Plumbers in Mount Pleasant, SC

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD) – Twelve acres of land along Park Avenue Boulevard in Mount Pleasant could soon be the site of a proposed attainable housing complex.

“It is in the perfect place in Mount Pleasant ‘cause there’s six schools around there, two fire stations, we’re getting ready to build a public services facility at Lieben Road, the hospital is there, and major retailers like Costco,” explained Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie.

Next week town council will vote on the first reading of amending the Carolina Park Planned Development document to allow for attainable housing at that location.

The mayor said the proposed homes will be in the $300-400,000 price range and will be available for purchase, not rent. To qualify, he said future homeowners will need to fall within a certain percentage of the area median income.

“This is our first responders, our teachers, our healthcare workers. And to be a healthy and complete community, we need to welcome people like that instead of excluding them by the $1 million average home sale price we had last month,” Mayor Haynie said.

The parcel was purchased by Seacoast Church years ago for a second Mount Pleasant campus, but Glenn Wood, the administrator for the church, said they realized it wasn’t the right fit.

After receiving multiple offers, he said they decided to sell it to an attainable housing developer.

“We just feel like it’s a great opportunity for the town to be able to have housing that teachers, fire departments, nurses, you know and honestly even our staff ‘cause some of our staff has to live outside of Mount Pleasant and commute in just because of the cost of real estate,” Wood said. “And so, its an opportunity, we felt like for the town to be able to have some attainable housing and you know I think it’s a great use of the land and a great opportunity.

Prosperity Builders, the developer of the project, already has another attainable housing project in Mount Pleasant called Gregorie Ferry Towns.

Mayor Haynie said if the plan passes the necessary steps, they could break ground as soon as the summer.

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - Parents and students of a Charleston County school are demanding justice from the district after two teachers were recently relocated to other schools.

They claim two teachers from Mamie P. Whitesides Elementary School were moved because they were vocal about their concerns surrounding carbon dioxide levels in the school, and parents are calling the situation “whistleblower retaliation.”

Students and parents stood on the corner of Rifle Range Road and Founders Way across the street from Whitesides on Friday afternoon with signs and chanting “Bring back Ms. Bowman and Ms. White,” two teachers they say were ripped from their classrooms and placed in other schools with just three months left in the school year.

“This is nothing that parents take lightly,” parent Alicia Cledaras said. “These teachers spend more time with our children than we do during the day.”

Whitesides Principal Michelle Connor emailed parents Thursday night saying in part that a long-term substitute will be taking over for Bowman beginning Friday but did not give an explanation as to why.

Parents said this is an unnecessary disruption to classroom learning, and students are devasted to lose their teacher and said they didn’t get to say goodbye to her.

“I think the way Ms. Bowman was dismissed left the children feeling very uneasy about trusting the choices that our school is making,” parent Healther Kramer said.

Parents are now demanding the alleged retaliation stops against teachers who spoke up for their health and the health of their students regarding the CO2 issues, and that both White and Bowman are returned to their classrooms come Monday.

Students are upset and don’t understand why this is happening.

“Yesterday, we were calling [the district] and some of their voicemails said we {students} were the heart of their work, but it’s unfair for them to take away our teachers and if we are really the heart of your work, they need to bring our teachers back, it’s not fair,” student Carolina Kramer said.

“She (Bowman) was one of the nicest teachers I ever had during my years at Whitesides,” student Mila Doldan said. “She opens the window for us to have fresh air.”

“I want Ms. Bowman back because she was trying to get us healthy classroom conditions and she got transferred for it and that’s not fair,” student Jake Mayer said.

The Charleston County School District released the following statement:

Both Ms. Bowman and Ms. White have been transferred from Mamie P. Whitesides Elementary School but continue to be employed by CCSD at East Cooper schools. The decision to transfer both teachers was to address concerns raised by both teachers regarding issues specific to Whitesides and ensure their safety as valued employees. The district cannot comment further as this issue is a personnel matter. The limited information is not intended to disenfranchise members of the community but rather to protect the privacy of our employees.

Parents and students also said they still have concerns about the CO2 levels in the school, despite all the district has done to ensure it is safe. Students said they often experience headaches while at school.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - Residents of Mount Pleasant can still provide input on a road improvement project on the Rifle Range Trail and Long Point Trail.

The Charleston Moves organization wants Mount Pleasant residents to weigh in on these designs before it’s too late.

