Your Voice is Needed!
Email your concerns to SCDOT, CCSD, the City, and the County regarding working together to ensure the Johns Island Elementary School is opened on time and addressing the traffic issues.
Attend and speak at the City's Traffic and Transportation Committee meeting on Jan 28 @ 3:30 pm. The traffic issues associated with the new elementary school are expected to be on the agenda.
Attend and ask questions at the Johns Island Council meeting on Feb 13 @ 7:00 pm. The Hollydale Court developer, who previously requested to cut down 29 grand trees, is scheduled to present his revised plans to the public and get their feedback. This meeting will be held at the Berkeley Electric Coop building, located at 1135 Main Road.
Continue reading to learn more about this and other happenings that will impact Johns Island today and into the future.
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Groups Must Work Together To Ensure New School Is Opened On Time
The Charleston County School District's (CCSD) Johns Island Elementary School on upper River Rd is planned to open on August 12 for the start of the 2025/2026 school year. Not only must the school itself be completed, but the road improvements consisting of a roundabout in front of the school on River Rd and turn lanes at the River-Brownswood intersection must also be completed.
Realistically, the roundabout needs to be opened several weeks prior to the opening of the school to give drivers the opportunity to acclimate themselves to the new traffic patterns. For various issues, the opening date of the roundabout has slipped to August 1, barely enough time for drivers to acclimate themselves. And there is the real possibility that it could slip further if CCSD, SCDOT, the City and the County don't diligently work to meet this latest date.
The turn lanes at the River-Brownswood intersections are currently estimated to not be completed until October 1. CCSD and the County have discussed a workaround of staging sheriff's deputies there during school commute times, but the SCDOT has not yet bought into this. SCDOT could decide to not allow the school to open if they don't agree with this or other workarounds.
Even if the school does open on time, a plan must be completed months before the opening to address the inevitable confusion that will result due to the new roundabout and due to the new school traffic patterns. This plan should include items such as:
- Deployment of portable traffic message boards weeks before the roundabout opening to inform drivers of what will occur. Note that many of the divers who use this portion of River Rd aren't from Johns Island.
- Opening the roundabout on a weekend, not on a weekday as was done for the Northern Pitchfork.
- Special training of school bus drivers to ensure they are well aware of the dangers of driving large vehicles on upper River Rd.
- Station a traffic engineer at the Maybank-River intersection to manually adjust the traffic signal timing as needed.
- Real time measurement of congestion (i.e. traffic delays) to inform the long-term resetting of traffic signal timing.
- Station City police at the Main-Chisolm intersection by St John's High School to address the additional traffic that will travel between Angel Oak and Johns Island Elementary Schools.
- Preposition police and tow trucks to immediately clear collisions.
Your voices need to be heard
Please contact the following to express your concerns that SCDOT, CCSD, the City of Charleston and Charleston County diligently work together to ensure the school opens on time and that there is a well thought out plan to ameliorate the impact on traffic.
Also, attend the attend and speak at the City's Traffic and Transportation Committee meeting on January 28 at 3:30 pm. The traffic issues associated with the new elementary school are expected to be on the agenda. The meeting will be held at City Hall, 80 Broad Street, Charleston.
Related School Transporation Topics
Speed Humps: Since Claybrook St may be used as a cut through, residents in the Swygerts Landing development should consider preemptively petitioning for the installation of traffic calming devices in their neighborhood. A petition must be signed by at least 75% of the residents. Unfortunately, the process for installing speed humps does not appear to contemplate their preemptive installation. Residents will need to work closely with the City to overcome this.
Bus Parking: The bus parking area on the school grounds is not expected to be completed until the 2026/2027 school year. This parking area will be able to accommodate about 30 buses. It is estimated that the new school will require about 9 buses. The other parking spots will be taken up by buses that support other schools. County-wide, only about 30% of students ride the bus.
Update on Johns Island Roads
Main Road Segment A (aka Main and 17 Flyover): The contractor is working to finalize the design and has been coordinating with utilities regarding their relocation efforts. There continues to be an investigation into adding back the multi-use path across the Stono Bridge. The project is scheduled for completion by December 2028.
