Soon after the 2010 Census came out, the South Carolina Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office (RFA) projected that by the end of 2019, Fort Mill’s population would double, to 22,284.
RFA was close. But short. Fort Mill’s 2020 Census population estimate was 24,529.
Since 2020, the town’s population has grown past 36,000. The next projection by RFA is that York County will add 64,580 residents by 2035 – and will pass the 400,000 mark within 15 years.
Numbers like these are making town leaders take a breath.
On Monday, the Town Council voted unanimously, and with no one offering public comment, to pause all rezoning and all annexation permits that have a residential component to them.
“This moratorium will ensure that no new residential developments are proposed that would conflict with the goals and the future vision of the town,” said Assistant Town Manager Chris Pettit at the council’s May 19 meeting, when the ordinance to implement the moratorium was introduced.
The moratorium will be in place until Dec. 31. It does not affect projects that already have received approval and does not stop proposals to build on land already zoned for residential development. It pauses applications to rezone non-residential areas to residential zones.
“The intent of this,” Pettit said, “is to give staff time to complete our new comprehensive planning process, our new downtown Master Plan process, [and] our Parks and Recreation Master Plan.”
The state requires local governments to reevaluate their comprehensive plans every five years and to update them every 10 years. A comprehensive plan is a municipality’s blueprint for growth and development.
Fort Mill is at the 10-year mark. In February, the town announced it is developing its 2045 Comprehensive Plan – Fort Mill: Our Path Forward – to craft a long-term vision for the town’s growth over the next 20 years.
The process is expected to finish at the end of this year, with public meetings scheduled for November and December, at which time the Fort Mill could extend the moratorium, provided it is still connected to a planning process.
Monday’s vote to impose a moratorium on residential building comes one week before new impact fees in town are set to kick in. On July 1, new single-family homes built within the Fort Mill School District – which includes parts of Tega Cay – will see impact fees of $29,640 per unit tacked onto construction costs. That’s higher than the average impact fee in California, whose average impact fees dwarf those of every other state, according to data from the Pacific Legal Foundation..
New multi-family units built in Fort Mill after July 1 will see an additional $20,796 added to construction costs. Critics of Fort Mill’s impact fees say they eliminate the chance to build affordable housing.
In March, representatives of the Fort Mill School District made their case before the York County Council – which imposed the impact fees – for large impact fees. Assistant Superintendent Leanne Lordo said that since 2018, impact fees have brought in more than $73 million and have given the school district the ability to build without referendums.
