After months of discussion and debating, the Greenville County Council voted to approve the $120 million County Square redevelopment project fund.
The vote was quick and unanimous, a far cry from the half-hour deliberation during the ordinance's previous second reading.
The County Council previously pushed back the vote to fund the project in order to spend several months discussing the rezoning of the land for the County Square site.
Part of the quick vote may come from the time restraints the council currently has.
The county's deadline to close the $33 million purchase of the property for the site is April 1st, and the bonds the county plans to use for the purchase average about 60 days to get rated and sold.
If they had waited any longer to vote, the council would likely miss the deadline to close on the Halton Road property near Haywood Mall and would lose the $3.5 million down payment they had made on the property.
They would also be forced into a long-term lease agreement with the property owners if they were to miss that deadline.
The council members said they wanted to wait on the vote to approve the funds until the plans for the project were finalized.
This was not the final vote on the entire plan, however. That will happen at the meeting next Monday, February 10th.