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Berkeley County dealing with massive development
Members revise density, institute impact fee
By Sarah G. McC. Moise
Staff Writer
The Berkeley County Council has a daunting task: It must control the county’s growth explosion while providing services to its citizens, who are spread over an area the size of Rhode Island.
And it realizes it can’t do it in a vacuum. The growth in Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties is not contained within each county. Growth spills over county lines. And although Berkeley County is primarily rural, it is seeing its share of residential and commercial growth, which is putting a tight squeeze on water, sewer and emergency services as well as schools and area roadways.
“There are over 39,600 homes in the planning or construction stages in the unincorporated areas of Berkeley County,” says Jim Rozier, county supervisor and chairman of Berkeley County Council. “If you include construction for Daniel Island, Goose Creek and Summerville, we probably have 60,000 homes (under construction). That is double the number of homes in Berkeley County today.”
Since 1991 when Rozier began serving on the council, economic development has brought better jobs that pay higher wages to the county. The median family income has risen from $29,000 to $45,000. There has been $6.5 billion in industrial investment brought into the county resulting in the creation of 33,000 jobs.
This type of growth doesn’t come without challenges. The council is actively trying to offset costs and congestion by imposing a building moratorium and new restrictions to control sprawl. It is recommending the implementation of impact fees to pay for road construction costs. And it is taking a leadership role in the region to help develop a regional vision.
“We want to manage growth for more reasons than simply not wanting more people coming in. We have subdivisions planned that are larger than Daniel Island, and we need commercial and light industrial areas to balance the whole thing,” Rozier says. “Adding commercial and industrial growth, controlling density and preserving green space comes together to develop a county you can be pleased with 20 to 30 years from now.”
Land rush
“Until very recently, there wasn’t a problem with how growth was happening. Then 3,000 to 5,000 acres were dumped, and it caught us by surprise,” says District 5 Councilman Dennis Fish.
That influx of available real estate came when MeadWestvaco, a global provider of packaging and other specialty paper products with facilities in Summerville and North Charleston, decided to sell some of its forested land to developers. Roughly 75% to 80% of land development in Berkeley County is occurring due to this conversion according to Rozier.
District 3 Councilman William Crosby, who retired from MeadWestvaco after 42 years, says the company has close to a million acres of property in South Carolina alone.
“The reason we’re being flooded (by development) here and in Dorchester County is because MeadWestvaco is dumping a lot of land. When they can’t get the best money for their product, they make a profit by offering large tracts to developers,” he explains.
Much of the county’s growth is occurring around the areas of Sheep Island Road off of Highway 176; on Daniel Island and Saint Thomas Island; in Hanahan with the Brown Tract and Tanner Plantation off of North Rhett; and in Goose Creek on Liberty Hall Road and around Cypress Gardens.
“Berkeley County has been a friendly place to build,” says Judith Spooner, District 2 councilwoman and council vice chair. “We have the land. And you have places like Mount Pleasant that don’t want growth, so it had to go someplace.”
Building restrictions
To curb sprawl, the council instituted a 110-day moratorium last year while it amended its density requirements. Council increased the required lot sizes in the rural unincorporated areas from 4,000 square feet to 14,000 square feet and restricted development only to areas already accessible to water and sewer lines, much to developers’ outrage.
“If a developer can put a house on 4,000 square feet, he could conceivably put 10 houses to an acre,” says District 7 Councilman Caldwell Pinckney. “With that kind of high density comes increased service, crime and everything else—versus 14,000-square-foot lots where a developer could conceivably only put three houses on an acre of land.”
Some residents, however, say the new restrictions are having the opposite effect and are contributing to urban sprawl.
Councilman Fish says some builders grouse that the cost of building a home on 14,000 square feet is higher than buyers can afford. “I say let the free market system prevail.”
Rozier argues the restrictions will require the county to build fewer roads and sewer lines. And it makes lots more valuable by adding some green space.
“I don’t care what size your lots are; you just can’t put more than three units per acre,” he says.
Along with these restrictions, the council encourages mixed-use development and allows increased density in subdivisions that donate land for schools, commercial or recreational facilities. In fact, larger developments, which aren’t near established commercial centers, must put 20% to 25% of the property value toward commercial and industrial development.
“It’s to the developer’s benefit to allow for green space, and to have better roads and build less sewers—they make more money that way,” Rozier says. “Some of them argued in the beginning, but they’re now saying it’s not a bad idea.”
Impact fees
In addition to the new density and zoning regulations, Rozier recommends that Berkeley County Council place a $1,000 impact fee on each new house to improve roads on Daniel Island; Oakley Road on highways 17 and 52; and Highway 176 north of Cairns Crossroad.
“We have to take the roads in those new subdivisions that are creating problems and connect them with the four-lane highways. Rather than creating a new sales tax like Charleston and Dorchester counties to fund it, I believe the new people coming in ought to pay for it,” he says.
The majority of the council favors impact fees. “I believe we’re not going to stop growth, nor should we. We need to control and manage it,” says Councilman Fish, who questions whether the fee should be higher.
Cooperation
Berkeley County Council knows that it can’t succeed alone. Since many of Berkeley’s municipalities cross county lines—Summerville is part of Dorchester and Berkeley counties; Daniel Island is part of Berkeley and Charleston counties; and North Charleston crosses into Dorchester and Charleston counties—communication with the other counties is imperative.
The most recent effort for regional communication resulted from the October 2004 Berkeley Chamber of Commerce suggestion that the tri-counties’ planners and zoning administrators meet together. In December, they invited municipalities and requested Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments host the meetings.
“We are going to set our own agenda, because we just want more communication between the groups. For instance, there seems to be some animosity between rural areas and Charleston Mayor Joe Riley with planning. We need to make sure we all know what each other’s needs are,” Rozier says.
Berkeley council members are also active in the Charleston Area Transportation Study, which is made up of mayors, city council members and mayoral appointees, members of the General Assembly, and Berkeley and Charleston county councils. The policy committee votes on prioritizing federal gas tax money for road improvements.
“It doesn’t make sense to four-lane a highway in Berkeley County and leave it two-lanes in Dorchester and Charleston counties, so we came up with a plan for the three counties to spend $300 million improving highways 78 and 52, Ashley Phosphate Road and North Rhett,” says Rozier.
Aided by regional insight and its new regulations and impact fees, Berkeley County Council seems confident in its preparation for growth. “We have some room to expand in Berkeley County,” says District 8 Councilman Steve Davis. “But we are trying to channel growth in such a manner that it doesn’t change what makes Berkeley County different and special.”
Sarah Moïse is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at smoise@crbj.com.
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