The Town of Mount Pleasant hosted an in-person meeting to collect community input on the proposed Rifle Range Trail and Long Point Trail segments as part of the Mount Pleasant Way project.

For those who could not attend the meeting, online surveys are set for residents to vote on.

The goal of the project is to provide safe and efficient infrastructure for everyone to get around the town.

Questions that are featured on the survey ask if the concept is supported and what amenities residents would like to see included in the projects like benches, swings, water fountains and workout stations.

The Long Point Trail would provide continued access between the river crossing and neighborhoods.

The Rifle Range Trail is a proposed multi-use path project that is proposed to run along the west side of Rifle Range Road from the roundabout at Venning Road to Bragg Drive.

Friday is the last day to share your input and click to complete the survey for the Rifle Range Trail and Long Point Trail segments.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

MOUNT PLEASANT — In an ongoing backlash to years of soaring population growth and traffic complaints, this affluent suburb plans to extend strict limits on building permits for another five years.

Just 600 new residences would be permitted yearly in the town of more than 94,000 people, and the actual number would likely be lower.

The yearslong effort to slow residential development by capping building permits is a step no other municipality in South Carolina has taken, but few have experienced growth like Mount Pleasant. The town's population has roughly doubled since 2000 and tripled since 1990.

“There was concern in the community about our infrastructure being able to keep up with the growth rate, and I don’t think that concern has gone away," said Councilwoman G.M. Whitley, who put the permit limit extension before Town Council in November.

The measure is scheduled for a Planning Commission hearing Dec. 13, with a final Town Council vote expected in January. The "building permit allocation system" has been in place nearly five years, and instead of expiring in early 2024, it would be extended to 2029.

Mount Pleasant News

It's among many steps the town has taken to thwart rapid growth. There's also a moratorium on new apartment construction that's been in place for seven years, zoning rules have been changed to limit building height and density, and development impact fees were increased dramatically.

In 2018, the year before the permit caps began, the town saw 1,407 new dwelling units — houses, apartments, townhouses and other types of residences. Last year, there were 759.

Graphic: New residential units in Mount Pleasant

Building permit limits that began in early 2019 slowed residential development in Mount Pleasant. The town plans to extend those limits to 2029. NOTE: 2023 data As of novEMBER

The Post and Courier | sOURCE: TOWN OF MOUNT PLEASANT | THE POST AND COURIER

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Graphic: New residential units in Mount Pleasant

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The permit limits were aimed at slowing the town's annual growth rate for residences from more than 3 percent to a target of 2.1 percent. The result was a growth rate even lower, marked by a low of 1.29 percent in 2020 when just 520 new residences were built.

Real Estate

Mount Pleasant's ordinance in 2019 laid out justifications for limiting building permits, and nearly five years later those have not changed.

The ordinance to extend the permit limits uses the same language, which says "the effects of significant growth are apparent and have resulted not only in increased traffic, congestion and noise, but have also burdened the services.." and "...the town’s road system is barely capable of adequately handling current traffic..."

The permit rules are particularly strict when it comes to higher density multi-family construction, such as apartments and condos. Just 500 new multi-family residences would be allowed over five years, while 2,400 single-family homes could be permitted.

Perhaps surprisingly, despite the limits in place since 2019, hundreds of single-family-home permits went unclaimed.

“Right now we have in excess of 800-900 single-family permits," said Michele Reed, the town's planning director.

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Real estate professionals said a lack of developable land in Mount Pleasant and the high cost of any land available help explain why hundreds of permits to build houses were not used.

“Mount Pleasant, in a lot of ways, is near build-out," said Josh Dix, government affairs director for the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors. "There’s not a lot of opportunity for single-family."

Real Estate

If the town were to annex more properties, that could change. The town is currently in a lawsuit over rules that require property owners to become part of the town in order to get the water and sewer service needed for development.

The suit was filed by owners of a 185-acre tract on the Wando River, known as the Republic tract.

If it were to be developed in the town, Mount Pleasant's impact fees would apply and permit limits would allow just 25 new homes per developer every six months. If it could be developed as an unincorporated part of Charleston County, town officials have said the county's zoning would allow about 1,600 homes.

So, Mount Pleasant is mostly built-out, but that could change.

In the current permit-limiting plan that started in 2019, all but 10 of the 500 multi-family permits were claimed, as were all 100 of the permits allowed for accessory dwellings — generally small second homes on the same property as a primary home.

