- BIG STORY: Preservation tool saves affordable housing, too
- ROUNDUP: Senate runoff challenge: Getting voters to polls
- LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: Depends on whom you ask
- BRACK: Return of a conservation leader will benefit state
- MYSTERY PHOTO: Brick building
- FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
Preservation tool saves affordable housing, too
By Jack O’Toole, Statehouse bureau | It all started with a phone call from a constituent.
“There was a lady who lived on Nassau Street,” said former S.C. Rep. Jimmy Bailey of Charleston, referring to a street in the city’s historically Black Eastside neighborhood. “And the city had a great program at the time — affordable, low-income, second mortgages for home renovations. And she got it.”
Thanks to the program, he said, she was able to save her family home — and a little piece of Charleston history in the process.
“But then she called me several months later, crying,” continued Bailey, his soft Charleston accent turning hard. “Her tax bill had doubled.”
And thus was born what eventually came to be known as the Bailey Bill. Since 1992, it has given local governments the authority to freeze property taxes on historic homes for up to 20 years after major renovations. Bailey, who lives in West Ashley, represented Charleston in the state legislature from 1989 to 1994.
In the years since the bill passed, at least 19 local governments across the state have adopted the measure to preserve historic homes and buildings, according to data from the Municipal Association of South Carolina (MASC).
And in just one of those cities alone — Columbia — a 2023 independent study found the bill had preserved 210 historic properties while generating $216 million in private investment.
“For every $1 of [city] investment required through the Bailey Bill, an additional $15 was spent in qualifying rehabilitation projects,” the authors reported.
Still, in a state where housing prices have exploded in the last decade, Bailey today wonders if the other major provision of the bill — “the affordable housing piece” as he called it — got lost over the years.
That’s because the Bailey Bill doesn’t just allow local governments to freeze taxes when historic homes are saved. They can use it for affordable apartment buildings, too, he said.
“If you didn’t know what you were looking for, you might miss it,” he said. “You wouldn’t realize that it also applies to low- and moderate-income housing — but it does.”
In fact, everyone seemingly did miss it for almost 25 years, until an out-of-state developer who wanted to upgrade an Upstate senior living apartment building without turning it into expensive market-rate housing dug into the law.
More on that later.
How it works
Key to the Bailey Bill’s appeal, MASC’s Jenny Boulware told the City Paper, is its simplicity and flexibility.
Under the law, cities and counties are empowered to freeze assessed property values on historic and affordable homes for up to 20 years, but most of the details are left to local officials.
If they want to designate specific Bailey Bill zones where owners can use the tax break, they can. If they want to apply it to properties with local historic values that aren’t on the federal register, that’s up to them. And if they want to shorten the period to, say, 10 years, or lock in long-term affordability requirements, they can do that, too.
“The Bailey Bill is an incredibly powerful tool for sites that might be more challenging financially,” Boulware said. “And you can see great examples of that all across the state.”
One of those examples is near the Georgia border in Beaufort, where former Mayor Billy Keyserling says the Bailey Bill was recently used to save the city’s last freedman’s cottage.
Built by an abolitionist who moved South after the Civil War, the cottage was run-down and bare bones — no bathroom, no electricity, no plumbing — but still in the hands of three elderly sisters whose ancestors bought it from the original builder.
Working with the federal government and a local nonprofit, Keyserling and the sisters were able to secure a grant to renovate the cottage. But there was still one problem.
“They would have gotten absolutely killed on the taxes,” Keyserling said.
And that’s where the flexibility of the Bailey Bill came in, allowing the city to effectively make an exception for a structure that would be open to the public — a condition of the grant — rather than used as a personal residence.
“So now, they still own the house,” Keyserling said. “And they’re able to put a little of the tax savings aside every month for maintenance.”
Affordable housing, too?
Nine years ago, Joe Eddy, president of JE Properties in Boston, was looking to purchase and renovate the Summit, downtown Greenville’s first skyscraper, which was built in 1911 as the Imperial Hotel.
What he wasn’t looking to do was throw out the 100-plus low-income senior citizens who were living in the building at the time.
“We knew Greenville was interested in preserving affordable housing,” Eddy told the Charleston City Paper. “So reading through the state laws, we came across this Bailey language, and we said, ‘Hey, this is something we should look at.’”
But he realized something else, too: “The issue was that no one had done it before, right?”
So Eddy and his team reached out to the city, explained the unexplored opportunity offered by the law, and worked with Greenville officials to draft an ordinance implementing the Bailey Bill locally.
“Affordable housing is one of our top priorities, if not our top priority,” Greenville council member Dorothy Dowe said. “And the developer needs to make these deals pencil out. So we were able to use the Bailey Bill to save this critical part of our affordable housing spectrum.”
Earlier this year, Eddy invested another $10 million to further upgrade the building, while the city extended his original 2018 tax break for another 20 years.
The upshot? More than 100 affordable senior housing units have been preserved through 2046.
