Recent editorials from South Carolina newspapers:
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Nov. 19
The Post and Courier of Charleston on conservation initiatives and a regional greenbelt’s growth:
The regional greenbelt is growing. The addition of about 17 square miles of conservation land in Berkeley County near Pineville will provide a key link in buffering development on the northern side of Lake Moultrie, protect the Santee River watershed, preserve Revolutionary War sites, and the tomb of Revolutionary War hero Gen. Francis “The Swamp Fox” Marion.
The value of the deal far exceeds the $3.6 million it took to secure the properties - altogether about 11,000 acres between the Francis Marion National Forest and the Santee National Wildlife Refuge - for the Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust.
Separately, in a $4.5 million deal financed with wetland mitigation dollars from Palmetto Railways, one of the last privately held tracts within the Francis Marion National Forest - about 2,000 acres - has been acquired through a deal with the Open Space Institute (OSI).
The land, formerly part of Fairlawn Plantation, is prime longleaf pine habitat and wetlands surrounding the headwaters of the Wando River just west of Awendaw. It will be held in trust by the OSI and ultimately turned over to the U.S. Forest Service and opened to public use, according to Nate Berry of OSI, which also acquired 220 nearby acres with mitigation funds from Mercedes-Benz related to the expansion of its North Charleston plant.
The recent OSI acquisitions also provide a barrier to annexation by the town of Awendaw and dovetail with a similar $5.4 million deal in 2014 that secured 2,241 acres of the former Fairlawn Plantation.
Most of the “Swamp Fox” land comes from the Oakland Club, a private hunting club that has managed the property, with a current market value of about $24 million, for more than 100 years. But its owners agreed to donate 70 percent of the easement value, leaving the S.C. Conservation Bank with a tab of $3.6 million to protect the land in perpetuity. The club also donated 25 acres for educational purposes.
One of the long-term advantages, according to Jim Rozier, president of the Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust, is helping to preserve the Lowcountry’s water supply.
“Protecting buffers along our rivers and lakes is probably the most important thing we can do to sustain water quality for our community and avoid a disastrous shortage of drinking water down the road,” he told Post and Courier reporter Warren Wise.
Under the deal - a good example as to why the Legislature should reauthorize the Conservation Bank next year - no more than five residences will be allowed on the property, which is comprised of fire-thinned pine forests, swamps and river floodplains. It is home to a variety of wildlife including bobwhite quail, swallow-tail kites and red-cockaded woodpeckers. Negotiations are underway to secure an additional 1,800 acres in the area under a conservation easement.
Those conservation easements complement the work done by the Charleston County greenbelt program, which was begun in 2004 when voters endorsed a local option sales tax for land preservation and transportation improvements. The greenbelt program has preserved, by purchase of property and conservation easements, 11,397 acres of rural land, 11,438 acres adjacent Francis Marion National Forest, 7,900 acres of wetlands, and has provided for 6,533 acres of parkland.
The public recognizes the value of the greenbelt program to achieve public benefits such as preserving natural habitat and forestalling urban sprawl. That’s why Charleston County voters endorsed more sales tax money for the greenbelt fund in a 2016 referendum.
Much of the Charleston metro area from the coast near McClellanville to Lake Marion now enjoys the benefits of a natural buffer. But there is more to be done. Completing a regional greenbelt plan will require further land acquisitions and easements extending from the ACE Basin northward to Four Holes Swamp. The remarkable progress that has been made through public and private conservation initiatives offers a compelling reason to stay the course.
Online: http://www.postandcourier.com/
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Nov. 18
The Island Packet of Hilton Head Island on beach parking:
Charging for public beach parking on Hilton Head Island may make sense, but not for reasons that have been stated by Town Council members.
You don’t collect a fee simply because you think people are not spending enough money while they’re here.
You don’t collect a fee with no known target, or stated need, for spending the money.
And the offhand suggestion of charging $3 to $5 per hour is absurd.
Fortunately, the suggestion to charge for public beach parking fizzled after being kicked around during two days of the council’s annual workshop to establish goals.
Parking is a sticky issue that cannot be decided in a day. Just ask the merchants, residents and elected leaders in Beaufort, where parking meters downtown are an endless flashpoint, or in Bluffton, where parking is at a premium and town leaders don’t believe in charging for it.
Hilton Head avoided a quick decision, but the issue will not go away and it needs to be resolved with a good plan.
Beach parking is a key piece in a much larger puzzle: How does Hilton Head change as the face of Beaufort County changes? As the population explodes in Bluffton and Hardeeville, demands on Hilton Head’s beaches increase. Developments sell themselves as “Hilton Head” as far inland as Interstate-95. They’re selling the beach, but they don’t have a beach.
