i still have a lot of homework to do myself but i would just caution against this idea that with these 100 200 acre parcels out in camden around the north port of kershaw that nothing will ever be built there that's just not going t

» o happen we are as mr tucker pointed out the seventh fastest growing county in kershaw our senator here is from one of the few that are ahead of us which is lancaster lancaster edgefield spartanburg all border counties that border a state and are close to a major city the other three jasper berkeley and or are along the coast we are the only county not contiguous to an ocean or another state that's growing the way we're growing so it's very important to understand the growth is coming our job is not to stop it even if we wanted to it's to manage it and make sure it looks the way it needs to look so we don't lose those things to make this community great enough for all these people to come in and share their impassions uh speeches so that's all that i have um look forward to seeing you guys

» in a couple weeks thank you mr shumake mr tucker our finance chair thank you mr chair um i want to first start off by um always welcoming my friend senator blackman uh always enjoy seeing you um and fight for us when you get back over there in january we need all your help you can bring us yeah happy birthday miss farm yes ma'am wish you many more um i want to make sure that i get zero credit for what took place tonight in public comment i had no idea that this room would be full of people and cameras because i did not talk to anyone but i do want to commend and thank the president of the local chapter of the naacp reverend benny mango for organizing and speaking up and uh coming before us to address your concerns and your issues and that means a lot i'll be talking with you later as always

» but i appreciate that and all who showed up um members and residents i know all of you may not be members of the nscp you need to be but um that's a that's a plug for you there rev uh and so uh with that i want to thank them for coming and being vocal about their positions and their property and health and stuff because that's important and i own land out in the cassett area as well uh with my family as you've heard me say many and many times before that's when my father was born and that's where he rests right out there at hyco church so with that being said um mr chairman you were mighty gracious today and i appreciate it but let me duly note when people come in late and don't know what the heck they're talking about probably should not be the people that approach the podium and cues coun

» cil members of what they're doing because i did take offense to that because i write a lot and i'm never going to apologize for that because i have to approve minutes i have to make notes so i can have conversations with whoever it may be later on and talk like i know something not like i didn't hear anything or didn't remember anything so with that being said um and my colleague who expressed it so eloquently earlier um when it looks like we may not be doing something behind this dais don't take it for face value ask the question afterwards or before what are you doing because i'm happy to show you and tell you and my papers are all written up and they're going to stay that way because i have to know what's going on tonight in order to review minutes and to make phone calls and return conv

» ersations that's that's due back to people as they come up so um i think that covers me for tonight i thank all of you and i hope that you have a um oh data centers um i learned a lot tonight from the speakers um there's a lot more to learn and that i will do my due diligence on um i um i want to make sure and my colleagues can tell you this that i'm hearing from all sides of the story that's what i'm doing now i am collecting data to hear from everybody and then i can sit and have conversations and agree or disagree in whatever ways that i know that best represent the people and that's the way this will go um i can't sit here and tell you and ban my fist on the um desk that data centers are completely bad they do have a lot of bad things that come with them but let me tell you what they do

» n't bring they don't bring people so there's no taxing on the school system the garbage system the police system things of that nature and they do bring in a revenue now i'm not going to sell out for that but those are some of the good things that they do do that i do know off my conversations and uh and my due diligence so with that being said i hear your concerns i hear them loud and i will be in touch with you as a group or at least through revan mingo um and the state on speaking on your behalf that concludes my remarks thank you mr tucker vice chairman brazil chairman connell thank you appreciate the meeting tonight and dialogue and it's good to hear from the public um councilman shoemate thank you for uh letting us know that the the smart growth meetings are going to begin at the end

» of the month that's something actually that crossed my mind and i was hoping that they were about to begin because we've got a lot of work to do and uh want to be a part of that regarding the data center it's interesting it seems like there's a lot of public talk about something that we haven't even been briefed on yet uh somebody called me it was last night or the night before and said what in the world's going on with this data center and i said well as soon as i find out i'll let you know but frankly i haven't been briefed and we need to be briefed if that in fact is the case and i look forward to being briefed so i took it upon myself to reach out today um and gathered some information the information that i did gather um was minute in the amount that i need before i can make a decision

