On March 17, County Council Chair Cox received a letter from Attorney General Alan Wilson requesting specific information regarding the zoning and permitting processes for Silfab’s Development in Fort Mill. Within this release are the responses from the Chair and County Management to Mr. Wilson dated April 2, 2026.
In addition, to address many of the questions posed by the public to the County, the County is informed that the first circuit court case, which is the appeal of the May 2024 Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) decision, is set for hearing May 26, 2026. The other circuit case, which deals with the applicability of the BZA decision to the Silfab facility, is currently stayed but will be decided once the BZA appeal is concluded.
As has been the case since March 16, only solar assembly work is being done at the Silfab facility. Manufacturing operations at the site were never commenced and are not occurring now, and the County has confirmed that no work using regulated chemicals is taking place. Silfab is currently subject to a compliance agreement with the SC Department of Environmental Services requiring, among other items, that a third-party professional engineering company perform an evaluation of and make recommendations regarding the chemical processing side of operations. Those recommendations will be subject to review and oversight of SCDES.
Based upon the County’s evaluation of the scope of the third-party engineer’s review, the time to complete this evaluation and SCDES’s review is expected to take 8 weeks or longer. Further, the compliance agreement requires Silfab to provide notice to SCDES 72 hours prior to bringing regulated chemicals to the site, which is the first step to Silfab beginning manufacturing operations on the site. Silfab has further agreed to provide the same 72-hour notice to the County as well. As such, the County expects no use of regulated chemicals onsite, or the commencement of manufacturing, until after May 29, 2026, after conclusion of the school year and the initial hearing in the circuit court on the BZA appeal.
The County has also been made aware of recent emergency calls emanating from the Silfab Solar site, has evaluated those communications, and has determined that there is no indication that the calls involve hazardous chemicals at the facility that would affect the health or safety of employees or the public, and that nearly all calls reviewed stem from individual, medical situations of employees.
In addition to this release, York County Council Chair, Christi Cox, has provided a response to South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, which can be viewed here: https://www.yorkcountygov.com/DocumentCenter/View/9878
York County Manager, Josh Edwards, has also provided a response to Attorney General Wilson, which can be viewed here: https://www.yorkcountygov.com/DocumentCenter/View/9879
Supporting documents referred to within the response letters are available via an appendix, which can be viewed here: https://www.yorkcountygov.com/DocumentCenter/View/9880
To ensure transparency and accuracy, York County will continue to communicate with and update the community through public statements, which can be found here: https://www.yorkcountygov.com/1113/Information-on-Silfab-Solar
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