WINNSBORO – Fairfield County Council deferred second reading of its comprehensive plan – already four years overdue – after a private resident noted numerous significant errors in the draft document.
On Monday night, the council voted unanimously to table second reading until the next meeting in two weeks.
Interim administrator Clay Killian said tabled votes are required to come back for reconsideration at the next council meeting. The council could vote to approve, disapprove, or table the vote again.
In a public hearing that preceded Monday’s vote, District 2 resident Brenda Worthington pointed out several errors and inaccuracies in the present draft document.
In its present form, the plan doesn’t adequately address vital census data about population and education trends, and also contains “anti-development strategies,” Worthington said.
“There’s a lot of faulty information that needs to be corrected and trends further analyzed,” she said.
“Some new goals and strategies could be further developed for Fairfield County’s future.”
Many of the errors revolved around density requirements. Worthington said that as written, the plan essentially calls for doubling lot sizes in zoning districts, potentially throwing many Fairfield homes into noncompliance.
“If someone were to have a catastrophe or their home destroyed, would they have to go and get a variance in order to rebuild?” Worthington said. “Details such as density shouldn’t be in a topical document like this. That should be left to the zoning ordinance and not in a future planning document.”
Worthington also took issue with the document’s assertion that as of July 2022, the average home price in Fairfield was $119,000. A Realtor by trade, Worthington said the true value of homes sold in 2022 was over $366,000, more than triple the figure quoted in the comprehensive plan.
“The housing price reported is grossly wrong, misleading and manipulative,” she said.
Randy Kelly with the Fairfield Planning Commission acknowledged the document’s zoning density sections contained errors. He attributed the mistakes to turnover, notably the recent departure of former planning director Carter Thompson.
“I have to take the blame for that. We let that get though,” Kelly said. “Ms. Worthington was absolutely right in what she said but those errors have been corrected now. I feel good about the language that’s in there now.”
According to state law, cities and counties must re-evaluate their comprehensive plans every five years and update them every 10 years.
Fairfield hasn’t updated its plan since 2010, a point of contention for District 1 resident Randy Bright who thought the new plan, like the old one, lacks clarity, measurable benchmark, and an implementation plan.
“The last plan in 2010 set a broad-based goal of increasing the population via economic development, without any success markers, without any benchmarks to manage the process, so what happened?” he asked. “Fairfield’s population decreased while the states increased by 11%. It’s like going on a journey in a car, not having any gauges, keeping your windshield with the windscreen up. We don’t know where we’re going, how we’re getting there, or why.”
Councilwoman Shirley Greene said constituents have also complained to her about errors in the document.
“I’ve heard from constituents that the important part is to make sure all the corrections suggested here are made,” she said.
In other business, the council unanimously voted to award a contract to replace the Maggie Harris Road bridge to Smith-Rowe, LLC for $409,061.
Killian said the county had already budgeted $550,000 for the project, so no budget amendment was necessary.
Killian said Smith-Rowe submitted the lowest and most responsive bid. Other bidding firms included Lee Construction ($478,740) and TrueRock Construction ($634,259).
The bridge spans Little River West Fork, according to procurement documents.
Fairfield also voted to accept a grant from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control to purchase full body scanners at the county detention center.
The scanners allow for “no contact” scanning, which protects staff from communicable diseases and also helps detect inmate contraband.