» but i will say that i was told it's a closed loop water system so i think much like a a water furnace a new age water furnace cooling system for your home it's it's a loop of water that just continues to run it's not uh what you would refer to in the heating and cooling industry as a pump and dump in other words water in and then water out that's what i was told that could be incorrect information but the gentleman that told me should have that knowledge specifically correct so that was a positive um i was also informed that black river electric would be the power provider so i would need to ask them the questions would this affect users in a positive or negative manner it could be a financial uh windfall for them i don't have any idea if it would be if it if it helped the co-op become a co

» -op can't be profitable but if it helped them provide power and it wasn't a strain and it helped the citizens maybe that's a neutral situation so that's something else that i would have to ask of black river electric and those are things that we have not heard yet it's 160 acres i know on a site if you develop the entire site you're not going to use the entire site so i'd like to know specifically how large the buildings are what sort of buffers would be around them and i personally would want to visit a data center and put my eyes and ears on one because i would have to accept being able to live next to one if i voted yes and i can't do that unless i actually put my eyes and ears on one so that's what it's going to take for me to support something like that just to give you a little bit of

» information that's in my in my mind and in my thoughts i would never want to put anyone in a situation that devalued their home never want to put anybody in a situation that something was not good for kershaw county as a whole so all of those things will be addressed and i see that many of you are still here with that had the concerns and everything that was spoken about is very valid and appreciated and there's work to be done and a lot of discussion to be had it may have to be pushed back even further and as far as a rezoning all those valid points regarding rezoning you know if we rezone it to general development you could do anything i think there's an opportunity for a development agreement with kershaw county and the landowner and the developer which is apparently an llc from charlott

» e that is going to be building and potentially holding the data center that could allow us to enter into an agreement to where if they did not complete the data center if they didn't do exactly what they told us they were going to do then nothing would change the zoning would not change but i think that would have to be in a development agreement to be legal i'd like to ask um our legal counsel is that correct am i using the right terminology i don't want to say the wrong thing because i know some things are illegal and some things are legal you can accomplish a lot in a development agreement it does provide more certitude revision of zoning again would be something i'd have to look at i don't know that i've seen a revision but certainly seen development agreements where a property owner an

» d developer have agreed to restrictive covenants that forego a lot of potential uses in the rezoned district again certainly something we can explore and discuss okay so i would like to see a document that would protect kershaw county and the citizens if something were not to go through correctly i think that's only fair to the people that live in the community if this project were to move forward that it's not a bait and switch and that everything's done correctly and properly and that buffers and if there's any anything to do with sound any concern for sound all of that would have to be addressed uh before before i could support it so i know i got a little bit elaborate in my comments but i think it warrants an elaborate explanation as to where my thoughts are um closing on that i'd like

» to say thank you to all of our firemen and women that fought the deroyal textile mill we just lost a historical building i'm not sure how long it's been since they've ceased operations there but it hasn't been terribly long so i know that that was a catastrophic loss for a company for a holdings company and um i know there's big pieces of ash all over the city um pretty catastrophic and the fact that they got it put out and no one was harmed that i've heard of is fabulous i think they just did a great job and i just wanted to highlight them and their efforts and the way everybody i'm sure collaborated because one fire department didn't do that that was a huge collaboration and just a real shocking event so um councilman kato i wanted to thank you for the work you do with uh cassette ordered

» if i'm not mistaken don't you work with the or connected to you're with bethune um i reached out to you in an email regarding cassette water for liberty hill and i think you you said you could help with that okay you live you live a little bit more in that world than than i do um liberty hill has some concerns regarding fire hydrants that they're not sure if they work they're on the fringe of the county um will glover gave me some great information i would like to plan a town hall sometimes maybe early to mid-november and have as many ems fire and rescue providers there to work with the community and i'd like to find out if the fire hydrants are actually are actually serviceable and wet and have order to them and i think it would take maybe a collaboration from kershaw county and um cassett

