Fort Mill Town Council annexed nearly 11 acres for Atrium Health's Sutton Road campus. The approval requires the hospital system to build public connectors to the Carolina Thread Trail and provide free parking for trail users.

Council voted Monday, Aug. 24, on second reading of Ordinance 2026-32, bringing two York County parcels totaling 10.986 acres into town limits and rezoning them from General Commercial to Mixed-Use. The action came at the same meeting where council raised the town's property tax rate by 4 mills.

Attorney Ben Johnson, representing Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority, told council one parcel had been in the authority's ownership since 2008 but was left out of the original campus boundary because of a survey error. The second parcel, about 10.9 acres, was recently acquired from the Scott family, Johnson said.

Johnson said "the request adds no entitlements and no additional density to the 83 acres already under the mixed-use plan on Sutton Road."

Council also approved Ordinance 2026-33, a fourth amendment to the development agreement with the hospital authority. Planning Director Penelope Karagounis said the amendment folds the newly annexed parcels into the existing agreement and resets the development schedule. It also locks in the applicant's commitment to build connectors to the Carolina Thread Trail from the hospital site, according to the Fort Mill Sun. The amended agreement requires free public parking for trail users.

$4.1M for Academy Street water and sewer

In a separate action at the same meeting, council approved Ordinance 2026-35, appropriating $4,120,000 for water and sewer improvements on Academy Street.

Finance Director Eric Davis said $1,320,000 of the total comes from a South Carolina Rural Infrastructure Authority (RIA) grant the town applied for and received. The remaining $2.8 million will be drawn from the town's water and sewer cash reserves. The RIA is a state agency that provides grant and loan financing for water, wastewater and stormwater projects to local governments.

Individual vote tallies for the ordinances were not recorded in public accounts of the meeting.

Davis said the town's budget public hearings are scheduled for Monday, Sept. 14, and Monday, Sept. 28.