Beaufort County staff present update on Green Space Program and funding progress

Mark Davis, program manager for Beaufort County’s Green Space Program, told the council the program is about 2.5 years in and has used local seed funds to attract larger state and federal grants. "We collected 120,000,000," he said, and the program now has 10 funded projects with roughly $26,000,000 in grant awards supporting protection of approximately 11,200 acres.

Davis described the program’s goals as encouraging smart growth that pairs municipal and county planning, protecting water quality and supporting local agriculture and aquaculture. He said the county evaluates applications against long-range planning consistency and uses conservation easements or restrictive covenants to protect land "in perpetuity," noting that placing green-space dollars on a parcel removes development potential for the future.

At the meeting Davis demonstrated the program website, outlined a seven-member advisory committee (including a county council member, a state-delegation member and five citizen members, as required by state statute), and reviewed multiple application types—fee simple, conservation easement, corridor and farmland—each scored under different criteria. He encouraged municipalities and landowners to use the site’s pre-application tools to explore options and timelines.

Council members thanked Davis for the presentation and praised the program’s legacy of conservation and its role in leveraging additional grants.

The council did not take formal action on the program at this meeting; Davis said several projects are in various pipeline stages and will return to the council for due diligence or resolution when ready.