Rural Workshops Encounter Controversy

DORCHESTER — The introduction of three different zonings for rural Dorchester County, replacing the former absence-of-control zoning and its web of amendments and restrictions, came under fire Monday night as more than 300 concerned residents packed the gym of Harleyville-Ridgeville Elementary.

Monday's workshop was the fourth of five rural zoning workshops. The last workshop is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at Reevesville Baptist Church in Reevesville.

Alec Brebner, planning and zoning manager, led the workshop, which featured a static display of maps, a brief presentation and a question-and-answer session. Three county councilmen — Richard Rosebrock, George Bailey and Willie Davis — and all seven appointed planning commissioners attended the meeting, though they did not participate in the discussion. 

The questions seemed to take over the discussion, while Brebner tried to placate fears that the county government was taking away property rights — a prized value of living outside of town or city limits. 

"You're going to have zoning. The question is, are we going to fix it?" Brebner asked. 

The zoning is coming on the heels of the county's 2008 Comprehensive Plan. The current proposal would eliminate the absence-of-control zoning, which requires a special permit for most nonresidential uses, and replace it with three zoning districts: base rural, crossroads and rural economic development. 

said the proposed zoning wasn't about mandatory changes in uses for individual land, a change in the tax base or mandatory conservation of land. 

One concerned citizen handed out fliers seemingly to draw a link from the proposed zoning to United Nation's Agenda 21, a 1992 action plan for global sustainable development. Agenda 21 has become a rallying cry among right-wing conservatives — and a few Democrats — who believe its ultimate goal is to eliminate individual freedoms. 

Speakers addressed the supposed dangers of Agenda 21 at the inaugural S.C. Tea Party Convention earlier this month in Myrtle Beach. 

A similar claim has been made about consulting agency , Our Region, Our Plan, by members of the conservative Lowcountry 9.12 group. The claim has been refuted by Our Region, Our Plan Chair and Dorchester County Council Chair Larry Hargett. 

BCD COG acted as a consultant for the county on the rural zoning but, according to Brebner, the plan is not related to the unfinished Our Region, Our Plan, which looks at the relationships between towns and cities. The proposed zoning looks at relationships between individual properties, he said.

"We all know that you want to know how this affects your property," Brebner addressed the crowd, which shouted about replacing all of the councilmen on county council and other concerns. "These (zoning changes) only are for new development."

A man with land in the county was not pacified.

"We don't need control over all by a zoning system that takes away our ancestral rights," he said. After the meeting was over, he approached Brebner and said he understood the need of some zoning to protect property from subdivisions and undesirable development, but that the current proposed zoning was too much government control. 

But while some questioned the intent behind the zoning, a few citizens were trying to make sure the county got the zoning just right.

"I don't think there's a person in this room that wants government telling them what to do with their land," a woman said. "We're trying to work with y'all — that's why we're all here."

Councilman Davis, who represents a majority of the county's rural area, said the discussion was important.

"We can't satisfy everybody," he told Patch. "But we want to make it better than it is."

Why now? 

Brebner said the proposed zoning changes were "20 years in the making." In the fall of 2010, a series of workshops similar to this month's workshops were held. Due to input, the planning commission and county staff revised the plan and now seek community input again.

"This has come about over the years from a lot of complaints," Brebner said. "It comes from rumors of a concrete plant ... It comes from a so-called game room ... It's really one incident after another."

He said the current zoning in place was about to "collapse under its own weight" due to being too restrictive in some cases and not restrictive enough in other cases by not allowing the community to decide what should go where. The example most often brought up by Brebner and citizens was the Oakridge Landfill, just down the road from the elementary school. 

If the community "loved" this plan, best case scenario the zoning would be implemented in six months, according to Brebner. He added that was unlikely to happen since citizens still have concerns. 

"This is a long way from a done deal," he said. 

Why zoning? 

Brebner said the zoning plan is in response to numerous complaints and issues over decades of development. The new zoning wouldn't be binding, but would allow community input on what can go where, and also allow for public hearings for items such as junkyards, landfills, bars and gamerooms. 

"That's the tool that does that job," Brebner said. 

Permitting within the county just applies to soundness of structures, whereas zoning would apply to the aesthetics of the community, he added.