The Richland County Conservation Commission was formed by the Richland County Council in 1998. Almost 30 years later, the commission still sets out to protect the county’s historical and cultural resources.
The chairman of the commission is John Grego, who joined in 2009 following the recommendation of then-chair Carol Kososki. The two worked together as part of Friends of the Congaree Swamp.
Along with protecting the county’s natural resources, the Richland County Conservation Commission focuses on easements, grant programs, land acquisition, projects to promote nature-based recreation and tourism, and special projects.
The commission receives funding from Richland County for land purchases, the grant program, and special projects.
The grant program recently increased its funding from $250,000 to $300,000 due to demand. The grant is split into two categories— historic preservation, which has a limit of $50,000, and a natural resources conservations grant, which has a $20,000 limit. The process includes filling out an application and proving the applicant is a nonprofit or government agency. Once the application is reviewed and scored, applicants are asked to give a presentation and answer questions. One of the questions is can the group still follow through with the project if it doesn’t receive the full amount of the grant proposal. It is not uncommon for the applicants to receive less than they requested. There are a handful of applicants that don’t receive funding at all.
The commission has worked closely with Richland County Council a lot over the years. In 2009, county council was looking at its land development ordinances. A roundtable was formed, which included Grego, to provide input on the land development code. The roundtable consisted of four staffers, four members from the development community, and four members from the conservation community. The roundtable examined issues such as protecting streams and wetlands during development and different practices that could be used to help infiltrate rain water. Ideas included water quality buffers, permeable pavement, and designing roads that were more pedestrian and bike friendly. Most of those recommendations were adopted and have been amended since then. The commission has recently been involved with another county-led roundtable to study development code ordinances.
While there does seem to be an abundance of construction happening in Richland County, the conservation commission knows where its mission lies.
“We have worked on special projects,” Grego said. “We protect the county’s natural resources and how to prioritize them. We’ve done a couple of different studies. One looked at watersheds and which were under more immediate threats and needed more protection.
“We also look at conservation easements or whether to purchase a property outright.
“We’ve helped participate in heat mapping studies to figure out which part of the county is under more threats from increasing heat due to climate change. The first step was to bring awareness to the issue. Then we started looking at efforts to bring relief. We looked at tree planting or tree protection ordinances to reduce the threat from heat islands.”
The commission has also worked with the Clemson extension program and the Central Midlands Council of Governments to identify which parts of the county have resources most worthy of protection. Grego said the commission has run into some trouble with that because some of those resources can be isolated.
The studies also help the commission inform the county council and guide ordinances aimed at protecting those areas.
Another project was providing information on the status of cemeteries and graveyards in Richland County. One particular cemetery, located at 8909 Wilson Boulevard, had been vandalized. While there were state penalties against vandalizing a cemetary, the county didn’t have any ordinances. The commission worked with the county to create an ordinance and impose penalties for those who destroy cemetery sites.
The relationship between the commission and the county council is ongoing. The commission approaches council with any project that requires over $100,000 in funding. The commission also informs council on smaller projects.
The review process usually asks why the commission is undertaking a particular project. The commission typically provides studies, which can also lead to follow-up projects. It prioritizes the most important ones at the time and works on them one at a time.
The commission has done a lot of work to preserve as much as it can despite challenges. For one, it has a small staff of four. That does not include the 11 commissioners appointed by the county council. However, it’s those four members who put together the preservation plans and do much of the leg work. A historic preservation plan is in the works that includes requesting one new position.
Another challenge can be the amount of time it takes to complete a project. A few years ago, the commission was studying the Mill Creek tract in the Congaree Flood Plain upstream from the Congaree National Park. The plan was to make roads more accessible and improve the facilities. It was determined the project should fix the roads first. Before that could happen a flood in February of 2020 took out a main bridge to the property. As a result, the bridge became top priority and it took a lot of money and a few years to fix.
While the commission does have its challenges, seeing a project with grant funding come to completion is rewarding.
“You can find a lot of those projects we’ve helped just driving anywhere around Richland County,” Grego said. “We’ve helped the Friends of Harbison. They do all the work on the trails, but we have provided them with funding time and again for the trail repair, bridge repair, kiosk, things like that. We have helped with churches, helping them fix their roofs or repairing stain glass windows. We have a modest historical marker program. Just seeing the physical evidence from the grant program, it’s everywhere you look around, is rewarding.”
The commission is looking at future plans, which include improving the 2,500-acre Mill Creek tract and the 700-acre Cabin Branch.
Grego said one of the biggest projects the commission is working on is the Lower Richland tourism plan, which includes heritage tourism, nature-based tourism, and small business development. The commission provides the training for small businesses in the Lower Richland area so they can benefit from the tourist attractions already in Lower Richland. Quinton Epps, with the Richland County Conservation Commission, has worked with the University of South Carolina Small Business Development Center to make progress with the plan.
Multiple workshops have been offered at the Lower Richland branch of the Richland County Library, where a consultant is on site weekly to address questions.
Implementing the recommendations of the historic preservation plan, which includes an additional staff member and office along with more funding for protection of historic properties and natural resources, is also a priority for the future.
Loading Comments