A Summary of the City of Aiken Planning Commission agenda packet for the December 13, 2022 public meeting at 111 Chesterfield Street, 6 pm. 

by Don Moniak
December 11, 2022

(Editor’s Note: Aiken Planning Commission Asks Developer for More Pavement reported on the December 13th meeting discussed in this article).

The City of Aiken Planning Commission will meet Tuesday evening to discuss two new developments, an equine development adjacent to Bruce’s Field and a 336-unit apartment complex just south of the University of South Carolina at Aiken (USCA). Together the two developments will add another sixty-three acres to the City of Aiken. As the Planning Commission rarely rejects or tables any new developments, the proposals are expected to be approved with minimal discussion. At last month’s twenty-minute regular meeting, three of four proposals were recommended unanimously and one with two dissenting votes.  

Powderhouse Crossing. 

Worth Capital Holdings 105, LLC, a Florida company owned by Palm Beach and New York City investor and developer Rusty Holzer, is proposing to subdivide 33..2 acres into seven three plus acre residential lots, one three-acre equestrian development, and one five-acre lot for “future development.” Most of the property is within city limits, but two parcels totalling 4.5 acres will require annexation. The entire property will be zoned Planned Residential.

If the plan goes as proposed, it would eliminate any concerns that the property could be commercialized, i.e a large hotel.  Past development proposals for the property have included apartments and office buildings—-the county property remains zoned office-residential. In 2014, the previous owner permitted the city to use their property as a staging ground to process and convert debris from the February 2014, ice storm to mulch.

Some intriguing aspects of the planning department review include: 

– A recommended waiver of the Planned Residential requirement of twenty percent open space because “each lot will have a primary open space character.” 
– An absence of the usual “tree preservation” requirements, although the site features a ten acre forested stand within the larger parcel that will likely be clearcut or heavily cut. There is a recommendation to preserve a few “grand trees” along the perimeter of the property
– A waiving of a sidewalk requirement because the 20-foot wide riding trails are long the street. 
– A photo of a horse farm in an unidentified landscape of rolling hills, but obviously not in the proposed area. 

The Parker at Aiken Apartments. 

Dozier-Sapp Development LLC of Martinez, GA, which purchased the property in March of this year for $465,000, is proposing to annex into the City of Aiken and clearcut much of a 29.82 forested parcel to develop a 336-unit apartment complex just south of USC-Aiken, and across Gregg Highway from Aiken Barnwell Mental Health. The development will consist of fourteen buildings up to three stories in height, a clubhouse with fitness, recreation, and co-working space, a picnic area, pool and lounge area, and a dog park. 

Because it is over four acres, the property will be zoned Planned Residential and require forty percent open space; a requirement that, as reported in The Village at Woodside’s Clever Zoning and Land Accounting , is subject to abuse. The planning department’s memo asserts the open space areas are “not denoted.” However, whereas the plat map does not show any open space, the “concept plan map” shows two areas of six and two acres, respectively, labeled as open space. The larger area fronts Gregg Highway and would surround a detention pond. 

The development is likely planned to attract students, and workers from the planned Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative and the South Carolina National Guard cybercenter “Dreamport” that are planned at USC-Aiken. Both projects are funded in part with plutonium settlement money.

A Note on FOIA and Attendance

During the commission’s November 15, 2022, worksession, the issues of attendance and the Freedom of Information Act arose. According to the draft meeting minutes:

– Commissioners were advised that after missing more than forty percent of regular meetings in a calendar year, a commissioner is automatically removed. According to the draft meeting minutes, Commission Chairman Ryan Reynolds, who has missed nearly a third of the meetings in 2022, “offered some examples he suggested might be the exception to the rule,” but the examples are not yet noted. There are no exceptions in the city ordinance mandating 60 percent attendance at regularly scheduled meetings. 

– Commissioners were advised that their personal and work email accounts are subject to South Carolina Freedom of Information Act requests if the accounts are used for commission business. According to the minutes, the city is working on obtaining city accounts for commissioners. (2)

For update, see: Planning Commission Asks Developers for More Pavement.

Footnotes

(1) The meeting agenda packet contains the agenda, draft minutes from the previous meeting, memos from the Planning Department, and application information for agenda items.

The most recent Planning Commission agenda packet is available at cityofaikensc.gov/pca
City Council packets are at cityofaikensc.gov/cca
Design Review Board packets are at cityofaikensc.gov/drba

(2) On November 14 I wrote a letter to Planning Director Maya Moultrie and cc’ed to Planning Commissioners. In regard to FOIA and emails the letter read:

Below is the listing of contact information for the Planning Commission. It is difficult  to believe that commissioners are using private email accounts and employer email accounts to conduct any city business; and do not have either a city designated email address or an email address dedicated to Planning Commission business. The AMDC had a domain set up for something like $250 for its members (although they inexplicably failed to use it, despite City Attorney Gary Smith’s admonishment to them to not use private email accounts).

Every one of these email accounts is subject to FOIA requests. If the commission has not undergone FOIA and Ethics training, here is a link to City Attorney Smith’s June 2, 2022 presentation to the AMDC.   A refresher is always a good idea for a workshop. It is good governance. “

The letter has not been acknowledged, but the concept was.