Planning Department On Board For The Pee Dee Heart Walk

Each year, The Florence County Planning and Building Department in addition to many other businesses in Florence County, joins forces with The American Heart Association to help them raise money for this worthy cause. To date, we have raised over $400. We have until October 17th to increase this amount. Our department has many caring individuals who have contributed both their time and money.

The 2008 Pee Dee Heart Walk is presented by McLeod Health and Honda of SC Mfg., Inc. It will be held on Saturday, October 25th at 10 a.m. The walk is a non-competitive, one or three mile route on the campus of beautiful Francis Marion University, in the heart of the Pee Dee. Parking is free and the activities at the event include a children's area, clown, jump castle, refreshments, health screenings, survivor recognition, singing competition, hoopla giveaways, music and entertainment and more.

Our event is the largest walk in the region. We have a history of leading the state and setting records. We are recognized at a national level as being the benchmark walk event for markets of our size! We have grown from raising $10,000 to $384,000. Participants on the day of the event have increased from a handful to over 2,200.

Our event accomplishes four important goals:

• Celebrate survivors of heart disease and stroke


• Encourage walking and physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle


• Educate the public about the prevention & treatment of cardiovascular disease and stroke


• Raise money for biomedical reserach, education and outreach programs

For more information, visit their website.

A worthy cause and a fun day! Hope you can be there.

This is my very first blog. How did I do?

Quick note...

I am reading commentary on the US DOT Transportation Policy Proposal and wanted to share a quote from the intro...

"Policies targeted only towards relieving congestion and increasing mobility do not offer a comprehensive response to the complicated economic and transportation challenges many metropolitan areas currently face."

This is what we hope to be doing for the urban Florence (FLATS) area.

Want to read too? The commentary is found here.

Planning This Week | September 22, 2008

FLATS - Transportation issues are taking center stage this week. The Florence Area Transportation Study (FLATS, yes, I know you already know that acronym) will be finalizing our recommendation for a contractor to help with the long-range transportation plan and transportation element of the County's comprehensive plan. Three submittals have been reviewed and the final tallies will be completed today.

The next stops: Study Team (a technical group) meeting next month to get the okay to recommend a contractor to the Policy Committee (decision-making body) - also to be scheduled for next month.

October will be busy for transportation planners!

Comprehensive Plan - We are heading to Scranton this Wednesday to discuss our drafted future land use plan with the Town's administration. We should also be able to get a public hearing date to show the plan off to the public.

The Community Facilities element continues to take shape and should be ready as a workshop for the Planning Commission (yes, you guessed it!) next month!

October may be busy for long-range planners!

Air Quality - So many things happening on this front... unfortunately, two meetings have already occurred: The Water and Energy Stakeholder's meeting at Francis Marion University held last Tuesday night and the County Council meeting last Thursday where County Planning presented the status of our air quality.

The Water and Energy meeting was fantastic. The goal was to act as a public forum for a State Senate subcommittee whom are seeking comments about water and energy programs... and they got a lot of comments!

The County Council presentation resulted in the Council requesting a list of potential programs that will be result in cleaner air. So far, this year, we are in attainment - but the next two years will be tough! Send me your ideas to be incorporated into the list to the County Council.

October busy for air quality planners? - oh yeah!

Ketron Canceled for Thursday

Linda Ketron's presentation about the history of Waccamaw's "Bike the Neck" is postponed - we'll keep you posted.

New FLATS Newsletter

As we continue to strive to increase our outreach initiatives, we have just released our 2008 newsletter for the Florence Area Transportation Study (FLATS). Look on the right side of this page for the scrolling pageviews of the new publication.

Click on the pictures to view a bigger image to read.

We will be distributing copies of the newsletter to area-wide stakeholders for the public to access. We will be distributing to the main library, Economic Development, the Florence Chamber and really, anywhere that will increase public awareness.

Please tell us how we are doing - feedback is key!

Bike the Neck | Ketron in Florence

You are invited to a presentation by Linda Ketron, organizer and Chair of “Bike the Neck”.

This presentation is sponsored by the Florence Trails Committee and will be held this Thursday, September 18, 2008, 6:00 p.m. at the McLeod Regional Medical Center Conference Center at the McLeod Medical Plaza (shown as #10 on this map).

