FLORENCE — A yearslong legal dispute over allegations of discrimination culminated with Florence County being found liable in federal court and ordered to pay more than $12 million to an affordable workforce housing developer.

An eight-person jury ruled Nov. 5 that the county must pay $8.2 million in compensation and $4 million in punitive damages to DHD Jessamine LLC, after the jury found that the county had discriminatory intent when it took actions to block an affordable housing development.

The proposed workforce housing development would have seen 60 units built near the Florence Country Club, just behind the city’s Harris Teeter. However, the project was scrapped when the county enacted a development moratorium for properties like the one it would’ve been built on.

The Jessamine,

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