Your First Choice for Scratch and Dent Appliances in Mount Pleasant

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.

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.

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.

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."

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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.

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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.

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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."

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Get carried away at Mount Pleasant’s new southern market and eatery!

Located in the heart of town, Get Carried Away offers everything you need whether it’s a delicious grab-and-go meal or stylish glassware for your next dinner party.

Happening Saturday, Feb. 3rd, the store will celebrate its grand opening of ‘The Perch,’ their outdoor patio and your new favorite hangout spot for an afternoon spritz and sandwich.

We caught up with the owners, Sassy and Brian Henry, to learn more about their business ahead of this weekend’s celebration.

“A lot of what we do is entertaining and hosting,” said owner, Brian. The idea for the shop has been derived from their love for food, hosting, and entertaining family and friends.

Get Carried Away’s first location was founded in Pawleys Island, but the Henrys decided to expand services to reach a larger audience. “We felt like Mount Pleasant was a comfortable jump,” Sassy said.

The Henrys want to accommodate Charleston’s vacationers and local folks.

Sassy went on to say, “When people are on vacation and going to the beach, they don’t want to have to cook entertaining-type foods for large groups of people.”

The market offers a variety of items for the typical vacationer to pick up on their way to the beach house or for the everyday locals to sip and shop.

Not only does Get Carried Away offer takeaway meals and a wide selection of beer and wine, but you can also find everyday groceries there such as meat, seafood, fruits, dips, milk, eggs, and so on. And of course, you can’t miss out on their famous chicken salad or pimento cheese!

You can get carried away in their home section, too, if you’re not careful. It features gorgeous glassware, decorative napkins, kitchen towels, candles, and much more! “We’re trying to keep it all food and beverage oriented,” Sassy mentioned about the products featured in the home section. It’s worth checking out if you’re looking to elevate your tablescape.

The fun doesn’t stop there! You and your family can join the Henrys on Saturday, Feb. 3rd from 12:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. for the grand opening of ‘The Perch,’ their outdoor patio and bar. The celebration will include a complimentary Lowcountry boil as well as their homemade crowd-pleaser appetizers.

‘The Perch’ will provide a full lunch and drink menu this spring with specialty cocktails: The Perch Punch, Coleman Cosmo, Old Village Fashioned, and the Moultrie Margarita.

Get Carried Away is located at 644 Coleman Boulevard in Mount Pleasant. They’re open from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday and closed on Sundays.

Mount Pleasant seems certain to extend its moratorium on new apartments yet again. This needs to be the last time — and it needs to be lifted as soon as the town's new zoning regulations are in place.

We agree with Mayor Will Haynie, who has supported these moratoriums while also acknowledging that they represent a sort of failure of local government. Specifically, they reflect a failure of earlier town leaders to ensure that new apartments are built in the right place and with the necessary public infrastructure to support them — and to minimize any negative impacts on existing residents.

But the moratorium also reflects a failure of Town Council to consider those who work in the town and who want to live there but cannot afford to. While the vast majority of Mount Pleasant residents moved to the town, they have supported political candidates who have vowed to make it increasingly difficult and costly for others to do the same. The moratorium has limited new construction and housing supply, helping to drive up both home prices and rental rates. This needs to change.

Almost a decade ago, new apartment projects bothered town voters enough to create a political backlash that ushered in a wave of new council members and, in 2017, the first moratorium on apartments. Since then, the town has regularly renewed the ban, and it worked gradually to revise its comprehensive plan and currently is working to update its zoning and land use regulations to match that plan. The work is expected to finish up in less than a year, after which the moratorium should cease.

It's not just about the need to build more housing; trying to extend it any longer could result in a costly lawsuit for the town. "We knew all along that if we got challenged in court, it would be an uphill battle for us to win," Mr. Haynie tells us. "You have to tie it (the moratorium) to some future occurrence. You can’t just put a moratorium on apartments because we don’t like them." In fact, Mount Pleasant's approximately 8-year-long apartment moratorium might have set a South Carolina record.

Town Council should urge its staff to prioritize updating the code; we see no reason it shouldn't be approved by late summer. Even after the moratorium expires, developers still will see new limits on certain types of residential projects under the town’s building permit allocation system, which limits the number of permits available for single-family housing and multifamily housing developments for several more years. But if Town Council gets this code rewrite right, it also should consider lifting or loosening those permit caps.

Congested roads and overcrowded schools and the loss of forestland and open space have driven these anti-growth measures, but the lack of affordable housing — particularly for those who work in Mount Pleasant's schools, fire stations, hospitals and businesses — is emerging as an equal or even greater concern. And these problems are interrelated: The more people there are who have to commute to Mount Pleasant from Goose Creek, Summerville, Moncks Corner and elsewhere, the worse the traffic.

One thing the town has gotten right is its exemption of multifamily projects with an affordable component from the moratorium. But that has not been enough, particularly as Mount Pleasant has not subsidized such projects to nearly the degree that Charleston has.

The growing problem of too little affordable housing is not a problem only in Mount Pleasant; it's a regional problem. But it's a problem every government in our region must do what it can to solve.

MOUNT PLEASANT — His belief in both are unshakeable.

Why not combine them?

“I still enjoy teaching the game, I still enjoy being around kids. And as you know, I still hate to lose,” chuckled Joe Hudak, the memories of 31 years as a college baseball coach as fresh as the ideas for his new venture. “What’s even more exciting to me at this point is of being part of these young men’s spiritual development.”

Baseball and faith have always intertwined in his life, represented by a bracelet on his wrist featuring two hardballs flanking a cross. Hudak won 866 games in his career, 660 during 19 seasons at Winthrop, but when his tenure with the Eagles ended in 2010, he was looking for the next opportunity.

