BOWMAN, S.C. — Residents in the town of Bowman banded together to stop the rezoning request of a property on Arrowhead Road.
McGill Environmental Systems submitted a request to the Orangeburg County planning and zoning on behalf of Charleston Regional Resource Recovery Authority.
The request would mean the land would be rezoned from forest and agriculture to business industrial to make way for a commercial scale indoor composting facility.
Mayor Patsy Rhett says this is not what the people in the town wanted.
“I knew that there was going to be a possible problem it was something that the town did not want and something I did not want because we’re trying to grow,” said Mayor Rhett. “And that would have truly hindered any progress that we could have possibly be making.”
Mayor Rhett says there were many disadvantages in having the plant in Bowman.
“Now can you imagine getting off the exit to come to a town and all you smell is stench? That’s a turn off,” said Mayor Rhett. “It’s a turn off for the people in the community because the scent would have been at their homes. It was just a pure turn off it was negative the whole situation was just plain negative it did not profit us anything.”
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Melissa Weathers lives in Bowman she was one of the many residents that spoke out. She says the whole community rallied together.
“Bowman is a small community but that doesn’t mean that we cannot be powerful,” said Weathers. “I am so proud of the whole community has come together in unison to fight something like this. We did it in every way possible sent emails, letters, called.”
Preston McClun is the planning director for Orangeburg County he says there is a process when it comes to rezoning.
“When we are looking at a rezoning request we are basically just trying to make sure that if the property is rezoned that anything in that area would not be negatively impacted by that rezoning so we look at our comprehensive plan because if someone rezones the property its not always necessarily for that use,” said McClun. “Anything allowed in that zoning designation that it’s changed to would be allowed on that piece of property.”
McClun says for many reasons, McGill Environmental System decided to rescind their request.
“They decided that based off of staff recommendations, the comprehensive plan and the future land use map that that area was not going to be adequate for industrial zoning,” said McClun. “So they decided to withdraw their application and move on.”
The official hearing was scheduled for Wednesday.