Many charges have flown back and forth over the siting of a north-county high school. Some proponents of the Dale/Lobeco site say objecting to it is an attempt to keep the economically depressed area rural and poor. They say they were promised a school when county voters approved a 2000 referendum. But a majority of voters in the precincts north of the Whale Branch River rejected the referendum.
Last fall the County Council was adamant that the school would not be built in the area. In the spring, council was equally adamant. Now council is poised to allow a high school in Dale.
Numerous people, including Gov. Mark Sanford, whose family owns property in the surrounding area, have opposed the site. The governor says busing three quarters of the students to the school from south of the Whale Branch River, which is the demarcation line for existing sewerlines, is a waste of valuable county and state resources. The school would be built for about 1,000 students, but fewer than 300 students live in proximity to the school site.
During public discussion on other proposed projects in the north-county area, residents, including some at Brays Island, have said a high school would give a positive identity to the community. The school district staff and board of education are adamant that the school be built on the area but not necessarily in the preservation district.
This stance repeatedly comes despite local elected officials, planners, community groups and residents claiming they want the school to be built below the Whale Branch River. If built north of the river, they argue it would create more sprawl and violate the county's comprehensive plan, a guideline that steers future growth.
They are right. Extending sewer service doesn't make better students, it provides a foot in the door to future development. Development is not a bad word and area landowners, many of whom have paid taxes on their property for years, deserve to make money from their land. However, according to the rules established by the County Council, that development must come through the comprehensive plan.
As has been discussed in this space before, the next round of base closures (which really gets under way this month with some reports being filed with the U.S. secretary of defense) will be larger than all other base-closure campaigns combined.
The Department of Defense and the Navy don't look favorable upon buildings with a large number of occupants sitting in the flight path of military planes. It's too big a liability. The department also examines these encroachment issues during Base Realignment and Closure sessions. It could be a factor among several that decides whether the base would be closed.
On the issue of compliance with zoning regulations, the comprehensive plan is fairly clear. In a memorandum to the Lowcountry Council of Governments in October 2002, county Planning Director Tony Criscitiello said the property is within a designated Rural Service Area, which is planned to remain rural for the next 15 to 20 years. Consequently, sewerlines shouldn't be extended to the area.
The district wants to get around the sewer issue by having the Beaufort-Jasper Water and Sewer Authority build a small sewage treatment plant in the area.
The rules were established in the comprehensive plan, a living document, meaning that it can be changed over time. That point was made time after time before its passage. Residents understood that changes would be made, but using a public meeting process similar to the meetings held between 1995 and 1998. While county committees held meetings to discuss the plan section by section, it didn't come anywhere near the process used to develop the comprehensive plan.
The council also has avoided discussing the ramifications of this potential change in relation to those of the proposed changes in the planned unit development ordinance. The context of both changes will have a major impact on how and how soon development comes to rural areas in all of northern Beaufort County.
Landowners in northern Beaufort County have every right to ask for changes so they can develop their property, but the County Council is charged with carrying out the vision of thousands of residents. Change will come but it shouldn't come piecemeal. County residents should know that one change, linked to another change has consequences for taxpayers, motorists, the environment and jobs.
Council seems poised to make a major change by agreeing that a high school may be built in the Dale Community Preservation District. That is the council's prerogative, but it should go into this decision with its eyes wide open about the consequences. Council should take into consideration ramifications of their vote. Building a school has consequences for not only military aircraft, but for the $454 million economic impact the military has in this area.