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Town Council - Sept 8, 2008 |
Minutes McClellanville Town Council September 8, 2008 - 7:00 PM McClellanville Town Council held a regular monthly meeting on the above-noted date. Notice of the meeting had been published in the town newsletter and the Charleston Post and Courier. Mayor Rutledge Leland presided at the meeting; Council Members present included Aaron Baldwin, Jim Scott, and Bob Gannon. Council Member Gussie Humes was absent. Others present were Clerk Mary Duke and guests Frances Waite, David Stoney, Sherry Browne, Walter Bonner, Bud Hill, Ginny Prevost, Malcolm Baldwin, Paul Fields, and Cheves Leland. Mayor Leland first asked Council to review the minutes of the August 4 meeting. Councilman Gannon made a motion, seconded by Councilman Baldwin, to approve the minutes as written. The motion was carried unanimously by the Council Members present and voting. Mayor Leland then recognized Frances Waite from the State Forestry Commission. Ms. Waite presented a "Tree City USA" flag to Council, in recognition of the Town's achievement in being named a "Tree City" for the seventh consecutive year. She pointed out that, in order to be eligible for this designation, a municipality must maintain a tree committee, must have a tree conservation ordinance, must hold an annual Arbor Day commemoration, and must spend at least $2 per capita annually on tree conservation. Tree Committee Chairman David Stoney thanked Ms. Waite for the presentation and acknowledged the hard work of all of the committee members and the support of the Mayor and Council. He said that the committee was currently requesting bids for a grant-funded upgrade to the town's tree inventory. He added that a forester-led "Tour of Trees" in the town was planned for Sunday, Oct. 5. David then asked that Council officially appoint Eddie Stroman as a new member of the Tree Committee. Council appointed Eddie by unanimous consent. David further asked that Council proclaim the first Friday in December, Dec. 5, as Arbor Day in McClellanville. By unanimous consent, Council agreed to proclaim Dec. 5th as Arbor Day, and further agreed that they would sign a written Arbor Day proclamation at the next Council meeting. Mayor Leland the recognized Sherry Browne, who had asked to speak to Council regarding plans for Creek Sweep day in September. Sherry said that the event was scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 20, with a rain date of September 21. She said that if bad weather occurred on both of those dates, the Creek Sweep would be rescheduled for October. Sherry asked Council's permission to use two parking spaces at the landing to set up and distribute supplies for participants and to park the vehicle and trailer that would bring kayaks for use by some of the participants. She said that the Creek Sweep was planned to begin at around 10:00 AM and continue until 1:00 or 2:00 PM, whenever the last participants turned in their trash collections. She added that they planned to clean both Jeremy Creek and the island at the entrance to the Creek. Council agreed by unanimous consent to approve Sherry's request for use of the municipal area for the Creek Sweep. Bud Hill was next recognized by the Mayor. Bud asked permission to again use the area under town hall for the museum's annual Member Appreciation Oyster Roast, scheduled for the evening of Saturday, November 8. Council also agreed to approve this request by unanimous consent. Mayor Leland then recognized Malcolm Baldwin, who had asked to speak to Council on several matters. Malcolm first asked whether use of the boat landing for the ARA-sponsored fishing tournament had been approved. Council approved by consensus agreement, for the record, to allow use of the landing for ARA's annual fishing tournament on October 4, 2008. Malcolm then told Council that he had been working with County engineers to address some concerns they had noted with the roads and drainage system at Graham Farms PD. He said that he believed that most of the issues could be resolved in the near future, at which time he could approach Council with a request that they accept the roads in the PD into the Town system. As the Town had received an email from County Public Works indicating that they still had a few outstanding issues regarding the roads and drainage, Council agreed to postpone any vote on accepting the roads until a future meeting when the matters had been resolved. Malcolm noted that the second item he had asked to discuss, consideration of serving alcohol at the "captain's meeting" the night before the Fishing Tournament could be deleted, as this plan had been abandoned. He then spoke to Council about another concern, his thoughts on the Town's Architectural Review Board that he had outlined in a letter to the Mayor and Council. Malcolm said that he felt the bureaucracy associated with the Architectural Review process had grown, and now caused costly delays in construction. He maintained that it was impossible to make new construction in the Historic District appear similar to the historic homes, due to flood code requirements, etc. Malcolm said that he felt that ARB review resulted in new construction that was less typical of "old McClellanville" than what might have been built otherwise. He suggested that the ARB duties might be confined to reviewing proposed changes to historic structures, and that design guidelines and sign regulations should streamline applications for new construction. Mary pointed out that, partly in response to concerns such as Malcolm's, Zoning Administrator Kathryn Basha had worked with the Town Attorney to draft the proposed zoning ordinance amendment to be introduced at this meeting, which would allow the zoning administrator to review and approve, when appropriate, certain changes to "noncontributing" (not historic) structures and also some minor revisions to applications previously approved by the ARB. She said that this was an attempt to begin to streamline the application process somewhat, for both the applicants and the Board. Mary added that Kathryn had been working on proposed design guidelines for construction in the Historic District as part of a project funded through the State Archives Dept. She said that Kathryn would be seeking input on these guidelines from the ARB and the Planning Commission in the coming weeks, but should soon have a copy of the draft available for Council's review. Councilman Baldwin suggested