DORCHESTER COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - Dorchester County, along with investment partners, has purchased 1,600-plus acres of land near Ridgeville that will become part of the State Forest property and be open for public use.
Dorchester County committed $4.125 million in Greenbelt funds towards the purchase, the program's largest acquisition and spending of Greenbelt money to date.
South Carolina Forestry Commission committed $4.5 million and the South Carolina Conservation Bank made up the rest of the cost with $3.1 million.
The more than $11.3 million property will be transferred to the State Forestry Commission to manage.
As with all lands held by the Forestry Commission, 25% of any revenue earned through responsible timber and pine straw sales or lease income will be paid to the Dorchester County School District.
Dorchester County leaders say this purchase means the land, possibly purchasable for development, will forever be preserved as green public space.
"Starting with this good basis of 1600 plus acres gave us that foothold, if you will, to conserve this property that was ripe for development at some point in time. The way that it works through the state Forestry Commission, and that was really important to us as well, they are accessible to the public for hiking and potentially hunting, all of those things that they set up," Dorchester County Supervisor Dave Chinnis says. One of the things we initially spoke about was the potential of putting a South Carolina DNR shooting range, a public shooting range, on that property that we could use for the public as well as potentially for law enforcement to do training. And that's an opportunity. Ultimately, there are multiple benefits to the public from this land of it being public. Another is that 25% of any revenue it generates, gross revenue that it generates going to the local school district."