» e water i believe is the provider so um senator you being here i'd like to invite you to that town hall i'll reach out to you in private and glad to see you tonight um didn't see you in the back back there for the longest didn't know you were in here so appreciate you being here tonight um appreciate what you do and the fact that you go to columbia every day is uh quite the hall ginger farmer uh happy birthday to you she's still in here hey yeah she's quiet back there happy birthday to you um and with that that concludes my report thank you thank you mr brazil um i really don't have anything tonight i know that surprises y'all i'm typically long-winded so with that we will move to administrators briefing mr templar you have anything for us yes sir just real quick uh kind of i always give th

» ese uh updates on projects and everything so i figured i would just switch it up a little bit throw some completion aspect ratios to these so boat ramp is about 99 completed we'll work on punch list material or items rather for that we will work on a a ribbon cutting over there because it's going to be a really neat uh facility over there uh woodward park improvements 50 to 60 percent overall um you know the uh finish line is three january 2026 so 60 overall but there's a lot that's a very busy 60 percent we've got buildings going upward irrigation curbs sidewalks uh utilities being installed inside the buildings that have been uh completed so moving on to boy young and copeland parks are about 90 percent complete there was just a lot of site work out there fencing uh lighting and things li

» ke that so that that was a little bit quicker out there that is november 8 is the estimated completion date there uh plus or minus of with all of these dates with obviously rain and other kind of issues uh you know just going back to woodward park we talk about the things that uh we that were unexpected and things of that nature we went to go drill for uh water for irrigation out there and i think we hit rock at 15 feet so hopefully it was a boulder i don't know we'll see maybe we get past it and we don't have to go all all the way through rock to get down to water so it's the uh unknowns when you're going underground kershaw west parking lot and driveway is about 85 percent complete uh there's a lot of grading and storm walks and driveway uh all of the uh amenities that goes with that uh p

» roof rolls and things of that nature so that one's going to look to be completed november 7th uh now with a lot of these we are racing the uh paving season we don't get to pave all year round because of the uh temperatures that need to be existing about 50 degrees or so above and uh when we want to pave if we want to have a quality application so gives you a little bit of uh some kind of percentile of where we are on that and i'll include that in my friday brief to y'all the royal textile thank you mr brazil for pointing out the the amazing work done by everybody involved uh the uh there's a statewide mobilization to get uh assistance from other departments that's how large of a fire that was absolutely lucky to have uh will glover on our team uh he comes from sumter and those were not a ra

» re occasion over there so he had experience in that and uh and of course the other folks coming from sumter lee lancaster lugov camden uh i thought there was a columbia or a lexington but i'm not sure they needed aerials over there but unfortunately we did lose a really really neat building uh built in 1905 and it took something that hot and that devastating to take that thing down so big loss to the community fortunately no one was hurt uh continuing to go with the investigations over there that was a city function everybody else was assisting but that was their fire ground but i was proud of our team for being able to lean in and all fire entities in kershaw county to lean in and go over there and respond safely so amazing work by everybody that is my report sir thanks for mentioning that

» you know a lot of memories were lost too my dad and so many others in kershaw county that was either their first job or something like that a lot of hard labor put in over there at the mill and um it was just kind of commiserating with my dad over lost that building thanks for your report and just on behalf of the council i know i can say we appreciate the uh the weekly reports we're getting in written form that's been very helpful very helpful mr dubose any legal briefing beyond what we have for executive session nope standard response all right all right with that gentlemen we have three items for executive session uh a is a personal employment matter b is regarding uh matter subject to attorney client privilege and c is a personal employment matter all under section 30-4-70 of the sc cod

» e um for the public benefit and before we have a vote we're going to executive session we anticipate uh a possible vote on item number 14c possible vote on item number 14c is there do we have a motion to go into executive session i'll make a motion we're going to executive session mr cato second mr tucker has a second any discussion seeing none we move to a vote on executive session raise your hand if you're in favor miss hannah it's unanimous on executive session we are in executive session seek a motion to leave executive session i will make that motion we have a second second there's a second any discussion seeing none all in favor of exiting executive session raise your hand we are out of executive session only thing left is to adjourn is there a motion to adjourn make a motion we adjou

» rn mr cato is there a second second we have a second see any discussion there's none move it to a vote all in favor uh it passes by those who are present voting miss