Wednesday, January 28

Public Hearings

Don't forget to scroll to the bottom to find Public Hearing info.

Comprehensive Plan Update!

Last night the Planning Commission heard presentations of the new Community Facilities element and Administrative Procedures.

The
Community Facilities element is on its way to County Council: to be introduced on February 19th, public hearing on March 5th and final reading Mar 19th. These dates are shown at the calendar to the right and will be updated if there are any changes to the schedule.

The Administrative Procedures, however, will be returning to the Planning Commission February 24th. Language on how to approach non-compliant zoning requests will be revised. The revision will allow the Planning Commission to recommend zoning requests that are not compliant with the Comprehensive Plan.

For those that are confused about this change in language, a brief description may help. A little background first: the goal of any comprehensive plan is to capture the public's vision of what is perceived as the direction for the next 20-30 years. Of course this is difficult, which is the reason why the plan must be redone every ten years.

This vision is embodied into the document called the Comprehensive Plan. This Plan includes nine elements: Economic Development, Cultural Resources, Natural Resources, Population, Housing, Community Facilities, Future Land Use, Priority Investment and Transportation.


The next element is the Future Land Use. This part of the plan categorizes all of the County (except for those municipalities that do their own - Pamplico, Florence, Lake City) area into land use groups. These groupings will then be the basis for allowing certain zoning in the area. Also, as mentioned last night, is the basis for the potential of county-wide zoning.


This is where the Administrative Procedures (not an element, but dictates how to amend the Plan) come into play: For example, a zoning request is presented to the Commission that does not comply with the intent of the new comprehensive plan.

The Administrative Procedures presented last night to the Planning Commission would have forced the Commission to recommend denial of the rezoning to the Council. In order to approve the request, the Council would first be directed to change the Comprehensive P
lan (public hearings, notice, input, etc.) to correct the Plan.

In essence, the Planning Commission is looking for more flexibility in their recommendation to the County Council when hearing such a request.

If you continue to be challenged in understanding the Plan or actions taken by the Commission last night, feel free to contact us.

Monday, January 26

Who's New?

Lisa Jackson, that's who.

She's the new EPA Administrator-designee and she is already listing her goals for her tenure at this federal regulatory agency:
    • reducing greenhouse gas emissions
    • improving air quality
    • managing chemical risks
    • cleaning up hazardous waste sites
    • protecting water resources
Check out her memorandum to employees posted on the EPA website.

Luckily, Florence County planning is following similar thinking as the EPA. Starting last year with our close 'run-in' with air quality exceeding the EPA's ozone standard. Now, we are focusing on the Future Land Use element (at a public meeting near you) which will include protections for our rivers and stream while improving our governments' ability to provide services to residents.

Are you new too? ...to your neighborhood? ...to planning? ...to comprehensive plans?

Friday, January 23

Where does your water come from?

I attended an interesting workshop yesterday about protecting our drinking water supply. This is an important issue integrated into our new Future Land Use element of the Comprehensive Plan.

Please take a moment and let us know where you get most of your water by taking the survey on the right!

This photo is of the Little Pee Dee River.

Wednesday, January 21

Another Piece to the Puzzle

County Planning met (braving the slushy roads) yesterday with Economic Development Partnership for a productive discussion about the Future Land Use element of the Comprehensive Plan. It's great to be a part of these instances when knowing information up front can ward off many future conflicting plans.

Economic Development is located in the Southeast Institute of Manufacturing Technology on the Florence Darlington Technical College campus (pictured to the left). Beyond the fabulous campus, this team includes hard-working employees dedicated to keep the Pee Dee region an attractive destination for relocating businesses. And it works! ...QVC ...Heinz ...Monster.com

This team, headed up by Joe King, includes those whom I have met so far, Jessica Griggs, Kyle Edney and Thelma Carney-Kennedy. In addition to the Future Land Use element, this group has been instrumental in reviewing our Economic element as well as sit in on a conversation with DHEC regarding our air quality. Feel free to visit their website!

So, what happened in the meeting?

You'll just have to wait to see the Future Land Use element!

Okay, I can give you sneak peak: we learned that industrial businesses like to be close to rail or no more than 10 miles from an interstate. We learned about sites that this team is actively marketing for industrial development such as property west of Roche Carolina and south toward Smurfitt-Stone, areas south of Honda on I-95, and areas around 327, especially near its interchange with I-95.

Another topic that was discussed was a plan for biofuel refineries and its product transport. More props to the benefit of locating adjacent to a rail line.

