Ophthalmologist near Reevesville, SC

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Partners

But he and his business partner are regularly approached by developers, both in person and through the mail, wanting to buy them out. And since they own some acreage and lease others, even if they continue refusing to sell, there's still worry of losing their farmland.

It's a scenario playing out across South Carolina as congestion in the nation's third-fastest-growing state keeps spreading and wide flat fields become increasingly attractive for new tract housing.

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"Development used to be in the back of everybody's mind. Now it's in the forefront," Judy, who's at least a fourth-generation farmer in Dorchester County, said of farmers across the state.

And while he doesn't mind people moving his way, per se, "they're taking up farmland as they come," he said.

He calls a Statehouse proposal steps away from becoming law a "godsend to keep the family farms in the state running."

The bill, which the House of Representatives passed 104-2 last month, would create a Working Farmland Protection Fund within the South Carolina Conservation Bank specifically to preserve agricultural land.

South Carolina lost more than 1,000 farms between 1997 and 2017, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Acreage lost to development from 2001 to 2016 totaled more than 280,000 acres, according to a 2022 report by American Farmland Trust titled "Farms Under Threat," which gave South Carolina the nation's eighth-worst threat ranking.

"It's staggering," said the bill's main sponsor, Republican Rep. Patrick Haddon, who raises cattle, pigs and poultry on about 50 acres he leases in Greenville.

Legislators of both parties say the situation has only worsened in the last few years, including in ripe farmlands such as Calhoun and Orangeburg counties where people are getting bombarded by offers.

"Farmers in places I'd never dreamed it would happen," said Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Isle of Palms, chairman of the Fish Game and Forestry Committee.

Due to traffic congestion, "people are realizing it's quicker to buy a house in Orangeburg and go east on I-26 to the Nexton area, than to live on James Island and get to Nexton," even though it's twice the distance, he said. "Farmers are sincerely concerned about that, as they should be."

To ensure money isn't siphoned away from the Conservation Bank's existing mission of preserving significant natural resources and historic properties, the bill as amended by senators would reinstate a dedicated funding stream to the bank that legislators repealed five years ago: giving 25 cents of every $1.30 the state collects in deed-recording fees from property sales. Once historic funding levels are met, additional money allocated through the state budget would go toward farmland protection.

To be eligible for a conservation grant, the property owner must get at least 50 percent of his income from farming the land.

"If we don't commit dollars to conservation and do it in a really cost-effective way, we could end up looking like states people are fleeing because the quality of life has been destroyed," said Campsen, who authored legislation creating the Conservation Bank 21 years ago and has been pushing to reinstate a dedicated funding source instead of just relying on annual budget negotiations.

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This fiscal year, legislators allocated $37 million to the Conservation Bank. For the year that starts July 1, the House proposes sending the bank $30 million, while the Senate proposes again sending $37 million. Last fiscal year, a quarter from all deed recording fees collected by the state would've equaled $30 million.

It's Campsen's amendment to the working farmland bill, which renewed the dedicated fee, that senators advanced April 13 to the floor and is expected to pass with widespread support whenever they get to it.

Haddon supports the changes, indicating easy agreement between the chambers to send the amended bill to Gov. Henry McMaster's desk. McMaster, who has urged legislators to make bigger strides in preserving land for future South Carolinians, is expected to sign it.

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The bill is designed to provide another option for people who don't want to sell their farmland but are feeling pressured to do so — both directly from developers offering big money and indirectly as encroaching development makes farming more challenging, Haddon said.

Homeowners who move next door to a working farm may have some idealized, bucolic view of rural life without expecting the reality of the smells, noise and spraying of herbicides and insecticides that comes with it. That inevitably leads to disputes and pressure on the landowner to sell, said Rep. Russell Ott, whose family farms corn and cotton on about 2,300 acres in Calhoun County, most of which is leased.

