EXCLUSIVE: GREEN DIAMOND: New flood rules could allow construction

The federal government is proposing to ease key development restrictions that for years have limited construction on the former Green Diamond site, a flood-threatened area along the Congaree River that once was envisioned for a massive residential and commercial community.

New flood maps released late this week reduce a floodway zone designation for the vacant farmland between Bluff Road and the river just south of Columbia. The floodway, a designation intended to prevent developing in high-hazard areas, no longer covers much of the property.

“Generally, yes, this makes the property easier to develop,” said Columbia lawyer Mullen Taylor, who has worked on the flood map issue for 16 years, most recently as a lawyer representing Richland County against the property’s would-be developers. “It does make a difference – a significant difference.”

The maps, which are not final, will be open for public comment and can be appealed. Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency were unavailable Friday afternoon.

Federal rules generally seek to limit or stop development in flood-prone areas because of the hazard to the public and the cost to taxpayers.

But a change in federal policy in recent years is the likely reason FEMA proposes to ease the flood restrictions in Richland County, said Taylor and former Department of Natural Resources flood mitigation coordinator Lisa Sharrard Jones.

In the past, uncertified levees such as the earthen ones along the Congaree River were not considered as protection against flood waters. Now, the federal government can give uncertified levees some credit in making determinations in redrawing flood maps, Taylor and Jones said.

Jones, now a consultant, said FEMA had signaled for some time that it would loosen the Richland County flood restrictions.

“I kind of expected this,” she said.

The low-lying area has been a topic of talk in Columbia since Myrtle Beach developer Burroughs & Chapin acquired the property from a local farmer some 16 years ago. In 1999, the company announced plans for a “city within a city,” a $1 billion project of homes and businesses. But the project, dubbed the Green Diamond, never materialized.

A company known as Columbia Venture, formed by Burroughs & Chapin, has been the lead business entity seeking to develop parts of the original 4,600 acres of the Green Diamond site along Interstate 77 near Heathwood Hall school and the Columbia sewer plant. Attempts to reach an official with Columbia Venture were unsuccessful Friday.

Others own some of the land in the original area of development. Among those landowners is state Rep. Kirkman Finlay, R-Richland. He said Friday he had not seen the maps and had not thought much about the issue in years. He declined further comment until he had time to review the maps.

While Taylor said the change in mapping makes the property easier to develop, Cayce City Manager Rebecca Vance said that won’t necessarily happen. The land is in Richland County, but Cayce, in Lexington County, reached across the Congaree and annexed much of the land in 2007.

Vance noted that in reducing the floodway, the federal government also is proposing to tighten rules on how buildings are constructed. Buildings would have to be elevated higher off the ground under the proposed flood restrictions, Vance said.

“For someone to be able to develop it, it’s going to take a lot of money,” Vance said, noting that rules requiring new homes to be built high off the ground could chill construction on the land.

“I don’t think people are going to live on stilts next to the poop plant in Columbia,” Vance said. “But I may be wrong.”

She said the land currently is zoned for agriculture and would need to be rezoned for development to occur there.

The site, between Bluff Road and the Congaree River, once was owned by an amiable and well-known area farmer who ran into financial trouble and was forced to sell the land after the federal government began foreclosure proceedings in the late 1990s.

Much of farmer Burwell Manning’s property eventually was purchased by Burroughs & Chapin.

The Green Diamond was praised by many area business leaders, but later began to fall out of favor with the public in part because Burroughs & Chapin declined to provide details of its project.

Critics also said development should not occur in areas susceptible to flooding because of the risk and potential taxpayer cost. The county was being asked to certify the earthen levees with taxpayer money.

Later, Greenville developer Bob Hughes was brought in to help with the project, but nothing ever materialized. Hughes no longer is associated with the effort and is focused on developing property on Bull Street, where a new minor league ballpark is being built as the development’s centerpiece.

Potential developers of the property took Richland County to court to challenge local flood restrictions. The case has reached the state Supreme Court, but has not been resolved yet.

This story was originally published May 1, 2015 at 10:26 PM with the headline "EXCLUSIVE: GREEN DIAMOND: New flood rules could allow construction."