Conservation Can Increase Home Values, Developers Say

By Sammy Fretwell, The State, Columbia, S.C.

Dec. 11–Protecting wetlands is a challenge for developers, but saving the soggy depressions can pay big dividends when real estate agents market home sites.

New home buyers want houses near forested wetlands or wooded buffers along creeks, a development company representative said at a conference Tuesday in Columbia.

Jim Lewis, environmental operations manager with the Mungo Co., said he was learned about the trend during a recent meeting with company sales people.

“People like privacy in their back yard,” Lewis said. “Some of the first lots to go are where they have got a wetland buffer in their backyard — and they have got a stream along the side with a buffer to protect one side of their house.

“Those are the premium lots” and the ones that often carry the highest prices, he said.

Lewis said while a home buyer’s motivation may be toward privacy, wetlands and streams are still protected. He made his comments to about 100 people attending the S.C. Soil and Water Conservation Society’s conference on balancing growth with environmental protection.

The federal and state governments try to protect wetlands because the swampy depressions filter polluted stormwater before it reaches rivers, control flooding and provide habitat for birds and other wildlife. About 20 percent of South Carolina is composed of wetlands, one of the high-est percentages in the Southeast. To develop in wetlands, people need federal permits to fill the land.

But many environmental consultants say protecting wetlands and other natural areas is a better way to build than by clearing cutting forests and filling swamps.

Private consultant Sue Sommer Green said developers should try to tailor their projects to the land they want to build on, rather than forcing ecologically unfriendly developments.

“Conform the design to the land,” said Green, who works with developers to build projects that have less impact on the environment.

Ways to build more eco-friendly projects include establishing “rain gardens,” low spots in the landscape that catch stormwater and slowly allow it to dissipate. These gardens can be planted with a variety of shrubs and flowers to beautify the property, she said. They are a more scenic alternative to open stormwater ponds near many projects, she said.

Green also said developers should save as many trees as possible, rather than clear-cutting whole forests. Green’s Community Open Land Trust holds conservation easements, or land protection agreements, for more than 250 acres of small parcels near development sites in the Midlands.

Despite the push, developer Stewart Mungo said it’s not always easy to interpret government rules that govern construction projects. In some cases, government rules conflict. The fire de-partment, for instance, may want wide roads and new homes spaced far apart. But the planning department may want to cluster development more intensely, he said.

Tuesday’s conference, moderated by Columbia conservationist Yancey McLeod, is part of a push for more eco-friendly development by the S.C. Soil and Water Conservation Society. The society is a national non-profit group of scientists, government regulators, planners and farmers.

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