Main Road Segment C (aka Bohicket Road): The presentation to Council is tentatively scheduled for early February.
Maybank Hwy Second Lane Off-Island: Councilman Joe Boykin has been working with Staff to get the second lane off-island "shovel ready". A field survey is underway and will continue through March. Environmental, cultural resources, and tree surveys will take place later this month and into February. Geotechnical work is likely to start in early summer. Anticipate the receipt of 30% plans in 3rd Quarter 2025.
River-Brownswood Roundabout: The County received $5M in State earmarks to convert this 3-leg intersection to a roundabout to increase safety. A request for quote (RFQ) has been advertised and qualifications are expected by January 22. Anticipate starting design work in the second Quarter of 2025. Construction is anticipated to start towards the end of 2030. [That is not a typo.]
Off-Island Road Projects
County Council recently approved the following projects. They are not on Johns Island, but they will give readers a sense of what road projects cost.
Granite Road Paving (Wadmalaw Island)
The project includes roadway resurfacing and drainage repairs to approximately 0.29 miles of Granite Road. There were three bidders. The winning bid was $443,686, or about $1.5 million per mile. "Specific work items involved in the execution of the project include, but are not limited to, traffic control, earthwork, road base installation, asphalt paving, shoulder grading to tie-in pavement to existing grade, storm drainage installation and improvements, pavement markings, and permanent grassing."
Woodland Shores Rd Complete Streets and Maybank Hwy Mid-Block Crossing (James Island)
The project consists of the construction of a new 8-foot sidewalk along Woodland Shores Drive, an 8-foot sidewalk on Maybank Highway from Woodland Shores to Stefan Drive, and a midblock crossing near Stefan Drive at Terrace Plaza. There were three bidders. The winning bid was $3,673,611. "The work will include, but not be limited to, concrete sidewalks and median, installation of new crossing, pavement marking, utility relocations, drainage, and sediment and erosion control."
Snowden Sidewalk (East Cooper)
The project consists of the construction of approximately 1100 linear feet of new concrete sidewalk along Alston Street and Maggie Road. There was only one bidder. Their bid was $411,433, or almost $2 million per mile. "The work shall include, but is not limited to, the concrete sidewalk installation, drainage installation, grading, roadway milling and resurfacing, pavement markings, and sediment and erosion control measures."
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Redesign of Development That Proposed To Cut Down 29 Grand Trees
This "Hollydale Court" development would be located on Maybank Hwy between Minero Restaurant and the Crowne Apartments. The developer applied to the City's Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) to cut down 29 grand trees. This case was to be heard on January 7, but the applicant deferred the case. The deferral was likely due to the over 200 responses in opposition the City received from Johns Islanders and others. Your voices were heard! Thank you for taking the time to submit your comments.
The developer, David Dick of Kennedy Richter, is engaging with the City and the community to obtain feedback on their revised design. He has stated the following:
- Impervious surface area decreased from 32.95% to 29.01%, a 12% reduction
- Wetlands fill decreased 0.499 AC to 0.448 AC, a 10% reduction.
- Reduced the number of buildings from 4 to 3, and decreased overall sq-ft from 43,620 SF to 39,950 SF
- Requesting the removal of only 3 grade B trees, down from 7. Two are low quality due to lean.
- The grade B live oaks were the most significant improvement, saving an additional 4 and creating a live oak centerpiece to the property that will allow them to thrive into the future.
- Requesting 4 Grade C trees be removed, were able to save one C grade live oak. Not removing any C grade live oaks, just 1 Black Gum and 3 laurel oaks.
- Requesting 10 grade D trees be removed, mostly water oaks and maples.
- Please note the front remains unchanged seeking the removal of several undesirable trees, 5 grade D water oaks, 1 grade D pecan, and 1 grade C water oak.
The developer is scheduled to appear at the Johns Island Council's February 13 meeting. This meeting will be held at 7:00 pm at the Berkeley Electric Coop building, located at 1135 Main Road. Please plan to attend. The case is expected to come back before the BZA on March 5.
