Land-Use, Industrial Recruitment and Solar Farms Headline Tuesday’s Council Meeting

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

Adjustments to land-use law, industrial recruitment, solar farms, opioid treatment, and airport leases headline the Anderson County Council agenda for Tuesday’s 6:30 p.m. meeting in the historic courthouse downtown.

The first major vote of the night comes on third reading of a long-debated amendment to the county’s land-use ordinance adding a sprawling set of rules governing industrial-scale and maintenance of solar energy facilities in unincorporated Anderson County. The new section, aims to promote renewable energy while “avoiding adverse impacts to adjacent land uses and property owners,” and it reads like a negotiated truce between environmental ambition and rural unease.

Among its provisions, the ordinance defines what counts as a solar energy facility, sets setbacks of 100 feet from property lines and public rights-of-way and 200 feet from homes, churches, and schools, and requires detailed site plans prepared by licensed professionals. It also insists on something rarely seen in older projects: a decommissioning plan and a performance guarantee, typically a bond or letter of credit equal to 125 percent of the estimated cost of dismantling panels and restoring the land if the project is ever abandoned. If a solar farm stops producing power for a year, the county can declare it abandoned and, after six more months, move to enforce decommissioning through liens, lawsuits, or even judicial sale of the property.

Two other third-reading ordinances address the county’s economic-development infrastructure and public health. One would tighten ethics rules for the Economic Advisory Board by barring voting members from having a financial interest in property tied to fee‑in‑lieu‑of‑tax agreements or special-source revenue deals, while also adjusting language about non-voting members. Another would authorize a lease of county‑owned real estate to Love Well Ministries for the operation of an opioid treatment facility, a small but telling detail in a county that has watched the opioid crisis arrive in the form of EMS calls and coroner’s reports.

Each of these measures will be accompanied by a public hearing, though recent minutes suggest that on such technical questions the chamber often falls quiet, with no one stepping forward when the chairman asks if anyone wishes to speak.

Second-reading items point toward the county’s changing physical and economic landscape. One ordinance would add to the code to regulate the development of townhome and apartment units, including thresholds for when projects must go before the Planning Commission rather than be handled solely by staff. In earlier discussion, Dunn has framed this as a way both to tighten parking requirements and to ensure that neighbors hear about larger multifamily projects before the bulldozers arrive.

Alongside that land-use tweak, council will take up a fee‑in‑lieu‑of‑tax agreement for “Project Flyrod 1,” an unnamed company promising 53 new jobs at an average wage of $32.27 an hour and a $17‑million capital investment in vacant space at an existing building. Economic-development director Burriss Nelson, who often appears at these meetings with a slim folder and a string of numbers, has already briefed council that Flyrod’s first phase could be followed by a second, bringing a new technology to a facility the company already occupies. A related resolution, 2026‑009, would authorize an inducement agreement spelling out fee credits in exchange for infrastructure investment; Nelson has estimated the additional annual tax‑equivalent payments at around $91,357, on top of about $383,000 already being paid on the building.

First readings, which in Anderson function as the legislative equivalent of placing items on the table, are dominated by more coded projects. One would enlarge a joint industrial park with Greenville County, 2010 Park, to accommodate a project referred to as Cherry. Others do the same for a cluster of deals known as Project Beeswax and Project Bento, layering fee‑in‑lieu, special‑source credits, and industrial-park expansions into a package of incentives for companies not yet ready to appear by name.

A separate first‑reading measure would approve a ground lease at Anderson Regional Airport for Blackdog Air, LLC, to build an aircraft hangar on airport property. The ground lease runs in three phases: an initial construction period of up to two and a half years, followed by a thirty‑year term and a possible five‑year renewal at market rent. Blackdog is allowed to build heated and lighted storage and office space but barred from operating competing fuel sales or aircraft‑repair businesses without the county’s consent, a reminder that even on the tarmac, Anderson’s government is curating the mix of tenants.

Other moves are quietly consequential. Ordinance 2026‑011, on first reading, would transfer an easement at the Anderson Sports and Entertainment Center to Duke Energy Carolinas so that a new storage building can be powered—a prosaic step that still requires a formal vote and an explanation that, as Dunn put it in a previous meeting on a similar item.

Later in the agenda, council will be asked to accept Alpine Heights Court, in District Five, into the county road inventory, meaning that its maintenance becomes a public responsibility rather than a private one. Members will also vote on a memorandum of understanding between Anderson County Environmental Enforcement and Lake Hartwell Partners for Clean Water, formalizing cooperation with the nonprofit that already receives council appropriations and conducts shoreline cleanups.

An RFQ for professional engineering services—Bid 26‑015—is slated for approval, though the agenda does not detail the specific projects the engineers will design. The council will also fill at least one vacancy, on the Economic Advisory Board, underscoring the interplay between the ethics ordinance and the people who will be governed by it.

At an earlier 6 p.m. special-presentation session, council will consider three resolutions: one recognizing Justin Harris as an “Outstanding Citizen of Anderson County,” another thanking Steve and Fern Collins for their work as full-time park hosts at Green Pond Landing, and a third honoring the Road Hogs, a mission of Vets Helping Vets Anderson, for their persistent litter pickup along county roads and parks. The language of the resolutions is unusually warm, even by local-government standards—Harris is cited for his “generosity of spirit, unwavering integrity,” while Steve and Fern are praised as “front-line ambassadors” whose hospitality has made Green Pond a favorite stop for traveling RV guests, and the Road Hogs are commended for carrying “their sense of duty into peacetime” by cleaning the county one roadside at a time.