that a committee might be needed to work on some compromises between those who felt an Architectural Review Board to be valuable and those who found it burdensome. Bud Hill suggested that Council first review Kathryn's draft design guidelines and the proposed amendment before determining whether a committee was necessary. In response to questions as to why the Architectural Review Board was originally formed, Mayor Leland said that it was his recollection that during the drafting of the Town's original Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Ordinance in the early 1990's, the Town had learned that it could not have a historic district without an architectural review board. Council agreed to review the proposals that Kathryn Basha would be submitting in the coming weeks, and to continue the discussion of these issues at upcoming meetings. Council next considered the sixth agenda item, a proposed ordinance to amend Articles V and XII of the Zoning Ordinance, to allow administrative review of certain work in the Historic District. Kathryn explained that the amendment would allow the zoning administrator to approve changes to "noncontributing" structures in the Historic District, when the changes would not be visible from a public right-of-way. Also, it would allow her to approve modifications to previously approved applications, when these modifications were determined to be "insubstantial." Councilman Gannon asked about efforts to "standardize" the application process, to make it more efficient. Kathryn reiterated that she was working on design guidelines to help guide applicants in selecting acceptable designs and materials, including a checklist for the review process. She said that she had scheduled a work session on the draft guidelines with the ARB on Sept. 22, and that she would forward copies of the draft to Council after receiving the ARB's input at that meeting. Councilman Baldwin then made a motion to hold first reading on the proposed "Ordinance to Amend Article V and Article XII of the Zoning and Land Development Ordinance of the Town of McClellanville, South Carolina So As To Provide for an Administrative Review of Certain Work in the Historic (H) District." Councilman Scott made a second to the motion, and the motion was carried unanimously. Kathryn then updated Council on the Greenbelt Bank application that the Town had submitted to Charleston County for purchase of two lots, one on Pinckney St. and one on Cassena St. She reported that the Greenbelt Board had agreed to recommend that County Council approve $20,000 for purchase of the Cassena St. lot, with the provision that the grant funds could not be used for demolition of the building on the lot. Council suggested that, if County Council approved this funding, the $20,000 should be offered to purchase the property on the condition that the present owner pay for removal of the structure on the lot and repair of the damaged septic system. Kathryn also reported that the Board agreed to recommend funding for purchase of the lot on Pinckney St., with the condition that no more than 30% of the funds could be used for construction of the proposed boardwalk. Kathryn said that she felt optimistic that grant funding could be acquired from another source, such as SCDOT or OCRM, to assist in construction of the boardwalk. Mayor Leland asked what restrictions would be placed on the property if the Town purchased it. Kathryn replied that there would be no improvements other than clearing the underbrush and construction of the boardwalk, and that the property would be retained as green space. Council reviewed the information from Charleston County Public Works regarding their possible assistance in improvements to drainage problems in the area of 522 and 514 Pinckney St. Mary said that the County had indicated that they may need to apply for permits from SCDOT and OCRM in order to do the work, and asked whether Council would approve for the County to sign permits on the Town's behalf. Council agreed by consensus to approve the County to sign such permits for the Town, as long as the Town was copied on any such permits. Council then reviewed the letter from the S. Santee Senior and Community Center requesting a donation to their renovation project. Councilman Gannon asked whether progress had been made on the proposal at a previous meeting to develop guidelines for charitable giving. Mary said that Council had discussed revising the County's guidelines to make them more appropriate for McClellanville, but that she had not yet completed the draft revisions. Council agreed that, because of the number of requests for donations and the limited amount budgeted for such requests, approval of a donation would be deferred until a policy for giving could be proposed. Council suggested that input on such policies should be sought from other small communities. Council considered Mary's request to raise the current $1000 limit on the Town credit card. After discussion, Council agreed by consensus to raise the limit to $2500. The Mayor then recognized Cheves Leland. Cheves reported that the rights-of-way along Cassena St. and portions of Scotia St. were extremely overgrown and asked who was responsible for maintenance of those roads. Mary reported that, although SCDOT maintains most paved roads in Town, she did not believe that they had a recorded right-of-way on those roads and she had not had good response in the past to requests for maintenance there. Mayor Leland said that he did not feel that the Town received adequate response from SCDOT to our requests for maintenance of roads and drainage systems. He suggested that Mary contact State Representative Vida Miller and Sen. Ray Cleary to report this problem, and ask them to recommend a contact person at SCDOT who might be of more assistance to the Town. Council asked Mary about the status of the streetscape plan for Pinckney St., which Charleston County had agreed to develop using some half-cent sales tax monies. Mary said that she understood that County Council had agreed to fund the project, and she believed that the County had advertised for bids from companies to develop a plan. She said she believed that when a contractor was chosen for the job, a plan would be drafted and presented to the Town for input from the public and from Town government. There being no further business, a motion was then made, seconded, and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at 8:50 PM. Mary S. Duke Town Clerk |