Berkeley County’s greenbelt commission gears up its quest to purchase, protect lands

With $59 million of tax money at its disposal over a seven-year time frame, the newly-formed Berkeley County Greenbelt Commission will begin its search in a few weeks to find and purchase swaths of land for future parks and preservation.

 

“The idea is to purchase land for conservation,” said Greenbelt Commission member Tory Sullivan. “It’s about creating passive greenspace.”

 

This past August, Berkeley County Council approved its first-ever Greenbelt Preservation Plan.

 

The plan sets aside $58.7 million from the approved one percent sales tax referendum, and tasks a nine-member commission to track down and purchase properties that might benefit from some extra attention and protection.

 

Those pieces of land could include at-risk environmental areas, historical sites, and parcels of greenspace that could be used for parks, trails, and recreation.

 

Sullivan recently told Exchange Club members at the Daniel Pointe Retirement Center the commission would encourage anyone, – from nonprofits to conservation groups to individual families - to apply and make a case if they have parcels of land they’d like to sell or protect.

 

“Regional parks will be the first objective,” Sullivan said.

 

Based on public input earlier this year, citizens listed regional and community parks as its top choice for land acquisition. Other public suggestions called for more greenways and trails, additional water access, and a priority put on environmental conservation.

 

The commission has set parameters in place to ensure the public’s “wants list” is met. But Sullivan said there will be flexibility to change “expenditure targets” if unexpected or unanticipated land comes up for sale.

 

“There will be situations in which an important piece of land we are not even tracking or have an interest in today, comes up for sale tomorrow. and so we do also want to have some flexibility to be able to address those lands.”

 

The greenbelt program already has its first purchase under its belt.

 

This summer, the program added $2 million to a pot that helped Berkeley County complete a $4 million deal with the State Ports Authority. The deal gave the county 115 acres of land on Daniel Island’s western side of the Cooper River to be developed into a recreational park.

 

With the addition of the new tract, Sullivan said Daniel Island’s western side continues to increase in conservation acreage from prior deals and agreements that will keep a good chunk of the island protected for greenspace, sports fields, and parks and recreation.

 

“So together, you start adding it up, and it is near 500 acres, at least reserved, to not be built on the (Daniel Island side of the) Charleston Harbor,” he said.