In trying to make it easier for James Island to re-incorporate, state lawmakers also are in the process of making it possible to create dozens of small towns in the shadows of existing municipalities. Howard Duvall, executive director of the S.C. Municipal Association, contends that the proposed incorporation changes will result in bad public policy. He makes a persuasive argument.
Unfortunately, that argument has gotten few ears in the Legislature. We'd wager that's because the bill is viewed as a local Charleston matter. Further, James Island incorporators have powerful legislative friends, including the bill's prime author, Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell, who represents much of the island.
Indeed, the bill sailed through the Senate and now has cleared a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee. The Municipal Association hasn't even been able to get support for a number of reasonable amendments that would ease some of its concerns about the creation of towns that provide very few services.
As the incorporation law now stands, only areas with a population of 15,000 or more are allowed to incorporate within five miles of an existing city. One major proposed change would lower that minimum size to 7,000. An analyst for the city of Charleston, which succesfullyfought the last two incorporation attempts by James Island, says the change could allow as many as 140 new cities to spring up around existing municipalities. Sen. McConnell contends that isn't going to happen, but acknowledges it is his aim to make it easier for small towns to be created. Currently, there are more than 260 municipal governments in the state.
James Island's most recent incorporation effort resulted in a city of some 22,000 residents. That effort, like the first, was struck down by the S.C. Supreme Court. Previous legislative efforts to assist James Island incorporators have run into legal trouble because of the ban on "local legislation." State laws crafted to affect only one local government are prohibited when the issue is statewide in nature.
City of Charleston officials contend that the new effort continues to fall short legally, specifically on the requirement that an incorporated area be contiguous. The bill proposes that incorporators be allowed to claim public lands already within another municipality, such as marshes or parks, in order to establish contiguity. Charleston officials counter that fails the rationality test the high court established in a previous lawsuit. Sen. McConnell responds that the new bill was "crafted very carefully."
"It will," he predicted, "overcome every legal hurdle."
This legislation shouldn't be viewed, however, simply as a resumption of a fight between the city of Charleston and James Island. It represents a major change in incorporation law in this state, and Mr. Duvall worries that it would allow underserved areas near urban centers "to be permanently stunted in growth. Allowing small cities to form that don't really want to perform municipal services could sap the strength of the urban area," he said. While the McConnell bill would require some services be provided, Mr. Duvall says the requirement is too minimal.
"Studies show," he said, "that the economy of a whole region is driven by strong cities like Charleston and anything we do to take away that vitality threatens economic development not only in that region but the whole state."
According to our report, three bills that would allow cities to address such serious problems as the service of small, unincorporated urban "doughnut holes" are being held up in the Senate. There's something amiss when the Legislature seems willing to let breeze through dramatic changes in the law on incorporation but keeps bottled up legislation that would untie the cities' hands on annexation. It's called politics.
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