Give thanks for open spaces while we still got them
By Lolita Huckaby
BEAUFORT
It’s Thanksgiving, the season to give thanks, and although there are many concerns some of us harbor about the future of this beautiful place we love, there is reason to slow down and reflect.
Sure, there’s the ongoing effort to “re-imagine” Ribaut Road as a two-lane mosh pit with traffic circles and the cry for a third bridge to eliminate traffic congestion coming off Lady’s Island, but let’s put those concerns aside and give thanks to the voters of Beaufort County who supported funding a new program to preserve open space.
A major reason this corner of the Lowcountry is so beloved is because of its natural beauty. And while the antebellum homes and moss-draped oak trees are lovely (and the predominate feature in almost any tourism promotion of the area), it’s the open spaces, where we can still look out to the marshes and rivers that under attack by development, in constant jeopardy of disappearing behind condo towers or property-line-to-property-line mansions.
For those readers who might not have been around last year, the Beaufort County Council was pondering another penny sales tax referendum to continue its Rural and Critical Lands program. The government-sponsored program started in 2000 is credited with protecting, through purchase or acquisition of development rights, more than 29,000 acres. The program is something of an extension of the non-profit Beaufort County Open Land Trust started in 1971 as South Carolina’s first land trust organization which was created by concerned citizens who wanted to preserve beautiful open spaces threatened by development.
As the County Council prepared to put the extra penny sales tax question to the voters, state Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, came down from the state capital with a brand-new piece of legislation, the Green Space Sales Tax which would allow counties to do something similar, i.e., impose a penny sales tax to be used for the purchase of threatened land.
Davis, who introduced the legislation and shepherded it through to the governor’s desk, had a plan that would allow counties to work together to protect land ripe for development, complete with a strict code of enforcement which included approval by the S.C. Department of Revenue, a knowledgeable advisory board of citizens and finally, the County Council itself.
The Green Space tax program, which will be a pilot project in the state with Beaufort County being the first to implement it, was approved by a 53-47 percent margin last year. Since the new sales tax went into effect in May, raising the local sales tax from 6 to 7 percent, it has raised approximately $20 million. The tax, which exempts food, medicine and gasoline purchases, will be in effect for two years, or until $100 million is raised, giving the county an opportunity to measure its effectiveness.
The seven-member committee, which includes Sen. Davis and County Councilmember Alice Howard, is getting ready to review the first group of proposals for a recommendation to the County Council which ultimately decides to approve, or disapprove, the expenditure of those funds for that land protection.
The program allows counties to purchase or implement conservation easements on property in adjoining counties. In our case, this is Jasper County, where development along S.C. 170, particularly in the southern part of the county in the Okatie area, already shows the impact of major construction and the accompanying impact of traffic.
If you care to read more about the Green Space Sales Tax legislation, check out 2021-2022 Bill 152: County Green Space Sales Tax Act (scstatehouse.gov).
In the meantime, let’s just give thanks that there’s an effort under way to protect some of this beautiful countryside from development. Let’s hope it works and the generations that follow will also give thanks.
And how about a ‘HURRAH’ for slower speed limits
BEAUFORT – Some residents of downtown Beaufort have breathed a quiet sigh of “thank you” to state Rep. Shannon Erickson who got the state Department of Transportation to officially lower speed limits to 25 mph throughout the neighborhood.
With more and more vehicles traversing our roads, traffic – fast traffic – is becoming the norm on what used to be quiet thoroughfares.
Now if the police would crack down on the speeders … not that a ticket is any reason to give thanks.
Lolita Huckaby Watson is a community volunteer and newspaper columnist. In her former role as a reporter with The Beaufort Gazette, The Savannah Morning News, Bluffton Today and Beaufort Today, she prided herself in trying to stay neutral and unbiased. As a columnist, these are her opinions. Her goal is to be factual but opinionated, based on her own observations. Feel free to contact her at bftbay@gmail.com.
