Charleston County Council holds public hearing on Historic Preservation Ordinance amendments
CHARLESTON CO., S.C. (WCBD) – Members of the community were given another opportunity to learn more about the proposed changes to Charleston County’s Historic Preservation Ordinance on Tuesday night.
The county has been working on several updates to the ordinance, including removing subdivision plat applications.
Justin Schwebler, the Preservation Manager for the Historic Charleston Foundation, explained the Historic Preservation Commission could lose its ability to weigh in on subdivision plat approvals and site design aspects pertaining to historic districts. That includes African American settlement communities in the county.
“Having the Historic Preservation Commission to at least be able to weigh in on plat subdivisions just means that there’s another sort of check in the process to make sure that there’s not incompatibly dense development happening in these communities. It can help offset some of the development pressure that they’ve already been facing,” Schwebler told News 2.
Several speakers stood up during the public comment section of a public hearing on the matter to show support for the settlement communities.
“We owe these communities. We should go many extra miles to do what they believe they need in order to keep their homes and their sense of place,” said one woman.
The proposed changes to the ordinance have been discussed during at least 10 different public meetings over the last few months.
Schwebler said they were hoping the most recent edits to the ordinance would’ve given the Historic Preservation Commission the authority to review and make recommendations on applications, but that wasn’t the case.
“Its vitally important that the commission at least is able to kind of review any applications that happen in these communities even if they don’t ultimately have the final decision-making power,” Schwebler said.
The amendments will come back to Charleston County Council for a third reading before they’re finalized.
