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Bluffton council unanimously authorizes $174,004.55 task order to draft wetland and resilience ordinances
Summary
The Bluffton Town Council authorized a $174,004.55 task authorization with McCormick Taylor to inventory wetlands, map resiliency zones and draft local wetland and resilience ordinances after public support from conservation groups and extensive council discussion about scope and procurement.
Bluffton’s Town Council voted unanimously on Dec. 10 to authorize the town manager to issue a $174,004.55 task authorization to McCormick Taylor to inventory and map wetlands, integrate drainage-study outputs, and draft wetland and resilience ordinances for the town.
The scope covers seven deliverables including a wetland inventory and mapping, creation of a wetland ordinance where none currently exists, identification of resilience zones informed by the town's drainage studies, and resiliency ordinance drafting. Staff said the work responds to a regulatory gap created by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Sackett decision, which they said removed federal protections for many wetlands.
“The Coastal Conservation League commends the town for proactively seeking to protect important and fragile wetland ecosystems, and we urge council to approve the scope of work with McCormick Taylor to develop wetland resilience ordinances,” said Jessie White, South Coast office director for the Coastal Conservation League.
Staff and the Waypack May River Watershed Action Plan Advisory Committee (WAPAC) recommended the contract; staff cited a draft Department of Natural Resources watershed assessment that, they said, shows roughly 513 acres of wetlands lost inside the town’s jurisdiction in a 20-year period. Kim Jones, the staff presenter, told council the effort is included in the adopted FY25 budget and that drafting the ordinances will be paired with stakeholder engagement and legal review.
Council members pressed staff on procurement and on why consultants will draft ordinance language. Kim Jones and other staff said the technical and legal complexity — including mapping, data analysis and defensibility against legal challenge — exceeds in‑house capacity and that outside legal partners including the South Carolina Environmental Law Center and the South Carolina Environmental Law Project are supporting the work pro bono. Staff said ordinance-writing comprises a modest share of the overall cost and that most of the contract covers data collection and mapping.
Members raised cost and process questions during debate but supported moving forward quickly. The council voted to authorize the task order by voice vote with unanimous consent.
Next steps: staff said a kickoff meeting with McCormick Taylor would follow authorization, stakeholder outreach would begin, and the ordinance drafts and supporting maps would be returned to council for public hearings and legal review; staff estimated a 6–12 month timeline to produce deliverables and pursue public comment and legal vetting.
