Planning commission upholds staff recommendation to deny gravel parking waiver for SCDNR site

The York County Planning Commission on July 13 accepted staff’s recommendation to deny a requested land-development waiver that would have allowed gravel parking at 510 Annie Alexander Court, a property the commission record identifies as the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources’ (SCDNR) project site. Andy Wicker appeared on behalf of SCDNR as the applicant.

Planning staff told commissioners the development replaced a roughly 1,200-square-foot building with a structure of about 4,250 square feet and proposed 16 parking spaces adjacent to the new building. Staff said county code requires street-facing parking spaces to be surfaced with an impervious material such as asphalt, concrete or a bituminous surface treatment and concluded the waiver did not meet the ordinance criteria. “Therefore, I would find it didn't meet this criterion. So we'd recommend denial because it didn't meet the criteria,” a planning staff member said.

Commissioners questioned whether the county or applicant had considered newer impervious or pervious paving systems. One commissioner noted, “There are products that would be impervious…They do require a good deal of maintenance,” and staff said those products exist but can clog or require upkeep; staff also said they had not discussed alternative surfacing with SCDNR during the civil-review process. Commissioners asked staff to follow up with the applicant about potential alternative materials.

The commission opened and closed the public hearing with no public speakers present, then voted to accept staff’s recommendation to deny Waiver 26-4. The transcript records motions, a second and that the motion carried; individual roll-call votes were not specified in the meeting record.

Next steps: staff said it would follow up with the applicant on possible alternative surfacing materials; the denial stands unless the applicant returns with revised plans or additional information.