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Council approves rezoning and comp-plan amendment to allow charter school at Harrisburg Road site
Summary
Council advanced first-reading action to rezone a 32.89-acre Harrisburg Road property from Light Industrial to Institutional and approved a companion comprehensive-plan amendment after applicants described the site as isolated from industrial corridors and suitable for a K–8 charter school.
Lancaster County Council considered a request to rezone a 32.89-acre property at 11632 Harrisburg Road from Light Industrial to Institutional to accommodate a proposed charter school and voted in favor to move the item forward along with the required comprehensive-plan amendment.
Applicants including Skip Powell and Natalia Pena (founder of Bridgepoint Charter School) argued the building sits amid growing residential development and that institutional use would better fit the neighborhood than continuing industrial operations. "For a corridor that has become almost entirely residential, the school is a better fit," Pena said, adding the school's traffic would occur in two short windows on school days and that the team is working with SCDOT to mitigate traffic impacts. Planning staff and planning commission had recommended denial because the requested institutional use did not match the future land-use designation, but council members said the existing context and traffic analysis supported the change and approved the motions on roll call.
Council asked staff and applicants to continue coordination with SCDOT on traffic mitigations and to provide any additional exhibits as site-plan review proceeds.
