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AWENDAW, SC (WCIV) — For weeks, Awendaw residents have been expressing concerns about the potential of hundreds of new homes coming to their community.

"Town council has approved 822 new residences with more on the docket tonight," Awendaw resident John Cooke said. "Those residences come with a population that will at least double our current population."

Read more: Awendaw residents fear housing boom could threaten town's rural charm

However, Mayor Miriam Green says the population will not be doubled.

"It's not the truth," Green said. "It's not a total of 800 homes. And if it is, they still have to go through planning."

"I can't say it's 800, 9,00, or 1,000 homes because I don't know," she continued. "But in the preliminary plan, yes, it did say certain amount of homes will be built up there."

Green describes the development plans as "smart growth".

Mayor Miriam Green describes the development plans as "smart growth". (WCIV)

"We are following ordinance and processes of procedures and state guidelines," she said.

In response to the concerns about the development plans being too much in too little time, Green says the town has to follow guidelines and the rules.

"Just because someone comes to you and says 'This is what we want,' doesn't meant that's what the majority of the citizens of Awendaw want," the mayor said.

Residents have also expressed concerns about how new developments may affect Awendaw's roads and infrastructure.

Read more: Ten Mile Neighborhood Association challenges proposed approval of development along Seafood Road

"Last meeting, I heard emergency services people talk about the fact that they were concerned about their ability to support the town," Cooke said. "The roads, the infrastructure might not be able to support (new development). The roads that were made in the early 1950s-60s are still the ones being used today and could fail."

Green says the infrastructure, road, and traffic issues are being analyzed as part of the development plans.

"We're looking at all that stuff," the mayor said. "We have a traffic study in place, but it doesn't happen overnight."

Another concern is the septic tanks that will be used for the new development, which Green says the town is working on with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC).

Read more: Zoning denial a 'win' for some Awendaw residents

"20 years when all these systems start to fail, you could have an ecological disaster that could affect a lot of bulls bay and the intercoastal waterways," Cooke said.

The evening of Aug. 21, the Awendaw Planning Commission reviewed the Harper Valley proposal. It was denied in a 5-1 vote.

Cooke says people who live in Awendaw are banding together in opposition and they are asking for a moratorium to slow down the development.

"It's a growing pain in Awendaw," Green said. "It's not the people that live here. It's the people that came here."

The town of Awendaw was incorporated more than three decades ago, not so much to provide municipal services but to let residents control their planning and zoning decisions rather than relying on county government. In recent years, however, that job has become increasingly challenging because Mount Pleasant is running out of large developable sites, our region’s continued growth is creating dramatic demand for more housing and Awendaw’s location helps it retain much of its rural charm, wedged as it is between two environmental treasures of national significance: the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge and the Francis Marion National Forest.

It’s more important than ever that town officials recognize the growing importance and intensity of their planning work — and rise to the occasion to protect the relaxed, rural ambiance that has defined this part of South Carolina’s coast.

There are some encouraging signs.

A year ago, we lamented proposals to develop two large subdivisions, with 249 and 204 homes respectively, to be served by individual septic tanks since there are no sewer lines in the town. Those are still in the permitting stages and we hope they will be scaled back if they’re built at all. They certainly underscore the need for state regulators to consider the cumulative impact of large subdivisions with dozens, even hundreds, of septic tanks that can compromise nearby waterways, as they have done along Shem and James Island creeks.

But the encouraging news is when yet another septic-tank subdivision was proposed recently, the Awendaw Planning Commission voted unanimously against Sewee Landing’s 72 homes on 50 acres. At the same meeting, the commission recommended an update of the town’s planned development ordinance that these subdivisions had relied on.

Awendaw Town Council could consider both the subdivision proposal and the ordinance rewrite as early as this week, and we urge council members to follow their planning commissioners’ advice.

Even when a septic system is well-maintained, it can face problems if the water table is too high, and rising groundwater can carry the resulting contaminants to rivers and marshes, a problem that’s expected to grow more acute as climate change pushes sea levels higher. Awendaw’s proximity to the pristine Cape Romain makes it a desirable place to live, but too many septic tanks too close to the refuge (and too close to each other) could taint the very thing that makes the area an attractive place to visit and to live.

These developments don’t pose a threat simply because they would rely on septic systems. They also would increase the amount of impervious surface and stormwater runoff, exacerbate habitat loss and degrade the community’s rural character.

Awendaw is a small town that seems to have been pushed around at times. Its deal for a new park to be created by then-Charleston County Councilman Elliott Summey in exchange for Mr. Summey’s right to mine dirt on the park site ended badly. The mining stopped in 2019, but the town had to sue to try to get an accounting of what was done there; the park itself is still a distant dream. In another part of town, the King Tract mine was allowed to expand even though it had been hit with more than a dozen water quality violations.

So we’re encouraged that there’s a proactive solution in the works. Awendaw is drafting a new comprehensive plan to replace one that’s 13 years old. This process will provide town leaders, residents and others a perfect chance to forge a shared vision of how the town should manage growth, and they should make sure they make the most of this chance.

After all, the pressures on their town are only expected to intensify in the years to come.

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AWENDAW — Just past the border of Mount Pleasant, the small town of Awendaw has been seeing increasing development of suburban-style subdivisions that rely on septic tanks.

Now the town is trying to apply the brakes.

In the modest cinder-block building where Town Council meetings are held, a supportive standing-room-only crowd gathered May 4 to follow as more restrictive rules for development were laid out.

“We’ve been very hamstrung in the past,” Planning Commission member James Gardner told council members. “It seems the (current) less stringent rules are letting developers come in and have their way with the town.”