Back in Charleston, the man who wrote the bill said he is pleased that so many cities are using it — and that the affordable housing portion was finally being rediscovered.
Still, he’s painfully aware of the irony that the only major city in the state that didn’t implement the Bailey Bill was Charleston — the one he wrote it for — mostly due to concerns over lost property taxes in already gentrifying neighborhoods.
“Had they done it, those neighborhoods I represented would still look a lot more like they did then,” Bailey said. “And that’s just a damned crying shame.”
But, he noted, there’s still time for Charleston to adopt the affordable housing side of the bill, particularly as Mayor William Cogswell looks for ways to pay for his plan to add 3,500 new, price-restricted units to the city’s housing stock by 2032.
“That ain’t gonna happen unless the private sector gets involved — and the private sector ain’t going to get involved unless it makes economic sense,” Bailey said. “The good news is the Bailey Bill can help with that.”
Jack O’Toole is Statehouse bureau chief for Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
Senate runoff challenge: Getting voters to polls
Staff reports | Tuesday’s special primary for the state Republican Party’s quest for a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat held by the late U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham is headed to a runoff in two weeks – as expected in the 10-way race.
Graham’s sister Darline, installed in July in her brother’s seat until the current term runs out in January, was the top primary vote-getter, nabbing 32.7% of the 335,017 votes cast statewide. Her opponent in an Aug. 25 runoff from the crowded Tuesday contest is U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, a York County Republican who placed third in the June Republican gubernatorial primary.
“I’ve been accused of not being a politician: guilty as charged,” Darline Graham said in a statement Tuesday night. “Thank you to every single South Carolina voter who has put their faith in me. Now as we look ahead to the next two weeks, I will work as hard as I can to earn the honor of representing our great state in the Senate and fighting for our conservative agenda.”
As early returns flowed in, it was unclear whether Norman or U.S. Rep. Russell Fry of Horry County would face Graham. But as the night wore on, Norman grew a second-place lead to almost 17,000 votes, or 24.64% of the total. Fry captured 19.63% of votes. He remains on the 7th Congressional District ballot as the Republican nominee in the November election.
Norman said he was humbled by the support he received Tuesday.
“When I entered this race, I asked South Carolinians to judge me – not by what I said, but by what I did; and they overwhelmingly supported our message,” he said in a statement. “Tonight, voters made it clear they want a proven conservative with a record of getting the job done on the ballot for the U.S. Senate, and as we advance to the runoff, that’s exactly what I’ll give them.”
Winthrop University political scientist Scott Huffmon late Tuesday said Norman’s third-place finish in June’s gubernatorial primary really paid off in the special Senate primary.
“He and Fry both have solid conservative bona fides, but the state learned about Ralph’s credentials in that [gubernatorial] race,” the pollster said. “It only garnered him 17.1% since he had to spend money to get known, but now that he is known to the conservative activists around the state, they began to coalesce behind him.
“If the people who were voting ‘against’ Graham for a candidate who didn’t make the runoff decide to register that dissatisfaction with the traditional party again – those votes [in the runoff] will go to Norman if – IF – those people show up to vote in the runoff.”
And that’s the challenge for Graham and Norman, he said – getting people to the polls.
“Motivating a very small, hard-to-target group when there is so much noise, it is hard to get the signal through to anyone, much less the ‘right’ people.”
The runoff victor will face Democratic nominee Annie Andrews and several third-party candidates in the November general election.
In the crowded Tuesday contest, former Gov. Mark Sanford of Mount Pleasant captured 14.93% of votes and Upstate businessman Mark Lynch got 5.93%. Five other candidates got less than 1% each. They included (in alphabetical order) Duke Buckner, Danny Ford II, Mark Lynch, Mark McBride, Glenda Gail Parker and Sam Shepherd. – Andy Brack
RELATED:
- Graham-aligned PAC pulls down AI-generated advertisement — again
- Buttigieg endorses Andrews as S.C.’s Senate race garners national attention
In other recent news
S.C. legislators pass $15B state budget without earmarks. Members of the General Assembly voted Tuesday to approve a $15 billion state budget more than a month after it was due.
S.C. students make gains in S.C. READY exam. South Carolina students are continuing to make gains in reading and math, according to the latest SC READY results released by the South Carolina Department of Education.
WEATHER: S.C. is in midst of dangerous heat wave. A dangerous August heat wave is bringing South Carolina the hottest temperatures of the year.
- Heat continues to blister South Carolina
- Remember to protect animals during heatwave
- Santee Cooper activates drought plan as lake levels fall
What to expect as Murdaugh heads to court for pretrial hearing. The presiding judge in Alex Murdaugh’s new trial will have plenty to consider as both the defense and prosecution square off in a flurry of recently filed motions.
State considers conserving land in several counties. It’s looking at buying a plantation in Richland County as well as land in Clarendon, Pickens and Greenville counties.
