Charleston City Council ratified a multi-jurisdictional agreement Tuesday aimed at protecting the Francis Marion National Forest and surrounding rural areas from suburban sprawl, making Charleston the first municipality to do so.
The regional planning agreement is intended to protect the roughly 250,000-acre woodland by restricting development on 10,275 acres of privately owned land that is inside or adjacent to the forest. The land is also beyond Charleston County's urban growth boundary, which is a planning designation aimed at marking where suburban development should stop.
Awendaw Town Council voted unanimously against signing the agreement Jan. 5, after expressing concerns about losing local control over growth.
The agreement aims to preserve existing, rural zoning in the forest and marshlands north of Mount Pleasant and the Cainhoy peninsula, and would prohibit new water and sewer lines.
The leaders of Charleston and Mount Pleasant, along with Berkeley and Charleston counties, have urged support for the plan.
Water and sewer utilities in Charleston, Mount Pleasant and Berkeley County are among the entities that have been asked to sign on. The U.S. Forest Service, the Berkeley-Charleston- Dorchester Council of Governments and the town of McClellanville are the remaining parties.
Charleston City Council's 10-0 vote to sign the memorandum of understanding came hours before Mayor Joe Riley's State of the City speech, in which he repeated last year's call for more regional cooperation in planning and growth management.
"The area from the ACE Basin to the southwest and the Santee River to the northeast is a region that must seek to develop a vision for the future," Riley said one year ago today. "This does not mean any government or political entity losing prerogatives or responsibilities; it simply means that we must find a way to think about our future together to see what common principles we find most important."Charleston Post and Courier
