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Published: Tuesday, Jan. 08, 2013 / Updated: Friday, Jan. 25, 2013 02:47 PM

Business move, new school sites on planning table

FORT MILL -- 

Fort Mill planners have a lot of their plate.

On Jan. 8 more than a half dozen items – a business relocation to school sites and more – are to be discussed by the town planning commission.

One item involves the Family Dollar in Fort Mill, where a relocation to 271 Doby’s Bridge Road is being sought. The new store would be at the corner of Doby’s Bridge Road and Tom Hall Street, just up from the current location in the former Food Lion shopping center.

The 8,575-square-foot building on just more than an acre would fit within the property’s current highway commercial zoning. The developer also would include a sidewalk on the Doby’s Bridge side.

Other planning items include several related to the Fort Mill School District:

•  SDG Properties and the district are looking to remove a 39-acre tract of land from the more than 300-acre Kanawha property at Sutton Road and I-77. The entire property was part of a development approved in 2008. The amendment would allow use of the future school site without adhering the land to any actions on the remainder of the development.

The rezoned property is under contract for sale to the school district.

•  Another item involves more than 53 acres at Spratt Street and Fort Mill Parkway, where the district wants to annex recently purchased property for use as a new Riverview Elementary School. Last month the Times reported that the school district is looking to expand Fort Mill High School to include the existing Riverview Elementary.

•  The district also was to present planners with the latest drawings of a future elementary school in the Massey subdivision. Plans generally meet what’s required, though there is a variance request from the district to decrease a boundary buffer from 82.5 to 79 feet. Discussion also was expected on what screening might be required for extensive fencing on the property.

Other business

Unrelated to the school district was a proposed extension to plat approval for The Preserve at River Chase. The development saw initial approval in 2008 and has been extended previously, with staff recommending another extension.

The planning commission also was to reconsider an Oct. 23, 2012 decision in which it denied an amendment to sidewalk plans for a park area within Massey. At stake is whether sidewalks would be required on one or both sides of an open space between Kings Bottom Drive and Thornhill Street.

Even with a planning commission nod, the various projects presented Jan. 8 would still require Council approval. Joe Cronin, assistant town manager and planning director, said the Jan. 8 meeting was an unusual one given so many impacts to future Fort Mill projects.

“This is the busiest planning commission meeting agenda that I’ve seen in the three-and-a-half years that I’ve been here,” he said.