Supporters of the bill recognize that a state grant in exchange for preserving the land for agriculture in perpetuity can't come close to the tens of millions developers can offer. But they believe the voluntary program — which also comes with tax breaks and can leverage state dollars to secure other sources such as federal agriculture grants — will appeal to farmers looking to preserve their way of life for future generations.

"Is it something that's going to completely do away with the problem of urban sprawl and conflicting land uses? No," Ott said. "But it's a start for giving property owners who need revenue and have land attractive to developers. Maybe by putting it in an easement, it gets you to where you need to be without needing to sell it."

The Conservation Bank already can and has preserved farmland. Over the past two decades, about 28,000 acres with some level of farming have been preserved, said Raleigh West, the bank's executive director.

But he expects the additional grant money to sweeten the pot and lead to more farmers seeking an easement.

The bill would also change the criteria for ranking applications for a working farmland grant, notably not including a public access component, potentially allowing more farmland to qualify for available funding.

Also aiding the effort is South Carolina Farm Bureau's creation of a nonprofit land trust to serve as the intermediary between willing landowners, other nonprofits and the Conservation Bank.

Farmers who might otherwise be uneasy about committing to a forever deal will trust the Farm Bureau to oversee their easement, assured future generations won't be restricted in ways that makes farming difficult for them, Campsen said.

"That's just normal," he said. "They'll feel more comfortable with the people they know is one of them and always will be. That really is a factor."

Ott said the hope is that legislation like Haddon's will help stop the domino effect of South Carolina losing farm after farm.

"Once you pave that parking lot over that land or you build that house, you're not coming back from that," he said. "That acreage is gone, and God only made so much dirt, so when it's gone, it's gone."

The first Monday of every month a group of men gather after hours in a dimly lit coffee shop in Columbia’s historic Cottontown neighborhood. They’re drinking something a little stronger than coffee though.

“This is the most exclusive club in Columbia — so welcome,” Michael DeVita tells visitors. DeVita is the founder of Cola Whiskey Club.

He looks around at the group of nearly 25 men, members and guests, and explains to the newcomers the informal rules of the club.

“This is a place for dudes just to be dudes.”

Cola Whiskey Club started in DeVita’s backyard a few years ago. The group formalized nearly a year ago and has more than 20 paying members now.

“Sometimes it would get rowdy, sometimes it wouldn’t; we didn’t really have a bunch of rules,” DeVita says. “It was fun, but it wasn’t exactly what I had pictured.”

Tonight, it’s a little different. The men sit around a length of wooden tables they’ve pushed together at Indah Coffee, a coffee roaster planted in an industrial section north of Elmwood Avenue. In front of each member’s place, a handcrafted, wooden flight tray is arranged with tasting glasses.

DeVita is seated near the middle of the group with five bottles of whiskey carefully arranged in front of him.

Three of the bottles DeVita brought with him, two of them were supplied by other members. On this night, they have a bottle created by actor Matthew McConaughey, a limited release of Maker’s Mark, a bottle of Old Forester Single Barrel Bourbon, a bottle of Belle Meade Cask Strength Reserve Bourbon and a once per year release from a Utah’s High West Distillery called Yippee Ki-Yay.

Dave Crossland says buying better whiskies like these is one reason the club has formalized and has members pay dues.

Crossland helped DeVita start Cola Whiskey Club. He was a part of the original gatherings in DeVita’s backyard. They weren’t just drinking whiskey then.

“We were meeting once a week. One week we’d do whiskey, the next week we’d do beer and so I was on the beer side of it,” Crossland says.

He had a home brew kit and was making his own beer. The group would grab a six pack of a craft beer and sip on it. Crossland says once the group really got into whiskies, he realized that he favored whiskey more than beer.

Crossland contributed the bottle of Belle Meade to the gathering. As is tradition, he takes the bottle he brought, tells a little of the backstory of the whiskey and why he brought it, opens the bottle and passes it around.

