Greenwood council adopts balanced 2022 budget with new positions; approves several zoning changes and business-license updates

The Greenwood City Council approved the city's fiscal 2022 budget and acted on several land-use and licensing items at its regular meeting.

Staff presented a balanced $23,147,577 budget that sets millage at 127.9 and contains no tax increase. The budget includes a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment for employees, merit increases requested by department heads and five new positions: a full-time janitorial position, a full-time maintenance position, a communications position and two additional police officers. The package includes $515,000 in capital equipment and a $1.073 million Pierce fire engine expected to arrive in 2026; staff said the capital fund (about $5.5 million) will cover the engine and the portion of the budget deficit tied to that purchase.

A director told the council the biennial business-license ordinance update (required every two years) will shift many businesses into lower fee categories and estimated an overall budgetary effect of roughly $55,000. He said roughly 700 businesses'including barbers, nail salons and some auto service providers'would move to a lower rate category under the revised fee schedule.

On land use, the council considered multiple zoning map amendments. Planning staff presented ordinance 25-10 (rezoning approximately 2.7 acres for a parcel near 701 [block truncated in transcript]); staff and the planning commission recommended approval. A separate rezoning at 1010 Coleman Drive (about 1.13 acres from R10 to DC) was presented as historically commercial at the site and approved by the council; staff noted potential future uses included small storage or general commercial development but cautioned larger-scale warehousing would be regulated differently. Council also reviewed a rezoning request for about 43 acres at 114 Addison Avenue; planning staff said the parcel is surrounded by residential uses and recommended against rezoning because access and surrounding character are incompatible with commercial use.

Council also considered ordinance 25-023 authorizing the city manager to approve CPW revenue bond anticipation notes (transcript contains a staff correction that the year should read 2026). Staff said no city revenues are pledged for CPW bonds and CPW did not intend to borrow immediately.

Council members moved and approved the budget during the meeting record. Other ordinance items were moved forward and acted on in the meeting; transcript records procedural approval language for multiple items though specific roll-call tallies were not recorded in the provided text.

The meeting closed with approval of the upcoming meeting calendar and community reminders about park use, holiday events and minor code-enforcement concerns such as not blowing grass into the street.

What happens next: ordinance language and the budget will be codified in the city record; the business-license changes will be implemented before the Jan. 1 compliance deadline noted by staff.