Forest Legacy Project

Background

Burroughs & Chapin, one of the largest development companies in South Carolina, formed a joint venture to build a $4 billion "city-within-a-city" on the banks of the Congaree River. The "Green Diamond" development envisions at least 5,000 homes, retiree living and a technology park modeled on North Carolina's Research Triangle.

To fulfill its plans, the developer has aggressively sought to have the Congaree's regulatory "flood way" removed from its lands on official flood maps, a change that would clear the way for a a multi-mile system of new levees. The Green Diamond plan hinges on building the levees and then putting people and structures behind them.

In 1999, FEMA relied on studies submitted by the developer to conclude that much of the area was not floodway. SELC assisted in the appeal of that decision, resulting in a September 2000 map revision which showed 70 percent of the Green Diamond land as being within the Congaree floodway. Columbia Venture, of which Myrtle Beach developer Burroughs & Chapin is a partner, appealed, claiming that currently existing agricultural levees would keep floodwaters off its land. The developer also pressured FEMA to postpone finalizing its evaluation until after the Bush Administration took office.

SELC helped expose the developer's pressure campaign, which was reported by the Washington Post. Then, on behalf of the South Carolina Wildlife Federation and others, SELC played a key role in the FEMA administrative process, outlining the errors in Columbia Venture's attempts to have FEMA revise the flood maps to accommodate new levees. FEMA made its final decision August 20, 2001, concluding that the existing levees would likely break and that much of the Green Diamond property is indeed within the regulatory floodway, or area that should be reserved for flood water flows so that flood elevations don't rise on such areas as the Riverland Park Neighborhood, located in Lexington County across the Congaree from where the new levees would be.

FEMA's decision confirms much of what SELC and our clients have contended in the administrative process, and was an important vindication for citizens who have dedicated time to this matter for almost two years. It was also a serious setback for the Green Diamond development.

Columbia Venture sued FEMA in 2001 in federal district court, seeking to have its levee-friendly 1999 map restored. SELC, represents the SC Wildlife Federation, the Riverland Park Neighborhood Association, and private citizens in the litigation, opposing Columbia Ventures efforts to vacate the 2001 determination.

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