526 | Slab-on-Grade | Trees & Forests

Due to the holidays, we will publish our next edition on January 3rd.

There are several upcoming events that will impact Johns Island and are worthy of your attention. These include:

Dec 15 (Thurs) at 5:00 pm: The Buckland Plantation Planned Development (located at Chisolm and Belvedere Roads) is on the agenda for the Charleston County Council Planning and Public Works Committee. The meeting will be held at 4045 Bridge View Drive, North Charleston, and will be livestreamed here.

Dec 15 (Thurs) at 5:00 pm:  The Rhett's Cove Planned Unit Development (located on Maybank Highway near Southwick Drive) will appear before the Charleston City Planning Commission. They want to change the land use acreage and parking requirements. [See the "Details of Upcoming Events" section of this newsletter for additional information.]

Dec 20 (Tues) at 5:00 pm: The City of Charleston will hold a public hearing for upzoning on Southwick Drive for a proposed townhouse apartment complex. The neighbors have expressed concerns about the impact on traffic. [See the "Details of Upcoming Events" section of this newsletter for additional information.]    Please submit comments and attend!

Jan 2 (Tues): Deadline for responding to Charleston County's survey for their 5-year update to their Comprehensive Plan. You can read more about this effort in one of our previous newsletters.

Jan 12 (Thurs) at 5:00 pm: The Andell West development (aka the new Harris Teeter by Freshfields) is on the agenda for the Charleston County Council Planning and Public Works Committee.  The meeting will be held at 4045 Bridge View Drive, North Charleston, and will be livestreamed here.

Mark Clark Extension (aka 526)

Charleston County received a letter from the SCDOT that lowered the cost estimate for the Mark Clark Extension from $2.35B to $2.2B. The SCDOT recommended that the project proceed in phases, with the West Ashley-to-Johns Island portion started first.

The SCDOT requested that the County authorize $75M for "the remaining preparatory work necessary to advance the project" and that the County provide a "reasonable financial approach for the entire project". A timeframe for the County to respond to the requests was not given.

In this article there was some discussion that funding might come from a new half-cent sales tax on which there would be a county-wide referendum. It should be noted that by state law the first time a referendum could be held is November 2024.

There has been some discussion within the community that to reduce the cost of the project the County should only complete the West Ashley-to-Johns Island portion of the project. Reducing the scope now would violate the stated purpose of the project.  This would require a restart of the lengthy NEPA process.

The current SCDOT timeline for the project is to start construction in 2028 and finish in 2035. However, the lack of identified funding puts this schedule, and indeed the entire project, in doubt.

No Slab-on-Grade in the 100 Year Floodplain

The City of Charleston held a Council workshop for a proposed ordinance to prohibit slab-on-grade construction in the 100 year floodplain for single family homes. It would not apply to apartments or commercial developments. This ordinance is intended to increase resilience. You can view a video of the meeting here and the presentation here.

There was a discussion that what is now the 500 year floodplain is quickly becoming the 100 year floodplain. This was amplified in a subsequent Washington Post article. We advocate that the ordinance be more forward thinking and require no slab-on-grade in the 500 year floodplain.

A concern was expressed of the impact of the proposed ordinance on the cost of affordable housing (i.e. for those making less than 80% of the Area Median Income, which equates to $46k for a single person and $65.7k for a family of four). It was stated that the City no longer builds affordable housing on slabs, so that was a moot point.

Grand Trees AND Forests

The Fenwick Hall Allee and Wooddale developers came before the City of Charleston Board of Zoning Appeals to request the removal of a large number of grand trees. Fenwick Hall Allee is located near Maybank Highway and River Road. Wooddale is located near River and Plow Ground Roads.

The BZA ruling was that the Fenwick developer, California-based American Homes 4 Rent, had to reduce the number of trees removed from 21 to 14 and eliminate 5 lots to accomplish this. The Wooddale developer, Florida-based Lennar, had to reduce the number of trees removed from 171 to 124. You can read more about it in this article.

We had three takeaways from this process.

