Growth at the Speed of Service

“Smart growth means building community capacity before we build more rooftops.”

The Problem in Plain English

Beaufort County is one of the fastest-growing regions in the United States, and the pressure is only intensifying. Our neighbor to the south, Jasper County, is currently ranked the 3rd fastest-growing county in the nation. Hardeeville, just across the county line, is the fastest-growing city in South Carolina, with 15,000 housing units already in its development pipeline. That growth does not stop at a line on a map. Every new rooftop in Hardeeville adds trips to our roads, students to our schools, and calls to our emergency services. And along the Okatie corridor, the heart of District 5, SC 170 already carries more than 40,000 vehicles per day in its busiest segments. By 2050, regional traffic models project that number could reach 91,000 daily vehicles.

141%

Pritchardville Elementary capacity - with 18 mobile units in its parking lot

91,000

Projected daily vehicles on SC 170 by 2050 (Lowcountry COG)

10,000+

Workforce housing units needed in the region within 5–6 years (Beaufort-Jasper Housing Trust)

Behind those traffic numbers are people, families who moved here for the same Lowcountry quality of life that longtime residents treasure. But our public infrastructure has not kept up. Pritchardville Elementary School is operating at 141% capacity, with 18 mobile classroom units filling its parking lot. Okatie Elementary is at 100% of capacity. The Beaufort County Sheriff's Office estimates the county already handles 4.5 million vehicle trips daily, and has identified the SC 170 / Callawassee Drive intersection as the single most dangerous in the county. Meanwhile, 59% of renters in Beaufort and Jasper counties are cost-burdened or severely cost-burdened, and the Beaufort-Jasper Housing Trust estimates the region needs more than 10,000 additional workforce housing units in the next five to six years.

The core problem is not growth itself. It is the sequence of growth. Under current county practice, building permits can be, and are, approved even when the roads, schools, water systems, and emergency services that must serve those new residents are already over capacity. We are approving tomorrow's development with yesterday's infrastructure. Every new subdivision that opens before the road is widened, before the school seats exist, before the water pressure is adequate, is a community debt we are handing to our neighbors and our children. That is not smart growth. It is deferred failure.

“We are approving tomorrow’s development with yesterday’s infrastructure. That is not smart growth, it is deferred failure.”

What Is Infrastructure Concurrency?

Concurrency is a straightforward planning principle: new development may only be approved when the public infrastructure and services needed to support it are either already in place, or will be in place by the time the first resident moves in. It answers one simple question before the county says yes to any new project: Can our roads, schools, water systems, and emergency services actually handle this? The answer has to be yes, or the permit waits until the capacity is there.

This is not a new idea. Florida adopted statewide concurrency requirements in 1985 after unchecked growth had overwhelmed its public services. Maryland followed with its own growth management legislation. Today, in South Carolina, State Senator Tom Davis, who represents our region, is sponsoring legislation that would give local governments the statutory authority to apply concurrency standards. But Beaufort County does not need to wait for Columbia. The county already has the tools: its Comprehensive Plan, its zoning ordinances, and its Development Agreement authority. Structured properly, those tools can require concurrency review today, without waiting for new state law.

Key Terms — Defined Simply

Level of Service (LOS): A measurable standard for how well a road, school, or public safety resource is performing. Think of it like a grade. A road at LOS A flows freely; LOS D is near failure. A school operating at 141% capacity is in system failure. LOS thresholds give us an objective, publicly documented benchmark, not a political judgment call.

Concurrency: The legal and policy requirement that adequate Level of Service be maintained before a building permit is issued, not after roads are gridlocked and school trailers are multiplying.

Development Agreement (DA): A binding contract between a developer and the county. DAs can, and should, include infrastructure delivery milestones as a condition of phased development approval. No capacity delivered, no next phase permitted.

Concurrency Review Certificate: A formal finding, issued by county staff, confirming that applicable LOS standards are met before a rezoning or major development permit proceeds to approval.

Five Actions County Council Can Take Right Now

Beaufort County does not need new state law to begin protecting its communities. The following five actions are within County Council's existing authority.

Action Item 1:

Adopt Measurable Level-of-Service Baselines

Direct county staff to establish publicly documented LOS thresholds for: (a) road segments, (b) school capacity, (c) water and sewer systems, and (d) emergency response times. These become the objective, non-political benchmarks against which every significant rezoning or development application is evaluated, replacing ad hoc judgment with a consistent, transparent standard. Florida's Growth Management Act provides the most tested model for this approach.

Action Item 2:

Require a Concurrency Review Certificate in the Rezoning Process

Amend the county's zoning and development review procedures to require a Concurrency Review Certificate as a condition of approval for any rezoning or large-scale development permit. If applicable LOS standards are not met, the application is deferred until capacity is demonstrated, either through developer-funded infrastructure commitments, or through publicly funded capital improvements with a funded, scheduled construction timeline. No certificate, no approval.

