SENECA — The monthly Seneca City Council meeting Tuesday at Seneca City Hall saw the unanimous approval of a measure to purchase thousands of dollars worth of security and emergency personnel equipment, as well as the discovery of a zoning oversight.

City Administrator Greg Dietterick said the city will purchase surveillance cameras to be placed at Norton-Thompson Park to monitor activity in the area.

“We’ll put the cameras under the walkway to monitor pedestrian traffic,” Dietterick said. “It will watch that area where the CAT (Clemson Area Transit) bus loads up passengers and monitor activity outside of the restrooms. We’ve had vandalism, and we’re going to stop that.”

Vandals had been destroying city property inside the public restrooms at the park, where toilet paper was being stolen and toilets clogged and broken.

Dietterick said the cameras, which would be placed at a height ensuring vandals couldn’t reach them, would be capable of monitoring activity on the green for special events as well.

“It is going to make people feel more comfortable when they are in the park,” he said. “It’s going to help police, since they can’t patrol that area all the time, and it will help if there is an incident in that area.”

The cameras carry a price tag of $9,500. Funding for the purchase of the cameras is coming from grant money from the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT).

“It’s a no-brainer,” said John Covington, major of operations for the Seneca Police Department. “It uses grant money instead of the people of Seneca’s tax dollars and is a great step to make the city safer.”

Covington said Seneca police have received a high volume of calls complaining about a myriad of illegal activity in the area the cameras are to be installed.

“We frequently get complaints about alcohol use, fighting, sexual activity and drug sales around the CAT bus stop there,” Covington said. “This is a tremendous idea because other than posting an officer there to curtail this activity or hiring another person to work a post there, you can’t stop it. The cameras are just a wonderful idea. The complaints were continuous. Unless you’re there all the time, they aren’t going to catch it.”

The nearly $10,000 is money well spent, according to Covington, who said the city decided to not settle for cameras of marginal quality.

“The city opted to go with the highest quality cameras, Covington said. “Video is no good to us if it’s grainy, and if we can’t identify someone. What is the point of it? The high-quality video has great evidentiary value in court. So really, the benefits are two-fold — the catching, recording crimes as they occur and of course the peace of mind everyone will have. The citizens will know they are safer, and everyone will know the cameras are there so the criminals will go.”

Dietterick also said $9,000 from the city’s general fund will be spent to purchase emergency lights for fire department vehicles.

ON SECOND THOUGHT

The council became bogged down with an unexpected zoning dilemma when what was supposed to be a routine second reading of a zoning request by Gladys Smith revealed that the zoning change being discussed could not be done under the city’s zoning code.

Seneca’s Director of Planning and Development Ed Halbig said Smith was trying to get her property on Mimosa Street changed from an R-6 zone to an RG. R-6 zones are meant for single family houses of 6,000 square feet, while RG, or a “residential general” zone is meant for manufactured houses of 10,000 square feet.

The first reading of the zoning change request simply affirmed the council’s placing of the matter on their agenda, and did not warrant any approval or disapproval of the application, Halbig said. It wasn’t until Tuesday’s second reading that councilman Warren Bright questioned whether or not the change was contrary to city code.

Upon review of the code, it was decided that Smith could not change her zoning from R-6 to RG because the law prohibits moving such a property in a zone of a lesser level of “intensity” into a zone of a greater level. Intensity is quantified by considering the size of the lot, Halbig said.

“The solution being proposed is for her to seek RO, or residential office zoning,” Halbig said.

That residential office status would allow Smith to use her building for domestic or commercial purposes, as well as allow her to put manufactured housing on the property, which was her reason for the zoning change. Halbig said he does not anticipate any problems with the new application.

“We’re not requiring a new fee,” he said. “We put together a new application for her since this was essentially a staff error.”

To help expedite the unusually slow process of Smith’s zoning change, the council went forward with a first reading of her new application Tuesday when they decided on the aforementioned solution. It will still have to be considered by the city’s planning commission and undergo a second reading by city council before the zoning change is approved.