Dorchester County BZA denies Novant Health request to reduce visual buffer for Summers Corner emergency department

The Dorchester County Board of Zoning Appeals denied on Aug. 27 a variance request from Novant Health to reduce the minimum visual buffer (MVB) required in the county’s Transitional Overlay District (TOD) for a proposed freestanding emergency department and medical office building on Beach Hill Road in the Summers Corner neighborhood.

The variance would have reduced required canopy and understory plantings beyond bonus-density reductions already approved during site development review. Planning staff recommended denial after concluding the application did not meet the ordinance’s variance standards. Board member Skillman moved to deny and the motion carried by voice vote; the board chair said, “The ayes have it.”

Why it matters: The MVB is intended to enhance visual character along major corridors in Dorchester County’s TOD. Novant and its development team argued that greater visibility of the emergency department is a public-safety benefit — “minutes really matter, seconds matter when your health is at risk,” said Kirsten Royster, Novant Health’s Charleston market president — and that ambulatory emergency facilities are a different building type than what the overlay envisioned when it was adopted in the 1990s.

Staff findings and legal standard

Planning staff reviewed the request against the variance standards in the county ordinance and recommended denial. In presenting the staff analysis, the planning representative said, “staff finds that the application does not meet the requirements…