Action Item 3

Strengthen Development Agreements with Infrastructure Triggers

Current county practice allows Development Agreements, but they are underused as concurrency tools. Council should adopt a policy directing that all DAs above a defined threshold (100+ residential units or 50,000+ sq ft of commercial space) include binding infrastructure delivery milestones, roads widened, school sites dedicated, water and sewer capacity confirmed, tied to phased development approvals. No milestone delivered, no next phase permitted. This converts good intentions into enforceable obligations.

Action Item 4

Align the 2026 Transportation Sales Tax Referendum with a Concurrency Framework

The Transportation Advisory Committee is currently building a project priority list for a November 2026 referendum. County Council should formally direct the TAC to integrate concurrency principles: projects that unlock capacity in over-burdened corridors, SC 170, Sea Island Parkway, Lady's Island corridor, and the Callawassee Drive intersection, should be prioritized. This ensures voters know their tax dollars are going toward capacity relief, not merely convenience improvements.

Action Item 5

Support Senator Tom Davis's Concurrency Legislation at the State Level

Pass a county resolution formally supporting the pending state concurrency legislation and submit concrete local examples of infrastructure deficiency to the state delegation, as Senator Davis has specifically requested from local governments. This positions Beaufort County as a leader in the statewide conversation, not a bystander. Our data, 141% school capacity, 40,000+ daily vehicles, the Callawassee Drive intersection, is exactly the evidence that moves legislation forward.

What This Is Not - Setting the Record Straight

Infrastructure concurrency is frequently mischaracterized. Let's be direct about what this policy does and does not do.

• It is NOT a moratorium. Developers who deliver infrastructure capacity, or who fund it as a condition of approval, get their permits. Concurrency does not stop development. It sequences it responsibly.

  
  

• It is NOT anti-growth. It is pro-community. Growth that arrives with adequate roads, school seats, water pressure, and emergency response times is good growth. Growth that overwhelms existing residents is not growth, it is cost-shifting.

  
  

• It does NOT hurt workforce housing. Infill development, affordable housing, and small-scale projects can be structured with concurrency exemptions or fast-track incentives, as Senator Davis has proposed in his legislation. Done right, concurrency can actually accelerate workforce housing by steering developers toward already-served infill sites.

  
  

• It IS what District 5 voters have been asking for. Every major rezoning denial in this district over the past five years, including the 49-acre and 121-acre Okatie Highway proposals, was denied on infrastructure grounds. The community has spoken, repeatedly. County Council needs a policy framework to back that consensus up.

Concurrency does not choose who gets to build. It determines when, and whether infrastructure can support it.

The District 5 Case - Why This Matters Here

District 5 sits at the epicenter of the Okatie growth corridor, one of the fastest-developing stretches of land in the entire Southeast. In the past five years alone, Beaufort County's Planning Commission and County Council denied four significant rezoning applications on or near the Okatie Highway corridor: a 17.92-acre application (2021), a 71.54-acre application (2023), a 49.16-acre application (2024), and a 121.43-acre application (2025). In every single case, the deciding rationale was the same: the roads, schools, water systems, and public safety resources could not support the proposed development. Those were the right decisions. But each one was fought case-by-case, meeting-by-meeting, by exhausted residents who showed up and made their voices heard, without any consistent policy framework behind them.

Year	Application Size	Location	Outcome & Primary Rationale
2021	17.92 acres	Okatie Highway corridor	Denied - road and infrastructure capacity concerns
2023	71.54 acres	Okatie Highway corridor	Denied - school capacity, traffic, public safety
2024	49.16 acres	Okatie Highway corridor	Denied - infrastructure not adequate to support
2025	121.43 acres	Okatie Highway corridor	Denied - roads, schools, water; same pattern

A concurrency framework converts those ad hoc, contested denials into a clear, consistent, legally defensible policy, one that treats every applicant equally, gives residents predictability, and removes the political pressure from individual votes. The community should not have to organize and fight the same battle over and over again. A policy framework means the rules are set in advance, transparently, publicly, and fairly.

Cherry Point Preserve, 100 acres of county-owned conservation land on SC 170, stands as living proof that this corridor's future does not have to be one of endless sprawl. That land was protected because a community organized, showed up, and made the case. But protecting the Okatie corridor's long-term character requires more than saving individual parcels one at a time. It requires a county that plans infrastructure first, and holds that standard consistently.

A Word on Workforce Housing

Concurrency should not become a barrier to housing affordability, and a well-designed ordinance will not. Any concurrency framework adopted by Beaufort County should include a clear policy carve-out: projects that are deed-restricted to serve households at or below 100% of Area Median Income, infill projects on parcels already served by adequate infrastructure, or projects that include a meaningful affordable unit set-aside are eligible for priority fast-track review and may qualify for reduced or waived concurrency requirements. The Beaufort-Jasper Housing Trust has documented a regional need for more than 10,000 workforce housing units, that is a crisis that demands a thoughtful response, not a wall. Concurrency's goal is to direct where growth happens, toward areas that already have capacity, not to prevent it entirely. Done right, a concurrency framework can actually accelerate workforce housing delivery by steering developers toward infill sites where roads, schools, and utilities already exist and where building is faster and cheaper.