Mount Pleasant News

Unclaimed permits will not roll over into the next proposed 5-year program. And as with the current program, there would be limits on how many single-family permits could be obtained every six months.

Drew Grossklauss, a Mount Pleasant realtor who became president of the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors in November, said he understands the town needs to address growth but the length of the permit limit extension seems unnecessary.

“I would say five years seems like an extreme to do something," he said.

There are exceptions to the permit caps. The two developments that have ongoing agreements with the town, Carolina Park and Liberty Hill Farm, are exempt, as are developments of affordable housing.

Real Estate

During the last five years, there was one townhouse development, Gregorie Ferry Towns, that qualified for the affordable housing exception — townhomes started at $279,000 — but real estate professionals doubt private developers could create more.

"The cost of land, the cost of construction — all these things add up," said Dix. He said allowing more permits for multi-family housing could help create more affordable housing.

“There is a lot of talk from realtors that if we build a lot of multi-family housing, Mount Pleasant would be more affordable, but I think that’s not true," said Whitley. "They will charge what the market will bear."

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) – Charleston County is holding a public meeting Monday night to get feedback from the community on potential road projects for the Town of Mount Pleasant.

This will be the fourth out of five meetings discussing projects in different municipalities in the county including Johns Island, West Ashley, James Island, Mount Pleasant and North Charleston.

The meeting Monday night will focus on five potential projects. These projects could be financed as part of the potential third transportation sales tax which will be voted on in November. Since the county will not be able to fund all five projects for each municipality, leaders want to hear which projects the public is most interested in.

These projects include improvements for intersections, bike and pedestrian safety and overall traffic congestion. They will be looking at the following projects for Mount Pleasant:

At the meeting, they plan to show how much money was spent in the first two halves of the sales tax and how much they plan to spend if the third gets approved. This tax also pays for CARTA, rapid transit, and the Greenbelt Program. If approved, the sales tax would provide around $5.4 billion towards different road projects and improvements across the county including highways, streets, bridges, green space preservation and mass transit systems.

Mount Pleasant Town Council member Howard Chapman, who also serves on the town’s Transportation Committee, said that the town did a survey and found the number one issue in Mount Pleasant is transportation. He said they value what the community desires and that is why they want feedback on what projects come to the town next.

“I hope that residents will look at the improvements planned for Mount Pleasant, and see that they’re critical in order to help make Mount Pleasant a better place to travel, a better place to live and get rid of some of the major congestion we have,” Chapman said.

Chapman said that the town has also implemented seven additional projects totaling over $54 million to improve roads in Mount Pleasant.

“We’ve gotten impact fees and things like that, plus federal funds to do a lot. But there’s still a lot more needed because of the growth and population and traffic obviously in Mount Pleasant,” Chapman said.

He said he appreciates the help of the council members and the county.

“We’re working together to make improvements for the town. And I want to congratulate all of our council members and the mayor on the work we’ve been able to accomplish by working together with civility and respect,” Chapman said.

Charleston County Council Chairman Herbert Sass said he believes getting the community’s feedback is imperative in making these decisions.

“We think that’s important. We’re citizens. We work for the people. We want everybody to get the projects that they think are the most important for their area” Sass said. “That’s why we hope people will come out and talk to us at this meeting.”

Sass said that these five projects were selected based on recommendations from each municipality.

“We went to each municipality and asked them to give us a list of projects that they would like to see completed. Now, we will not be able to do all five of these from Mount Pleasant. There’ll be some combination of these projects that will be part of the half-cent sales tax,” he said. “And I think that we’ve got a good program and I’d sure like to see this third half-cent sales tax progress because these are projects we really need.”

Sass said they were able to get a lot done with the first two sales tax programs and he hopes that can continue in November.

“We got a lot of projects going. We’ve completed over 300-and-some projects, intersection improvements and things like that, which helped out all communities in all the regions, not just Mount Pleasant. We spread these things all around the county and so we try to pick the roads and improvements that we need to make the most difference,” he said.

Sass said they should have a decision on which projects will be considered after all five meetings take place.

The Monday meeting will take place at Moultrie Middle School in Mount Pleasant. It will go from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and will be drop-in style. Anyone in the community is welcome to attend. County officials request that those planning on attending park in the back of the school.

The next meeting will be for North Charleston and will take place Feb. on 26.

Click here to see the potential projects for each municipality.

If you cannot make the meetings, you are still able to submit feedback online until March 6.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.