Wedding & Event Venue Near Saint George, SC.

DORCHESTER COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - Dorchester County Council voted Monday night in a third and final reading of a plan to rezone a 78-acre parcel of land.

Council members approved rezoning the land, located in St. George off of Sugar Hill Road, from agriculture residential to single-family residential.

Some community members attended the meeting to voice some of their concerns. One of them, Betty Walker Collins, a pastor at a nearby church, said her concerns included flood risks, traffic getting on and off Hwy 78, noise and safety with the lack of street lights.

“That’s one of our biggest concerns just don’t move in on us. What are you doing to help us…and to help our community and to improve our quality of life?” Collins says.

She says she wants to be the voice for the families that have lived there for decades and was let down following the decision.

“Well, my reaction was disappointed, of course,” she says. “After speaking with some members of the council I feel better, I feel like they have heard some of the issues and concerns that we have address. and what we’re trying to make sure is to protect the community.”

Her neighbor, Mazella Berry, agrees.

“New people coming into our community, we are not against the growth. We want the growth for this town, but the town is not ready,” Berry says. “There are several things that need to be done before this takes place.”

The current potential developer is DR Horton; however, with this motion to approve this change, it allows any developer to build on the designated area in the future.

“DR Horton is a good builder. We just want to make sure that they hear us so that they might consider the concerns and issues that we would like to have addressed,” Collins says.

Another concern residents have is the natural corridor that includes rivers, streams, wetlands and swamps which might increase flood risks.

Community member Tommy Feagin says he feels like though he doesn’t live in St. George, he will still be affected.

“I actually live in the lower part of the county, but I’m very interested in Sugar Hill Road because the whole county seems to be over-developed at this time and they’re not paying sufficient attention to the infrastructure needed for the developments that’s going on,” Feagin says.

Moving forward, Vice Chairman David Chennis says the what and how will be addressed in future steps.

“Will we make everybody happy? No. But we really have heard the concerns and are going to try to address them and we may change ordinances based on some of the concerns that we’ve heard over these ratings in the public hearings and everything else,” Chennis says.

Chennis also says they will probably address those ordinance changes later down the road because when they can’t change the rules somebody midstream after the submission process.

As for the what and how in regards to development, Chennis says that will be discussed later down the road.

The Dorchester County Zoning and Land Development Standards list out the differences between these two zones, which you can access here.

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