2026-10-12 - City Council Formal Meeting

00:01Everyone tonight's meeting in Greenville City council. Nice to have you with us. Please rise for invocation by council member Felimming followed by the pledge of allegiance. That is great. Decounting gracious, God, we truly thank you for this day, the sunshine, and all of the beautiful things on this earth. We ask that you be with us and stand by us and.

00:21We thank you as council members for the service that this building has done for the city of Greenville.

00:28We pray now a special blessing upon our mayor who this will be his last time serving as mayor in this particular building, but not his last time serving you, Lord. So we thank you for what you've done for us and we pray that our staff will be safe as they plan to leave, and we pray for a transition.

00:48Is that are not only safe, but are pleasant. We ask that you will be with our city and be with us as we deliberate to do the best service we man can. These bless us we ask and Danne. Man.

01:07Thank you.

01:24Council member John Deworken? Council member Lillian Flemming? here. Council member Ken Gibson? Sure. Council member Will Brasington? Council Member Tina Belge here. Council Member Dorothy Dowe here mayor Knox White. Here.

01:42Council member Deworken? Council Member Flemming? Council member Gibson? Council member Brasington? Hi, council Member Belge? Hi, Council Member Dowe?.

02:02Alright.

02:03Now to the regular agenda, 1480. An ordinance to amend chapter 19 of the Code of ordinances of the City of Greenville and to incorporate text updates into the Greenville development Code recommended during the 36 month code review process and this is a revised ordinance. Second.

02:23Just a second, any further questions? Council member they're working? Hi. Council Member Flemming? All right. Council member of Gibson? All right. Council member Brasington? Hi. Council member Belge? I'm Council member Dowe? I mayor White. All right.

02:4314 B An ordinance to a man chapter 14 article one of the code of ordinances of the city of Greenville relating to elections, so as to adopt nonpartisan municipal elections utilizing the nonpartisan primary election and general election method.

03:00Tim moved second. Council member Deworken? All right. Council Member Flemming? No. Council member Gibson? All right. Council member Brasington? Abstain.

03:15Council Member Belge? Council member Dowe? I mayor Y. All right. Okay. New business 1st reading 15 a. Approximately 0.12 acre of real property and 0.02 A.

03:35Maker of adjacent right of way at 31 Young Street and to provide the zoning designation of RNA neighborhood A district. So second. Can we take a look at that?

03:4731 Young Street. Okay. Any, any questions from council on that? Good.

04:03Ma'am, you'll need to obstain. Is this the one that you've abstained on? Is this is for the Neighborhood thing. Yeah. Okay Yes ma'am, thank you. I thought it was on another street sir. Council Member Gibson? Council member Brasington?

04:23Council Member Belge? Hi, council member Dowe? Hi, Mayor White? All right.

04:28Well Michael's up here. Can we just give him a thank you. I meant to stop after our 36 month code update since it passed. Just say thank you, thank you to the planning staff on all your work. I know it's not been easy, but you've been doing it every six months and so I just wanted to say thank you while you're while you're still at the podium.

04:46Absolutely, we appreciate that it is a lot of work and I'd really like to also thank the rest of the team that are here tonight. And then of course Shannon, city attorney's office helps with each of those reviews as well. So it's a, it's a team effort to bring those to you, but we're happy to do it. So. Awesome. Thank you all so much for your job.

05:04Okay 15 B And hundred $66957 from the parking fund to the downtown Greenville Conference Center project.

05:24And the capital projects fund so moved.

05:26Second question second. You want to of course Clark will call the role. Council member Deworken? Council member Flemming? Council member Gibson? Council member Brasington? Council member Belge? Council Member Dowe? Hi mayor White? All right.

05:4516 new business resolution 16AA resolution to appoint Wanda L Adams as an assistant presiding judge under chapter 22 municipal court of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Grangle. Second judge, we'll be happy to have you up here to introduce Wanda to us the.

06:05Yeah. Good evening council, mr. Mayor, city attorney, city manager. It is my pleasure to recommend miss Adams is an assistant city judge. She has served this city for a number of years both through the solicitor's office and his council is well, well aware.

06:25From 1995 to 2005 as an assistant judge, so she's gonna be able to jump right of the court and I'm just tickled that she was willing to assist the court moving forward. She's a dear friend, and I think the city is very lucky that she is willing.

06:45To continue to serve in this capacity. Welcome.

06:49All in favors here? Thank you Wanda. You very wise you don't want to say anything that may change.

07:08But we're glad to have you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 16 b. For present Greenville LLC to install and maintain a building foundation located at 01:27 South Main Street.

07:28Second. Motion second, all in favor to say most eyes have it. 16 C Related to it. A resolution to approve a surface encroachment permit for crescent Greenville LLC to install and maintain stairs located at 01:27 South Main Street. So.

07:48Most second on if I would say your eyes. Eyes have it. 16 D.

