Your First Choice for Scratch and Dent Appliances in Mount Pleasant

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCIV) — Saving Hamlin.

That's the message from people living in the Hamlin Beach Community who showed up at Mount Pleasant Town Hall Wednesday night. The town’s planning commission voted to recommend the town council deny a rezoning request that would allow for new development.

Hamlin settlement community asks Mount Pleasant officials to stop new development (WCIV)

Multiple people dressed in red brought up their concerns with this possible rezoning to the planning commission.

“We are wearing this red because this is the blood, sweat, and tears that our ancestors have shed to get this land, keep this land,” said Myra Richardson. “And we are also still shedding blood, sweat, and tears to preserve, protect, and keep it for our children, and our great-grandchildren and everybody to come.”

Richardson told News 4 that a move like this would devastate Hamlin.

Read more: "Mount Pleasant native transfers to Tigertown, Graduates from Titletown."

Hamlin Beach is one of Charleston County’s many settlement communities seeking protection for its land, but people say it’s more than just that. They say it’s preserving the roots of the Gullah Geechee culture spanning for decades.

“I’m 51 years old, and I still live on the land, and I can trace my history back to my great-great-grandfather who was a slave living on that land,” said Cassandra Davis.

Land that could be rezoned, giving developers the green light to build new homes.

Read more: "Bailem family protests against alleged unauthorized conversion of John Ballam Road."

Mount Pleasant’s planning commission unanimously decided to recommend denying the zoning request. That recommendation will go to the town council and a final vote will be in its members’ hands.

People living in Hamlin hope the council will also choose to protect their homes.

“Once they come in, one little project at a time, it'll be something that overflows, and it'll be uncontrollable. If you allow one person to do it, then you're not going to be able to deny the next applicant that comes through,” Richardson said.

Richardson said she also worries about development causing traffic and flooding issues. She thinks the rezoning request was extremely vague and fears it would give developers too much power.

Read more: "Mount Pleasant family responds to Charleston County's attempt to dismiss their lawsuit against them."

“You don't know what they want, you don't know what they were planning.”

The planning commission said it’s learning it must shift its focus to protecting the area’s neighborhoods; something the people of Hamlin are grateful for.

“They have just really come together with one sound, one voice to make sure that communities like the Hamlin Beach Community is protected,” Davis said.

The planning commission also mentioned Hamlin Beach is working to get its historic designation, and they wouldn’t want something like a new development to hinder that process.

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - The town of Mount Pleasant is looking to extend limiting building permits for another five years in an effort to slow growth down and build infrastructure up.

A proposal to extend the building permit allocation system was presented at a planning commission meeting Wednesday night with one more final vote left from the town council.

As people continue to move to the Lowcountry, the town of Mount Pleasant put this building permit allocation into effect back in 2019 and is now looking to extend it until 2029.

“The council is very serious about maintaining our level of service,” Mount Pleasant’s Director of Planning, Land Use and Neighborhoods Michelle Reed says.

“Keeping the growth slowed down, the way they have the last five years, and slowing that growth rate down, has really allowed them to continue the levels of service that we provide to our citizens,” she adds.

The goal is to finish major capital improvement projects before allowing more growth to happen in the town.

“I think the idea is really to allow the town to continue with their infrastructure improvements and to catch up with all the growth that occurred over the years,” Reed says.

The system is broken down into three categories single-family units, accessory dwelling units and multifamily units with a certain number of permits to be issued on a semi-annual basis.

Reed says they never maxed out single-family permits with 480 available and a large amount carrying over into the next year, not really affecting single-family builds.

But if you want to add another dwelling unit to your property, only 20 permits are available each year with a large waitlist putting people on a list for July of 2024.

Five hundred multifamily units were available on a first come first serve basis when the system was put into place, with the permits going quickly to builds at Patriots Point and South Bay.

“Those are the two really that were most affected; your average person that’s coming here and is going to build a single-family home, really didn’t affect them,” Reed says.

But looking at the status of real estate in Mount Pleasant, Charleston Trident Association of Realtors Government Affairs Director Josh Dix says they find the most problems with the dwelling unit permits.