The men make a toast and take a swig.

At the end of the table in a dark corner, wearing a ball cap and a Cola Whiskey Club T-shirt, Nick Hauser takes his sip. He looks around at the men on his end of the table and takes another. He likes it. It will turn out to be his favorite whiskey of the night.

Hauser is the owner of Indah Coffee. He can’t recall where he met DeVita, but he said they began talking about coffee, which led to whiskey.

Hauser is attracted to finding out why he likes different flavors. He likes to reflect and think about what makes one thing stand out from another.

“I think it’s really enjoyable to kind of slow down — it’s been a busy day today — and kind of think on what are some of the little details that make an experience great,” Hauser says.

He loves the exercise of sensory analysis, scientifically unpacking the tastes he experiences. He compares it to working out. He said you get more tuned in when you pay attention to little things and dive into something.

As the club moves to sampling a bottle of Maker’s Mark’s 2019 limited release Wood Finishing Series, Hauser breaks out a stave from a barrel of Jack Daniel’s for the club to smell. Staves are the thin pieces of wood that form a whiskey barrel. The verdict from the table is that it smells like burnt wood.

Making the connection between coffee and whiskey isn’t exclusive to Hauser. Will Unthank, a newcomer to whiskey, said the two taste experiences are very similar.

Unthank joined Cola Whiskey Club because he was invited by Hauser. He attended one of the club’s first official meetings and was hooked on the camaraderie, but he couldn’t taste flavors in the whiskey.

“All I tasted was alcohol,” Unthank says.

Unthank started drinking coffee in his senior year at Erskine College.

“When I first tasted coffee it made me awake,” Unthank recalls. “It took me a little while to start tasting the underlying flavors of coffee and it was very similar to whiskey.”

As the men sip, different conversations pop up along the table. Their conversations are about the whiskey, about work and about life.

There’s a cop speaking with a preacher, a coffee shop owner having a conversation with a paper mill worker and a real estate agent talking to a medical student. Most of the men are around 30, but some are much older and some are much younger. They’re all whiskey drinkers together.

“It’s turned into a great outlet for guys to come and hang out and meet new people and network and be with a group of guys they’re not typically around,” DeVita says.

Matt Torchia joined Cola Whiskey club at the launch of the formal club. He said DeVita reached out to him and he latched on.

“I kind of took it as an opportunity to really kind of meet new people because it’s easy to stay in your clique I guess you could say and it’s hard for people to branch out,” Torchia says. “That’s really why I kind of came along.”

Torchia got into whiskey because of his mom. After he and his siblings were adults and out of the house, his parents started giving bottles as gifts. Torchia says he uses what he learns in whiskey club as a way to connect to his family. He shares his experiences in the club with them.

Torchia and DeVita share a passion for finding new whiskies. They take great joy in hunting down something new, interesting or hard to find. Torchia doesn’t dismiss the quality of familiar brands.

“Some of my favorite whiskies are ones you can pull of the shelf any day of the week,” Torchia says. “There’s a lot of just really good whiskies out there; don’t be afraid to go through and try a lot of stuff.”

As the night rolls on, the men enjoy their drinks and turn their attention back to the center of the table.

DeVita reads a review of the whiskey they’ve just tried and speaks of the flavors the distiller says are in the whiskey. They exchange small fist bumps and celebrate those around the table who tasted what the description says they should taste. DeVita tells the score of the drink from different whiskey reviewers, then they move to the next bottle.

DeVita said he doesn’t quite know what’s next for Cola Whiskey Club. He said the club is growing by a member or two each month. The club has remained invite-only — a member can invite a guest — so that they’re able to manage their growth. DeVita believes that Cola Whiskey Club could be a force in the future.

“A particular goal I have is that it would be around a long time and it would become kind of a staple of Columbia,” DeVita said.

