Local developer Brad Wilkins reminded Cherokee County Council that a Founding Father warned about the overreach of government.
Wilkins, who spoke at the most recent council meeting, told council there on that path if they move forward with approval of a zoning ordinance.
“I leave you with a quote from Thomas Jefferson from 250 years ago,” Wilkins said in closing to council members. “Government, once established, tends only to expand, as its appetite for power and control grows insatiable. I sincerely hope and pray that statement does not represent this council.”
Benchmark Planning has been paid $242,000 to develop the proposed ordinance, which Cherokee County Council has said would establish zoning regulations only in portions of the county which are likely to have significant development pressure, including the I-85 business corridor.
A proposed zoning map includes five designations — general residential, general commercial, general industrial and rural residential and rural agriculture.
The proposed map also designated scenic Hwy. 11 and Broad River as corridors with buffers and usage restrictions.
Other areas of the county would continue to be regulated by the Land Development Regulation.
It’s those land development regulations that Wilkins said has effectively stopped some housing options.
“On Feb. 4, 2024, Council adopted the latest version of the Land Use Regulations. In November of 2023, I addressed you to let you know you were effectively stopping any type of new housing in Cherokee County.
“Now, two years later, there have been zero RV parks, zero mobile home parks, zero tiny homes and one 68 lot traditional septic tank subdivision. I would not call 68 lots in two years looking like Boiling Springs. You have already proven your power to stop whatever you don’t like via the land use regs,” he said.
According to Benchmark official Vagn Hansen only about 33% of the county footprint would be zoned, but that area would consist of most of the county’s population.
Wilkins contends the proposed zoning ordinance has been expanded from its original scope.
“When the zoning discussion began, it was under the premise that the county was going to explore zoning to protect industrial sites,” he told council. “Now that map has been enlarged to the majority of the citizens in Cherokee County. In addition, buffer zones have been added to the Hwy 11 corridor and the Broad River. Nothing has been developed on the river of significance in 200 years, and we are adding buffers? Who made the changes? Was it council? Was it the planning commission? I do not believe it was either. When you ask Benchmark where the proposed zoning map came from, it mysteriously is anywhere the BPW can extend sewer in the next 50 years. So I ask you? Who is driving county zoning?”
Wilkins told council members the BPW is determining growth by where the utility is installing sewer lines.
“On the BPW, they are your zoning administrator. Of the 2700 proposed homes that have been approved, only 68 of those (The new subdivision on Grassy Pond Road) do not have access to sewer. So as the BPW expands sewer, developers will annex to the city for discounted tap rates, and it matters not if it is zoned by the county. And this is where you will get the “Boiling Springs Effect” on density. Instead of possibly two homes per acre, it will be 6 or more.
“The BPW and the City of Gaffney are growing and are your defacto zoning administrators.”
He also told council the zoning ordinance would increase costs to the county and questioned council on who would be qualified to serve on the zoning board under a zoning ordinance.
“So here we are. On the road to a zoned county, because someone started it, it got way off track, and we want to stop tract builders. And county zoning isn’t going to stop it either.
“We the citizens get more bureaucracy, more taxes to pay for said bureaucracy, more regulations, and less economic growth,” Wilkins said.
As a sort of rebuttal to Wilkins’ comments, County Administrator Merv Bishop said the ordinance is still a work in progress and must be first approved by the planning committee before it goes before council.
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