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Henry Brown of Hanahan, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001 to 2011, said he was never made aware that the county rezoned his property in 1997. He called the change "illegal."

Brown's land is classified as being split-zoned. The first 1,000 feet off of part of S.C. Highway 402, which affects 200 of the 500 acres on Brown's property, is restricted to one house for every 15 acres through the county's "R-15 Preservation Residential District" zoning that was adopted 25 years ago. Two homes per acre are allowed on the rest of the property.

Brown wants to have all the acreage under the less-restrictive category.

Large-tract landowners near the Cooper River, many with conservation easements on their property, are pushing back. They say reversing the restricted land-use designation along parts of S.C. Highways 402 and 41 will undo the protections they've had for the past 25 years.

The opponents said they fear that if one parcel along the roadways is changed from one home per 15 acres, it will set a precedent for others to follow and open the door to large-scale housing developments, which already are cropping up along Highway 41 in the Huger area.

"The owners of large and small tracts in the Cooper River corridor do not want to see Mount Pleasant grow to Moncks Corner via Highway 402," said Richard Coen, the owner of nearly 2,000 acres that stretch from his family's Halidon Hill Plantation off Cainhoy Road to Highway 41.

"This is not the time or place for high-density residential development," Coen stressed.

Brown told the Berkeley County Planning Commission in January he wasn't formally notified in 1997 when the county reviewed and adopted the more restrictive uses for the land closest to the road. The Post and Courier reported about the proposed changes on at least one occasion when they were being debated.

“I didn’t see the article in 1997," said Brown, who was a state lawmaker at the time. "I was the chairman of the Ways and Means (budget-writing) Committee, and we were doing very important work on behalf of the people of South Carolina."

Back then, he added, details about zoning were not available online.

"In 1997, I couldn’t just go on my computer ... and see what the zoning was on my property," Brown said. "To do that, I had to go down to the courthouse to see what the zoning was. I bet most people don’t know what their property is zoned for."

He called into question the way the county handled the land-use change.

“They illegitimately made an ordinance that was not properly processed, and they are using that as an enforceable document to downgrade properties in Berkeley County," Brown said. “They didn’t follow the proper process in 1997. It was illegal in my opinion.”

Brown's request has been making its way through the county's review process, including initial approval on Feb. 28 from Berkeley County Council.

“I didn’t know a thing about the zoning until two months ago," Brown said. "I saw that my property was zoned R-15, and I didn’t want that. I wanted the property zoned to what it was (before zoning) and so I had to go through the Planning Commission."

The county had been working through its land-use classifications in the late 1990s, when the special zoning designation was made to protect large-tract owners near the Cooper River from the prospect of dense development.

Brown, 86, said he has no plans to develop his property if his request is approved. But he added that his heirs might sell the property for residential development in the future.

“I’m not going to say my children in 10 years or so might not want to do that. But why shouldn’t they have that privilege?” he asked.

The council's Land Use Committee voted 4-0 on March 14 to send Brown's rezoning request to the full Berkeley County Council, where a second vote is scheduled for March 28. If approved, it would likely move to a third final vote in April.