Saving some green

The new round of greenbelt projects proposed in Charleston County would protect land from Awendaw to Edisto, with easements to keep large properties from being developed and purchases aimed at creating public parks and green spaces.

Add them up and the projects, if approved, would protect more than 2,700 acres at a cost of nearly $24 million, with the money coming from the half-cent sales tax that voters approved in a 2004 referendum.

One of the deals already has been completed, and the greenbelt money would be used to reimburse the costs. It is North Charleston's $208,900 purchase of a 16.5-acre tract along Filbin Creek between the Mark Clark Expressway and the Oak Terrace Preserve development.

"We've been after that piece for two years" and recently closed on the purchase, city Grants Administrator Shannon Praete said.

The Greenbelt Bank Board has rejected one plan, from the town of Awendaw, to acquire a 30-acre parcel for $4.5 million. The rest of the proposals have been recommended by the bank board or the Urban Grants Review Committee, or are awaiting further action.

County Council gets the final say. Typically, the bank board wants to see greenbelt projects with substantial amounts of matching funds, which can come from other branches of government, nonprofit groups or the landowners themselves. When matching funds are counted, the proposed projects are worth nearly $44 million.

With conservation easement deals, landowners often donate a large portion of the value of the easement, which gives them state and federal tax deductions. The value of an easement is usually the difference between what a property could be worth if developed versus what it's worth if it can't be developed.

The largest easement deal proposed in the current round of greenbelt funding would protect a peninsula-like 1,762-acre property where the Edisto and Wadmalaw rivers meet, near Yonge's Island, known as White Point Plantation.

The property is 882 acres of high ground surrounded by marsh, and the Lowcountry Open Land Trust is seeking nearly $2.4 million in greenbelt funds for that deal.

The trust also is seeking funds to purchase an easement on a 146-acre Johns Island property known as Palmetto Point.

The second-largest land deal comes from the Nature Conservancy, which is seeking nearly $1.2 million toward the purchase of a 374-acre tract of private land within the Francis Marion National Forest known as the Boardman Tract.

The protection of private land within the national forest has been a priority of the greenbelt program.

The way the greenbelt program works is funds support rural land preservation deals outside of Charleston County's designated urban growth areas and projects within urban areas that are often aimed at creating new parks and other public spaces.

North Charleston, which submitted five of the six urban projects for the current round of funding, hopes to buy properties ranging in size from a quarter-acre to 16.5 acres. Those properties would be used for small "pocket" parks, and to potentially create walking trails and boardwalks along Noisette Creek.

The town of James Island submitted the other urban project, which involves buying an undeveloped lot in the Clearview subdivision for $160,000 to create a small park.

"It's supposed to just be an open space," said James Island Councilman Joe Qualey, who lives in the Clearview neighborhood. "We don't have a specific use for it."

All of the greenbelt proposals are expected to go before County Council at a committee meeting May 28.