07:53A resolution to approve a structural air rights encroachment permit for presents, Greendale LLC to install and maintain balconies located at 01:27 South Main Street. So second. 16 days approved, 16 E and.

08:13The resolution to approve the structural airwides increaturement prevent for crescent Greenville LLC to install and maintain cornesses located at 127 South main street. I said if you can tell we had lawyers in charge of this one, I tell you. Oh your resolutions.

08:33What separate resolutions or whatever it was?

08:36Okay, here's a different 01:16 F A resolution to provide for certain certifications regarding an abandoned building and abandoned building site located at or near 2758 Lawrence Road and 17 devalve drives. Section twelve-sixty seven-one hundred. All right.

08:56Second. Do we want to see the presentation on that? I mean yeah VCG Mark White, new dealership taking over a location on Lawrence Road that's head.

09:16Two abandon buildings for a number of years, total project costs $8 million.

09:22This approval for resolution to certify the project will allow the the owner to utilize those credits as we move forward with this new income producing job creating project. I want to see one more current site.

09:38And 15 projected full time jobs. Again, thank you for your approval. Okay, any other questions alright, we got it. Miss manager, we, we already we're already there.

09:55Okay. All right, just a couple things really quick. 1st I want to say, just to give a little context on the item that you voted on earlier tonight on the downtown Greenville Conference Center that that will allow us to continue the final land closings, and so we should have all of those closings con.

10:15Finalized by the end of this year. We've already completed three of the four and that means that we will actually own that land and I think for a long time we thought that the city would be the right owner for that property regardless of how we move forward. If one of the things that our planning staff put together was the history of how long.

10:35We've been talking about that property in our plans and Edward's been able to piece it, it goes back 40 years where the city's been talking about doing something really spectacular in that area on that property. So I think we're finally getting there and so I appreciate the vote of confidence tonight to allow us to continue to move forward with the conference center that I.

10:55And we'll be in front of the design review board on Thursday for a 1st review that would be for the massive scaling of that project. And second, in, in case anybody didn't know, we had fall for Greenville that last weekend. The Bank of America Fall for Greenville that was presented by Pepsi celebrated its 45th year this past weekend.

11:15With an exceptionally successful event, and thank you to everyone who came out. It was really spectacular. Despite the uncertainty surrounding the potential impacts of hurricanee Aseas, the team worked closely with the Greenville City Fire Department fall for Greenville Board of directors and operational vendors to seamlessly manage the storm preparations and festival operations.

11:35Including the cancellation of Saturday. This year's festival featured nearly 60 food vendors, seven stages, more than 90 entertainment acts, the wow fiber kids area, food truck Road, the renewal by Anderson Beer Garden and the GSP International airport Wine Garden.

11:51We are proud to share that the festival achieved its highest Friday and Sunday attendance and event history. Volunteer participation was outstanding. Maybe some people in this room volunteered with over 700 individuals contributing 4125 h across 1077.

12:11Additionally, we reached a new milestone in corporate sponsorships.

12:16Securing more than $270000 from 24 sponsors along with more than $20000 through 15 corporate patron packages. While staff is actively working to finalize attendance and impact data from this past weekend, we are pleased to share that pre sale tickets that were purchased, it represented the 22 different states.

12:36City departments were well represented with teams from police, fire, engineering, public works, communications, IT, legal, city manager's office, and parks recreation and tourism working together throughout the event. And it truly was a team effort for all of our departments, and it was so fun just to see the camaraderie.

12:56Amongst our departments throughout the weekend. It was, I got the pleasure of volunteering with Tara and Jeff and Buddy in a booth and that was a lot of fun. Let's tell you that.

13:08And Preparations are for next year or already underway and special recognition goes to the tourism team led by Anna Catherine Miller for their so go ahead and mark your calendar.

13:28Vendors.

13:29Cause we look forward to welcoming everyone back for the 2027 Bank of America Fall for Greenville, which will take place 8 October through 10th 2027. So thank you all very much. It was a wonderful weekend. You know, it was just I I love it because I get to have so much time with staff, with the community, and I got.

13:49I see randomonium for the 1st time and apparently I have been missing out, but they were incredible. So, anyways, we have a lot more planned for some fun events coming soon, so. I saw randomonium too, are you there? I was there. Okay, you were probably down the front end all the people there. I was in the back, you know.

14:09Oh, ok. Yeah, how, from a police safety standpoint, even though in these days and times with things happening that we had these enormous events downtown with so many people and very little in the police report in terms of bad activity or thank goodness nothing, nothing until it happened. Mostly just.

14:29Intoxicated individuals. Few in that huge crowd. Isn't that amazing? Greenville South Carolina could be that kind of place these days. It still can be. People loved it. It was so fun and the crowds were great. Everybody seemed genuinely happy to be there and you know it was, it was great just to be out with the crowd and see everybody.