S.C. would see 9 a.m. sunrises under Trump-backed daylight saving time law. Permanent, year-round daylight savings time would make S.C. summers sunnier — but winter mornings would be dark long after most people are at work or school. – Jack O’Toole
Depends on whom you ask
Award-winning cartoonist Robert Ariail has a special knack for shining a light on critical issues in just the right way. This week, he commiserates with carriage horses that have to pull wagons full of obese tourists in Charleston in sweltering heat.
- Love this week’s cartoon or hate it? Did he go too far, or not far enough? Send your thoughts to feedback@statehousereport.com.
Brack: Return of a conservation leader will benefit state
Commentary by Andy Brack | Conservationists across the state got a jolt of energy this week with news that the S.C. Coastal Conservation League (SCCCL) will have one of its own soon in the organization’s leadership saddle.
Megan Desrosiers, who worked at the Charleston-based nonprofit for 10 years starting in 2003, will take its helm in January after 13 years as the founding president and CEO of One Hundred Miles, a remarkably similar organization that’s showing a lot of success in protecting coastal Georgia.
Her coming return is good news because it means the League has a leader who is a conservationist first – someone who has been in the trenches and will live, breathe and eat the crucial mission of protecting the state’s coastal gems. It means the League, once feared and admired for its tenacity in the halls of the Statehouse, will refocus its grassroots efforts on doing the nitty-gritty to hold people accountable who threaten wild, special and rural places.
“It’s hard to imagine a more opportune time to have Megan return to the Conservation League and South Carolina,” said SCCCL founder Dana Beach. “Our rivers and rural communities are threatened by growth pressures that are chipping away at some of our most iconic natural areas. Megan’s experience makes her uniquely suited to face these challenges.”
That’s putting it lightly. In the 10 years she fought here to protect the area’s environment, she helped to stop developments and conserve land in the Ashley River Historic Corridor, oppose unwise zoning, start the state’s first local food hub and set the SCCCL climate and energy agenda.
Desrosiers, who lives in Brunswick, Ga., said she’s excited to return to grow the movement where she learned so much.
“It’s more about protecting the coast,” she said this week in an interview. “It’s more about protecting the Southeastern environment, protecting the salt marsh, protecting our sea turtle habitat, protecting our bird habitat.”
The SCCCL opportunity couldn’t have come at a better time, she said, as she has been planning to wind down her work in Georgia by next May, which is when her youngest child graduates from high school. A planner, she’s been intentional about setting up One Hundred Miles for future success. In the past four years, she set the organization on a path with a five-year budget, five-year strategic plan and major fundraising effort that has raised $6 million.
“I kind of have a philosophy that you should always know how long to stay and when to go,” she said.
So it’s the right time for Desrosiers – and the League. She said she has five basic goals in the months ahead:
More funding. She said she expected the organization to advocate for measures to boost state and local funding for land conservation to “help guide growth to the appropriate places, protect wildlife habitat and allow communities to better manage stormwater and prepare for increased flooding from sea-level rise.”
More lobbying. She said she wanted to push for passage of strong state laws to regulate use of energy and water consumption by data centers “so that South Carolina counties do not sacrifice the health of their communities and natural resources to attract this harmful industry.”
More collaboration. Working more with other regional organizations would improve conservation and innovation, she said. That includes “litigation strategies, lobbying, local ordinances and other tools that protect the South Atlantic Bight and other biodiversity hotspots.”
Grassroots work. Another goal is to work with community groups and citizens along the coast to push for smart growth and prevent sprawl that harms wildlife and rural areas.
Broaden the movement. She also wants to push “building an educated constituency of advocates across the state who demonstrate knowledge, understanding and value for South Carolina’s coast.” People and communities must be involved in conservation decisions so leaders understand impacts and will vote for measures to protect habitat.
“As long as we can do that, I trust that democracy will work and the environment of coastal South Carolina will be protected,” she said.
Welcome home, Megan.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a question? Send to: feedback@charlestoncitypaper.com.
Brick building
Here’s a classic-looking brick building somewhere in the Palmetto State. Please send in your best guess – and your name and hometown – to feedback@statehousereport.com. And if you have a mystery photo to share, send that along too (but tell us what it is because we’re horrible guessers.)
Last week’s mystery, “Yellow house,” shows a 1920s house in Barnwell that serves as the Barnwell County Museum. Texas resident Allan Peel tells us that the house once belonged for Barnwell Mayor C.G. Fuller, who served from 1932 to 1938. It became a museum in 1978.
Only three other regulars identified the museum – Jay Altman of Columbia, George Graf of Palmyra, Va., and Frank Bouknight of Summerville.
- SHARE: If you have a Mystery Photo to share, please send it to us – and make sure you tell us what it is!
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Statehouse Report, founded in 2001 as a weekly legislative forecast that informs readers about what is going to happen in South Carolina politics and policy, is provided by email to you at no charge every Friday.
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