We appreciate the developer starting this redesign process and reaching out to the community for feedback. Wetlands, swaths of trees, and grand trees, especially live oaks, need to be persevered to the greatest extent possible to maintain the character of Johns Island.
"Botox Village" Upzoning Deferred
The upzoning for this development proposed for Betsy Kerrison Parkway was scheduled to go before County Council's Planning and Public Works Committee on January 9. However, the applicant asked for a deferral, which was granted by Committee Chair Teddy Pryor.
This is the second time this development has come before County Council. They voted to deny the upzoning on February 13, 2024. At that time, Councilmembers Boykin, Darby, Honeycutt and Kobrovsky voted for denial. Councilmembers Middleton, Pryor, and Wehrman voted for approval. Councilmembers Moody and Sass recused themselves. Council also voted to waive the one-year waiting period for the developer to go back to the Planning Commission. Councilmembers Darby, Middleton, Pryor, and Wehrman voted for this wavier. Councilmembers Boykin, Honeycutt and Kobrovsky voted against the wavier.
The likely reason for the deferral on January 9 was that the developer knew they didn't have the votes. Councilmembers Boykin and Honeycutt, whose districts would be most impacted by this upzoning, have said they would again vote against it. Given this, it is somewhat a mystery why any of the other councilmembers would vote for this upzoning that is located so far from their districts. We will update you when this development is scheduled to return to County Council.
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New Programs at St. John's High School
Currently less than 50% of the public school students in the St. John's High School attendance zone actually attend St John's. For example, over 200 of them attend James Island Charter High School. Note that these numbers don't include students who attend private school or are home schooled.
As part of CCSD's effort to encourage students to attend St. John's, they announced initiatives for academics, arts, and athletics for the 2025-2026 school year. This includes an Academy of Advanced Academics that will be designed to "prepare students for collegiate excellence through Honors, Advanced Placement (AP), and dual enrollment courses".
Johns Island Elementary School Has A Mascot
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County Council Leadership Change
On January 2, Charleston County Council voted 5-4 to change their leadership. Chair Herb Sass and Vice Chair Jenny Honeycutt were replaced by Kylon Middleton and Larry Kobrovsky, respectively. Kobrovsky, who is a Republican, joined with the four Democrats to elect Middleton.
As this Post and Courier editorial pointed out, "Few significant County Council votes (and practically no minor ones) break strictly along party lines...". You can read more about this change at:
The County's Five Point Plan
At a news conference on January 14, County Council Chair Middleton outlined his five-point plan for the County:
- Conduct a countywide audit to improve efficiency and accountability.
- Refocus on the issues that matter most to our citizens.
- Ensure transparency in all county business.
- Support law enforcement and ensure public safety.
- Highlight and build on the good work already being done.
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Jan 28 @ 3:30 pm: Attend the attend and speak at the City's Traffic and Transportation Committee meeting. Traffic issues associated with the new elementary school are expected to be on the agenda. The meeting will be held at City Hall, 80 Broad Street, Charleston.
Feb 13 @ 7:00 pm: At the February meeting of the Johns Island Council, the Hollydale Court developer is scheduled to present his revised plans to the public and get their feedback. This meeting will be held at the Berkeley Electric Coop building, located at 1135 Main Road.
Feb 20 @ 2:00 to 8:00 pm: The City of Charleston will hold a drop-in meeting for their zoning code rewrite. The meeting will be held at the Lowcountry Senior Center, located at 865 Riverland Dr, James Island.
Mar 5 @ 5:00 pm: The City Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) will meet. Tentatively on the the agenda is the Hollydale Court development.
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Sense of Place
Culture and Community
Conservation
Land Use
Affordable Housing
Energy/Data Centers
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Published on: Jan 20, 2025
Subject: Johns Island Elementary School | Road Project Update | New Leadership at the County
Number of Subscribers: 3,755
Established: Feb 22, 2022
Publisher: John Zlogar
The Johns Island Advocate is a free biweekly email newsletter that seeks to inform Johns Islanders of significant meetings and events that will impact our Island today and in the future.
If you are not already subscribed, you can do so here.
Contact us at JohnsIslandAdvocate@gmail.com.
Learn more at JohnsIslandAdvocate.org.
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