On Monday, the Pickens County Council held a public hearing on a proposed ordinance to establish an overlay district on Lake Keowee and Lake Jocassee to safeguard drinking water, protect overall water quality, and conserve natural resources.
The result of Monday's meeting was an approved 5-1 motion. Council Chairman Alex Saitta was the sole opposing vote for county staff to develop the scope of an environmental study of undeveloped land in conjunction with Oconee county, which also shares the lakes.
The purpose of the ordinance would establish development standards applicable to properties within the overlay district and to supplement the regulations of the Pickens County Unified Development Standards Ordinance. The would mitigate adverse impacts that development might have on the water.
The overlay would focus on the lakeshore and watershed specific to Lake Keowee and Lake Jocassee and would apply to all property located within one-quarter mile of the two lakes.
Prohibited uses under the ordinance include: heavy industrial uses except where required by state or federal law, light industrial uses, single-family attached uses like duplexes or townhomes, and commercial uses. Additionally, new manicured lawns and the application of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides would be prohibited within the buffer area.
The discussion over the ordinance dates back to February. The point of contention for most residents at Monday's hearing centered over-development's impact on the water versus the implications of the ordinance for developers who have already had projects greenlit.
"Residents are currently experiencing, first hand, how much a drought situation is impacting our lakes," said Karen Wright, a resident in favor of passing the ordinance as it stands. "Imagine the challenges that overdevelopment would bring."
Another resident, Leslie Desjardins, said the council should consider the cumulative effects. "One project doesn't seem like much, one more building doesn't seem like much," Desjardins said. "[But], when we look back 10, 20 years from now, all of those individual decisions will have accumulated into a very different Lake Keowee. Environmental degradation rarely happens all at once, that's why it's so dangerous."
On the other side of the debate were speakers like James Whitley, owner of The Reserve, a community on roughly 4,000 acres that the county approved in 2002. Whitley said a planned lodge, spa, and fitness center would bring more than 500 jobs and about $450 million in additional tax revenue over 10 years, according to an economic study he commissioned.
"If you adopt this ordinance, please include something in there that respects properties that have existing approvals," Whitley said to council. "It's not an unreasonable ask. Honor your word and help me help you."
Greenville attorney Steve Buckingham also spoke against the ordinance as proposed, saying that environmental protection must be weighed against long-term economic growth and that the ban on multifamily and commercial development would have enduring consequences. Buckingham, who said he has represented real estate developers, warned the restrictions could end up in court.
“Real estate developers ... are not litigious people,” he said, “but this ordinance and the restrictions that it’s imposing on people that already own land on Lake Keowee is putting us in a position where there’s no way out other than to involve the courts.”
Councilmember Chris Bowers voted in favor of the motion, saying GIS mapping and deeds are needed to determine what percentage of county land surrounding the lakes is undeveloped.
"I think that is a hard and fast fact that would determine, along with the science, [where] we need to stand on this and how extreme it needs to be," he said. Bowers said taking away property rights would be hard to justify if only a small share of land is undeveloped, saying council would be “late in the game” to worry about environmental impact.
Chairman Alex Saitta said the ordinance should be approved as is, saying the information that will be provided in the motion's study has already been provided in the past eight months that council and staff have researched this topic.
“More commercial, more industrial, more septic tanks, more septic fields, more likely it’s to get into the lake,” he said. Saitta argued the council already knows what a study would show. “This is not rocket science. We don’t need to pay $25,000 to tell us this,” he said.
Discussion is expected to continue.
