Lexington County’s building moratorium is illegal, says a building executive.

The County Council acted in secret to halt construction, Building Industry Association of Central SC Executive Director Earl McLeod told the Chronicle.

“The law is quite clear,” McLeod said.

“Public business is to be performed in public.

“The Building Industry Association believes Lexington County Council disregarded that requirement in adopting a ban on real estate development.”

McLeod said, “Real estate development is the result of Lexington County being an attractive, affordable place to live and raise a family.

“By acting illegally to ban development, the County Council is interfering with the ability of landowners to use their property in an economically beneficial way.

“The Building Industry Association led the movement to provide for impact fees to support road improvements that is necessary for growth.

The Building Industry Association led the movement for the “penny” to fund road improvements.

“While it may be true that a pause in development is necessary to assess where the county sees a need for change, there is a lawful procedure to enact such a pause, but County Council failed to follow the law.

“In a truly democratic society County Council would have made a copy of the proposed ordinance available for public comment before acting in secret to discuss imposing a ban on development.

“If the ban on development had merit, County Council would have discussed it in public, but instead chose to keep the proposed ordinance secret, and illegally discussed the ban outside of public view.”