At issue is what’s known as a “planned development” that allows developers to negotiate rules with the town, potentially avoiding stricter zoning regulations.

Town planner Mark Brodeur said every planned development he’s seen in the past year and a half has sought more density — more houses per acre — than the town’s rules would otherwise have allowed.

New rules, which received initial unanimous approval from the Town Council, would prevent that from happening and would add a host of new requirements to future planned developments.

“Managed growth is the key to Awendaw’s future,” reads the first sentence of a large, framed copy of the town’s vision statement on the meeting room wall.

Resident Susan Cox applauded the rule changes, telling council members “it will allow Awendaw to protect this gorgeous environment.”

The coastal town of fewer than 1,500 residents sits between the Francis Marion National Forest and Bull’s Bay. A shrimp trawler is the main feature on the town’s seal.

Each new subdivision can have a large impact on the population of such a small community, and because the town has no sewer system, each new home relies on a septic system. That’s not uncommon in rural areas, but failing septic systems have been an increasing problem in the Charleston area and some governments — including Mount Pleasant — are spending millions to get rid of them.

Last year Awendaw approved a 204-home subdivision on 148 acres near Seewee and Bulls Island roads over objections that the more than 200 septic systems could fail and send raw sewage into the waters near Cape Romain Wildlife Refuge.

The town’s new planned development rules would not restrict septic systems since there’s no public sewer option, but lays out density and minimum lot sizes, distances from wetlands, and how much of a property could be covered by impervious surfaces such as pavement and buildings.

Several town residents said Awendaw also needs to simply refuse more often when developers want to up-zone properties to allow for more home construction.

“We don’t have to say ‘yes’ to everyone who comes,” said Isaiah Simmons. “We will be in the same shape as Mount Pleasant and all those other areas.”

SC Climate and Environment News

With residents and council members apparently united on the issue of tighter development rules, May 4 turned out to be a bad night for developers of the proposed “Seewee Landing” subdivision.

The subdivision proposal called for 72 single-family homes with septic systems on a 49-acre property currently zoning agricultural. The developers wanted the zoning changed to a planned development, and multiple residents urged the council to refuse.

“That looks excessive to me,” said resident Sandra Freeman.

Gardner, the planning commission member, said it was obvious the requested planned development zoning was aimed at avoiding more restrictive rules. The commission had unanimously voted against recommending the change.

“It’s a carefully considered thoughtful project,” Brandon Gaskins, lawyer for the developers, told Town Council.

Brodeur said the town staff would recommend approving the zoning change, but only with a number of changes — 31 in all — including larger building lots that would likely reduce the number of houses, limits on impervious surfaces, and a requirement to have regular third-party testing of all the septic systems.

“Septic tanks are known to malfunction and leak,” Brodeur noted.

Septic-tanks

Rather than face a Town Council vote on the original request, after seven residents spoke against it and none were in favor, Gaskins said the developers would incorporate all of the town’s recommendations and return with an updated planned development request.

The property is at the intersection of Seewee Road and Granny Lane. Gaskins said that incorporating all of the town’s recommended changes would drop the development’s density to about one home per acre.

Birders, photographers, and Flamingo enthusiasts join Coastal Expeditions on Tuesday, September 5th, 2023 at the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge on Bulls Island. (Sam Griswold/WCIV)

Awendaw, S.C. (WCIV) — “If you come out here enough, you’re going to find something really, really crazy, eventually.”

That's exactly what happened for Coastal Expeditions' Naturalist Annie Owen on Friday at the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge on Bulls Island.

Boat is the only way to the South Carolina coastal island near Awendaw, and the charter company is the federally designated concessionaire to the refuge. Friday, Owen was surveying parts of the island after Hurricane Idalia had passed through earlier in the week. That's when she spotted the pair of pink birds she knew weren't the "usual suspects."

"There are pink birds that we expect to see on Bulls Island and in South Carolina this time of year – which would be the Roseate Spoonbill. And, right off the bat it was very clear that those were not two Roseate Spoonbills, that they were actually Flamingos," says Owen. She conferred later in the day with two others who had made the sightings independently.

Over the course of the weekend, social media "blew up" with reports of Flamingos - not just in South Carolina - but across the Eastern U.S., from Florida to Ohio. The consensus? These birds - that normally make their home in places in the Caribbean like Cuba, Mexico and the Yucatan peninsula - were displaced due to the effects of Hurricane Idalia.

“I heard about it on social media, and I found out that they were here. And, I was like, 'Mom, we got to go,'” says Amanda Vargo, a Flamingo enthusiast from Folly Beach.

Vargo elected to close her artisan boutique Folly Sol on Tuesday so she could join the crowd on Coastal Expedition's ferry excursion to the island.

Vargo developed her love for the pink-feathered fliers when friends threw her a Flamingo-themed birthday party. "I’ve got flamingo artwork. And, I’ve seen them in zoos, but never in the wild,” says Vargo.

Expert birders, enthusiasts, and photographers filled the ferry Tuesday morning hoping at least one of the two birds remained. The group's first stop on the island garnered success - with a look at the bird about a 1/2 mile away, but another vantage point gave way to some closer looks.

Owen says while this week's sightings of the American Flamingos stands out - the rewards Bulls Island has to offer are liable to make a "birder" out of anyone who loves nature.

“In a place like this you have no option but to be. Once you start learning about it you just can’t stop." Owen continues," You see your first - not even Flamingo level stuff - this is really cool for anybody. But, you see your first Painted Bunting - which is colors you didn’t even know existed. It’s just really spectacular.”