Case Name: Horse Creek Nature Preserve and Savannah Riverkeeper v. Edgefield County Planning Commission, Blackston Custom Homes, LLC, and Charles T. Blackston, Jr.
Location: Edgefield County
Venue: South Carolina Circuit Court (11th Circuit)
Issue: Appeal of the Edgefield County Planning Commission's October 2025 reconsideration and approval of a preliminary land development application for a 70-site RV park on environmentally sensitive forestland home to Horse Creek springheads.

Case Overview

In October 2025, the Edgefield County Planning Commission approved a preliminary land development application submitted by Blackston Custom Homes, LLC to construct a 70-site RV park on 17 acres of undeveloped land at the corner of Edgefield Road (U.S. Highway 25) and Bream Oak Road to serve as temporary housing for workers, such as those helping construct the nearby Meta data center. 

The parcel contains steep slopes, underground spring heads, undeveloped forest land and habitat for various species of plants and animals. The developer's plan would clear-cut, grade and flatten the site, placing 70 RVs on land that is neither suited nor legally permissible for this type of development.
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The procedural record compounds these concerns. The Planning Commission unanimously denied this same, unchanged application in July 2025. This denial was based on the application’s failure to comply with the county’s mandatory site and design controls for RV parks. This final and binding decision, which was not appealed by the developer, should have settled the issue for a year, as Edgefield County does not allow reconsideration of a denied application until one full year has passed. However, the County Planning Administrator extended the application without legal authority, and the project was reconsidered in October and approved by a 3-2 vote with no new information presented and no reasoning offered by the commissioners who changed their votes, including how the project’s deficiencies that they noted had been resolved.

SCELP is challenging that approval in South Carolina Circuit Court on behalf of Horse Creek Nature Preserve, a non-profit whose members live on an adjacent property, and the Savannah Riverkeeper, which stewards the watershed that Horse Creek feeds into. SCELP contends that the Commission's October vote was procedurally improper, that no authority existed to reconsider the application and that the unchanged development proposal failed to meet Edgefield County's specific requirements for RV park permitting. Our goal is to hold the County to the standards its own ordinances demand before irreversible harm is done to this land, this community and these waterways.

Why This Matters

Land development regulations exist for a reason. When ignored or bypassed, they leave neighbors and natural systems to absorb the consequences.

This case raises urgent concerns, including:

• The developer’s plan to clear-cut, grade and flatten this steeply sloped parcel will have serious consequences for the site’s natural features and downstream homes, ponds and dams, which would inflict irreparable damage to the environment and community if breaches occur;
• Clustering 70 RV units on sensitive forestland with underground streams poses a significant and ongoing threat to groundwater, which is tapped into by wells for drinking water, and water quality in the Horse Creek watershed and Savannah River Basin; 
• Placing an RV park in the middle of long-standing neighborhoods disrupts the area’s rural character and can exacerbate public and traffic safety issues, which already exist due to Highway 25’s limited sight distance and lack of deceleration lanes; and 
• The development proposal did not comply with Edgefield County's own ordinances governing RV park permitting – a fact the entire Planning Commission acknowledged when it voted unanimously to deny the application in July. When the application came back in October, two commissioners held firm. The three who reversed course offered no reasoning for how an unchanged proposal had somehow come into compliance.

SCELP's role is to ensure that the communities who will live with the consequences of this decision have a meaningful voice in it, and that the Planning Commission is held to the same standards it is charged with enforcing.

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Procedural History & Timeline

June 12, 2025 – Project Presented to Planning Commission 
The Planning Commission votes to table the application until July. 

July 10, 2025 – Planning Commission Unanimously Denies Application 
The Planning Commission votes unanimously to deny the RV park application, citing deficiencies in the project, the site's unsuitability and the community's concerns.

July–October 2025 – Improper Extension Granted 
Despite the denial, the County Planning Administrator grants the developer a 90-day extension to have the application reconsidered – an action taken without legal authority to do so. No changes to the development proposal were made during this period.

October 9, 2025 – Planning Commission Approves Application 3-2 
The Planning Commission improperly reconsiders and approves the unchanged application on a 3-2 vote. The two dissenting commissioners cite many of the same reasons for denial as in July. The three approving commissioners offer no reasoning for their decision or explanation for how the proposal – identical to the one unanimously rejected three months earlier – now meets the County's requirements.

November 10, 2025 – SCELP Files Appeal
SCELP, on behalf of Horse Creek Nature Preserve and the Savannah Riverkeeper, appeals the Planning Commission's October 9 decision to the South Carolina Circuit Court. SCELP anticipates a court date in summer 2026. Read more here.