Plumbers in James Island, SC

JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - The City of Charleston is looking at the application of a potential new development off Folly Road that would include a mini golf course and a new retail center.

In addition to the mini golf course, this potential new mixed-use development would include a food court, a coffee shop, a wellness facility and a bar. There are also plans for over 120 parking spaces to accommodate patrons, according to the developer.

If approved, the development, which has been named the “Community Corner,” would take up 2.9 acres of land on Grimball Road Extension.

This project is still very early in the approval process and would require several other steps and approvals from the City to move forward.

Though nothing is finalized, this potential project has garnered quite a bit of attention on social media with residents sharing mixed feelings. Some shared concerns about an increase of traffic and the construction harming wetlands, while others say they are excited about the idea and feel the area needs more recreational activities.

Chad Biel is the owner of Bohemian Bull, a restaurant that is just half a mile from the location of the tentative development. Biel shared his thoughts on the proposed “Community Corner” project.

“I would say I see two sides of this,” he says. “It’s inevitable that the city’s going to grow. I think that there needs to be some better city planning. We have a lot of flooding on this street and a ton of traffic on this street. So, I would ask that, you know, that gets thought of when they’re doing these plans, but then, as a resident that’s kind of the piece of the pie, right? I have kids. So, they’re going to enjoy the mini golf but then we also will deal with all the traffic that comes along with that as more and more people come down this way in a relatively small highway that runs through here.”

Biel says he likes the idea of more activity options coming to the area and believes it could help foot traffic for his business, but he calls on city officials to consider some of the flooding issues and road traffic in the area. If that is addressed, he says he welcomes the idea.

“As a business owner, I think it’ll be a positive impact. I mean, every single time that we see other businesses opening up in the area, we always see a positive impact from it and we’ve had sales growth year over year, and that’s because the area is continuing to grow, we are continuing to get more people that move to James Island, we are getting more businesses on James Island,” he says.

The developer of this tentative project says that they plan to create a world class space that does not exist anywhere in Charleston.

While there is no form for public comment on this project, the city’s Technical Review Committee Administrator, Eric Schultz, welcomes questions about any of the items up for discussion by the committee. Schultz can be reached at 843-724-3790 or [email protected].

The committee will meet Thursday at 9 a.m. to discuss this application.

This item is scheduled in the agenda to be heard at 11:30 a.m.

Click here for the Zoom link to join the meeting.

To call into the meeting, dial 1-312-626-6799, then type in Webinar ID# 832-2640-6779, followed by the password, 721363.

Guests are encouraged to join the meeting 20 minutes before the agenda item is scheduled to be discussed. The “Community Corner” is up for discussion at 11:30 a.m.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.

JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - The Town of James Island is getting a new family park in the imminent future, and leaders want public input on what it should look like and what amenities it offers.

Town leaders will hold a community meeting next Wednesday as an opportunity for residents to share their thoughts and ideas for the new park.

Mayor Brook Lyon said this piece of waterfront property belongs to the citizens of James Island, and she wants the new family park to be a special place that makes everyone happy and meets everyone’s needs.

“Community input is extremely important. This park belongs to the citizens of James Island, of the town, and we want it to be a special place that makes them happy when they come here,” Lyon said.

According to a press release, the town purchased the property last year with Charleston County greenbelt and hospitality funds.

The town council just recently approved the project in November, and now they want to know your ideas before any finalized plans are made.

Lyon said the new park will sit on six acres at the end of Mill Point Road and is partially funded by a greenbelt grant of $930,000.

She said next week’s meeting serves as an opportunity for residents to share what they’d like the new park to look like and what kind of accommodations they’d like to see.

“We would like to get feedback from the community with what they’d like to see out here at the park. We are limited as the greenbelt application was for a passive park, so we can’t put tennis courts, or a basketball court, or anything like that that’s considered active,” Lyon said.

She said they expect the project’s total cost will be around $2.7 million, and since their funds are limited by the greenbelt grant, they’re going to have to pick and choose certain amenities; However, she said they don’t anticipate a lot of construction.

“Do you want picnic tables, leave it as is, any type of amenities, a dock? Those are the types of things we had in mind. It’s a tidal creek but it has good access for kayaking, fishing, crabbing and things like that. Those are things I believe our citizens are interested in having access to here in the Town of James Island,” Lyon said.

She said one of her priorities while in office is to protect the trees and the little green space that’s left on the island, adding that this park is the perfect chance to do just that.

“If you don’t cut the trees down to build houses, the trees suck up the water. It’s good flooding mitigation, it helps the atmosphere, it helps your peace of mind, it reduces traffic because the trees are there instead of more cars and people. Our island is so over-developed now and there’s very few opportunities for a park that any chance we get to have a park is great,” Lyon said.

The meeting will be held at the James Island Town Hall council chamber located at 1122 Dills Bluff Road at 7:00 p.m.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Updated: Dec. 24, 2024 at 8:15 PM PST

JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Several people decided to celebrate their Christmas Eve at the Holiday Festival of Lights at the James Island County Park.

From riding through three miles of light displays to visiting Santa, checking out the sand sculptures, shopping, exploring the reindeer workshop, or enjoying delicious treats, the festival offers something for everyone to enjoy.

Many say coming out to the festival has become one of the many Christmas traditions in their families.

“Besides coming here on Christmas Eve, I would say the other thing that we like to do is have a family dinner of course. We do have some inlaws that live here now, in addition to that a lot of facetiming, so with parents that are not here in Charleston,” resident Kellan Stephens says.

One family says they even drive hours to come to the festival every Christmas.

“We come every year,” Benjamin Singletary says. “It’s a lot of fun. The lights are super cool and we try to look for the new one.”

Others shared some of their longtime favorite things to do during the holiday season.