First, we were impressed with the BZA members. They were well versed on the topic of trees. At least one of them appeared to be an arborist or landscape architect. They actually examined pictures of individual trees to make their ruling. This was in contrast to the approach the County BZA takes.

Second, although we would have preferred that no trees be removed, through the efforts of City Staff and the community the number of trees permitted to be removed was significantly reduced. The process works, but only if the community gets involved.

Third, the current City and County ordinances focus on grand trees rather than forests. Both jurisdictions define grand trees as any tree, excluding pine trees, which have a diameter of 24 inches or greater measured at 4-1/2 feet above the ground. The County also excludes sweet gum trees.

These grand tree ordinances are fine, but the zoning ordinances do not adequately address maintaining contiguous forest lands that are critical for climate resilience, wildlife preservation, and recreation. These contiguous forests absorb and store water from storm events, provide carbon sequestration, provide wildlife habitats, provide wildlife corridors for safe movement or animals, and provide greenways for walkers and bicyclists.

The current effort to update the Charleston County Comprehensive Plan is the first opportunity to make our voices heard. Please stay engaged in this process and fill out their survey.

We encourage you to actively engage in the local political process by attending the following meetings and speaking up for Johns Island.

Rhett's Cove Planned Unit Development

The Rhett's Cove Planned Unit Development will come before the Charleston City Planning Commission on December 15th at 5:00pm.  The developer, Virginia-based Stanley Martin Homes, wants to make modifications to their existing PUD to change the land use acreage and parking requirements. Their application can be found here starting at page 12.

This PD is located on Maybank Highway near Southwick Drive.  It consists of 59 attached single family townhouses surrounding the existing Tattooed Moose restaurant.

As shown on the left side of the graphic above, the PUD includes a road adjacent to the wetlands. This road is part of the vision of the City and the County for roads to be built parallel to Maybank Highway to allow access among developments without traffic having to use Maybank Highway.

Written comments must be submitted here by noon on December 14th. The agenda number is "PUD 1"

The meeting will be held in the Public Meeting Room, First Floor, 2 George Street, and it will also be livestreamed here.

The Hamlet on Maybank Phase 2

Developments on Maybank from Main to Southwick

On December 20th at 5:00 pm the City of Charleston Council will hold a public hearing for upzoning on Southwick Drive for a townhouse apartment complex proposed by Virginia-based Middleburg Communities. The development is the proposed Phase 2 of their Hamlet on Maybank project.

The already approved Phase 1 will have 211 rental units consisting of single-family houses, duplexes and four-unit buildings. The proposed Phase 2 would upzone the property to permit 160 multi-family units (i.e. attached townhomes) rather than the 128 single family homes the current zoning would permit. As shown in the graphic above, there would be a total of almost 500 new housing units added in the area.

Despite a large turnout of residents primarily from adjacent Fenwick Hills in opposition, the Planning Commission approved the upzoning. The key points the residents made were the increase in traffic, the loss of wildlife habitat, and potential flooding. The developer countered by saying that townhomes have less traffic per unit than detached single family homes resulting in less net traffic, that there are no endangered species on the property, and that Fenwick Hills is uphill from the development so there will be no flooding issues.

Staff pointed out that the current zoning allows everything the developer wants to do if they include affordable housing. The Planning Commission focused on attainable (not affordable) housing. The Planning Commission saw the traffic issues as someone else's problem, such as law enforcement.

We advocate that City Council deny this upzoning. The argument that this development will cause less traffic is spurious. This is a difficult parcel of land to build on. With extensive wetlands and the need to adhere to the latest stormwater manual it is unknown how many single family homes could actually be built on the parcel. It is likely to be less than 128, and perhaps much less. We urge City Council to listen to the residents of Fenwick Hills and deny this request.

The meeting will be held at City Hall, 80 Broad Street, and will also be live streamed here.

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.

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If you have any comments about what you have read in The Johns Island Advocated or have an event you think should be included, contact us at JohnsIslandAdvocate@gmail.com.

You can learn more about Johns Island by going to our website JohnsIslandAdvocate.org.