Just a friendly reminder that we need your RSVP to save your seat. We hope to have a big turn out for Ms. Ketron. Her presentation about her 10-year effort to establish the Waccamaw Neck Bikeway is excellent.

I look forward to hearing from you at (843) 676-8600 ext. 61131 or dmatthews@florenceco.org.

During 14 years of planning and fund raising, Bike the Neck (a grassroots volunteer committee devoted to creating a multipurpose path from Murrell's Inlet to Georgetown) has worked in partnership with Georgetown County to complete several phases of the path for use by walkers, joggers, rollerbladers, and bicyclists. A map showing planned and completed trails, as well as “share-the-road” routes throughout the community, is available online and at local bike rental outlets, Realtor offices, and the toll booth at Huntington Beach State Park.

Green it Up!

Two of my colleagues and I attended our first Carolina Arborist Workshop as part of the Urban and Community Forestry Council grant we recently received. The grant will allow three County Planning staff to take workshops, order study material, become ISA members and attempt arborist certification.

To what end you may wonder?

Increased tree protection, of course!

Have you ever drove (biked or walked) by an area being developed where the trees were entirely razed? With little regard to the affects on the local air quality, the neighboring landowners, stormwater capacity and quality, aesthetics and natural flora and fauna, acres of intact canopy as well as top soil are scraped to make room for... a 'for sale' sign.

If we are successful in our forestry grant campaign, then the public will realize the current state of our tree canopy and where we need to be in order to maintain and increase our quality of life.

At yesterday's workshop, the State Forester Gene Kodama opened up the meeting with a whole list of interesting stats. Did you know that 67% of our fine State is covered in forests! That's more than the area covered in Georgia, which is quite a bit larger in size. A seventeen BILLION dollar industry, employing more than 44,000 jobs - it's clearly the #1 manufacturing industry in SC.

Look for more stats in the State Forestry publication: Annual Report 2007-2008 (pdf, pg 37 has a good graphic)

On a local note, check out the County's newly approved Economic Element of the Comprehensive Plan. This link is also to a pdf - check out pages 30-32 to see Florence's ranking among other Pee Dee counties.

So, we understand that forestry is an important crop, the most valuable crop, in Florence as it supports this important State industry. Let's also start thinking about when those resources are replaced by more and more 'for sale' signs. We need our forests; and we are here to help builders, engineers, developers and investors to develop responsibly keeping in mind the quality of life for Florence residents.

Another topic at the workshop was about plant hormones! Comment if you want more details.

Commuter Continuum

Welcome to the Commuter Continuum!

What kind of Commute Day is it? Is it a perfect ten? ...or are we stuck in the car?
If we were in an ideal world - we would love our job (as I do!), we would have every transportation option available, we would have the perfect weather everyday (72 degrees, 30% humidity, light breeze from the north, partly cloudy) and we would be able to walk to work in five minutes.

This brings me to thinking about a continuum that would score a particular day with a particular commuting tool or mode. I would rate the above scenario as a perfect ten. However, we don't all live in a ideal world.

Some of us commute to school, others work in Darlington. Some have kids to drop off and errands to run during the day. Still others are retired and only go out to get the paper - but go out later to pick up a few things. It's a mixed-up set of circumstances, but this continuum can still work for you.

1. First, take stock in the types of transportation, or modes, you own (or will own in the near future). For me, it's feet (distance to work allows it), a three year old mountain bike and a five-ear old car. You may also have a skateboard, scooter or motorcycle or a nearby bus stop at your disposal. [Please don't use a riding lawnmower! -see a recent post]
   
   
2. Next, line up your modes on a scale from one to ten, with ten being 'perfect'. Now the meaning of perfect to me is arriving to work under my own power and little or no time constraint: walking is ideal. If I am in a hurry, then a bicycle. As a last resort, or when my score for the day is low, then the car is the option. Unfortunately, a bus stop is not near my house.
   

It's personal - in essence, I want to get to work without using petroleum. It saves on insurance and at the pump... plus I like Florence BBQ, but I want to keep my weight in check!

So my continuum, so far, looks like this:
3. Now, let's add all the mode specific elements that would lean to one side of the spectrum or the other. I am considering time, how long is the commute (Google it), traffic, temperature, humidity, rain in forecast, available shower (my office has one, but do you work close to a gym?), errands to run at lunch?

