Growth, zoning, land use continue to be issues for local government

By: Morning News | SCNOW
Published: December 04, 2008

The problem is not going to go away.

The problem is growth, land use, zoning and how to balance property rights versus the rights of others.

And as long as county governments, especially in the Pee Dee, continue to shy away from the issue, the more complicated the issue gets.

Most cities and towns in the Pee Dee have zoning.

That means you pretty much know when you buy a piece of property what it can be used for and what property around you can be used for, whether it be residential, office space, commercial space or industrial.

There are exceptions and appeals can be made and heard by zoning boards and other governmental bodies.

But that means people get a chance to be heard at the local level.

In most counties in the Pee Dee, we have “land-use” plans, and counties also have and are updating “comprehensive growth plans.”

But “zoning” is a stickier issue, and lots of county council members don’t want to face this complicated, emotional issue.

And as long as they don’t, we will face issues such as the most recent one in Darlington County, where there is a fight over a proposed turkey farm.

A farmer in Darlington County has requested and gotten preliminary approval from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.

DHEC spokesman Thom Berry told the Morning News that people living in the surrounding areas had 15 days after the permit was issued to appeal it. After that, DHEC will take 60 days to review the information and make a final determination on the turkey farm.

But DHEC will make the decision based on environmental and other regulations.

It’s not a “zoning” issue for the agency.

Zoning or land use laws and regulations have to be set by local governments.

The owners of the land that want to establish the turkey farm feel that as long as they meet the DHEC regulations, they are doing what’s allowed on their land.

The nearby owners worry about future land use and what will happen to their land.

The problem is that Darlington County hasn’t zoned the land and people knew or should have known that before they purchased land.

Or they should have worked harder at getting zoning before the issue arose.

That means county councils need to move much quicker to establish zoning especially in areas of growth closer to cities and to set clearer guidelines in rural areas.

It won’t be easy, but the problems won’t go away.

As a matter of fact, they will get worse.