We wrote this article for publication in the Lady's Island Business and Professional Association January, 2008 newsletter. Since Lady's Island was a focus the piece has paragraphs on the third Beaufort River crossing proposal as well as the suggestion of a big box store near the airport, as well as background on the Coalition, etc.
Our objective is to improve understanding and participation in land use planning and decision making. To do this we provide information and expert opinion, organize meetings, participate in government processes and generally try to engage the public in the complexities of growth management. Our website is www.supportsmartgrowth.com. It has our membership forms on it (HINT). Our Steering Committee members, who meet monthly, are Beth Grace, Kay Harris, Harley Laing, Andrea Malloy, John Stewart and Wendy Zara. Beth, Harley and John serve as co-chairs.
Following is our definition of the oft-used term "smart growth":
"Smart growth" means the careful management of
land uses to preserve and enhance our lowcountry community. The goals of
smart growth here are to sustain our culture, our economy, and our
unique natural resources; to expand the range of housing, employment and
transportation available to us; to equitably distribute the costs and
benefits of development and to preserve our community for future
generations.
Here are examples of the issues we are currently following and involved in.
A new bridge. Among the topics they have discussed is the $6,000,000 that was approved as part of the recent transportation bond issue to study the so-called "Northern Bypass", an additional bridge connecting Lady's and Port Royal Islands. We would like to see a thorough environmental and economic analysis of the bridge, its location and all reasonable alternatives, including not doing it. We think this would be a healthy, open debate to have, and soon!
A big box on Lady's Island. We will be pushing for a very thorough analysis of the traffic, economic and environmental impacts of any new big box stores. They have large impacts, including employment, low cost shopping, traffic changes, site-specific environmental issues, local business impacts and others. We want any such proposal to be thoroughly analyzed and publicly aired before any decisions are made.
Costs of development.
We would like to have a "Costs of Community Services" study done here. Given the way costs of services are split between municipal and county governments in South Carolina, residential development is a revenue producer for the municipal government. But that's only because the county picks up the tab for schools, roads and other necessary infrastructure. Every such study done in the US has shown that residential development costs more in public funds than it creates in revenue, the average being about $1.20 in costs for each dollar of tax revenue. Jim Hicks recently did an article on these studies. One done here would not be expensive and would be illuminating.
Clarendon/McLeod. The Cox family's 4,000 acres at their Clarendon Plantation has been annexed and approved for 6,000 housing units. Our hope, and our expectation, is that the land will eventually be preserved but this is uncertain. However, at present the land can be developed. There has been no movement on conservation protection for the land that we know of. For McLeod, the federal government and the County have worked with the McLeod family to purchase development rights on 350 of the 700+ acres. That leaves approximately 430 acres open to development.
Northern Beaufort County Regional Plan Implementation. The Implementation Committee is in the process of drafting an intergovernmental agreement that will be the first step in the process of implementing the plan. We are participating in the development of this important and innovative agreement. It can get growth management off to a good start.