As the night wears down, the men go around the table one-by-one and describe their favorite drink of the evening. They pour themselves another taste from their favorite bottles, clink their glasses, and enjoy one last drink.

Cola Whiskey Club member Will Unthank, left, fell in love with the Limited Release Wood Finishing Series made by Maker’s Mark. Club founder Michael DeVita tells him Maker’s Mark released this series in October of 2019 nation-wide. Only 255 barrels of this bourbon was produced.

As Cola Whiskey Club samples Maker’s Marks’ brand new Wood Finishing Series, club members break out a stave from a barrel of Jack Daniel’s to smell. Club founder Michael DeVita takes the first whiff. This edition of Maker’s Mark puts staves inside of the barrel to enhance the flavor during the aging process.

Cities with the fastest growing home prices in Charleston, South Carolina metro area

It goes without saying that the coronavirus pandemic sparked a wave of uncertainty across myriad industries, and no other market has quite felt its impact like that of real estate.

The pandemic became a driving force behind the continued real estate boom, with high demand for vacation homes and a limited supply of housing that prompted buyers and investors to bid up prices for affordable properties, causing home prices to skyrocket. Since then, increasing mortgage rates have slowed growth, with prices even declining in some places. But some areas are still seeing price jumps compared to the year before.

Stacker compiled a list of cities with the fastest-growing home prices in the Charleston-North Charleston, SC metro area using data from Zillow. Cities are ranked by 1-year price change as of May 2023. The typical home value in the United States increased over the last year by 0.9% to $346,856. Data was available for 35 cities and towns in Charleston, South Carolina.

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#30. Lincolnville, SC

- 1-year price change: +$4,186 (+1.4%)- 5-year price change: +$117,751 (+64.1%)- Typical home value: $301,592 (#23 most expensive city in metro)

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Stacker

#29. Ladson, SC

- 1-year price change: +$4,194 (+1.4%)- 5-year price change: +$109,215 (+58.1%)- Typical home value: $297,225 (#24 most expensive city in metro)

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Stacker

#28. Goose Creek, SC

- 1-year price change: +$6,871 (+2.3%)- 5-year price change: +$112,512 (+59.5%)- Typical home value: $301,733 (#22 most expensive city in metro)

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#27. Reevesville, SC

- 1-year price change: +$7,343 (+3.7%)- 5-year price change: +$90,490 (+78.4%)- Typical home value: $205,934 (#31 most expensive city in metro)

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#26. Awendaw, SC

- 1-year price change: +$7,558 (+1.2%)- 5-year price change: +$218,390 (+52.4%)- Typical home value: $634,778 (#8 most expensive city in metro)

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#25. Adams Run, SC

- 1-year price change: +$7,666 (+2.9%)- 5-year price change: +$98,183 (+57.5%)- Typical home value: $268,936 (#26 most expensive city in metro)

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Stacker

#24. Ridgeville, SC

- 1-year price change: +$8,638 (+2.5%)- 5-year price change: +$113,127 (+48.1%)- Typical home value: $348,480 (#20 most expensive city in metro)

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Stacker

#23. Jamestown, SC

- 1-year price change: +$8,852 (+4.2%)- 5-year price change: +$86,530 (+65.5%)- Typical home value: $218,596 (#30 most expensive city in metro)

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#22. Summerville, SC

- 1-year price change: +$9,025 (+2.5%)- 5-year price change: +$125,613 (+51.5%)- Typical home value: $369,735 (#18 most expensive city in metro)

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#21. Saint Stephen, SC

- 1-year price change: +$9,368 (+5.1%)- 5-year price change: +$75,452 (+64.0%)- Typical home value: $193,311 (#33 most expensive city in metro)

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#20. Moncks Corner, SC

- 1-year price change: +$9,611 (+2.8%)- 5-year price change: +$130,085 (+59.2%)- Typical home value: $349,865 (#19 most expensive city in metro)

