Push for smaller buffers on Lexington County streams runs into resistance

Builders and environmentalists squared off Tuesday on allowing homes, stores and offices to rise closer to many streams and ponds in Lexington County.

Developers are pressing county officials to allow landscape to be cleared up to 50 feet instead of within 100 feet of waterways, saying smaller buffers are adequate to lessen erosion and pollution.

“We’re not suggesting buffers go away,” said Earl McLeod, executive director of the Building Industry Association of Central South Carolina. “We’re suggesting they not be overly burdensome.”

Environmental groups want the 100-foot buffers – adopted in 2008 – retained.

“Keep those protections strong,” Karen Kustafik of Palmetto Paddlers told County Council members.

Bigger buffers help make the steadily growing county “an appealing place,” said Dwight Davis of Batesburg-Leesville, chairman of the county soil conservation commission.

But some builders called the current requirement excessive. “It’s a little extreme,” developer David Tuttle said.

Smaller buffers make it harder to protect waterways since natural areas are an easy way to prevent problems, county public works officials say.

Builders estimate the 100-foot buffer plan removes 8,400 acres from possible development. That puts about 13 square miles – less than 2 percent of the 758-square-mile county – off-limits for homes, stores and offices.

The county plan mirrors what federal officials set separately along Lake Murray and the lower Saluda River.

Buffers serve as natural filters, lessening the flow of dirt, fertilizer and other material from lawns, forests and roads that contaminate streams and ponds.

Builders can seek exemptions from the county buffer requirement when terrain of a site makes it impractical. County officials are “very lenient” in allowing those, developer Nick Leventis of Lexington said.

A decision on changing the buffer standard is likely by Dec. 31, said Councilman Todd Cullum of Cayce, who is overseeing the review.