Mortgage Broker in Johns Island, SC

SEABROOK ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - The potential for a new yacht club and several docks on Seabrook Island is concerning Sea Islanders and environmental advocates.

Town of Seabrook leaders discussed those plans Wednesday, which would include the annexation of a portion of Charleston County into Seabrook island.

The town’s planning commission voted 4-1 to recommend moving forward with the annexation to the town council.

The nearly 18-acre site, called the “Andell Tract,” sits between Bohicket Marina and Betsy Kerrison Parkway on Johns Island.

the plan includes a private Yacht Club and amenities such as a boat house, pool house and detached hotel containing 10 two-story cottages, according to town documents.

It also has public spaces including a boardwalk, pathways and a community crabbing dock.

Dana Beach, the founder of the Coastal Conservation League, said his two main concerns about the proposal are the environmental impacts on the water, and the crossing of Charleston County’s Urban Growth Boundary.

He said if The Town of Seabrook annexes this portion of Charleston County into their town for development, it could set a precedent for other local municipalities to do the same.

“The town may say ‘this is only a 20-acre parcel that in itself isn’t a big deal,” Beach said. “That’s what Charleston could say if it wanted to coming down from the north, that’s what Kiawah could say as it comes in from the East, even Folly Beach could say that.”

Robby Maynor, the Communities and Transportation Program Director for Coastal Conservation League echoed Beach’s point while addressing the planning commission at Wednesday’s meeting.

“There is an ongoing effort for collaboration between the municipalities on the sea islands to reaffirm that growth boundary to help strike a balance between development and preservation, this annexation would be a step in the wrong direction,” Maynor said.

The majority of the 544 written comments and 10 in person comments were against the development, although some community members spoke in its’ favor.

“I believe a Yacht Club is an amenity that fits perfectly within our diverse group of people,” Seabrook resident, Jackie Helline, said.

Mike Shuler, the Owner and Managing Partner for Bohicket Marina Investors, said he respectfully disagrees with the fear that this annexation may set a precedent for other municipalities to cross Charleston County’s Urban Growth boundary.

“What we are annexing is part of Seabrook’s comprehensive plan. Whether it crosses an Urban Growth Boundary, in my opinion, isn’t relevant here,” Shuler said. “Not to mention, further expansion beyond the property we are contemplating here is not possible because of conservation easements that are in place.”

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

There’s a new red light on Maybank Highway, and new Charleston County Councilman Joe Boykin hears about it. Every. Single. Day.

Because, make no mistake, traffic is the undisputed heavyweight chokepoint of contention on Johns Island.

“A lot of folks are upset; they can’t get on and off the island,” Boykin says. “You think it’s bad now — there are 1,300 homes planned or under construction around there. Wait ’til all that drops.”

Yep, that’s the thing — the island can’t wait any longer for traffic relief. Residents have been waiting, largely in idling cars, for years now.

Johns Island’s chronic congestion — and dysfunction — has spread over time, and overwhelms James Island and West Ashley with tens of thousands of commuters daily. Sometimes the drive-by traffic shuts down the grid west of the Ashley River.

See: Savannah Highway and Main Road, Interstate 526 and Sam Rittenberg, Maybank and Folly Road, et al.

There are various solutions to this problem planned, but land disputes, jurisdictional spats, environmental concerns, the threat of lawsuits and rising construction costs have slowed many of those projects. It’s a mess.

Of course, politics is behind some of the paralysis. Nobody can agree on anything these days, especially what needs to be done about Johns Island growth … and its infrastructure.

It’s really about an island with an exploding population that has exactly two routes on and off it. You could call that poor planning, but plans for a third route have been in the works for years. But that’s another story.

So here we are.

There is some reason for hope, however. On Thursday, county and city traffic engineers — along with Boykin, County Council Vice Chairwoman Jenny Honeycutt and City Councilman Karl Brady — sat down in Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg’s office to talk about more collaboration between the two local governments to get various road projects moving.

Which is a good sign, because in the past the two haven’t always seen eye to eye.

At Boykin’s request, County Council recently pledged to work more closely with the city on Johns Island traffic.

