From Preservation Online, the online magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation

www.preservationonline.org

Developer Signs Easement to Protect S.C. Plantation's View


Story by Margaret Foster / Aug. 15, 2007

The two-mile view from a 265-year-old Charleston plantation will never be cluttered with townhouses, thanks to a conservation easement a developer signed in June.

Persuaded by the Middleton Place Foundation, the Ryland Group, Inc., recorded the final 150-foot conservation easement for property along the Ashley River. It was the last piece of riverfront land preservationists wanted to protect.

"We're really thrilled about it," says Charles Duell, president of the Middleton Place Foundation, which has been working for ! 25 years to conserve parcels visible from the National Historic Landma rk. "We were able to convince [Ryland officials] that they should be part of the conservation effort of the Ashley River. I think it helps their marketing."

Most of the land Middleton Place sought to protect was once owned by the Boy Scouts of America. In 1949, the Boy Scouts received a donation of 3,000 acres on the Ashley River; in the 1980s, it chose to sell the parcels to different developers.

"What a great result, demonstrating that perseverance is a vital component of historic preservation," National Trust President Richard Moe said in a statement. Because of development pressure, in 1995 the National Trust named the Ashley River Historic District one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

Meanwhile, a developer has asked permission to rezone 6,! 600 acres on Watson Hill for housing. For now, though, at least the view from Middleton Place is the same as it has always been.

"Monticello and Mount Vernon have really led the effort [to preserve viewsheds]," Duell says.

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