About Land & Communities

If we don’t change the way we grow, we will simply spread out into the last remaining things we love about the coast. Fortunately, we are changing and have made incredible strides toward channeling growth and protecting important areas.

In the past four decades, growth on the South Carolina coast has been synonymous with sprawl. The population of the Charleston metropolitan region grew a modest 40% over the last two decades, but used up a whopping 250% more land area than it had in the previous decades. We are growing less efficiently, using vastly more land for residential and commercial development. Throughout the state, uncontrolled, irresponsible development is destroying rural communities, encroaching on historic sites, and displacing traditional farming and forestry operations. Further, it is polluting the water, pouring billions of gallons of runoff each year into fragile creeks and rivers.

There are great alternatives to unbridled growth. We can accommodate population growth without destroying the Lowcountry’s essential character. Instead of spreading haphazardly across the countryside, new development can be located near or even in existing urban areas. It can follow more traditional patterns, with houses, shops, offices, and civic buildings mixed in ways that reduce automobile use, land consumption, and water pollution.

Drawing the line on unbridled growth is central to the Coastal Conservation League’s mission. We help citizens and public officials look at their communities and landscapes in a new way. From restructuring zoning codes to rerouting highways, we provide technical, professional and other assistance to residents of the region to help them preserve the South Carolina coast.