And a unanimous vote from a City Council committee last week affirmed its commitment to the same.

Most significantly, City Council gave initial consent to a fourth lane to Maybank Highway between River Road and the bridge to James Island. Right now, much of that stretch is restricted to a single outbound lane that at times is ridiculously overwhelmed.

The City Council resolution is notable because, years ago, Charleston held up county plans to widen Maybank — largely because officials didn’t want to sacrifice trees for additional lanes.

But in the past two years, the traffic count on Maybank has gone up by 6,000 cars per day, to a new high of more than 35,000. For comparison, about 45,000 cross the Wappoo bridge.

The agreement to widen Maybank Highway is a good start, because it’ll ease the bottleneck that builds up ahead of the bridge to James Island. Boykin says if that can be done without sacrificing any trees, it will be.

That’s a big deal but, frankly, just having the city and county in accord is bigger.

“I believe we have a newfound, unprecedented level of cooperation and commitment to improving the traffic at River and Maybank,” Tecklenburg says. “We’re looking at temporary and long-term ways to get two lanes from River Road to the bridge. We’re going to update the traffic plan, which should take about a month. We’re going to do whatever the Department of Transportation will allow.”

Because, remember, the state technically owns all these roads.

Commute times don’t yet reflect it, but there’s already some movement.

The county’s northern pitchfork is under construction — that new traffic signal at Maybank and Fenwick Hall Allee (the one Boykin is getting calls about) is in place because that’s where the pitchfork will meet the highway.

The problem has been the light’s timing. As any traffic engineer will tell you, when a road is that hopelessly over capacity, it’s difficult to sync it.

The next challenge will be building the southern pitchfork, which Boykin says is key to alleviating congestion on that side of the island. And it’s needed whether or not 526 gets finished.

That’s one thing the county and city, which secured land for the southern leg a few years back, will study in the coming months.

As Boykin and Tecklenburg note, the tines of the pitchfork need to align because yet another traffic light on that stretch of Maybank is simply not an option.

Neither is allowing Johns Island’s congestion to fester any longer.

JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - A new traffic light on Johns Island has caused a stir for people who live and drive through the area.

The light, located at Maybank Highway and Fenwick Hall Allee, was installed Tuesday. After just one day, officials with the City of Charleston have received calls from people who drive through the area frustrated that traffic on Maybank Highway has gotten even worse.

“They’ve been steady coming from us. As well, they’ve been going to the DOT, and Charleston County as well,” Robert Somerville, director of the City of Charleston’s department of traffic and transportation said. “We are aware and we’re working on it. We just ask for your patience and we will get it figured out.”

This signal was part of the Northern Pitchfork project. Somerville said with concerns about safety involving drivers exiting out of Fenwick Hall Allee they decided to install a temporary signal before the mast arms were ready to be completed.

Since activating the signal Tuesday, Somerville said they found there is a problem within the corridor that affects the timing from Headquarters Plantation to River Road. They’ve had technicians from the city and DOT at the location to try to get the issue figured out.

“This is a safety project,” Somerville said. “We’ve had numerous accidents at that intersection so I believe this signal will be the best thing for Maybank Highway and Fenwick Allee in the long run.”

For Dan Kinne, who lives near the traffic light, the new signal is allowing him to breathe a little easier.

“You used to take your life in your hands when you were coming out of there and turning left onto Maybank or coming home on Maybank turning left onto Fenwick Hall,” Kinne said. “I’m lucky we never got hit.”

People have taken to social media to complain about an increase in traffic on Maybank Highway.

Katelyn Robinson commutes to Johns Island every day to take her daughter to school. She said it takes her 10 minutes to take her daughter to school, but an hour to get home.

“It’s affecting everybody’s sanity and their drive to work in the morning,” Robinson said. “They have a livelihood they have to keep up, they have jobs they have to get to, kids they have to drop off, things they have to do in the morning.”

Somerville said the permanent signal will be ready to be installed in about a year. For now, he is asking for patience.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCBD) – Some Johns Island neighbors like the new traffic light, and some say it’s causing traffic issues on the island, but city officials say they’re working to make sure this new light doesn’t become a problem for drivers moving forward.

