Friday, Nov. 27, 2009

Richland development: Group finds art of compromise

A group of Richland County residents who at first had little in common has found after months of debate that development laws can be changed to suit builders and environmentalists, too.

The county-organized forum lasted nine months and involved as many as 50 people.

They scrutinized laws - on the width of streets, for example, and tree conservation - to come up with 22 proposals to cut growth-related pollution in lakes, rivers and streams.

"Everybody polite, too," developer Steve Corboy said. "No fistfights, no screaming, no yelling - except for the second-to-the-last meeting."

At a time when the us-vs.-them mentality stokes national debate, participants in Richland County's development round table say they managed to reach a consensus and gain respect for each other's point of view.

The success, in part, was due to being invited to issues on the front end rather than being forced to take positions on the back end.

"It demonstrates that it is possible for people with different agendas to find common ground," said Tracy Swartout, superintendent of Congaree National Park. "It's possible not to let perfection stand in the way of progress.

"If we wait to try to find that perfect answer, or we each fall on swords over our individual issues, no one wins."

Next, a smaller group will take the agreed-on concepts and fashion them into proposed ordinances, the first of which go to Richland County Council in January.

Part of the process was driven by a Feb. 1 deadline for Richland County to prove it's doing a better job of keeping sediment, pesticides and trash out of lakes and creeks.

The county's former planning director, Joe Kocy, created the development round table to update county laws.

He hired the Center for Watershed Protection, out of Ellicott City, Md., to review what was on the books and lead the discussion. The $169,446 cost largely was covered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Then, Kocy asked the Home Builders Association of Greater Columbia to appoint members from the development community and the county's Conservation Commission to select environmentalists.

The key was the county's decision to "cut to the chase" by including hard-core advocates on both sides of the debate, said Bob Guild, a lawyer and volunteer leader with the Sierra Club.

"That was a very refreshing approach," Guild said.

"I can't tell you how many times people say, 'Well, we're going to have an open process and organize a committee.' And if they have conservationists on it, they're the safe conservationists who they know aren't going to make any waves."

Members of the round table said they grew to trust each other to be candid.

They talked about the effect of regulations on the price of a house. They talked about how large, open spaces protect wildlife.

It was sort of like a class in graduate school, exploring ideas through a healthy debate.

"I was amazed that die-hard conservationists and die-hard developers were going to lunch together," Corboy, the developer, said.

Mostly, the proposals came together without a lot of disagreement, members said.

But the last topic was buffers - how much undisturbed land landowners should have to leave along the banks of creeks, rivers and lakes.

"There was a donnybrook" over the width of the buffers. Corboy said he walked out, and he wasn't alone.

"The thing is," said assistant county administrator Sparty Hammett, "that was the only bump in the road.

"Everybody knew that was going to be the controversial issue, but we were able to move beyond that meeting, where people did walk out, and the next meeting we were able to reach consensus."

Some said the round table serves as a model about how to resolve divisive issues.

"We can all sit across a table now, and feel like we're not at total opposite ends," said Darren Holcombe, an engineer and vice president of Cox and Dinkins.

He said converting the concepts into ordinances will be difficult but, "We all believe we're going to get there."

Added Lake Carolina developer David Tuttle, "No one will get 100 percent of what they want, but it will be something everybody will be proud of."

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