Now my continuum looks like this:

For me, rain (and illness) is the only factor keeping me in a car for the commute since my distance to work is walkable and bike-able. Likewise, some factors won't spoil the entire score. Today was definitely 100% humidity (the photo above shows the fog!), but I still rode the bike in.

Of course, this continuum may work also for all sorts of travels: small list grocery shopping, visiting neighbors, dropping mail, visiting the gym, going to the library - the list is endless depending on where you live.

A fun exercise is to draw a half-mile line from your house (Google Earth!) to see what is within walking distance, about three to five miles would be biking distance.

Now, if we can just get more sidewalks and bicycle lanes!

So, what's your score and mode? For me, today is a 7 on a bike!

Air Quality Improvements | boats to mowers

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to tighten standards affecting air quality. In March, the EPA lowered allowable ozone levels from 84ppb to 75ppb; now its tackling some of most significant mobile sources that make ozone.

New gas-powered lawn equipment and boat engines including mowers, trimmers, inboard and outboard engines, will all need to comply with the new EPA standard by 2010 and 2011.

Garden equipment under 25 horsepower must meet the standard by 2011 while the full range of watercraft engines must be up to specifications by 2010.

EPA states that about 600,000 tons of hydrocarbons, 130,000 tons of nitrous oxides (NOx) and 5,500 tons of particulate matter will be thwarted from emissions while saving about 190 million gallons of gasoline each year.

These numbers are significant for Florence County - more so for the lawn equipment then the watercraft engines. Lawn mowers, blowers and trimmers pollute 25% more emissions than our automobiles. This improvement on these emissions will help with the County's ozone problem.

So, are these new regulations a good thing? You tell me!

Planning This Week | September 4, 2008

FLATS - The Selection Committee has received qualifications for consultants interested in completing the long range transportation plan and transportation element of the County's comprehensive plan. By the end of next week, our reviews of submitted qualifications should be mostly completed with a recommendation to the Study Team and Policy Committee for a contractor.

Also, staff is almost ready to return a Title VI compliance review as requested by SCDOT. Title VI federal code language focuses on ensuring non-discrimination and is based on the 1964 Civil Rights Act. FLATS already has a complaint process as described in the Public Participation Process (pdf, p.13-14). However, FLATS staff may need additional training which SCDOT may offer after reviewing all of the surveys.


If you have any questions or comments about Title VI or have noticed any discrimination on transportation projects in Florence, please contact us. You may also reach us by phone: 843 676-8600 - ask for 'transportation study'.

And lastly, we are working up our first newsletter. In this age of e-mail, blogging and websites, who needs a newsletter? Well, it's just another way to communicate with those who like to read in print. The newsletter will highlight air quality, land use and the long range plan. [and we'll distribute it via e-mail and post it on the web]


Comprehensive Plan - The future land use element is moving right along. We are getting a lot of help, too. The Town of Olanta will be holding their public meeting on October 9th. The Town of Quinby may hold theirs in November as they continue the planning discussion from the last Tuesday into their October meeting. I hope all the residents will get out to the respective town council meetings to take action on the plan.

We are looking for a lot of answers. "Where would you take your family when they come to visit?" "Where do you avoid taking friends when they come to town?"

Questions like these provide insight into where the heart of a community is located as well as where portions of the community need some help.

Of course, we want your questions, too. We'll try to answer them truthfully based on our knowledge about sustainable neighborhoods.



Air Quality - We are golden! Our air quality has not spiked since July 17th. And my predictions were wrong, I admit... but there is one day that the ozone wasn't recorded, which I am checking.

If we keep our air quality in check for the remainder of this year, our design value to beat next year would be 79ppb (as opposed to this year at 77ppb).

Unfortunately, today our upstate neighbors are feeling depressed air quality.

Our awarded SC Urban and Community Forestry grant is being tapped for staff training next week. Three members will be attending the Carolina Arborist Workshop in Columbia on Thursday. It's an all-day seminar that presents standard tree maintenance practices for safety and nursery stock.

The forestry grant will also be utilized for membership, study material and certification into the Southern Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture. We are also anticipating on attending a parking lot seminar in Charleston and the annual conference in Greenville, both at the end of October. The certification test will be offered in February.

As we have blogged before, the push for this grant was in response to the area's decreasing air quality coupled with less-than-sustainable development practices. Low impact development improves water and air quality as well as development costs. Contact us if you want to know when our next sustainable development presentation will be held.