The York County Council is expected to vote Monday on a proposed solar manufacturing facility in Fort Mill.
Silfab Solar Inc. is working to bring their operations to Stateline 77 on Logistics Lane in Fort Mill, where Ross, Stanley Black & Decker, DHL and FedEx also occupy distribution space. The project would require $150 million in investment and create 800 jobs, county officials say.
Council member Debi Cloninger has concerns. She helped delay a vote on the project until Monday’s meeting (March 6) out of questions about the project.
“This project concerns me because we are putting more traffic on an already overburdened road. I won’t support this without more homework into what the repercussions on already burdened infrastructure may be. Council has yet to see a Traffic Impact Analysis.,” she said.
The council must take action on possible incentives for the Canada-based solar panel manufacturer. The council has authorized the county to investigate a possible $2 million state economic development grant for the project, but that action would only move forward if the council decided to pursue the project.
Silfab has its corporate offices in Mississauga, Ontario with U.S. offices in Washington State.
Cloninger can be reached at debi.cloninger@yorkcountygov.com.
I live in Carolina Orchards and I am opposed to this industry in my backyard.
1. Caustic chemicals next to schools and neighborhoods.
2. Mitigation concerns and risk of caustic chemicals to the area.
3. Traffic, traffic, traffic. The roads here are already crowded and the 21 Bypass is in need of widening and repaving. With split shifts, the traffic congestion can be multiplied by 2 for each shift. Traffic control must be a first priority.
4. This is not where York County should be offering tax credits. There are many open areas in York County for such industries, away from schools and neighborhoods if the County is so inclined to have such industries, just not here in Fort Mill.
I would appreciate it if you could add my name to the list of concerned citizens and provide this info to the York County government.
Thank you,
A concerned citizen and voter
County should require a full independent environmental assessment of both liquid and gaseous effluents, full traffic assessment of added vehicles to uncle employees, service vehicles, delivery vehicles and trucking products offsite. There should be no tax cuts for this Canadian company. The added jobs do not appear to offset the disadvantages to York Count and especially local residents.