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A dispute between a Midlands town and a county over sewer service to a planned housing development has now landed in court.
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Lexington County filed suit against the town of Chapin on Monday, accusing the town of breaching a previously-signed contract requiring the town to hook up a planned development at the county-owned Chapin Technology and Business Park in Brighton to the town’s wastewater system.
The county has since moved to sell the property to a private developer, who plans to put 600 homes along with a tech incubator on the 200-acre property off of Columbia Avenue. That sale was finalized with a county council vote on Aug. 11.
But the $20 million sale is in limbo because Chapin Mayor Bill Mitchell has said he won’t approve sewer connections for the site. The mayor issued a moratorium late last year on issuing new sewer connections while the town works on a years-long improvement project at its wastewater plant.
In the lawsuit filed Monday, the county claims it has spent more than $16 million on improvements to the site, including onsite sewer lines and a sewer pump station that were handed over to Chapin. Attempts by the county to purchase 667 sewer taps from the town have been rebuffed by Mitchell, the lawsuit claims, and meetings between the county and the town have been unable to resolve the dispute.
Lexington County has pointed to a 2015 agreement with the town signed by a previous mayor pledging sewer service to the Brighton site. They also cite the S.C. Department of Environmental Services and the Central Midlands Council of Governments that “the Defendant has more sewer capacity treatment available than the Defendant’s Mayor thought.”
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“Despite these assurances, the Defendant’s Mayor has insisted that he was elected to control development and his control of the issuance of sewer taps would control development,” the lawsuit says.
The 2015 agreement between the county and town requires Chapin to expand its sewer capacity within 24 months of the first sewer fee payment if capacity is an issue, the lawsuit claims.
“Such term of the March 27, 2015 Agreement removes any discretion of the Defendant to issue sewer taps to Plaintiff,” according to the suit.
Lexington County says the town’s action have put the county in breach of its agreed sale contract with developer Andy White. It asks that a circuit court judge order Chapin to comply with the 2015 agreement or pay the county the full $20.4 million sales price.
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Chapin had not responded to the suit Monday afternoon.