Team of Experts Shares Vision for East Edisto Master Plan
Thursday October 11, 2007
Kathleen Dayton
Daily Journal
Preservation and conservation requirements will be balanced against development needs as the planning process continues for East Edisto, 72,000 acres of former timberland along the Edisto River, a panel of planning, engineering and environmental experts told about 100 area residents and others Tuesday night.
The public meeting at the North Charleston Convention Center was the last in the second phase of such gatherings organized by paper company MeadWestvaco, which owns the property. The company has been holding public forums in various communities that will be affected by development of the land, which MeadWestvaco wants to plan with a team of experts including San Francisco-based EDAW, a land planning firm that specializes in conservation-based development.
MeadWestvaco's planning partners on Tuesday made presentations on five issues being addressed in the master planning process. They include land planning, transportation, cultural resources and history, conservation and the environment, and public services and education.
Tony Woody of Thomas & Hutton Engineering said the firm will evaluate the level of service and congestion on existing roads and the impact on those roads from future development. The firm would then determine how to mitigate the impact and also would evaluate public transit options.
Charlie Philips of Brockington & Associates, which is evaluating cultural and historic resources on the property, said the company will address residents' concerns about preserving history and special places on the property. Brockington said the firm envisions preserved areas that would be made available to the public.
Randy Kautz, an environmental scientist with Breedlove, Dennis & Associates Inc., said the firm has 85 years worth of data collected by MeadWestvaco regarding the East Edisto environment. Kautz said his firm envisions a master plan that will be designed with nature and create a natural sense of place. The firm plans to build nature education centers and wants East Edisto to fit in with broader regional plans for wildlife conservation.
Brian Sams of Washington, D.C.-based Economics Research Associates, said the firm will seek commercial development opportunities for East Edisto and analyze the fiscal impacts of the project, including any effects on schools, roads and taxes and the need for work force housing. The firm would also look at creating local employment opportunities. Addressing concerns from residents that taxpayers should not have to fund infrastructure for the development, Sams said his firm envisions developing funding for public facilities.
Ken Seeger, MeadWestvaco vice president and president of the company's Community Development and Land Management Group, said residents are concerned that East Edisto is planned right the first time.
"One comment was, you can't unpave paradise," Seeger said.
Some residents urged planners to adopt green building practices, which Seeger said planners hope to do.
"That's really the wave of the future," he said. "I think the market today is demanding it."
Seeger told participants that MeadWestvaco wants to make sure that critical wildlife habitat is not lost and that there is little impact on wetlands. He also assured residents that the company does not want the development to result in tax increases.
"It's our goal to make sure that East Edisto doesn't cause other people's taxes to rise," Seeger said.
MeadWestvaco and its planning team will now begin work on a preliminary master plan for East Edisto, which is will introduced at another series of meetings to be held later this fall. Development could take as long as 40 years to build out, Seeger said.
Communities affected by the East Edisto plan include Ravenel, Ridgeville, Summerville, Givhans, Clubhouse and other small communities along the eastern shore of the Edisto River in Charleston and Dorchester counties.
