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Council defers vote on historic preservation plan after Ethos presentation; asks staff for cost details
Summary
After a presentation from Ethos Preservation on a draft historic preservation plan and community engagement results, Richland County Council voted to defer action to Feb. 10 and asked staff for cost and implementation information before final consideration.
Richland County Council on Feb. 3 heard a detailed presentation of a draft historic preservation plan prepared by Ethos Preservation and then voted to delay action until the council’s Feb. 10 meeting, asking staff to provide cost and implementation details.
Kim Campbell, senior project manager at Ethos Preservation, summarized the plan’s goals, field surveys, stakeholder interviews, public meetings and an online survey conducted from November 2024 through March 2025. She said the project produced a recommendations-and-priorities appendix intended to help the county identify short- and medium-term preservation projects. “A key aspect of the plan was community feedback,” Campbell said during the presentation.
Administrator Brown told council the drafted plan is the culmination of project work and that staff is asking council to accept the document as drafted so it can be used as an appendix to the county’s comprehensive plan. Several council members said they appreciated the work but wanted more time and additional information, including the likely costs tied to implementing recommendations.
Councilmember Newton said she had not realized the council would be asked to accept the plan that night and asked for more time to review. Councilmember Cooper said she could support the plan but preferred to “sit with it for a little bit longer” to fully vet the details. Councilmembers asked staff to return cost estimates and clarifications on implementation before the next meeting.
After discussion, council members moved to defer consideration. A motion to postpone acceptance to March 3 failed; a subsequent motion to defer to the Feb. 10 meeting passed. The council’s action was procedural: no funds were approved or allocated at the Feb. 3 meeting, and the deferral preserves the plan for additional review.
Next steps: staff will provide the requested cost and implementation information ahead of the Feb. 10 meeting, when council will revisit whether to adopt the plan as an appendix to the comprehensive plan.
