Planners present industrial‑corridor overlay; public and council raise equity and environmental concerns

Planning staff summarized work to draft an industrial‑corridor overlay to the county's future land‑use map, updating the comprehensive plan to identify appropriate locations for light and heavy industrial uses. The presentation described public outreach (453 survey responses, multiple open houses), modeling factors (wetlands, roads, rail, residential proximity, flood zones) and multiple rounds of revisions driven by public input.

"We did a public survey and collected 453 total responses on that survey...the red is where people did not wanna see any industrial," the planner said, explaining that staff removed some corridors and limited others to light industrial after community feedback. During public comment, Sarah Rich of the Coastal Conservation League and a Conway resident told the committee that proposed industrial corridors abut Waccamaw tribal grounds and that outdoor sacred ceremonies had already been disrupted by traffic; she urged the county to seek equitable community engagement and consider wildlife‑corridor overlays instead of greenfield industrial designations.

Council members thanked staff for the outreach and the technical work but asked staff to double‑check specific parcel trusts and to ensure historic resources are flagged in future reviews. Staff emphasized the overlay is not zoning and that rezonings would still require wetland assessments and environmental review.