2 weeks Ago
A lengthy discussion surrounding board and committee appointments took place Thursday, Aug. 15, during the regular meeting of the Summerville Town Council after council member Tiffany Johnson-Wilson proposed all boards and committees should consist of seven members, allowing each council member to appoint one individual. “I believe right now, there are some of the boards that each member of council gets an appointment to, and some of them that they don't,” she said.
I believe that the UDO (unified development ordinance) and the ordinances should read the same, where each member of the council should get an appointment.” Johnson-Wilson said the goal is to ensure equal representation across districts and increase community involvement in local governance. Johnson-Wilson made a motion to amend the current ordinance to allow each council member to appoint a member to each board and to increase the number of members of the tree protection board from five to seven.
The council agreed to draft ordinance amendments, with the first reading scheduled for September. Further debate ensued around the town’s Board of Architectural Review (BAR) changes. Town clerk Beth Messervy read a letter submitted by historic district resident Peter Gorman during public comments.
In the letter, Gorman urges the town council members to support an amendment to the current BAR ordinance that only requires three of seven members to live within the historic district. “Ideally, it should be all members, but increasing it to five of the seven would be an improvement over the current threshold,” Gorman wrote. “It is critically important that the BAR members not only understand the architecture but also the culture of our historic district.
The best way to accomplish this goal is to live within it and experience it.” Johnson-Wilson made a motion to change the composition of the BAR to require five of the seven members to be historic district residents. While some council members argued this would give residents a stronger voice in decisions directly affecting their neighborhood, others expressed concern that the historic district, as a town-wide asset, should be governed by representatives from all areas.
The council decided to move forward with the ordinance revision, with future discussions planned..
