Status: The Form Based Code has officially passed and was adopted by the Town of Ridgeland on March 18, 2010!
What is the issue?
The Town of Ridgeland in Jasper County is on the cutting edge of growth planning in the region. Ridgeland is now one of the first municipalities to adopt a SmartCode as their sole governing code, and for their entire town — the first in South Carolina and one of only 3 cities in the entire country. The population in Jasper County is expected to quadruple within the next 10 years. Thanks to the Town’s foresight, and the League’s assistance, Ridgeland will grow in the same sustainable traditional town pattern upon which it was originally founded – an exception to the destructive pattern of sprawl that has dominated our landscape in the last 50 years.
How would it affect South Carolina?
Communities throughout the country are recognizing the long term problems associated with sprawl and many are looking to form based code to fix what is broken. Ridgeland has been spared the blight of sprawl as the growth explosion has so far passed them by. Unlike so much of the Lowcountry that experienced unparalleled growth in the last 20 years, Ridgeland will be prepared for the changes and will thus maintain it’s unique identity. The town will serve as a much needed regional example.
What can you do about it?
The codes that define our growth patterns need to be changed throughout the Lowcountry. SmartCode encourages a sustainable way to accommodate growth and preserve our unique communities. The League is working with the municipalities throughout Beaufort and Jasper Counties, as well as the Counties themselves to encourage a transition to SmartCode. Ridgeland should provide encouragement to government bodies throughout our area.
- Walkable, functional communities with a unique identity and a real sense of place.
- Compact neighborhoods that consume less land and therefore leave more of the undeveloped open space that is critical to maintaining water quality and overall ecological health.
- Easy to understand proscriptive rather than prohibitive guidelines for developers and planners.
- A code that encourages infill and discourages annexation.
- The conventional codes that currently dominate our region encourage sprawl that consumes land at a rate of 8 acres per new resident.
- Sprawl brings with it new roads, road widening, traffic congestion and auto-dependent lifestyles that impede public health and contribute to diminishing water quality.
- Conventional codes have produced neighborhoods that look like any neighborhood anywhere. Our unique Lowcountry identity disappears beneath a cloak of roads and homes that could be Atlanta or Oklahoma.