And for decades, Hilton Head has invited the world to come. It is now calculated that 2.5 million visitors answer the call each year, and that sum likely does not count people who come for the day and then head home. Now Hilton Head must be ready for them. It’s not good enough to pull out the tired, old line: “We don’t want day-trippers.” They’re here. And Bluffton is far from filling out all the developments it has approved.
Town Council was right to talk about beach parking in a planning session, and staff was right to remind everyone that parking is a volatile issue it and cannot be done on the fly.
A related question to answer is: How much density can the Coligny Circle area handle? Pouring into this high-density area are timeshare developments, a new hotel, “lock-out” units turning one condominium into two, and a new museum.
An overall, islandwide beach parking plan needs to be addressed anew, in light of today’s demands.
A consistent plan to charge for parking will make sense and be worth weathering the push-back, if it is done for the right reasons. Parking fees might:
? Pay for more public parking spaces.
? Pay for a parking garage near Coligny Beach Park.
? Pay for improvements for pedestrians and bicyclists around Coligny Circle. Vast improvements have been made there, but more must be done. The intersection of Lagoon Road and Pope Avenue needs help immediately.
? Pay for public beach access improvements and upkeep.
? Pay for a shuttle system from parking areas to beach access in peak seasons.
? Pay for a better parking plan at Burkes Beach and Singleton Beach. Maybe the town needs to use parts of Chaplin Community Park to address a peak-season beach-parking need in that area. Families laden with beach supplies park many blocks from the beach today. It’s not a warm welcome from the community that invited them.
The town has done a magnificent job of improving public beach access points, buying land to create new public beach access, and organizing parking at those places: Coligny Beach, Folly Field, Islanders’ Beach Park and Driessen Beach Park. Whatever they do, we beg them not to undo the great work that has been done, especially providing the locals with Islanders’ Beach Park.
But more will have to be done, and it is reasonable to expect that people using public beach parking on Hilton Head can and should pay for that convenience.
Online: http://www.islandpacket.com/
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Nov. 19
The Times & Democrat of Orangeburg on a low unemployment trend:
Unemployment in T&D Region has been at low levels compared to past years. It is part of a statewide trend of low unemployment as the number of people working in South Carolina set a record in October. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.9 percent for the month. Over the past five months, the state’s unemployment rate has remained in the 3.9 to 4 percent range, levels not seen in nearly 17 years.
Yet despite economic development successes that all want to see in underdeveloped counties such as Orangeburg, Bamberg and Calhoun, and around South Carolina, there is potential trouble on the horizon for jobs. And it is less about a lack of jobs and more about a shortage of people to fill the jobs that are increasingly requiring advanced skills.
This past week, the State Workforce Development Board announced a plan to ensure a skilled labor force is available for new and expanding businesses.
SWDB, the governor’s arm for workforce development, has approved a three-year strategic plan to build “a cohesive, collaborative and innovative workforce system.”
The board has identified four strategic objectives to meet in order to become the catalyst in building a stronger workforce across South Carolina. The objectives are:
. Identify, invest in and support educational and developmental strategies to better prepare a skilled workforce for current and emerging jobs.
. Align resources, policies and strategies between state, local and regional systems to continuously improve outcomes for businesses, individuals and partners.
. Identify current and future workforce needs of South Carolina business and industry to support career pathways in growth sectors.
. Engage job seekers, employers and other workforce partners through marketing and outreach and articulate a value proposition specific to each.
A new report from Ball State University points to the need for workers to have skills needed for today’s jobs - and identifies the risk for locales where education and skill levels are lacking.
“How Vulnerable Are American Communities to Automation, Trade and Urbanization?” concludes that communities with large numbers of residents with only high school degrees and/or earning low salaries working low-skilled positions are at risk of losing jobs to automation and offshoring.
The report was prepared by the Center for Business and Economic Research and the Rural Policy Institute’s Center for State Policy at Ball State in Muncie, Indiana. The study found that low risk of automation is associated with much higher wages, averaging about $80,000 a year. Occupations with the highest risk of automation have incomes of less than $40,000 annually.
“Automation is likely to replace half of all low-skilled jobs,” CBER Director Michael Hicks said. “Communities where people have lower levels of educational attainment and lower incomes are the most vulnerable to automation. Considerable labor market turbulence is likely in the coming generation.”
To be a community/state that prospers in the evolving economy, focusing on education that provides people with the skills for jobs that are sustainable is essential. A plan such as that from the SWDB can be a component in growing the capacity and performance of the state’s workforce system.
As SWDB Governance Committee Chairman Pat Michaels states: “This plan sets forth objectives and strategies that will serve as a blueprint for the board’s commitment to continuously develop a skilled talent pipeline that meets the needs of business and promotes a sustainable economy, while providing South Carolinians with a livable wage.”
Online: http://thetandd.com/
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