Hardeeville prepares for building boom

 

BY MICHAEL R. SHEA, The Beaufort Gazette

HARDEEVILLE -- With the June annexation of the Argent West and East tracts, Hardeeville officials moved closer to their master plan -- a 52-square-mile mega-city made up of individual, self-sustaining communities.

The Argent tracts, formerly International Paper land holdings, were the first two of the so-called Big Six developments bordering Hardeeville that city officials want to see annexed.

The others include:

• The 2,100-acre Morgan tract, capable of holding 6,700 homes and expected to be annexed this spring.

• The 2,950-acre Anderson tract, capable of holding 5,000 homes and expected to be annexed before 2007.

• The 1,859-acre Karrh tract, capable of holding 2,300 homes and expected to be annexed before 2007.

• The 6,000-acre Hardeeville tract, capable of holding

9,700 homes and ripe for light industrial use, expected to be annexed this month.

"We don't want one big city," said Hardeeville Mayor Rodney Cannon, who has served in the city government for 18 years. "We want a community."

City planners foresee large developments like the ones on Buckwalter Parkway in Bluffton, each all-inclusive with ample commercial space for dry cleaners, grocery stores, gas stations, banks and strip malls.

"If these residents want to go to Beaufort, Hilton Head, Savannah or Bluffton, they'll have a reason for the trip," said Kevin Griffin, Hardeeville's building director. "It won't be for the day-to-day things."

REGIONAL COOPERATION

To keep the growth financially self-contained, Hardeeville has worked with Jasper County, Clemson University and several consultants under the auspices of a countywide Joint Planning Effort, analogous to the Southern Beaufort County Regional Plan.

For the time being, the county and Hardeeville are collecting "voluntary developer fees" in place of the impact fees charged in Beaufort County. Impact fees fall under state regulation, cannot be used for schools and can be spent within a wider region.

Working with Core Communities, which presented a master plan for Tradition, S.C. -- a 9,500-home community on the Argent West tract -- in November, Hardeeville and Jasper County officials hammered out a template for all future growth.

To build in Hardeeville, the developer is saddled with:

• $320 per home for new fire facilities.

• $320 per home for new police facilities.

• $636 per home for parks.

• $500 per home for new schools.

• $100 per home for public

libraries.

• $1,980 per home for "off-site" roads, like U.S. 278.

• $2,310 per home for "on-site" roads.

The library money will be turned over to a regional system; Hardeeville police and fire services will build new stations with their piece of the pie, and the Jasper County School District will receive the money for schools within or near the new developments.

City officials are particularly excited about the Hardeeville tract. With a central high, sandy ridge and just 12 percent wetlands, it's ripe for light industrial development.

Hardeeville officials say they want to apply successful regional planning to economic development.

"We're all together, worrying less about one community getting one over on the other," said Hardeeville administrator Shane Haynes. "Let's get business to this region rather than one jurisdiction. We're in competition with other regions, whether it's Charlotte, Houston, Dallas or Raleigh."

THE PLANNING GAME

"Del Webb started out with 5,000 homes (at Sun City Hilton Head). We went to the next level in Bluffton, but now we're talking a whole new dimension of development," said Dean Moss, general manager of the Beaufort-Jasper Water and Sewer Authority, his finger tapping East Argent on a map of Hardeeville.

Moss said the utility has been in "intense development mode" for 12 years, but no one has seen anything like what's expected in Hardeeville.

Over the next 20 years, the utility plans to spend $116 million on water system improvements and $90 million on a wastewater system.

A Purrysburg satellite plant in Hardeeville capable of handling 10 million gallons of water a day went online in 2004, and it has room to expand to serve up to

45 million gallons a day.

Eventually, it will handle all the drinking water needs of southern Beaufort and Jasper counties.

Cherry Point and Hardeeville waste treatment plants will be able to handle sewage needs, but what to do with the effluent -- the treated wastewater -- is a looming question. Much of it is pumped into The Great Swamp near Argent West, and in the summer months it waters golf courses across the region. But in wet winters, that demand is low.

There's a strong incentive for large tract builders in the Hardeeville area, too.

Hardeeville sold its city water works to the water authority in 2003, and part of the deal was that new users in the city maintain 2003 hook-up rates for 10 years.

The savings aren't insignificant. Since 2003, the water fee has climbed by 30 cents a gallon and the sewage fee by $2 a gallon.

Both Palmetto Electric Cooperative and South Carolina Electric & Gas have coverage rights over portions of the Argent West tract and the greater Hardeeville area. Both companies are working with Core Communities to determine how many lots will receive service in Tradition, S.C.

Palmetto Electric officials are planning $1 million in expansions to cover their expected growth.

"There are plans to add a substation to the Argent West property," said Jimmy Baker, the cooperative's vice president of marketing. "It's obviously at significant cost, but there is obvious revenue there as well."

Contact Michael R. Shea at 298-1057 or mshea@beaufortgazette.com. To comment on this story, please go to beaufortgazette.com.