8/16/07
Zoning Battles
Crowd confronts council on hot zoning issue
By Cathy Gilbert

CATHY GILBERT/Manning Times

David Wielicki stood before County Council – and an angry crowd – Monday night to explain why he is requesting a zoning change.

An angry and unruly crowd faced the Clarendon County Council Monday night in a public hearing over a proposed re-zoning request in the North Santee area.

David Wielicki, of the S.C. Waterfowl Association, has requested rezoning of his private property in the area. The SCWF is uninvolved in the request.

Chairman Dwight Stewart who does real estate work with Wielecki, recused himself from both the public hearing and the ordinance second reading.

With Vice-Chairman W.J. Frierson being absent Monday night, the gavel was passed to Billy Richardson, who conducted the public hearing.

Wielicki seeks to have 10.9 acres of a more than 160-acrea tract he owns to be changed from Residential Estate to General Commercial. Though he was under no obligation to do so, he has divulged that he intends to build a mini-warehouse storage facility on the rezoned property.

“I have observed the growth in this area and thought it would be a helpful business in the area,” he said while addressing Council.

However, before he could do so, spokespersons for a crowd of more than 100 residents from the Princess Pond, Dingle Pond and Francis Marion subdivisions stood to protest the measure.

More than one dozen times, Richardson had to call down the crowd. Even when their own “side” was speaking, the crowd was speaking out of turn, jeering and taunting the Council.

Many of the complaints were from residents who claimed they were uninformed of the measure. By law, a public notice must be published 60 days prior to a Planning Commission hearing and a sign must be erected on the property under consideration. Additionally, owners of property adjacent to the property in question must be notified by letter of the re-zoning request and when the hearing will be held before the Planning Commission.

Planning Director Maria Rose assured Council that all the proper notifications had been made, although she noted that the sign had been turned and eventually moved across the road to Fire Station No. 12, near the property.

Cathy Good, of the Dingle Pond Subdivision, complained that no one could see the sign because it was in high weeds and faced the wrong direction. She also said she distributed her own flyer encouraging neighbors to attend Monday night’s meeting.

For many citizens, traffic and access were at issue.

“We all have to travel Road 400,” said Randolph White. “There is only one way in and one way out.”
Resident Claudia Annese said she feared a storage facility would increase crime.

“Mini-warehouses bring vandals and then we’ll all be screwed,” she said.

Roy Paine, an owner of property in the area that is zoned agricultural, has already constructed an open RV and boat storage lot.

“We can’t interfere with growth and we need to clean up our own backyards,” he said. The crowd shouted and booed at him and asked him if he was making money on his lot, which is acceptable under the Ag zoning. He did not answer the crowd.

When Wielicki did rise to speak in favor of the rezoning ordinance, he introduced himself, inviting the crowd to jeer him if they wanted to. They responded to his invitation loudly.

“This is a cut off piece of land and a storage facility would provide a way for me to fund the rest of the property I own for waterfowl conservation,” said Wielicki, a wildlife biologist and a Clarendon County resident since 2000.

After the public hearing was closed, the matter came up for a vote on the agenda. As they had in the last two debated rezoning issues, the Council tabled the vote to encourage the sides to come to a compromise.

“We would like to see if we could work this out,” said Council member Benton Blakely. “This is one of those times when it is good to live in the poor section of the county. We don’t have any lake property in our area.”

In neither of the prior incidences has their been any movement by any side.

The Council will again address the rezoning request at second reading at the Sept. 10 Council meeting.