Senate subcommittee backs bill letting qualifying farmers opt out of municipal annexation

Senators on a Senate Finance subcommittee voted to give a favorable report to S.264, a bill that would let landowners on qualifying farmland opt out of municipal annexation when cities expand into agricultural areas. The committee voted by voice after hearing farmers, county residents and municipal representatives describe competing concerns about preserving farms and ensuring municipalities can manage development.

Proponents said the bill is a narrow protection for working farms as cities grow. "This is very important to the farmers of South Carolina," Harry Ott, president of the Farm Bureau, told the panel, and described the bill as a way for "legitimate farmer[s] on legitimate farmland" to refuse annexation if a municipality seeks to add them to city limits. Dickie Harper, a York County…