Greenbelt Advisory Board Recommends Allocation of Funds for Urban and Rural Areas

Next meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 24 at 3:00 p.m., all meetings open to the public

 

At their January 10 meeting, Charleston County’s Greenbelt Advisory Board (GAB -- http://www.smallchangeforbigchange.org/greenbelt_members.html) recommends allocating 70% of the Greenbelt funds to the county’s rural area, and 30% of the Greenbelt funds to the county’s urban area.

 

To be consistent with the County of Charleston’s Comprehensive Plan, all areas within the GAB-defined urban/rural areas fall within the County’s Urban/Suburban/Rural Areas Boundary.

 

This allocation will be incorporated into the Statement of Intent for the Allocation of Sales Tax Proceeds for Greenbelts, which was also recently approved by the GAB.

 

According to the Statement of Intent, urban and rural funds should be used for the prompt acquisition of land and/or purchase of development rights. The development or improvement of these sites will be funded by the municipality in which they are located. However, certain restricted funding for related minor improvements such as boardwalks, foot bridges, and unpaved trails, roadways and small parking areas, will be allowed.

 

The GAB also recommends a Conservation Toolbox that will offer conservation strategies that can be used to conserve greenspace throughout the County. These conservation tools include regulatory mechanisms, land acquisition, land donation and management strategies. Whereas, the GAB can recommend the use of some or all of these tools, they will not encourage the use of the tools of eminent domain or land condemnation in their development of the Greenbelts Plan as outlined in their land acquisition policy adopted in October of 2005.

 

At the upcoming Jan. 24 meeting, GAB members will review criteria that will be used to distribute funds to the urban and rural areas, as well as give initial review to the first three chapters of the draft Comprehensive Greenbelt Plan.

 

The meeting, which is open to the public, will take place in Charleston County Council’s Committee Room at the Lonnie Hamilton, III Public Service Building (4045 Bridge View Drive, off Leeds Avenue in North Charleston).

 

All recommendations from the GAB will be incorporated into the Comprehensive Greenbelts Plan which will be completed in March and available for public comment. After the public comment period, the plan will be presented to the Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission (http://www.chascoparks.com/commissioners.htm) and to Charleston County Council (http://www.charlestoncounty.org/index2.asp?p=/contacts.htm) for approval.

 

The Greenbelt Advisory Board was created by Charleston County Council to make recommendations on Transportation Sales Tax expenditures for greenbelt projects. For the 2006 fiscal year, $5.9 million has been budgeted for greenbelts.

 

Visit the official Charleston County Transportation Sales Tax Web site at www.smallchangeforbigchange.org for up-to-date news and information, maps and documents, meeting notices, and minutes for both the transportation and greenbelt portions of the Transportation (“half-cent”) Sales Tax.

 

Please call Cathy L. Ruff at (843) 202-7204 for more information about GAB or the upcoming meeting.