It’s a question of what type of people should make major land use decisions in York County. This round went to the resident, rather than the pro.
York County Council approved two new planning commission terms last week: Walter Heinsohn for chairman in Dist. 7, and Jennifer Bowman to an at-large seat. The nine-member commission reviews and decides on a wide variety of planning, rezoning and related cases that come to the county.
Typically, appointments are finalized without much, if any, conversation by the time council gets recommendations from its finance and operations committee. Council spent nearly a half hour approving Bowman.
“It’s nothing against her, but with all the talk about the planning commission issues, and this being the at-large position, I think it’s important to have somebody that has knowledge of all the things that they have to deal with,” Chairman Britt Blackwell, who instead nominated one of the six applicants the finance group didn’t choose, said at the Dec. 4 council meeting.
Bowman’s background is banking. Another applicant, Matthew Velkovich, has more than 25 years professional site development, land use studies, master planning, environmental permitting and other activities related to land use. Bowman’s inexperience with land use issues has Blackwell concerned she’d be “kind of thrown to the wolves.”
“When you have no knowledge of something and you’ve got a lot of strong personalities there — and plus she does live in the heavily dense area of Fort Mill, that Fort Mill area — I see it’s going to be kind of hard for her to walk into that firestorm and be fair and equitable,” Blackwell said.
Councilman Michael Johnson heads the finance committee, which includes three of the seven council members. He also represents the district where Bowman lives.
“I’m a little concerned by the fact that perhaps, somehow if you live in a district that is fast-growing and is facing all of these issues like Fort Mill, that somehow makes you biased automatically against developers. I think what it does is it (means) someone who has seen the effects of basically unchecked growth.”
Blackwell, who represents Rock Hill, said the perspective from the high-growth areas is a concern.
“I don’t know if I would say it’s a bias,” he said. “It’s a concern by me.”
Who should serve?
No council members expressed personal concerns with either applicant. They unanimously stated they believed either would be fair. It just came down to balance.
“In the past we’ve had a very developer pro-(commission),” Johnson said. “I don’t want to see it get to a point where its eight non-developers and only one developer. There has to be a balance to this. I think that balance, at this time, needs to be more in the hands of your everyday citizen.”
All the applicants for the commission are county citizens. Some just come with more knowledge of development issues. Blackwell relates the commission to medical boards, something from his field of business. Typically five of the seven members on a medical board are doctors.
“The reason we do that is because the doctors know the most about that profession,” Blackwell said.
Velkovich, who Blackwell doesn’t know personally, fits that mold.
“As far as the ideal person for this, I don’t see that you could have a more ideal candidate,” Blackwell said. “His academics, his resume are perfect for this position.”
Especially at a time when so many land use decisions are facing the county, from development standards to building density and more.
“With all the needs we have in the planning commission now, all the concerns about extremes, we need somebody with knowledge in there,” Blackwell said.
Other council members argued there is more than one type of knowledge.
“She brings to that board the constituents’ point of view,” Councilwoman Allison Love said of Bowman.
Love, who represents Lake Wylie and Clover, said she sees some of herself in Bowman as a “common sense” representative. Love started on zoning and other boards without expertise specific to those areas, but she learned. Being from a high-growth area offers a perspective too, Love said.
“She understands what happens when you don’t do the right thing,” Love said.
Councilman Robert Winkler, part of the finance group with Johnson and Love, said the considerable banking background Bowman brings shouldn’t be discounted.
“Ms. Bowman being from a banking background, understands facts and figures and how to look at them and how to make a decision based on a fact or a figure,” Winkler said. “And that’s what this is, is looking at facts and figures.”
Adding balance to the commission was important to Winkler, too.
“It was great to have as many applicants as we did,” he said. “But I looked at it as a chance to do what we said, and diversify the membership.”
The commission now has an attorney, multiple real estate agents, a developer. The at-large seat Bowman will fill came open when a builder left.
“Certainly if what we want to do is replace a builder with someone who has industrial knowledge, then that is certainly what we could do,” Johnson said. “But my thought was to bring someone who brings just everyday knowledge. Driving down the road knowledge, which we need.”
Changes coming?
The reason Bowman’s seat drew so much attention was, it isn’t a district seat.
“All of us should have a say in the at-large seat,” said Councilman William “Bump” Roddey. “If it was a district nomination, something came open, it’s on us to go out and find people to come in and apply for it.”
Councilwoman Christi Cox agreed.
“We should look at at-large positions a little bit differently,” she said.
Cox had concerns that 11 days passed from the time council learned about an open position to when the finance group recommended someone.
“It seems to me that 11 days is a very short timeframe,” Cox said.
Cox and Roddey wanted to defer a decision, to come up with some standard for an application period. Roddey wanted at least 30 days. Roddey hadn’t spoken with either Bowman or Velkovich by Monday.
“Knowing this is a critical position, I think we should do a little more homework,” he said.
Councilman Chad Williams said at-large or not, all planning commission members serve the whole county. He knew both the applicants and was fine with either, along with tabbing Bowman based on balance. But, Williams said, there are examples to show experts within the building community can serve fairly. He looks at Love’s predecessor in Dist. 2.
“Tom Smith did the same thing for years,” Williams said. “He was a developer, no question about it, but I saw him make some anti-developer votes just because he was representing the people of the county.”
As for more council input in future appointments, Love said the three council members on the finance committee put considerable time into their decision.
“We’ve been doing that, so where were you?” she said.
Members say they would be happy to see Velkovich come up again for a future appointment.
“He works for an engineering firm that works for the developers,” Johnson said. “He certainly has that qualification.”
In the meantime, they’ll focus on areas where they can agree.
“I don’t think anybody up here wants growth to continue the way it is,” Johnson said. “We all want smarter, better growth.”
John Marks: 803-326-4315, @JohnFMTimes