Plumbers in Awendaw, SC

AWENDAW, S.C. (WCSC) - The community of Awendaw is upset after the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services held a public hearing on a new residential development the same night as the town council meeting.

This public hearing on the potential Seewee Landing project comes after the last meeting went . Dozens of residents and environmental advocates attended the Sept. 29 meeting and shared opposition to the large development. The same opposition was seen at the public hearing regarding the development’s stormwater permit on Thursday night.

The 48.9-acre development would be called Seewee Landing and would include a single-family residential subdivision consisting of 65 homes. The development would be located at 6578 Seewee Road in coastal Awendaw, right off Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, with 39.6 acres of proposed land disturbance. It would impact about 0.480 acres of wetlands.

“My first thought goes to the community,” Chris Crolley, an Awendaw resident for 29 years, says. “It goes to the folks that are in Awendaw and have been for generations, that thrive in a rural setting.”

The Nov. 6 meeting focused on the scope of the state stormwater permit for the development.

“We feel like they have regulations that will allow them to protect water quality and discourage overdevelopment, especially in flood-prone areas, and we hope that they will just apply them to these projects as they’re written,” Grace Gasper, executive director of Friends of Coastal South Carolina, says.

The opposition comes from a belief that the high-density development would have negative environmental impacts, including water quality, drainage patterns, damage to buffer zones around wetlands and overall land disturbance.

“It’s just being conscious of where your water is running off to and making sure you’re not having a bigger impact on other families, other homes and other ecosystems that are not directly tied to that land,” Connor Ansloy, an Awendaw resident, says.

During the meeting, officials said a stormwater pollution plan would be implemented during construction. They will also have various sediment and erosion controls in place, including a silt fence, inlet protection and sediment basins. An inspector must also be hired by the contractor to ensure the sediment and erosion controls are up to standard.

Residents brought up issues of current excessive stormwater issues and the efficiency of the current runoff systems. One resident suggested that officials take a walkthrough to see the way the water flows during a storm in Awendaw.

This comes after various environmental groups filed a against another Awendaw home development that is proposed to build 208 homes on 182 acres of a portion of land called the White Tract.

Many say poor overdevelopment is fear.

“I think our natural drainage patterns have just been so damaged that it’s hard to imagine how this number of new homes is not going to impact the surrounding residents,” Gasper says.

Officials said they plan to take all of the public comments to the engineer and will hold them accountable and in compliance with their rules and regulations.

On deciding whether to approve or deny the stormwater permit for the new development, the SCDES will be looking at the water quality control during construction, the rate of stormwater runoff and the quality of stormwater runoff.

The community can now provide until Nov. 16.

AWENDAW, S.C. (WCSC) - A historically African American Settlement community may soon see extra protections against overdevelopment.

The Charleston County Planning and Public Works committee approved creating a Zoning Overlay District for the Ten Mile Community on Thursday.

The district consideration would add protections as part of the county’s comprehensive plan to the historic community located between U.S. Highway 17 and Copahee Sound.

The Overlay Zoning District would add more permanent preservation protections to the community and nearby areas.

District 2 county councilmember Larry Kobrovosky says moving towards extra protections is something people should be proud of. He says the amount of development that is working its way into the area is an idea that could not have been imagined up to 30 years ago.

“It’s a way to protect them from major subdivisions there because major subdivisions through the Ten Mile will completely end the way of life there and the way of life the people have lived there with their families for many many generations,” Kobrovsky says.

This change would not stop development but introduce new standards like dimensions and density for builds.

“It is a little bit of an upzoning from one per acre to three units per acre but that was what the community consensus was because I feel what we’ve heard is the people want their families to stay there,” Kobrovsky says.

The councilman says the extra protections also give residents a say in development plans.

“It’s a way for the people that live there to kind of take ownership of it and have control of their own destiny and preserve what they have so that everybody is not displaced and major subdivisions don’t come through there,” Kobrovsky says.

Area resident Amanda Keeney shared her concerns about overdevelopment to leaders in past public input opportunities.

“I was just concerned for preserving the Ten Mile Community that’s been here for a long time,” Keeney says. “Not only for the residents but also for the environment and just preserving the coastline and making sure that there is no flooding due to overdevelopment.”

Kobrovsky says he hopes this zoning model can be applied to other unincorporated areas such as McLennanville.

The vote will go to the county council for a first reading on Oct. 28 if passed.