Aiken City Council could admit Monday evening that one of the allegations made in a lawsuit filed to stop the current plans for Project Pascalis is true.
On the agenda for the 7 p.m. Monday meeting of the city council is the first reading of an ordinance amending the city’s code regarding the membership requirements of the Aiken Municipal Development Commission.
The Aiken Municipal Development Commission is the city board that approved the redevelopment plan that ultimately became the current Project Pascalis. It also owns several of the properties that would be demolished as part of the project.
Project Pascalis is the city’s name for a $75 million downtown Aiken redevelopment project. The project calls for redeveloping properties in the block surrounded by Laurens Street, Richland Avenue, Newberry Street and Park Avenue.
The plan, as proposed, calls for the demolition of the former Hotel Aiken and the buildings next to it on Laurens Street. They would be replaced by a 100-room hotel. Several buildings at the corner of Newberry Street and Richland Avenue would be demolished and replaced by an apartment complex and a parking garage, with the new building footprint extending out into what is currently the southbound lane of Newberry Street. The former city municipal building on Park Avenue would be expanded into a conference center.
Currently, the city code requires city council to appoint nine municipal development commissioners who are residents of the city. The ordinance amends the code to allow the city council to appoint people with business or residential interests in the city.
One the allegations in the suit filed Tuesday is that five unspecified Aiken Municipal Development Commissioners are not residents of the city and that the city council violated the South Carolina Community Development Law by allowing those members to serve and vote on plans for Project Pascalis.
Tim O’Briant, executive director for the Municipal Development Commission, confirmed Thursday afternoon that some members of the commission are not currently residents of the city.
He added that the current city code was created by a scrivener’s error when it was amended.
The commission was created on Aug. 12, 2019 and the ordinance creating it required nine members including three members of the city council as non-voting members. No other requirements for membership are listed in the ordinance.
City council amended that ordinance on Sept. 24, 2020 to remove the non-voting members of the city council and to add requirements for commissioners to be residents of Aiken.
O’Briant said the intent of the city council was to remove the non-voting city council members and to allow for city residents or those with business interests in the city to serve. He added it was never the intent of the council to limit commission membership to city residents.
The city council and municipal development commission are also scheduled to meet in executive session to discuss Project Pascalis. The agenda indicates the council and commission will discuss contract negotiations, legal claims and receive other related legal advice.
Also on the agenda for Monday’s meeting are the second and final readings of an ordinance annexing and zoning a single-family residence on Augustus Road, an ordinance rezoning the old hospital/county administrative building on Richland Avenue to planned residential and rezoning the property that will become the home of Children’s Place.
An ordinance amending the city’s code to allow food trucks to serve in a planned institutional district is scheduled for first reading at the meeting.
The council is also expected to receive a presentation from the Aiken Business Coalition Entrepreneurship program.
The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday in Room 309 of the city’s new municipal building located at 111 Chesterfield St. S.