Workforce Housing Fast-Track Principles

Eligible for fast-track or waived concurrency review:

• Projects deed-restricted to households at or below 100% Area Median Income (AMI)• Infill development on parcels already served by adequate roads, water, sewer, and schools

• Mixed-income projects delivering 20%+ of units as affordable

• Projects sited in corridors where a funded capital improvement already addresses LOS deficiency

Result: Concurrency steers growth toward the right places, it does not slam the door on the people who need housing most.

Recommended Next Steps - A 12-Month Action Timeline

Timeframe	Phase	Key Actions & Milestones
Months 1–2 Summer 2026	Foundation	County Council directs staff to draft LOS baselines for roads, schools, water/sewer, and emergency response. Staff reviews current Development Agreement policies and gaps. Council formally supports Sen. Davis's legislation by resolution.
Months 3–4 Fall 2026	Referendum & Alignment	Transportation Sales Tax Referendum held (November 2026). Voters fund capacity-building infrastructure projects. TAC project list reflects concurrency priorities, SC 170, Callawassee Drive intersection, Lady's Island corridor.
Months 5–6 Winter 2026–2027	Policy Adoption	Council adopts Concurrency Review procedure as part of zoning code update. Development Agreement policy strengthened, binding infrastructure milestones required for projects above defined threshold. Workforce housing fast-track exemptions codified.
Months 7–9 Spring 2027	Implementation	First Concurrency Review Certificates issued for pending applications under new procedure. Public dashboard launched, showing real-time LOS status by road corridor and school attendance zone. Community briefings held in each district.
Months 10–12 Summer 2027	Review & Recognition	Annual LOS Report published. State concurrency legislation status reviewed; Beaufort County submits formal data and findings to state delegation. County formally recognized as a model for SC local government infrastructure concurrency.

About the Candidate

Joshua Hower is a candidate for Beaufort County Council, District 5. He lives in the Okatie area and will soon be relocating to Oldfield. He is an Army veteran who served in Operation Enduring Freedom with the Delaware National Guard, the former Board President of Malind Bluff's HOA, a digital product owner in the wholesale brokerage industry, and a longtime Okatie corridor resident who has followed and advocated around Cherry Point Preserve and the Okatie Highway growth corridor for years. He is running for District 5 council to bring the same organized, evidence-based approach he has applied to community advocacy to Beaufort County's most pressing growth management challenges.

Sources & References

1. Beaufort County Sheriff's Office - Emergency management and traffic testimony before Beaufort County Planning Commission and County Council (April 2026). Includes SC 170 / Callawassee Drive intersection designation and 4.5 million daily vehicle trip estimate.

2. Beaufort County School District - School capacity utilization data, Pritchardville Elementary School (141% capacity, 18 mobile units) and Okatie Elementary School (100% capacity). Data as of October 2025.

3. Beaufort-Jasper Housing Trust - Regional workforce housing needs assessment; estimate of 10,000+ units required within 5–6 years; cost-burden data for renters in Beaufort and Jasper counties (2026).

4. Lowcountry Council of Governments (Lowcountry COG) - SC 170 Corridor Study, traffic volume and projection data (40,000+ current daily vehicles; 91,000 projected by 2050). Study period 2025–2026.

5. Senator Tom Davis (SC Senate, District 46) - Concurrency legislation description; requests for local government data submissions. Senator Davis represents Beaufort and Jasper counties in the South Carolina General Assembly.

6. Beaufort County Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) - Committee appointment, proceedings, and project priority list development for the 2026 Transportation Sales Tax Referendum. Meeting records January–April 2026. Source: Beaufort County Government official announcements, beaufortcountypenny.com.

7. Beaufort County Planning Commission and County Council Minutes - Rezoning application records for: 17.92-acre application (2021), 71.54-acre application (2023), 49.16-acre application (2024), and 121.43-acre application (2025), all located in or adjacent to the Okatie Highway corridor, District 5. Meeting minutes on file with Beaufort County Clerk to Council.

8. Beaufort County Capital Improvement Plan, Fiscal Year 2025 - Infrastructure project inventory and funding. Published August 2024, Beaufort County Government.

9. Florida Growth Management Act (1985) - Statewide concurrency framework; foundational model for local-government Level-of-Service standards.

10. U.S. Census Bureau / National rankings - Jasper County, SC ranked 3rd fastest-growing county nationally; Hardeeville, SC ranked fastest-growing city in South Carolina; 15,000-unit housing pipeline data.