City Council: Seven More Properties Annexed In Hillbrook

Councilman Junie White jokingly said to council, “I want to go over them again” after seven properties on Spartanburg’s east side were annexed individually in separate ordinances. All seven of the property owners had requested annexation through petition, and had to be annexed separately because while they are contiguous to city limits, they are not contiguous to the other properties in Hillbrook that council has voted to annex. All of the annexation resolutions passed unanimously.

Council also unanimously approved a resolution supporting the Spartanburg Housing Authority in its 2009 Hope VI grant application. The Housing Authority is seeking a total of $20 million dollars in federal funding for the redevelopment of Woodworth Homes and Midtowne Heights (click here for PDF file). As part of the resolution, council agreed to donate land valued at $1.3 million and $1.5 million of federal funds over the next five years.

The funding requested will be used to demolish the Woodworth Homes public housing project and replace it with a mixed-use “intergenerational arts community” called Gallery Hill with live-work spaces for low-income artists. The project is designed to be a mixed, home ownership and rental project with 58 rental units and 34 homeownership units. The Midtowne Heights project will also be mixed rental and homeownership units with 48 rental units and 29 homeownership units.

Council also voted to award a contract for infrastructure improvements in the Forest Park neighborhood to Whiteside Construction for $152,037. Councilman Spigner asked Neighborhood Services Director Wes Corrothers about “recovery funds” being used for the project. Corrothers responded that some funds would come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed by congress earlier this year. The motion passed 6-1 with Spigner casting the lone dissenting vote.

Also on the agenda was a quarterly budget update presented by city Budget and Accounting Director James Kennedy. There is now expected to be a $116,000 shortfall in Hospitality tax and interest revenue for the fiscal year. The hospitality tax fund balance is still estimated at around $742,000 even with current expenditures and Kennedy said that the fund should be able to handle the shortfall in revenue.  The city budget has been slashed an estimated $1.5 million this fiscal year compared with the previous year.

Operating expenditures for the quarter were under budget with most savings coming from decreased personnel expenses. Originally, city staff had anticipated that the savings from decreased personnel expenditures would be around 500,000. According to Kennedy, personnel savings were understated and should now be revised to estimate $1 million saved in staff costs for the fiscal year.