“You have this permit allocation taking place on single-family residential, but it extends beyond just single family,” Dix says. “It’s if you want to add a grandmother, in-law suite, or some duplex on a single-family lot, all of that is contained by this extension.”

Dix adds people are going to be priced out of the area with regulations like the building permit allocation system.

“You have folks in Mount Pleasant, this is an aging demographic, and we want them to be able to age in place,” he says.

“I think permit allocations and caps like what we’re seeing in Mount Pleasant is not the answer to keeping communities and residents in place, where they currently live and exist in their neighborhoods,” Dix adds.

Pricing is also affected, with single-family homes in Mount Pleasant that used to cost $500,000 are now in the millions, Dix says.

“The everyday, middle American that lives here in Charleston, they are being priced out of Mount Pleasant because of these onerous regulations,” he says.

Mount Pleasant Town Council will vote on the final approval for the permit building allocation system in January.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

If you’re dreaming of a white Christmas, you’ve come to the wrong place. It’s not likely that snow will be in our forecast for the holidays, but in these days of wacky weather, you never can tell. We’ve had our share of sunny and warm Christmas days here in the Lowcountry, but there have also been a few harbingers thrown in. In 2018, just after the holidays ended – and two days after the new year was ushered in with temperatures in the 70s – the year started out with more than 5 inches of snow, the third highest amount ever recorded here. The snowfall was followed by nearly a week of below-freezing temperatures and highs reaching only into the teens. Drivers were warned to stay off the roads due to the hazardous icy conditions, but several fatalities occurred when people attempted to simply walk on the ice.

Another bizarre winter storm that many long-time locals remember is the 1989 snowstorm, which happened just three months after Hurricane Hugo wreaked havoc. That one did give us a white Christmas – and even provided a bit of Christmas magic by covering up the mounds of debris and devastation that the hurricane had left behind. Eight inches of snow fell from the evening of Dec. 22 to the 23 and stayed around through Christmas Day.

But even without snow in the mix, there have been terrible ice storms when sleet and freezing rain has chilled the Lowcountry to the core, like in January 2011 when icicles draped live oak and palm trees as well as power lines. That meant many folks lost electricity when those power lines came crashing down—which made things pretty miserable since it meant that many homes had no heat. Along the coast, nearly an inch of ice accumulated. Three years later, the Lowcountry was hit with two consecutive ice storms – one in January and an even more severe one just weeks later which brought a third of an inch of freezing rain. That one forced the authorities to close the Ravenel Bridge when giant icicles hung on the bridge’s cables and later fell onto unsuspecting vehicles.

Even though such occurrences might (thankfully) be the exception rather than the norm for our area, early European settlers in the Lowcountry found that their new home would have its trials and tribulations during the winter. A local newspaper, the South Carolina Gazette, reported on Jan. 2, 1737, that frozen ponds and creeks were covered with a layer of ice 3 inches thick.

But winter storms don’t confine themselves to January, often considered the coldest month of the year. On Feb. 12, 1899, a severe blizzard blasted most of the Southeast, including the Lowcountry. Temperatures here plummeted to 7 degrees F and 4 inches of snow blanketed our area. Another February storm occurred in 1934. Lowcountry resident Yvonne Kanapaux said her parents got married on Feb. 10 during that ice storm. She remembered being told that her father had always jokingly predicted that “it would be a cold day in hell when he got married!” And February 1973 brought a record snowfall of 7 inches. Some locals seized that opportunity to use the old Cooper River Bridge as a ski slope.

The winter of 1784 proved to be a particularly bizarre set of weather anomalies. Due to the El Nino effect ushering in unusually cold temperatures to eastern North America coupled with the effects of an atmospheric low caused by a volcanic eruption in Iceland, frigid water temperatures froze up Charleston Harbor. It was reported at the time that some daring local residents ice skated on the surface of the harbor. Hard to imagine, but fact or fiction, it does allude to an extreme weather event.

