Lowcountry Council of Governments outlines CDBG priorities for Colleton County

Kimberly Horn, a planner with the Lowcountry Council of Governments, presented the agency’s annual Community Development Block Grant needs assessment to the Colleton County Council on Tuesday, outlining funding categories, income thresholds and application deadlines for the 2025 program year.

Horn said the CDBG program, administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), targets low- and moderate-income households and community infrastructure. "The CDBG program was developed by HUD and it's to promote local governments, economic opportunities, and community revitalization," Horn said. She explained that in Colleton County the program uses an 80% area median income (AMI) standard and gave dollar examples: about $39,900 for a two-person household and $49,850 for a four-person household.

The presentation grouped potential awards into spring and fall funding cycles. Horn said the spring community-infrastructure pot allows requests between $50,000 and $1 million for projects such as water, sewer, drainage and roads when those road projects arise from water/sewer work. The fall "community enrichment" category covers sidewalks, public facilities, downtown streetscapes and other public improvements with awards typically between $50,000 and $750,000. Horn also described smaller funding pots, a "ready-to-go" funding pool for projects with completed engineering and environmental review, and a digital divide allocation for broadband work.

Horn said South Carolina's draft annual allocation is expected to be about $19 million to cover projects statewide, and that entitlement jurisdictions such as Greenville, Columbia, Charleston and Florence receive separate allocations outside the statewide competitive pot. She advised council members that Colleton County’s overall low/moderate-income share is about 46%, below the 51% threshold HUD uses to qualify an entire county as CDBG-eligible; that means the county must identify specific neighborhoods or project areas to meet the LMI requirement.

Council members asked whether federal pauses to assistance could affect projects. Horn said the Lowcountry COG had been told to "stand by" while state and federal administrators clarify how a potential pause would apply; she said some money arrives to the county as state funds that are subject to federal guidelines, and that at the time of the meeting they had not been put on hold.

Council members and residents raised several local priorities, including revisiting a previously shelved water project, concerns about flooding in the Gadsden/River Street area after earlier work, and whether equipment purchases such as a vacuum truck for roadside debris could be funded through CDBG. Horn said equipment purchases are unlikely and that the program prioritizes infrastructure benefiting concentrated LMI areas. She also described tools to identify eligible neighborhoods, including a community-indicators site and paid/free mapping tools.

Horn closed by inviting council and residents to submit ranked local priorities for the Lowcountry COG to use when applying for state-administered CDBG funds and by noting an invitation for new officials to a regional orientation on March 27.

The presentation proceeded without a council vote; council members agreed to review the assessment and return with prioritized lists at a subsequent meeting.