COLUMBIA, S.C. — Richland County council touched on several projects on Tuesday starting with a deal between the county and Allen University.
The university has been eyeing land off Two Notch Road, on Cushman Drive for some time now to build a football stadium, and on Tuesday the county signed off on the agreement.
Richland County Council has also been working on a new land development code for the past year, this tells developers what they can build where based on zoning in the county. The code was up for a first reading Tuesday, but some council members believed it deserves more thought before moving forward.
"It's been a complicated process, parts of it are us following the letter of the law, and ticking every box but it can still be hard to explain," said District 11 council member, Chakisse Newton. "Again just asking that we leave no stone unturned."
The council will host a Land Development Code work session soon, and a first reading for the code has been deferred until September 12.
The other community need addressed in Tuesday's meeting was traffic. 15 years ago, Richland County took up a penny sales tax for various road improvements and transportation needs. Now that the time for collection is almost up the county is looking at what's changed in the last 15 years to re-evaluate transportation needs.
"The study is not to decide on another penny [tax]," assured council chair, Overture Walker. "So this is a $300,000 needs assessment?" Questioned council member, Don Weaver, to which the council chair confirmed.
Richland County has a breakdown of its previous use of the penny tax on its website.