Greenwood County seeks new tool in determining lake ownership lines
What Greenwood County Council saw as another tool in the toolbox, a crowd gathered at Tuesday’s meeting saw as a needless step that they worried would keep lakeside residents from owning the land under them.
Council discussed an update to its boundary line agreement policy on Lake Greenwood. The county owns the lake, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has designated a line marking the contour of the lake at 440 feet above sea level, which the county must maintain ownership of.
That can create some ambiguity when owners of property adjacent to the lake go to determine the boundaries of what they own and what the county owns. The boundary line agreement process exists to clarify those borders.
Prior to Tuesday, property owners seeking a BLA would have a survey done of their property to determine the 440 contour. The county would then, after a review process, either transfer county property to the owner to adjust their property lines, or keep the boundaries where they already were.
The policy change discussed Tuesday added a new option — to offer an easement that would allow the county to keep the property in question, but give the resident all rights of access and use of that land.
“If it ever comes to a point where we haven’t maintained our boundary, or that FERC sees that we’ve given away part of our project boundary or we’ve lost our project boundary, they can require us to buy it back or they could also penalize us,” said Rett Templeton, county engineer. “Doing the easements will help protect the county. It doesn’t take away any rights from adjacent property owners to the lake.”
Council member Theo Lane described the addition of easements as just another option the county can take in circumstances where they might run the risk of giving away property too close to FERC’s designated line. Council member Mark Allison saw the situation differently.
“When I came on council 12 years ago, this was a major issue on Lake Greenwood,” he said. “At that time, if you wanted that access to that property, that ownership of that property, you had to purchase that property.”
It created “total chaos” on the lake, but after years of research, he said council learned Greenwood County didn’t really know where that 440 contour line was. The line was drawn in 1929, and since then surveying technology has come a long way.
“We were trying to establish a true line of ownership. I think the easement does not do that,” he said.
Dozens of people came to the meeting to hear this matter discussed, and council took a few questions from the crowd without a public hearing. One resident asked why this was needed, and Templeton explained the county’s need to make sure it doesn’t give away property designated by the FERC contour. Another expressed worry that this was a tool to keep county ownership of property that could be right under existing homes.
In the end, council voted 4-3 to approve the policy change, with Allison, Edith Childs and Dayne Pruitt dissenting.
Council also approved moving forward with two contracts for multi-million dollar capital project sales tax-funded builds.
They unanimously approved a $10 million design-build contract for the Wilbanks Recreation Complex renovations. J.D Goodrum will handle the design and building, which will include an ADA-compliant playground, pickleball courts, two artificial turf fields and a natural field, a restroom and snack bar facility and baseball field renovations. It will also see upgrades to Legion field, the farmers market building and demolition of the former animal shelter building.
The other contract council approved is the about $50 million total contract with CONSOR Engineers to widen part of S.C. Highway 246. The state Department of Transportation will handle much of this arrangement, with $11.9 million coming from Capital Project Sales Tax funds and $38 million from a state Transportation Infrastructure Bank grant.
Construction is expected to start in 2027.
In other business, council:
Considered and approved three rezoning requests. The first was by Velux to rezone parcels of land on and adjacent to their Old Brickyard Road campus so they can expand. The second was by a developer seeking to bring eight three-story apartment buildings to a complex on East Northside Drive. The third was to allow a resident to build a house and barn on property he owns on Old Woodlawn Road.
Reappointed three members of the Greenwood County Public Library Board: Barbara Wright, Ojetter Williams and Margaret Anderson. Council also reappointed Susan Hellman to the Country Acres special tax district commission and Stephen Wilson to the Newport special tax commission.
Recognized its employees of the third quarter.
Approved spending funds from the Lost Lure Special Tax District fund, which dissolved last year. The more than $3,000 in that fund will go to local nonprofits.
Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Oct 18, 2022
By DAMIAN DOMINGUEZ ddominguez@indexjournal.com