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CHESTERFIELD COUNTY – Officials in Chesterfield County are combining forces on a comprehensive plan that will encompass almost all of the county’s municipalities.
The strategy is designed to streamline planning and consolidate costs, Chesterfield County Council member Mary Anderson said.
The idea was sparked as county officials began work to update its master plan, which happens about every 10 years. The Pee Dee Coalition of Governments, which Chesterfield officials are working with to complete the update, suggested the new approach because many towns in the county also had plans expiring soon, Anderson said.
With the new approach, the county and its municipalities will have one comprehensive plan, and participating towns will each have representatives on a single planning commission. Those that already have a commission will disband them.
The county will pay half of the cost of the plan, while the rest will be divided among the participating towns according to their population.
The project began this year, and at the end of May, the committee held its first meeting.
Greenwood County is one of a number of South Carolina counties that uses a single plan.
Carol Coleman, Greenwood County planning director, said it’s more economical because it eliminates duplicated services and provides rural areas with more resources and expertise.
Each jurisdiction appoints its own representative to the Joint Planning Commission of Greenwood County so that everyone has a seat at the table. When it comes to decisions that would affect one community in particular, Coleman said, she is deferential to the desires of the community and its representative on the commission.
“The benefit to me is that even if it’s a small local government, they’re not necessarily required to try and fund an office to do these things when we are capable of helping them do it. And I totally bow and answer to these local governments,” Coleman said.
Anderson said she hopes combining the plans and commissions in the county will improve communication and consolidate resources as the county tries to address persistent issues, such as failing infrastructure in rural areas.
Towns like Mt. Croghan or Ruby, the county’s smallest towns, don’t have comprehensive plans, and Anderson said the county will be able to provide them guidance they didn’t have before.
Towns like Cheraw, the county’s largest town, already have a comprehensive plan and a planning commission. But the town’s administrator, Mike Smith, said combining forces will still be beneficial. It will reduce costs and ease the burden of establishing a full planning commission in each municipality.
Smith said it’s becoming more difficult to find people who are willing to commit to the required training and regular meetings that planning commission members attend.
“I think it’ll be a positive, because you will now have more qualified professionals serving,” he said.
Smith said he isn’t worried that Cheraw will give up any control by eliminating its planning commission. He said he thinks the commission members will defer community-specific decisions to the representative from that community. Those decisions also are recommendations; town councils make the final call.
The only municipality in Chesterfield County to opt out of the project is Pageland. The town of about 2,500 people is the site of the area’s largest growth spurt. Officials predict the population could double by the end of the decade thanks to growth from Charlotte.
Shane Sligh, the town administrator, said the town updated its own comprehensive plan more recently than the county’s other municipalities, and it’s reluctant to give up its planning commission.
While the town will still have a representative on the commission, it won’t have a vote. Anderson said Pageland can still consider joining once its plan is up for renewal in a few years.
Work on the plan began in the spring and will conclude sometime next year, Anderson said.