Still more discussion was focused on a 'freight community' or 'freight village' - a place where freight exchanges modes. For example, a train off-loads goods to a long-haul truck and where long-haul truck transfers goods to smaller light trucks, etc. Where would such a place be located? One potential is where we have these modes close together - such as where the airport, Hwy 76, Hwy 327 and the rail line come together.

These are the visions! Yes, they are general and only a vision; but it's better to be prepared for the area's potential future than see a mixture of uses that should have been further separated [I would not live adjacent to an industrial park!]

Industry affects surrounding land uses, traffic and the ability for governments to provide services such as water, sewer, as well as fire and police protection. It's a hope that this plan will be able to place industry in the right place - buffered from residential and natural resources like our waterways.

Wednesday, January 14

Our Florence: PDLT

A community is a sum of its parts; and working for a local government, it's easy to see that our vibrant community has many parts like for-profit businesses, contracting and planning firms, residents, government entities, regulatory agencies, service industries just to name a few to scratch the surface. Oftentimes, though, non-government, non-profit groups are those significant organizations that fill a big need will little celebration or highlight. In an effort to show off our local non-profit organizations, the following update is presented from the Pee Dee Land Trust which has many reasons to celebrate. Find more information about them at their website. or by calling their Executive Director, Jennie Williamson at (843) 661-1135.


The Land Trust


December 2008 marks the close of the Land Trust's 10th year, and that milestone will be celebrated in the months ahead. The Pee Dee Land Trust was founded in the winter of 1998-99 in Darlington County by the Pee Dee Resource and Conservation and Development Council.

Land Protection

The Land Trust exceeded a significant landmark by protecting more than 10,000 acres this year. Since our newsletter went out with that news in early December, the Land Trust has finalized and closed another conservation easement in Marlboro County, bringing our protected acreage to approximately 10,500 acres with projects in seven of our eight counties. Mr. Hubbard W. (Donnie) McDonald, Jr. protected his ancestors' farm in the Dunbar community, not far from the protected property known as Donoho Plantation which PDLT helped protect in 2007.

The Land Trust has worked on projects of more complexity than ever before - collaborative projects with other organizations, post-mortem easements, easements in areas with heavy development pressure, and all with tremendous conservation value on the properties. Increasingly the Land Trust's success has brought it to greater involvement at the state level.

Education

Education is an important prong of the Land Trust's work in that it highlights for people some of the wonderful natural and cultural resources in the Pee Dee. In addition to providing nuts and bolts types of information on how conservation easements work, the Pee Dee Land Trust works hard to provide opportunities for people to see and do more in the area. Events have included quail management seminars, kayaking and canoeing trips, lectures on historical places and people, walking tours of historic towns, and more.

Community Involvement and Support

The little Land Trust that held onto forty or so members for six years has leaped forward in evidence of public support for all that it does. Pee Dee Land Trust now boasts a membership roll of close to 500 households across twenty South Carolina counties and sixteen states. Attendance at events continues to reach record highs each season.

Who does all this work?

The Pee Dee Land Trust is a leanly-staffed organization with one full time executive director and two part time staffers. Jennie Williamson has been the director since Fall 2005, the organization's first paid staff. Jennifer King, from Florence, serves as Director of Outreach and Education, and Gretchen Huggins, a recent FMU graduate, is the production coordinator for a special project that PDLT is working on with SC Educational Television (SCETV). Their office is in Francis Marion's Nonprofit Consortium on the FMU campus. The organization is governed by a board of three representatives per county for each of the 8 counties in which the Land Trust works: Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Georgetown, Marion, Marlboro, and Williamsburg.

Change in leadership:

Change of officers from Ben Zeigler (Florence) as chair to Sumter Langston (Georgetown); Earl Dutton (Dillon) stepped down as vice chair and Eddie Drayton (Darlington) was elected for the position. Bob Pitts (Darlington), long serving board member finished 4 years as treasurer and was succeeded by Heath Ruffner (Chesterfield County)

Special Thanks to Two Board Members who have rotated off the board

Elisabeth McNiel served for Marlboro County, filling a seat that had been vacated. She came into that role at a time when the Land Trust was jumping from volunteer organization to major regional player in the Pee Dee and support for that growth.

Bob Pitts. Bob has been one of the Land Trust's stalwart supporters and dedicated board members for eight years, almost since the organization's first day. He represented Darlington County and has served on the nominating committee as well as the hiring committee, and was elected and served as treasurer for 4 years of constant change and growth.

