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Published: Friday, Jan. 06, 2012 / Updated: Tuesday, Jan. 03, 2012 09:40 AM

Hospitality tax eyed for York County amenities

LAKE WYLIE -- 

The current list of projects for York County hospitality tax money doesn’t include Lake Wylie’s proposed park along Crowders Creek. But that doesn’t mean the county isn’t planning for it.

At their meetings Dec. 5 and Dec. 19, York County Council members saw the latest figures for hospitality tax money, collected in unincorporated areas like Lake Wylie and designed to promote tourism. Already approved for 2012 were four projects – a new Clover park, a county museum planetarium, Catawba cultural preservation project and county way-finding signage – totaling $725,386.

Tom Spratt of Fort Mill and chairman of the hospitality tax committee on Dec. 19 recommended eight more projects totaling $532,865. Items range from $300,000 for the Carolina Thread Trail and $87,124 for the Catawba Pow Wow to $20,000 for Fort Mill’s Strawberry Festival, and just more than $5,000 each for a York historical markers project and an agriculture and art tour.

The Carolina Thread Trail project would go toward 10.7 miles of trail connecting Fort Mill’s Baxter Village and the Anne Springs Close Greenway to Riverwalk in Rock Hill.

What wasn’t on the list is funding for a park on 50 acres near Crowders Creek already owned by the county. Council approved $30,000 for design planning, with possible uses including athletic fields for baseball, softball and soccer. Lake Wylie area organizers said they couldn’t meet the October hospitality tax funding application deadline, but they hope to submit a plan by the March 2012 deadline.

Lake Wylie park planners are looking at a $2 million facility, with hospitality tax funding to be a major income source. County leaders say the Lake Wylie property is part of a larger, countywide focus on park and recreation space.

“We’re going to need to start coordinating better so we look at it with more of a big picture,” County Manager Jim Baker said.

Baker said last month that along with the Crowders Creek property, county staff is in discussion with Duke Energy on additions to the Allison Creek Access Area to make it “more like what we have at Ebenezer” Park in Rock Hill. That facility includes camping, playgrounds and restrooms. Access to the water also is a focus for recreation needs in Fort Mill.

Bennish Brown, executive director of the Rock Hill/York County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said a comprehensive, ongoing study of county recreation needs found river or lake access to be a top priority in Fort Mill. In Lake Wylie, the top needs were trails, picnic/playground park space, soccer fields, a swimming pool/water park and sports fields. The study relied on citizen and expert input, using information from 1993 and six studies from 2005 to 2011.

“The views and responses of citizens over the past 18 years have remained almost 100 percent consistent in all of the studies that have taken place,” Brown said. “You will see walking and jogging paths, parks and open space and hiking trails and greenways at the top of every survey.”

Included were about 160 citizen responses from the December 2010 recreational needs assessment survey in Lake Wylie, conducted by Brown’s group. A 2008 Clover study also showed unmet needs of a swim center, soccer and baseball fields. The study outlined to council likely will include many of the same themes as the commissioned study of the Crowders Creek property, which is forthcoming.

“They’ll make sure it is best used for that particular community,” Brown said of the Crowders Creek site.

Council hopes issues such as agritourism and park space will enhance the quality of life in York County through hospitality tax money.

“The life the citizens have is real important and needs a lot of focus,” Council Chairman Britt Blackwell said.

Council distributes part of its hospitality tax money each year to the Rock Hill/York County Convention and Visitors Bureau for use in its annual operational and marketing budget, leaving the remaining funds available for projects submitted during the year. The volunteer Hospitality Tax Advisory Committee sorts through the applications and recommends projects for funding.

If the latest projects are approved, an overall $750,000 budget amendment for 2012 will be applied for the hospitality tax fund. The estimated balance as of June 30, 2012, will be $3,235,991. Along with the Crowders Creek site, future plans for an agritourism facility likely will rely heavily on the tax money.

County Councilman Bruce Henderson, who represents Lake Wylie, said spending through the hospitality tax is bringing in more outside dollars to the county through tourism.

“Overall, in the big picture, we’re gaining, and gaining greatly,” he said.