Snow and icicles adorning the Palmetto State’s namesake trees might make for an interesting holiday photo replacing the iconic images of snow that appear on commercially produced Christmas cards – scenes that Lowcountry residents have never been able to relate to anyway. But when Old Man Winter pays a visit to our area, it’s not exactly picture-perfect. So this holiday season, just be careful what you wish for!

By Mary Coy

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MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD) – One of the Lowcountry’s largest Christmas parades was cancelled Sunday due to the threat of severe weather.

Mount Pleasant’s annual Christmas Light Parade, which boasts a nighttime display of dazzling lights as bands, businesses, and friendly faces march along Coleman Boulevard, was called off out of an abundance of caution during the early afternoon because the forecast called for heavy rain and gusty winds.

Organizers previously said in their messaging to participants that the parade had yet to be cancelled in more than 20 years, and the plan was to proceed despite the rain unless weather became a public safety issue.

“In light of the weather conditions predicted and in speaking with our partners at the National Weather Service, local meteorologists, and the Town’s Emergency Management and Resilience Officer, Town officials determined that cancelling the event is the responsible course of action to ensure the safety of everyone involved. The safety and well-being of our participants, spectators, and community members remain the top priority,” the town said in a message.

Residents, visitors, and town leaders have since expressed their disappointment the parade was cancelled and that there was no rain date selected. But there is a reason for that.

Mount Pleasant town leaders said rescheduling the parade is not feasible. They begin getting applications for floats in September, and vendors that are brought in to help with floats, light towers, and other vital equipment come in from across the state.

Those same vendors are already booked up for other holiday festivities in the coming days.

Town leaders also say it’s a massive undertaking to schedule enough first responders to shut down streets, direct traffic, and keep everyone safe – especially as Mount Pleasant continues to be one of the fastest-growing cities in our area.

To reschedule the event would have come with an additional nearly $30,000 price tag.

Those working to make the parade happen every year said there is no one more disappointed than they are.

“We do our best … but you know God controls it, and so every once and a while you just get changes, and so we wait as long as we can. Everybody was watching the weather, and we were getting emails all week long. By the time we called the parade on Sunday, one-fifth of our entries had already dropped out,” said Nicole Harvey and Tracey Richter, who work for the Town of Mount Pleasant.

Said Nicole Harvey and Tracey Richter, who works for the Town of Mount Pleasant,

Looking ahead, they said there are plenty of holiday events still to come this week in the Town of Mount Pleasant, like visits with Santa Claus on Tuesday. The Mayor’s Music and Art Reception takes place Thursday at 4:30 p.m., and the Mount Pleasant Towne Centre has light displays every night.

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - A Mount Pleasant family is continuing to fight for land that’s been in their family for more than 100 years.

Henry Bailem says John Ballam Road has been in his family since 1893.

“Our forefathers left this property for us to maintain for future generations, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Bailem says.

The family says they have deeds and documents that prove the road belongs to them, but Charleston County and the Town of Mount Pleasant dispute that.

The dispute came to a head when a developer bought a piece of property across the way in 2017, and the road all the sudden became public.

“We feel like we’re being disrespected to the highest,” Bailem says, “The days of the local government taking advantage of the black folk are gone, we’re the new generation, and we’re not going to take it anymore, enough is enough.”

The family filed a lawsuit against Charleston County and the Town of Mount Pleasant and are now working to add the developer.

But another family member, Diane Jefferson says the county and town are dragging their feet.

“They demanded we get an attorney, we got an attorney, so why are they running now?” Jefferson says, “Why don’t we just go ahead, keep going and get this over with. Let’s take it to the court system.”

While they wait for their day in court, the family has taken matters into their own hands, holding protests and even once blocking off the entrance to the road.

“We’ve got to make a move and do what we need to do, and if they arrest us, then arrest us, we’ll get our day in court,” Jefferson says.

They’ve also connected to others who are in similar fights, and hope that their story encourages them to remain steadfast.

“Keep it for your children and your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren, god’s not making any more property,” Bailem says.

The Town of Mount Pleasant and Charleston County filed responses to the family’s lawsuit.

Both entities say they cannot comment on ongoing litigation.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.