Why Lexington County is looking to save trees as home construction blossoms

Lexington County officials are looking at ways to save more trees as new neighborhoods sprout.

A plan taking shape would require a landscape buffer of up to 20 feet around the perimeter of new subdivisions, an idea that may be limited initially to fast-growing areas near Lexington, Chapin, Irmo and Red Bank.

“It’s an attempt to preserve some of the environment that is one of the very things that draws people to move here,” County Councilman Darrell Hudson of Lexington said.

The push to save more greenery comes amid predictions that the county’s estimated population of 290,000 residents will double by 2050.

Buffers would prevent clear-cutting tracts for homes, a practice that stirs complaints about lost foliage.

Council members are considering a proposal that would require a 10-foot buffer around new neighborhoods of up to 150 homes and a 20-foot buffer around larger ones.

Developments of less than 10 homes with an average lot size of 1.5 acres would be exempt. And adding trees and landscape on a parcel that has none wouldn’t be required.

That approach is similar to what home builders proposed.

Locations where buffers would be required remain to be settled. But the plan probably won’t apply to the largely rural southern and western parts of the 758-square-mile county, Hudson said.

The piecemeal approach that may occur for buffers is similar to the limited start of blight controls that now apply to many more neighborhoods formerly exempt.

Home builders suggest the buffers be encouraged but only required in limited areas they don’t define.

Hudson is pushing to make buffers mandatory, but the other eight council members haven’t decided yet whether to do that or simply encourage the idea. A final plan for buffers is expected to come up for council consideration by spring.

Buffers should be “strategically implemented,” limited largely to areas along 15 roads designated as scenic corridors, the Building Industry Association of Central South Carolina told county officials in a recent report.

Flexibility for terrain should be allowed, with a fence or wall permitted sometimes instead of shrubbery and trees, the group said.

The plan taking shape would allow streets and utility lines to go through buffers with the “least intensive impact” on landscape.

Buffers also may have a side benefit, some council members say. More greenery could help reduce traffic congestion and school overcrowding a bit by reducing the number of homes that could be built, they say.

“We’re getting so many homes coming in, just jammed in,” Councilman Bobby Keisler of Red Bank said. “Doing this could provide a little relief with those problems.”

This story was originally published December 12, 2017 at 6:30 AM with the headline "Why Lexington County is looking to save trees as home construction blossoms."