LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. — A judge has told Lexington County Council they must restart the process for their ordinance on a temporary freeze on residential development in unincorporated parts of the county, according to people at the hearing.
Council decided to move forward with the ordinance in an effort to address the tremendous residential growth that is causing strain on countywide infrastructure.
The moratorium will prevent applications and the administrative processing of applications for:
- Residential subdivisions of ten lots or more, or;
- Residential subdivisions with lots averaging less than ½-acre, and;
- Residential attached land use activities as defined by the Lexington County Zoning Ordinance (apartment complexes).
Earl McLeod, Jr. is the Executive Director of Building Industry Association of Central South Carolina.
"Our organization is comprised of those that are involved with the building and providing materials and services for home building," said McLeod, Jr.
McLeod, Jr., says they don't believe putting the moratorium will solve any of the growth issues the county is facing.
"We have a traffic problem. We need to address the traffic problem. We need to identify funding to help with road improvements in Lexington County," explained McLeod, Jr. "We need better planning in Lexington County. A delay, a moratorium accomplishes none of those objectives."
The executive director of the association believes the moratorium has a significant impact.
"Property owners that had land under contract, that had looked at possibly selling their land to developers or home builders, for the highest best economic use had been denied that opportunity because of this moratorium," explained McLeod, Jr. "Builders and developers that had started the application process for new subdivisions had spent $50,000 - $100,000 in trying to prepare to get ready to submit formerly have incurred a loss because of this moratorium."
Building Industry Association of Central South Carolina filed a lawsuit against Lexington County citing two reasons: One being a violation of the Freedom of Information Act clause and the other being the, "application of the pending ordinance doctrine and adopting a moratorium."
According to both McLeod, Jr. and county council chairman Todd Cullum, the judge said council would have to restart the process to the building freeze ordinance due to a FOIA violation.
"It was determined through the hearing when I announced the executive session, for the purpose of going into executive session for our committee meeting, I errored, I made a mistake in not reading the entire text on the agenda for the purposes of going into executive session," said Cullum. "I acknowledge that."
Cullum says Lexington County Council wants to make sure they correct the issue, abide by the law and do things as required.
County council will be having a committee meeting Thursday morning, May 6th starting at 10 am. The full council meeting will begin at 10:35 am. Cullum says they plan on talking about the same ordinance to pause building in an unincorporated parts of the county.
When asked if council will put a moratorium on the ordinance, Cullum says they planned on doing so.
"The agenda is now available on our website. It's also available and posted at the administration building," explained Cullum. "Those are our intentions to hold a meeting (Thursday morning) for that purpose."
McLeod, Jr. says he hopes everyone will come together to find solutions for the county.
"We've always been willing to work with council members, and we have in the past, we proposed the impact fee for road improvements, which we need, we need additional funding," said McLeod, Jr. "Many of our members led the effort to pass a penny sales tax increase for infrastructure improvements in 2014, the voters rejected that. So we're not just coming to the table and say, 'No no no.' We want to be part of the solution."
The following video is from April 13, 2021.