Dorchester County Planning Commission held a workshop meeting on Monday, November 4, 2024, in the Summerville County Council Chambers at 500 N. Main Street to discuss a proposed amendment to the existing County Ordinance 20-17. While few introductions were made in the meeting, several people were assumed to be from the county commission, several people present were representing the mining interests, a couple representing the Town of Dorchester and the local area, and our State Representative for Dorchester District 97 (Colleton & Dorchester Counties) Robby Robins were in attendance.
The members of the Planning Commission indicated the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the proposed amendment to Section 10.4.11 of the Dorchester County Ordinance 20-17, by inserting the following language:
“10.4.11(b)(8) Location. Resource extraction use shall not be allowed on a lot located within 2.5 miles of another lot on which another resource extraction use has been permitted or is currently in operation, whether located in incorporated Dorchester County or within a municipality. Distances shall be measured as a radius from the nearest property line of the subject lot to the nearest property line of a lot containing another resource extraction use.“
There was discussion about a wide range of topics, including property rights, road design, state & county road maintenance and construction responsibilities, the significant increase of quad-axle trucks over the last year, augmenting the triaxle mining truck traffic, the destruction of Salem Road due to truck traffic, taxation of trucks, geology, and a lot of general discussion unrelated to the specific proposed ordinance change.
A few items specifically discussed related to the proposal were:
- Mining will continue in the area for the foreseeable future to serve development and road projects.
- The proposed change is modeled after a similar Charleston County Ordinance. Despite mining opposition, the Charleston County ordinance remains in effect and is currently unchanged.
- State DOT borrow pits would not be exempt from this ordinance or this change.
- The issue of determining “currently in operation” was raised, i.e., what would be the definition of in operation? Would permitted mines not actively mining be considered in operation?
- Possible consideration for small mining (less than 2-5 acres) exemption was suggested.
At the end of the meeting, the proposed ordinance change was to move from the workshop meeting to the next Dorchester County Planning Commission Meeting. No action was taken to change the proposed language of the change from the workshop group.
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