Greetings to our members and friends!
Introduction.
We are sending this
"e-letter" as a new way of communicating with you.
We are discovering that influencing the direction
of growth in Northern Beaufort County requires patience
and constant attention. Our approach
will be to continue to monitor and influence land use
planning and policies. We will watch private development
proposals and other significant projects and we will be
ready to mobilize the kind of public involvement that
occurred during the initial Clarendon/McLeod annexation
activities when necessary.
Pace of Development.
The
current real estate slowdown may be providing a breather
in development activity, but not for long.
We live in an extremely attractive area that
continues to get national media attention.
We feel that we have a relatively small window of
opportunity to get it right here, before we face the
mammoth developments we see south of the Broad and the
enormous challenges that come with them.
The annexation intentions of the Yemassee
government and their withdrawal from the Northern Plan
are examples of the challenges that lie ahead.
Costs of development.
Many
of our elected officials still seem to think that
residential development is a net money-maker.
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 capital.
For us as taxpayers the split is irrelevant, we
pay both the piper and the drummer and residential
development does not pay its own way.
The fact is that every single study done in the US
has shown that residential development costs more in
public funds than it brings in, the average being
about $1.20 in costs for each dollar of tax revenue.
Political Awakening.
On
the very good news side, we see a growing awareness
among our elected officials that their constituents (us)
want them to get it right when it comes to managing
growth. Virtually all of the recent
local elections have shown this.
We
think, however, that we have an education job with
regard to both Catherine Ceips and Shannon Erickson.
Catherine has said that growth is a purely local
issue. We want Catherine to
understand that it isn't. The South
Carolina legislature has a lot to say.
This session annexation reform will be an
important issue that we will follow.
We need to keep a close eye on Catherine's performance.
Shannon's heart is in the right place and she has
asked for our input. On County
Council and in the Beaufort and Port Royal governments
we have many friends and we see a real awareness and a
movement toward getting growth right.
Status reports:
1.
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.
As of now it can be sold, in whole or in part,
for development. 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. We
applaud everyone involved.
However, that leaves approximately 430 acres open to
development. We will stay involved!
2.
Northern Beaufort County Regional Plan
Implementation: The Steering
Committee, with the addition of School Superintendent
Valerie Truesdale, is now the Implementation Committee.
The
committee is in the process of drafting an
intergovernmental agreement that will be the first step
in the process of implementing the plan.
Our comments on the document were all
incorporated in the latest version!
5.
Lady's Island traffic: County
Councilor Paul Summerville has started a small group to
look at traffic on Lady's Island, the fastest growing
part of the northern county. We
applaud his efforts. Among the topics
they have discussed is the need for a careful analysis
of the environmental, traffic and other impacts of the
so-called "Northern Bypass", an additional bridge from
Lady's Island to The Grays Hill area of Port Royal
Island. $6,000,000 was approved as
part of the recent transportation bond issue to study
that proposal. We support Paul's
initiative and we think a thorough and public study of
all alternatives is a very good idea.
6.
WalMart on Lady's Island! The
rumor mill is buzzing! 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 and
must be very carefully thought out. And in public!
AND FINALLY - Make sure you look at our website,
www.supportsmartgrowth.com; it is a work in progress but
does have membership forms and other basic information.
We again urge those of you who are not yet
members to join with us!