“Making Christmas cookies. My mom does that every year and so I always look forward to that and then just you know like Christmas movies, waking up on Christmas and opening stockings,” Tanner Bachtel says.

One Festival of Lights goer says that this year was his first time visiting the event and he even found a favorite light display when coming in to check out the Christmas magic.

“On the entrance, there is a construction company’s one. It was pretty cool, it was like a treasure island-type vibe with some gold,” first-timer Hunter Leyva says.

Another festival-goer says that growing up in Charleston she actually worked at the Festival of Lights and has seen more people come out each year to be a part of the holiday spirit. She herself also has some favorite parts about the event.

“The smores. I love making smores, so that’s probably my favorite part and I like the gift shop like the big building with everything. That’s probably my two favorite things,” Shaniya Hawkins says.

The Holiday Festival of Lights will be open until December 31 from 5:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. each night.

To learn more about what the Holiday Festival of Lights has to offer, you can visit here.

If you would like to purchase your tickets online you can click here.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Published: Dec. 17, 2024 at 7:45 PM PST|

JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Construction of a multi-million-dollar fire station on Johns Island that has been talked about for years is officially moving forward.

This project took a significant step after the City of Charleston approved a construction manager at risk, or CMAR, contract during Tuesday night’s council meeting.

A CMAR is when a construction manager agrees to take on a project and complete it within a set guaranteed maximum price, or GMP, and if construction services end up exceeding the GMP that was agreed upon, the construction manager is responsible for those costs.

The set GMP that City officials approved for the CMAR contract Tuesday night is $12.4 million.

Fire Station number 23 is planned to sit on Maybank Highway at Wildts Battery Boulevard. Plans call for it to include a training room, three bays and two units: an engine company and a ladder company. Officials say there would be four personnel working on each unit.

“To have enough apparatus and units to respond when we need it, so this will provide for growth as we go forward as well as we continue to plan for future growth beyond this,” Deputy Chief Forrest Cockcroft says. “But right now this will give us another engine and a ladder to really beef up that initial first response that we get on most of our fires, especially on our commercial fires.”

The Charleston Fire Department only has one station on Johns Island, which is Fire Station 17 located on Bohicket Road.

Cockcroft says that they currently have coverage of all of Johns Island between the Charleston Fire Department and St. Johns Fire Department, but they are looking ahead to meet the demand as the population grows by adding this new fire station.

“One of the things we try to look to is to make sure that we have the appropriate amount of personnel on scene for a structure fire or different type of call types, so we have some benchmarks that we try to meet with that and this will allow us to meet those benchmarks much more quickly because we’ve got much more density of stations going in and additional firefighters on the road,” Cockcroft says.

City of Charleston council member, Jim McBride, who represents Johns Island says that this new fire station will also help out other stations in the surrounding areas.

“Sometimes fire stations from James Island and West Ashley have to come augment us if there is a big fire, so getting this station on there on Maybank will actually free them up to focus more on their areas, so it impacts not just Johns Island, but also James Island and West Ashley,” McBride says.

McBride says that the City of Charleston Fire Chief, Dan Curia, has been working ahead and training two fire teams that will occupy the new fire station once it is built.

He says that they expect shovels in the ground for this project in early 2025 with it expected to be finished by the end of the year.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Published: Dec. 3, 2024 at 1:45 PM PST|

JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - The Town of James Island plans to build a brand-new Arts and Cultural Center in the future, and town leaders want to know your vision for it.

Town officials invite you to a public input meeting next week as an opportunity to share your ideas for the new facility.

Mayor Brook Lyon said the design plan is still in the very beginning stages, but your input still matters.

“Everyone has ownership in it so everyone has a stake in it, so everyone feels a part of it and so it meets the needs of the majority of the people that will be using it and enjoying it,” she said.

Lyon said prior to this plan, the town didn’t have a dedicated arts and cultural building, so they leased the old library building from Charleston County for the past four years.

“It’s been a wonderful opportunity, but the space, the building itself needs a new roof and some repairs, and it’s a large expense to put into a building we don’t own. Council decided because of the expensive repairs as well as issues with parking, it would be prudent to move operations to town hall temporarily, close the current art center temporarily, move the operations to town hall, and then we’re moving forward with plans to build a new art center,” she said.

Lyon said the old library sufficed for the time being but doesn’t make sense financially to continue using it long term.

“It would not be financially prudent to put town money into that much money into a building we don’t own. And there were some stipulations on the parking. The parking lot is privately owned, and that was another issue that we felt like if we move our own art center over here, we have all the parking we need. We own the building, so it makes sense to put town money into a building that we own,” she said.

Lyon said this is the perfect opportunity for you to tell those in charge what your priorities are before any final plans are made.

We’ll have a survey for people to fill out. They can ask questions. I hope to have a slide presentation of the state-of-the-art center that I hope that we can mirror some of those qualities and meet the needs of the citizens that are interested in this wonderful opportunity,” she said.

According to a press release, the town council voted on Nov. 21 to move forward with plans for the new center: “Despite not owning the building, town taxpayers would have been responsible for these repair costs of $250,000 to $400,000 under the lease agreement, along with significantly higher parking costs for even a limited number of spaces at the site.”

The town plans on having more feedback sessions throughout the planning and design process.

“A lot of it is going to depend on what the community wants and what type of building we end up looking at constructing. I don’t have a direct answer for you yet. More will be revealed very soon, but hopefully, we’ll get the best for our dollar and have a great space,” Lyon said.

The new arts center will sit just feet away from the town hall, on the Town’s Hillman Lot.

The public input meeting will be held in the Town Hall Council Chamber on Dec. 11 at 7 p.m.

Lyon said current Arts and Cultural Center programming hasn’t stopped and will continue at James Island Town Hall for now.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.