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#19. Cross, SC

- 1-year price change: +$9,740 (+5.1%)- 5-year price change: +$77,972 (+64.5%)- Typical home value: $198,928 (#32 most expensive city in metro)

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#18. Huger, SC

- 1-year price change: +$11,200 (+2.5%)- 5-year price change: +$176,673 (+62.0%)- Typical home value: $461,538 (#13 most expensive city in metro)

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#17. Ravenel, SC

- 1-year price change: +$12,094 (+2.5%)- 5-year price change: +$200,929 (+67.5%)- Typical home value: $498,800 (#12 most expensive city in metro)

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#16. Pineville, SC

- 1-year price change: +$13,008 (+7.6%)- 5-year price change: +$79,235 (+76.0%)- Typical home value: $183,514 (#34 most expensive city in metro)

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#15. Sullivans Island, SC

- 1-year price change: +$13,772 (+0.4%)- 5-year price change: +$1,698,571 (+97.0%)- Typical home value: $3,449,746 (#1 most expensive city in metro)

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#14. North Charleston, SC

- 1-year price change: +$15,339 (+5.6%)- 5-year price change: +$114,513 (+66.2%)- Typical home value: $287,466 (#25 most expensive city in metro)

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#13. Hanahan, SC

- 1-year price change: +$16,361 (+4.5%)- 5-year price change: +$140,730 (+59.8%)- Typical home value: $376,189 (#17 most expensive city in metro)

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#12. Pinopolis, SC

- 1-year price change: +$17,132 (+4.0%)- 5-year price change: +$145,948 (+48.3%)- Typical home value: $448,172 (#15 most expensive city in metro)

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#11. Hollywood, SC

- 1-year price change: +$18,014 (+4.1%)- 5-year price change: +$178,684 (+64.4%)- Typical home value: $456,082 (#14 most expensive city in metro)

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#10. Bonneau, SC

- 1-year price change: +$18,490 (+6.5%)- 5-year price change: +$118,677 (+64.2%)- Typical home value: $303,664 (#21 most expensive city in metro)

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#9. Edisto Beach, SC

- 1-year price change: +$19,879 (+3.3%)- 5-year price change: +$268,532 (+75.9%)- Typical home value: $622,135 (#10 most expensive city in metro)

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#8. Charleston, SC

- 1-year price change: +$20,477 (+4.2%)- 5-year price change: +$182,586 (+55.7%)- Typical home value: $510,627 (#11 most expensive city in metro)

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#7. Meggett, SC

- 1-year price change: +$21,591 (+3.2%)- 5-year price change: +$301,276 (+75.1%)- Typical home value: $702,621 (#7 most expensive city in metro)

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#6. Mount Pleasant, SC

- 1-year price change: +$27,461 (+3.9%)- 5-year price change: +$271,352 (+57.9%)- Typical home value: $739,896 (#6 most expensive city in metro)

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#5. Folly Beach, SC

- 1-year price change: +$29,553 (+2.5%)- 5-year price change: +$567,832 (+89.6%)- Typical home value: $1,201,567 (#4 most expensive city in metro)

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#4. Wadmalaw Island, SC

- 1-year price change: +$31,033 (+5.2%)- 5-year price change: +$282,345 (+81.3%)- Typical home value: $629,721 (#9 most expensive city in metro)

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#3. Isle of Palms, SC

- 1-year price change: +$46,195 (+3.4%)- 5-year price change: +$652,486 (+87.7%)- Typical home value: $1,396,580 (#3 most expensive city in metro)

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#2. Kiawah Island, SC

- 1-year price change: +$54,797 (+3.4%)- 5-year price change: +$700,098 (+71.2%)- Typical home value: $1,683,177 (#2 most expensive city in metro)

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#1. Seabrook Island, SC

- 1-year price change: +$61,297 (+8.0%)- 5-year price change: +$397,347 (+91.8%)- Typical home value: $830,300 (#5 most expensive city in metro)

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