Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Open Space Easement topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council presses developer for firm open-space accounting, questions Juniper Street easement
Summary
Hardeeville council members pressed the East Argent applicant on whether a proposed reduction in a Juniper Street easement can be secured and counted as active open space, and sought parcel-level acreages after the applicant said updated stormwater rules and wetlands reduced usable parkland.
A council member at a Hardeeville workshop pressed developers Tuesday for precise acreage and legal assurances before counting an area inside a Juniper Street easement as active open space in the East Argent master-plan amendment.
The applicant’s engineer, Rusty Winter, said the team has proposed reducing a 60-foot easement in coordination with Toll Brothers to create a gated 12–16-foot service access and about 1,700 square feet of additional usable open space "to get a little bit more in line" with prior active-field plans. Winter cautioned the gain is not yet secured because Toll Brothers has not agreed to the reduced footprint.
The request came amid broader questions about how the project is meeting the city’s open-space goals. Staff reported phase three includes roughly 5.1 acres of active open space, amounting to 11% of that phase and about 34.5% total open space for the phase. Council members said they need parcelized acreages for each pocket park and an aggregate calculation for first reading.
"What I'd like to know for first reading is A, what are the sizes of all these little pocket parks and B, what they add up to be as a percentage of the total development," the council member said, pressing staff for detailed tables.
Applicants and staff said the site contains wetlands and preserved buffers that constrain layout and that stormwater-design requirements changed during detailed engineering. Winter and other team members said ponds were increased to meet a 100-year storm standard (an update from earlier 25-year designs), which reduced some multiuse lawn areas.
On safety, the council said the proposed easement area abutting a trail could expose children to vehicle movements. "It's not just the percentage of active open space. We want to give the kids a place to play and not have to dodge traffic," the council member said, urging that any counted easement area be accompanied by a definitive, enforceable agreement and physical separation such as a gate or fence.
Pina, responding to a legal question, said South Carolina law provides no state-level guideline that automatically treats an easement as qualifying open space; the determination is "up to the city" definitions and ordinances.
Developers said they were negotiating with Toll Brothers and hoped to have an agreement by the next meeting. Staff committed to deliver per-pocket acreage figures, clarify whether trails are being included in the active-open-space totals, and report the easement agreement status before first reading. The council will revisit the amendment at a future meeting after full-council review.
The workshop produced no formal vote.