The new traffic light at the intersection of Maybank Highway and Fenwick Hall Allee is causing quite a controversy amongst Johns Island neighbors. Some are appreciative of the addition.

“This light I feel like it does help a lot,” Johns Island resident Liz Jannetta said, “especially for this community.”

Some believe it’s the cause of increased commute times across the island.

“Little bit of a negative coming back because it starts to bottleneck,” Johns Island resident Marek Pawulski said. “People coming onto Johns Island and leaving Johns Island.”

But Charleston City officials say because the new light has only been in operation for a week, no one can definitely say it’s the reason for the congestion.

“I would say it’s speculation,” Robert Somerville, director of traffic and transportation for the City of Charleston, said. “We really need to get some data collected.”

Somerville says Charleston County has already begun the process of gathering that data.

“They have counters placed on Maybank so we can look at the volumes,” he said, “and compare it to pre-installation of the signal to the volumes that we’re seeing now.”

With more than 80 accidents at the intersection, including multiple fatalities, neighbors in the Fenwick Plantation subdivision would like others to see why this new light is needed.

“I have three teenage kids,” Jannetta said, “two who both drive now and putting them, before this light came, having them make lefts out of this neighborhood it was gut-wrenching. I don’t even know what else to say.”

And though some people see the new light as a main cause for backups on the island, they understand it was installed for everyone’s safety.

“If this light came in for the purpose to prevent accidents and save lives then I think it’s a good thing,” Pawulski said. “But like you said, I think they need to set up the timing a little bit better so it doesn’t bottle up towards Headquarters or way past River Road.”

Charleston City officials say they will continue working on the timing of the light, and they’re urging all drivers to be patient during that process.

Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

The South Carolina Office of Resilience has announced they will be giving several million dollars to the City of Charleston to improve drainage on Johns Island.

JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - The South Carolina Office of Resilience has announced they will be giving several million dollars to the City of Charleston to improve drainage issues affecting around 500 acres of Johns Island.

Stormwater Management Director Matthew Fountain said Monday the city is trying to build a naturalized area and a new stream near the homes of the Barberry Woods neighborhood off Maybank Highway to reduce flooding.

“Getting this grant in helps close the funding gap,” Fountain said. “We’ve seen some huge cost increases over the last three to four years as everybody knows in construction, especially.”

Fountain said the $4.6 million grant from the state will cover about half of the project’s $10 million price tag. He added the city has invested a couple million dollars alone buying up nearby vacant properties.

Neighbors also shared videos of how extreme the flooding was during Hurricane Ian in Barberry Woods, with one neighbor who could be seen taking his children on a kayak ride along the street.

Fountain said the state’s grant money will help cover some of the construction costs, including tree clearing, digging out soil and reshaping the land. The project also calls for a 20-to-25-acre area complete with walking trails.

“The water can basically act like in a natural wetland system over the top of the stream banks and hold in the wetland areas instead of being in people’s roads and streets,” Fountain said.

A few years ago, the city, in conjunction with the Dutch embassy, brought over experts from the Netherlands, Europe and across the country to recommend ways to address flooding. Fountain said this project was one of those recommendations.

“How do you restore the ability of the land to handle the water like it used before you basically did all this development in the area,” Fountain said. “This project is directly looking at how do we take land that could be developed into something – commercial or homes – and basically convert it back into wetlands and streams like it would have been hundreds of years ago potentially to help manage the flooding challenges that are currently affecting the developed properties around it.”

Neighbors like Brian Mack said they are glad a potential solution is underway.

“We get a lot of the drainage from neighborhoods up the road, and it tends to pool down here in the middle of the road and come out toward our house and the back of the neighborhood,” Mack said.

Mack said his neighbors have to prepare in case of heavy rain, so they’re not stuck.

“Some cars have to park in the front and either walk barefoot through or put galoshes on just to get to their homes,” Mack said.

Fountain said he expects to receive these state funds in the next month or so, and they’re on track to start construction in about a year to a year and a half.

“It’ll take a little bit of time, but upon completion of the project, one of the advantages of something like this is you’ll see immediate improvements,” Fountain said.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.