Greenbelt advisory board directs county staff to build mapping database, unveils new public project dashboard

Charleston County Greenbelt Advisory Board members voted to direct staff to pursue a county-scale mapping and geodatabase analysis to help revise Greenbelt program goals and to form a technical advisory committee to assist with that work, the board said at its March meeting.

Board staff reported that the program has approved about 230 projects to date, protecting more than 26,000 acres and awarding just under $167,000,000 in Greenbelt funds. The staff presentation said those projects have leveraged roughly 140% in match (about $232,000,000). The program’s minority-lands funding totals were described as just under $60,000,000 covering nearly 3,900 acres. The staffer reported the lifetime projected remaining funds for the first and second half-penny transportation sales tax program as about $162,000,000 and noted approximately $13,000,000 currently available (about $8.8 million rural, $4.1 million urban), with the amount expected to increase after July 1.

“With the approval of 18 projects last cycle, our total projects jumped considerably up to 230 projects approved,” said Eric (Staff member), who presented the program statistics and recommendations. Eric said conservation easements remain less costly per acre than fee-simple purchases and that about 45% of approved projects have current or planned public access. He also told the board that county council approved 17 of 18 projects as recommended by the GAB last cycle, and approved one main-road project with an additional title-transfer condition tied to a $317,700 matching-funds requirement and annual reporting.

The staff recommended building a Charleston County geodatabase that could combine multiple data layers — including the State Conservation Bank’s annual conservation-priority mapping and the Trust for Public Land’s “10-minute walk” data — to identify areas where several conservation priorities overlap. The staff proposed recruiting a technical advisory committee drawn from local land trusts, municipalities and county GIS staff to develop the analysis and return goal-change recommendations to the GAB. The board voted in favor of the staff recommendation.

The board also previewed a new public Greenbelt projects dashboard, launched the same day, that allows the public to view project-level details, funding totals, acreage and public-access designations and to filter results by project type, council district or urban/rural allocation. Kylie Jeffords (Staff member) was credited for leading the dashboard effort with county IT, and Eric said the county will issue a public release and newsletter items about the new dashboard.

Why it matters: staff said a GIS-driven, data-forward approach would allow the GAB to update its goals in a targeted way (for example, emphasizing resilient lands, corridors that improve connectivity, threatened working lands or underserved neighborhoods) rather than relying only on historical goals. Staff projected the mapping-and-analysis process could take many months and recommended coordinating with the Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission’s forthcoming open-space analysis.

Board action: A motion to accept staff’s recommendation to pursue the mapping/geodatabase analysis and to engage a technical advisory committee carried with an affirmative voice vote. The meeting record did not show named movers or a roll-call tally for that vote.

The board raised questions about timing, public outreach and how new goals would be communicated to prospective applicants; board members suggested publishing any updated goals to inform applicants about priority areas. Eric and county staff said they will provide updates as data are compiled and will return preliminary recommendations later in the year.

The dashboard and the mapping work are intended to support a future GAB recommendation to county council should the board decide to change Greenbelt program goals or pursue ordinance-level program changes.