Published: Tuesday, Apr. 15, 2008 / Updated: Tuesday, Apr. 15, 2008 05:50 PM
Green Party may put forth council candidate
Assuming he gets his party's support at its May 3 county convention, Fort Mill resident Bryan Smith will be the Green Party's candidate for York County Council District 1.
It will be Smith's second run at an elected office. Last year, he ran for the at-large Fort Mill Town Council seat held by Ken Starnes. Smith would face Democrat Marion Davenport and the winner of the Republican primary between incumbent Paul Lindemann and former councilman Jeff Updike.
"A lot of the topics on the front burner now are dear to me," Smith said. "Especially the landfills and the airport expansion and development everywhere - those are the types of issues I'm going to focus on."
Since the Green party is best known for its position as proponents of environmental protection, Smith's positions don't come as much of a surprise, but he is not against all development. He just wants to see it balanced with protecting natural areas.
"On the landfills, I'd like to see waste-to-energy programs brought in," Smith said. "I want programs designed for expansion with the most up-to-date technology."
Such a program could generate enough power to offset some of the cost from the county's recycling programs and maybe even some excess energy to sell back to the local power grid. He points to European countries that have adopted such systems and wants to make sure the county doesn't settle on just incineration with the possibility of future environmental legislation with tougher emissions controls requiring costly upgrades later.
On expanding the airport, Smith sees the potential economic benefits of more corporate jets using the runways as a draw for more corporate headquarters in the county. However, he said the county and City of Rock Hill need to do something for the affected homeowners. He suggests some kind of "substantial" property tax relief.
"It's a social justice issue." Smith said. "I worked near the Charlotte airport, those jets, you'll know they are there."
Smith said he is not necessarily opposed to the Dave Lyle Boulevard expansion from Rock Hill to Hwy. 521 in Lancaster County, as long as the developers who will benefit from the expansion pay for some of it.
"That area has a lot of natural space, and it shouldn't be plowed under just to do it," he said. "But at the same time there areas in that vicinity, like near I-77, that are good for development."
"One of the things I focus on is we need to be smarter about growth, and pay attention to what we're doing with the developments," he added.