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Textile
mills, like this cotton mill, have been shifting production overseas,
resulting in devastating job losses for mill towns nationwide. |
Throughout the Southeast, abandoned textile mills have thwarted community development, impacted public health and negatively affected tax roles. Since 1997, 65 mill complexes have closed, many of which sit in the core of small South Carolina towns, resulting in thousands of lost jobs
The Textiles Communities Revitalization Act, effective January 1, 2005, aims to encourage investment, remediation and redevelopment of these abandoned sites by providing property tax credits or other income incentives for rehabilitation expenses made to sites previously used as textile manufacturing facilities.
The act is expected to encourage additional legislation offering similar incentives for abandoned retail sites. South Carolina is also developing a brownfield inventory database and an Internet-based land use controls cataloging system to foster brownfield reuse.