14:49Interacting, they seem to really enjoy the music.

14:52I feel like that it was just a really positive experience for a lot of people and so especially yesterday I guess because the weather was just terrible on Saturday that everybody was just ready to get out and have a nice relaxing enjoyable Sunday afternoon. Yeah, that's great. That's great. Somebody from out of town said to me the other night was talking about being in downtown.

15:12One of the biggest impressions she had was that people who live in Greenville all come down to these festivals and other times a year they feel like it's their city, it's their place. And that's, that's the ultimate compliment I guess as they walk around an event like fallfer Greenville. That's right. It's their place. I think that's fitting for us to say congratulations to you on your final meeting in these two. Oh well that's right.

15:32Oh, yeah.

15:51It's not true that I'm gonna be buried here, you know? I've been here by trying to get out of this. She's been in this building longer than I have, actually.

16:11She said, No I'm gonna waiting here. No, I'm not gonna I've been trying to get out of here before we have sweet cookings for you. All right, yeah.

16:26It's it's, what are you doing? Oh I thought you did. You thought you were getting cookies right then. But just factory wise, what's the largest crowd that we ever faced as council members in this chamber? And I think it went back and still, it still is.

16:45The decision by the city council when Lily and I were both in the early days, to sell a city owned building on Main Street that is today where the mass general store is. Okay, we own that building and the city council had voted tentatively to sell it for a bar to be a huge bar in the middle of downtown Greenville, and that set everyone on fire because the city had promised.

17:05That it would be retail one day, but that was still an ideal, you know, you'll never get retail, so they'd say, Well, we can't, we can't get we'll never seriously get retail. So they sold it and under under contract for a bar, which we later we renigged on. And today we had the mass general store on that site and that let lose a lot of residential. This place was so crowded the fire marshall had to shut it down. We had people out there, but we had people in the.

17:25Downstairs on the 1st floor and outside the building they were so angry angry at the mayor and angry at city council, and Lily and I were the only two who voted NO. I mean, i'll tell you, it was a different constituently different relationship and in fact, one more.

17:45Over here that were funny for all times, and this would be my favorite one. The head of the Peace Center, and I don't think it was Megan I think it was somebody before Megan. They were so excited that Phantom of the opera was coming to Greenville. It was a big, that was a big market for, for the Peace Center, and it hadn't been announced yet, so they called me and said, we'd like to announce that the phantom is coming at a city council meeting. Would you particip.

18:05We said I'm fine, sure. So they set us all up and they handed out to council and everyone out there mask. Yeah, and the press came back there we had channel four, channel 13 channel seven. We had a huge. They all came in and we're all, we're in the mask, so what made it particularly funny was at that particular night.

18:25Called the Greenville County Taxpayers Association. Yeah, on TV.

18:44They were, they had come to the meeting to to protest. So, so I sit down here and after we all until we all put our mask on, everybody here and up there and I looked at the audience, they were the five members of the county Taxpayer associated who were all ready to attack the city, and they were all putting on their mask.

19:00Yeah later on when they came to speaking, they walked up to the body with their mask on. I had substance of humor that we got through that night. Umber? Okay, do you think a bantom song? Yeah.

19:17Oh, what? Nobody's done that since, but a lot of memories in this place, but I think it's like you renovate your home, write John to work and have you been sentimental about your old house? Yeah. Probably not. I don't know, really? Yeah, we're looking forward to the new arrangement and new opportunity and and I enjoyed having the meetings at the conference center. Did not enjoy what she said, but.

19:37No, it's the bumper, but it'll be better when we go back. Yeah, it will be. The convention center is is working to try to make it a very nice environment and space for you all when we go in November. So our last meeting in these chambers will be the next meeting that mayor White will not be able to attend, so we wanted to celebrate tonight. We'll get to celebrate again in two weeks.

19:57And then in November we will start meeting at the Greenville Convention Center. There's a few dates next year that we won't be able to meet there, so we will take this show on the road and it'll be a lot of fun. We're gonna have fun with it over the next two and a half years. Yeah, two and a half years. All right, two and a half years. I do want to thank my son when he was three.

20:17Two years old, but sitting in the audience one night and we have been trying to figure out how to stop people from talking very, very long. And one young man.

20:28He was about 80 years old gather to explain to us why we were not gonna rezone his area. And he shooked coins and shooked coins and walked up and down the aisle for about 17 min. My three year old, after the 17, he said, and when he did that, all of those.

20:48Failed out. Just roll it. We boated immediately.

20:533 min is that boy, three years though. The history of the 3 min roll. Yeah, we'll take that with us to the new new chamber, right? That's right, that's right. Mr. Mayor, if we could, when we adjourn, if we could ask council.

21:13We'll to stay for a few minutes and take some photos. That would be great. Thank you very much. Yeah, we should all stay up here probably. Okay. Thank you. Thank you council. 05:51 p.m..