The Board of Directors:

Chesterfield

Jim Crawford

Jimmy Lofton

Heath Ruffner

Darlington

Eddie Drayton

Gordon McBride

Dillon

Keith Allen

Earl Dutton

Kalli Norton

Georgetown

Wesley Bryant

Sumter Langston

Tony Shank

Florence

Austin Gilbert

Tres Hyman

Ben Zeigler

Marion

Charles Bethea

Susan Riales

Know of a non-profit organization you want to highlight? - let us know!

Tuesday, January 13

Comp Plan Countdown

Five down, four to go - with the next opportunity to comment right now!

Tis' the season for comprehensive plan updates. Darlington County recently made the news about their updates to their Future Land Use proposals. Likewise, Florence County is planning on a series of public meetings to focus on discussing the Future Land Use for areas around the City of Florence... but that is on the horizon (e-mail me if you want to be notified of these meetings)

For now let's talk about the part of the comp plan that will be heading to the Planning Commission on January 27th. The Community Facilities element has been taking shape for the past couple of months by surveying the community stakeholders for information, a workshop for the Planning Commission members and lots of public comments (THANK YOU!). You still have time to review the document... even if you only want to look at the pictures. Go to the Florence County Planning website and scroll to the bottom - there you will find a link to the element's pdf document.

Also, you will find the Administrative Procedures portion for the comprehensive plan. This document will guide how the comp plan is updated and used. Although not an element like the Community Facilities or Land Use, this is a very important part!

We are ticking down to a complete County Comprehensive Plan!

What's next? Future Land Use (already in the works), Transportation and Priority Investment.

Stay tuned and share your vision for Florence County's future!

Monday, January 12

Together Green

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and their New Year has started off in the right direction.

I received an interesting e-mail a few days ago that I wanted to share with you. I'll give you a little background and for more information visit the websites at Together Green, Audubon and Toyota.

Audubon and Toyota launched a five-year TogetherGreen initiative in spring, 2008 to fund conservation projects, train environmental leaders, and offer volunteer and individual action opportunities that significantly benefit the environment.

Funding totaling $1.4 million was recently awarded to innovative conservation projects nationwide. The TogetherGreen initiative and grants programs are funded by a $20 million Toyota gift to Audubon, the largest in the conservation group's long history.

A Clemson, South Carolina Wildlife Ecology Professor, Joseph Drew Lanham, is the recipient of a new national fellowship designed to advance the work of individuals with outstanding potential to help shape a brighter environmental future. Dr. Lanham is one of only 40 people selected for competitors nationwide for the TogetherGreen Conservation Leadershp Program, part of a new conservation initiative of the National Audubon Society, with support from Toyota.

Fellows receive specialized training in conservation planning and execution, the chance to work and share best practices with gifted conservation professionals, and assistance with project outreach and evaluation. Each Fellow will also receive $10,000 towards a community-focused project to engage local residents in conserving land, water and energy, and contributing to greater environmental health.

For his fellowship, Dr. Lanham will contact, educate and provide technical support for African-American rural landowners across South Carolina, learning firsthand how a significant but underserved population of potential conservationists values and manages their property.

In a project called “The Color of the Land”, he will provide technical assistance and record the stories of the unique relationships people of color have to the land. Lanham will also help to develop strategies for implementing sustainable timber and wildlife management practices. His ultimate goal is to introduce African-American landowners to sustainable means of natural resources management that will help them improve soil, water and wildlife resources on their properties and ultimately those “downstream.”

The efforts of the Fellows will aid people and wildlife around 39 cities in 24 different states—a full list can be viewed at TogetherGreen.

The health of our environment and the quality of our future is important to me. Hope it is to you as well.

Thursday, January 8

Your Next Garden

There is little doubt that sustainability and natural resource protection is high on the list of priorities as we look at long-range planning for Florence County.

Likewise, the short-term planning must always be evaluated to see if we are heading in the right direction.

So, I focus a bit from our 20-30 year visioning onto our next garden plantings. I am personally looking forward to adding two more raised beds in the yard to expand our fruits and vegetables growing capacity. Also, I am planning on growing some native fruiting shrubs to complement the annuals.

Why, you doth ask?

To be more ecologically and economically sustainable! Think of these as my Economic Freedom Gardens!

In some news reviews, I found a new initiative called "Sustainable Sites" - sponsored by the International Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the U.S. Botanical Garden. The project wants to create voluntary national guidelines and performance benchmarks for sustainable land design, construction and maintenance practices. It's a mouthful; but, in essence it means to grow what's native to our area to sustain us and native animals.

Although I know the garlic and strawberries are native to other locales, I am looking to experiment with sassafras, grapes, pawpaw and cranberry. Check out this blog for more ideas.

Also, for some local news about some of our own organic growers, see this recent Morning News article.

What are you planning on for you next garden?