By Lindsay Street
Staff Writer

Can growth decisions wait in Dorchester County? Four of the seven county councilmen didn’t think so when they voted to pull the proposed Adequate Facilities Ordinance out of committee to give it a second reading at the regular July 23 council meeting.

Earlier this year, Councilman Jamie Feltner backed the Adequate Facilities Ordinance but failed to win over the majority of council for a second reading. The proposed ordinance would limit developers if they do not invest in water, sewage or schools needed to handle their developments’ growth.

The ordinance had remained in the finance committee for more than three months while waiting on results from a growth study. The study will outline a comprehensive plan on how much growth is possible in Dorchester County and how to properly manage that growth. The results will be available to county council in October.

The comprehensive plan cost $190,000 of public money, County Council Chairman Larry Hargett said.

Minutes before the meeting, Hargett heard some of the councilmen were planning to pull the much debated ordinance out of the finance committee.

Hargett requested the councilmen wait to put the item on the agenda for the regular Aug. 20 meeting, to give proper public notice. But councilmen Feltner, Willie Davis, Ken Waggoner and Richard Rosebrock wouldn’t wait.

“It’s like saying ‘Damn the public! We’re going to do it anyway,’” Hargett said. “It really was a travesty of good government, it really was.”

According to Hargett, the council has the right to vote on amending meeting agendas. However, the amendment needs to be submitted in writing four days prior to the meeting, he said.

“Council has the right to pull a proposal out of a committee,” Rosebrock said. He said the council did it for the historic overlay district earlier this year.

Once the proposed ordinance was pulled out of committee, the councilmen passed the second reading with a 4-3 vote. The second reading means there will be a public hearing on the ordinance before a final vote. Hargett, Mike Murphree and Chris Murphy voted against the ordinance.

“We have real serious opposition for the adequate facilities (from Hargett, Murphree and Murphy),” Rosebrock said. “I don’t know if it would ever come out of committee if we didn’t take it out and discuss it.”

Since the meeting and the impromptu second reading of the ordinance, Hargett has received 50 to 60 e-mails and phone calls from citizens upset over the lack of public notice. Most of the citizens are from upper Dorchester County, so Hargett has scheduled an Aug. 13 meeting in St. George to review the council’s actions.

The councilmen voted to take it out so the ordinance could have a public hearing, Rosebrock said.

“We did not do anything illegal,” he added.

If the meeting finds the council violated the rules, the proposed ordinance will have to be put on the agenda for a future meeting for a second reading, Hargett said.

“It’s one of the biggest issues our council has ever faced,” Hargett said.

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