Green Diamond developers try again
By John Temple Ligon
Temple@TheColumbiaStar.com

In 1999, Columbia Venture LLC (CV) bought 4,474 acres of Richland County riverside property on the Congaree for a reported $14 million. It proposed a development project called Green Diamond near Heathwood Hall School with the potential of total development investments of $4 billion. To get the go- ahead and attract investment, CV needed public help with the expensive levees required to protect the project.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) took careful study and concluded too much of the development was planned in a floodway, as indicated by its flood insurance rate map (FIRM). To locate in such risky real estate, levees were necessary, but then the levees would direct water across the Congaree River onto the banks in Lexington County.

As FEMA is referenced in court documents: "FEMA has stated that using a model with levees intact (i.e., a model that removes existing flood- -carrying capacity behind of the Manning levees) to draw the Congaree floodway could result in increased flood elevations that would impact existing structures including residential homes and the wastewater treatment plant in Lexington County."

The homes mentioned were in Riverland Park, the residential neighborhood on the Lexington side of the Congaree near the City of Cayce's wastewater treatment plant.

In August 2005, CV filed an "Order of Vacatur" in U.S. District Court to drop the FEMA FIRM because FEMA failed to follow orderly and required procedures. The court held oral arguments on Halloween 2005.

Under the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, FEMA was delegated "the authority to promulgate flood hazard determinations." Apparently, FEMA failed to fully comply with the Congress- directed requirements for disclosing proposed or modified flood elevation determinations.

FEMA was supposed to "first propose (its flood elevation) determinations for comment in the Federal Register , by direct notification to the chief executive officer of the community, and by publication in a prominent newspaper."

FEMA published its first notice in The State on Sept. 7, 1999, the second on September 14, and the appeals period ran out on December 13. No notice was published in the Federal Register at any time during this phase.

On Sept. 26, 2000, FEMA issued an appeal resolution, revised findings in its previous base flood elevation determinations. FEMA again failed to publish for public comment in the Federal Register.

On Feb. 16, 2001, FEMA published a notice in the Federal Register and referenced the August 1999 proposed flood elevation determinations, not the corrected and revised findings of Sept. 26, 2000. In other words, as the notice read, FEMA was about a year off.

Judge Margaret B. Seymour, U.S. District Court, on Nov. 18, 2005, concluded in part: "Because FEMA failed to comply with procedures required by federal law, the court must set aside FEMA's 2001 base flood elevation determinations for the Congaree River in Richland County.... the 2001 base flood elevation determinations are null and void.... the 1995 base flood elevation determinations are in effect until FEMA revises them pursuant to its authority..."

FEMA dropped the ball, giving CV a lucky break, but CV's plans still never panned out due to public pressure and environmental issues. About one- third of the land was bought by Columbia City Councilman Kirkman Finlay for farming.

Now there is a whole new development scheme for CV's Green Diamond property, at least 490 acres of it. CV is planning on going into the wastewater treatment business with the City of Columbia.

According to a city-commissioned report by B. P. Barber & Associates, the City of Columbia can buy CV's land at $30,000 an acre, and spend another $177 million for constructed wetlands, levee-surrounded cells of cattails and other phosphorus-eating plants. The partially treated wastewater from the city's existing plant can flow through the cattails and fall into the Congaree River practically free of toxins.

Or the city can drop the land play entirely and spend almost $13 million on a wastewater plant upgrade for the same result, again according to B. P. Barber & Associates, and send the effluent into the Congaree well within the federal limits expected in a few years.

If the city's latter and far cheaper route is taken, CV stands alone with its bum buy.