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The county charges $6,000 per home and $2.50 per square foot of commercial space. When completed, Greenheath will include 311 homes and 250,000 square feet of commercial space on nearly 100 acres adjacent to Coosa Elementary School.
David Tedder, an attorney for Greenheath developer Fred Trask, has argued the first 196 homes should be charged school-impact fees that were in place when the project was first approved in 1997.
But several council members -- among them Council Chairman Weston Newton -- have said Tedder's request gives Greenheath an unfair discount. In a 3-4 vote Oct. 26, they denied approval on second reading of the development agreement.
Newton asked the council to reconsider that vote Monday and amend the agreement to include current school-development fees. He then called to table a final vote on Greenheath until county, municipal and Beaufort
County School District officials revisit the policy.
All motions were unanimously approved. There were no comments at a public hearing -- the second of three to be held on the Greenheath agreement. The last hearing will take place before the final council vote.
"An exception to a policy is generally not good because the exception then eats the rule," Newton said. "A few council members wanted to review (the policy), so now they have the opportunity to do it."
Tedder told the council he was pleased to have the chance to talk about the fees, which have been largely panned by developers who question how they were calculated and how they should be applied.
Also at Monday's Beaufort County Council meeting, Dean Moss, general manager of the Beaufort Jasper Water and Sewer Authority, announced the authority finalized its $3 million purchase of the Port Royal Railroad right of way from the S.C. State Ports Authority.
The authority spent an additional $300,000 in transaction fees, lawyers, surveys and other items related to the purchase, which includes 400 acres along a 25-mile stretch from Ribaut Road in Port Royal to the CSX main-line tracks in Yemassee. Most of the right of way is 100 feet wide, but some portions are as wide as 200 feet.
Between $5 million and $7 million in water and sewer pipelines lay below the land, Moss said. The purchase enables the authority to protect its underground lines.
The steel railroad tracks might be removed and sold to help the authority recoup some of its capital costs, or the tracks might remain, Moss said.
"If it's the determination of the community that the rails should stay intact, it's our position that someone will pay for those rails," he said.
