Confusion over the amount of land the state would need to buy to widen a dangerous 22-mile section of U.S. Highway 17 in Beaufort and Colleton counties has prompted the South Carolina Landowners Association to get involved.

Mark Nix, association executive director, said his office began receiving calls from property owners along the highway last week. The callers wanted clarity, he said, over whether the state Department of Transportation could take their land to create a 100-foot-wide buffer zone on either side of the highway. Land within that zone could not be developed. Instead, it would remain in its current state to preserve the land, most of which is within the environmentally sensitive ACE Basin.

But what most property owners and state and local officials did not realize is that the 100-foot buffers would be in addition to the 100 feet of property on each side needed to widen the highway to four lanes.

"One hundred feet (standard right-of-way acquisition) I can understand, and most property owners can understand," Nix said. "But 200 feet is a lot of land. Basically that's taking (land) for the sake of taking it."

Nix joined property owners and Colleton County residents Monday at a public meeting about plans for the proposed widening project. The project, estimated to cost between $150 million and $200 million, would widen the road to four lanes and include a paved median and a 6-foot-wide bicycle path. Members of the State Highway Commission pledged more than a year ago to fast-track the project because of the high frequency of accidents on the road. Twenty people have died and 444 people have been injured along the 22-mile section since 2001.

Nix said it is not the association's intent to prevent the project from moving forward.

"Awareness is the biggest problem now," Nix said. "At this point, I don't think enough of the property owners are educated enough (about their rights and options) to make an informed decision."

There are more than 140 propertyowners along the segment of highway. Roughly 10 miles of land would require buffers. Land that already is developed would not be included in the buffer. He plans to schedule a meeting with landowners in the near future. A date has yet to be set.

The issue also interested the landowners association because state transportation officials had stated in the past that land could be taken, without financial compensation, to create the buffers. That would set a new precedent in the state. Land has never been taken for a public project to create buffers.

State Rep. Wallace Scarborough, R-Charleston, said that rather than allow for the chance that property owners could sue the state, potentially stopping the project, another agency should purchase the buffers. He suggested money from the state's Conservation Bank be used for the buffers.

"We ought not to use highway funds for conservation purposes," Scarborough said. "We should use highway money for building roads and conservation money for preserving land."

Steve Murdaugh, chairman of Colleton County Council, said buffers are unnecessary because the county already has protected its land within the ACE Basin. Its zoning classification limits development, he said, preventing strip mall developments and other "undesirable developments that conservationists refer to."

"We still have the opinion that the DOT should move forward with the project and not require buffers," he said.

As transportation officials continue to sort out the buffer issue, they plan to submit two environmental applications Monday for the widening project. Wilson Elgin, project manager with the Transportation Department, said the buffer issue will have to be worked out by Thanksgiving or the permitting process could be delayed. State officials will sign a contract to widen the highway if money is found by February.