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Hartsville property owner questions city's planned 39‑acre purchase; council moves to executive session
Summary
Property owner Charles Rogers told the Hartsville City Council that much of a 39‑acre parcel the city is considering contains wetlands and questioned whether the $60,000 purchase is a prudent use of taxpayer funds. Council voted to move the matter into executive session to discuss the proposed purchase.
Charles Rogers, a Hartsville property owner, told the City Council on Jan. 14 that a 39‑acre tract the city is considering purchasing contains extensive wetlands and is not suitable for development. Rogers said the parcel (parcel number 099‑00‑01‑159) carries a listed purchase price of $60,000 and that much of the land is unusable.
"Of the 39 acres, 23 acres are surveyed as wetlands by the United States Army Corps of Engineers, rendering them useless for development," Rogers said. He calculated that only about 9.3 acres would be privately usable and said that equates to roughly $6,451 per usable acre. Rogers added that he had offered the city $20,000 to release any claims to the property.
The city manager acknowledged the comments and said the details raised by Rogers constituted negotiation matters that should be discussed in executive session. After brief acknowledgement from the mayor, the council voted to enter executive session "pursuant to SC code 4 a section 34 78 2 for discussion negotiations incident to proposed purchase of property," as announced on the record.
Rogers identified himself for the record as a Hartsville taxpayer and said his company, Roger Burrows Farm, employs 15 people who live and shop in Hartsville. He asked the council whether the parcel is the best use of city funds and whether alternatives such as expanding the existing wastewater treatment property had been considered; the council did not debate those points in open session and moved the matter to closed session for negotiation and legal discussion.
The meeting record shows the council approved the motion to enter executive session; no public vote tally with member names was read into the public record before the session began. The council asked Rogers to provide his written statement to the city clerk for the public record.
