City to Vote on $94.2M Budget, Consider Car Wash on Greenville Street

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

Anderson City Council will look at paving the streets, shoring up the sewers, settling the budget, and revisit two rezoning requests as part of Monday’s meeting at 6 p.m. in council chambers downtown.

Council is expected to formally adopt a $94.2 million budget that keeps the millage rate at 109 mills, includes a 3.0 percent cost-of-living adjustment for full-time and permanent part-time employees, and preserves the city’s practice of using outside financing for some capital work. A companion budget provision would also raise the sanitation fee to $10.50 per cart per month starting July 1, with a further increase to $15.50 the following year.

After a split vote on May 18, a land-use item will have the second reading that would rezone 1502 and 1504 East Greenville Street from neighborhood commercial to general commercial for a proposed Papa Bear Car Wash. The Planning Commission recommended denial, but council approved the request first reading at the last meeting by a 5-4 vote, and the applicant has submitted updated drawings and exhibits to answer earlier concerns.

Council will also consider second reading for rezoning 1200 South Towers Street from light industrial to RM-10 multifamily residential. The change would take an existing single-family house and allow the lot to be subdivided for one additional home, extending a residential shift already underway in the area. The planning staff and commission both support the move, which is framed as a downzoning that removes a nonconforming use rather than inventing a new one.

The city’s sewer system gets its own set of costly repairs, beginning with an eleventh supplemental bond ordinance tied to a South Carolina Water Quality Revolving Fund loan of up to $3,350,341, plus capitalized interest. Those funds would help finance both the replacement of the floating anaerobic digester lid at Rocky River and SCADA upgrades at Rocky River and Generostee Creek wastewater plants, which are described as nearly 20 years old and increasingly hard to keep alive with spare parts and optimism. Council will also consider a separate contract for a secondary digester lid replacement at Rocky River, a project whose bid came in at $2,061,000 from Cove Utility, the lowest of four.

Council will also vote on a contract for Main Street crosswalk repairs and replacement, a continuation of a project that began years ago and has been steadily moving toward completion and which is perhaps the last step in beginning the paving of Main Street downtown. The council is also slated to approve a Bailey Bill-style special tax assessment for Talon Holdings’ rehabilitation project at 522 North Main Street, which would give a seven-year assessment freeze if the project meets the city’s historic-preservation requirements.

A 5:15 p.m. workshop concerning the new Fire Station Four on the East-West Parkway is also open to the public. Full agenda here.