That’s where the seed for Kingsmen Baseball Academy, a full-time baseball development institution for high-school players, sprouted. Headquartered at Mount Pleasant’s Shipyard Park, it’s recruiting players for its first school year, which will begin in August.

A wave of baseball academies has crested with the creation of schools from southern Virginia to Florida, including Lexington’s P27 Academy. The idea is to take players who are planning to play in college — the Kingsmen are already talking to recruits who are committed to college programs for the 2025 season — and give them a baseball experience much more than the standard high-school season. They’ll practice three to four hours per day, do their academic work online and live within five miles of the field.

“We’re talking to a young man right now from Minnesota, who’s committed to Creighton,” Hudak said. “And it’s like we’ve told him — ‘You can stay home, where you’re going to play 20 games in high school, maybe, and the weather is horrible. Or you can come here, where the average temperature from November to February is 64 and a half degrees, play 60-70 games and get on the fast track to be successful in college, not just go to college.’

“And we’ll help them with what it really means to be a Christian. It’s not a list of dos and don’ts, it’s having a personal relationship with Christ. We want them to understand what it is so they can decide if they want to pursue that ideal. We won’t force it on them, but it is who we are.”

The Kingsmen will practice year-round and play in the spring against those other Southeast academies. They’ll take a mission trip to the Dominican Republic every year, where they’ll also play against local teams, with Bible study and church a regular part of their everyday stateside routine.

Tuition that covers travel, housing and all other aspects is $25,000 per year, with limited scholarship opportunities available. It’s open to sophomores, juniors and seniors although rising freshmen could be given a chance, if they meet certain requirements.

The goal is to get 48 players for the first year, enough for two teams. If the Kingsmen can get double that, they will get a year’s head start on their next venture: A branch program located in Gastonia, N.C., for a Charlotte-based team, currently set to start in August 2025.

“We have lodging at two apartment complexes in Charleston nine minutes away from Shipyard, and the players and parents will sign a contract about our expectations,” Hudak said. “We’ll run a really tight ship — they’re high-school kids — and monitor their academics and nutrition. They’ll be on their own at night so we’ll be prepping them for college, even if they don’t play.”

Hudak surrounded himself with a top staff. Charleston Southern alum and former big-leaguer Tyler Thornburg is handling the pitchers and one of his Winthrop products, ninth-round draft pick and Stratford High alum John Murrian, is coaching hitters and catchers. Former CSU baseball coach Jason Murray is a part-time assistant and Coastal Carolina coach Gary Gilmore will also help part-time, after he retires from CCU following this season.

“I wanted to start a baseball academy but wanted it to be faith-based,” Hudak said. “We’ve sent 1,200 flyers around the country to recruits in the Class of 2025, and will do the same for 2026.”

Hudak worked with the Piedmont Fellowship of Christian Athletes from 2010-16, interested in coaching again but not wishing to uproot his children, in high school at the time, from Rock Hill. While coaching his son’s travel-ball team — his son is Preston Hudak, who played at North Carolina before chronic shoulder problems ended his career — the elder Hudak created a summer college-league team that was also faith-based.

The Piedmont Pride would eventually morph into the Kingsmen and their lion’s-head logo. Hudak dreamed of building the academy in York County but the project never really got off the ground, which is when Charleston and Mount Pleasant entered the picture.

Now his vision is nearly reality. Starting in August, the ol’ skipper will once again don the uniform, lace his cleats and lead another team.

“The ability to go to practice every day and play 60 or 70 games is really exciting to me,” said Hudak, who stressed the message of a favorite book of his: “Halftime,” where the message is to have success in life, then transition to significance.

“Our goal is to help them with baseball and their faith.”

An Atlanta-based merchant is laying down plans for a second big-box store in the Charleston area.

Floor & Decor is eyeing a site at 2233 U.S. Highway 17 next to Home Depot in Mount Pleasant to build a 64,450-square-foot retail outlet.

The building is slated for roughly 8 acres on the back portion of a parcel that formerly housed longtime dive bar Richard's, which was demolished last year, and a small office building. A Spinx gas station and convenience store is going on the front of the tract.

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Floor & Decor's East Cooper expansion is making its way through the town's approval process. A company representative did not immediately respond for comment.

The flooring merchant opened its first South Carolina store on Rivers Avenue in North Charleston in 2019.

Publicly traded Floor & Decor operates 203 warehouse stores and five design studios across 36 states, including other Palmetto State locations in Columbia and Greenville.

Opening soon

An Ohio-based restaurant chain is just a few days away from opening a new venue in the Lowcountry, its second in South Carolina.

Condado Tacos will open at 11 a.m. Nov. 4 at 1712 Towne Centre Way next to Lenscrafters in Mount Pleasant Towne Centre.

The first 100 people in line who enter the doors on opening day will win a "Year of Yum," or free tacos for a year.

The restaurant will be open 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m.-midnight Friday and Saturday. Happy hour is 3-6 p.m. weekdays, offering $5 margaritas, $1 off tacos and other food and drink specials.

Condado Tacos has one other restaurant in South Carolina. The Greenville location on Woodruff Road opened earlier this year. The company has 45 locations in nine states across the South, Midwest and Northeast.

(Note: Condado Tacos changed the opening date twice before settling on Nov. 4. This story has been updated to reflect the latest change.)

New tenants

A Mount Pleasant retail site where a proposal has been in the works to redevelop a former grocery store recently landed four new tenants.

Dear Lucy Shoes, The Works Cycle, facial bar Clean Your Dirty Face and Findings Boutique joined Oyster Park Shopping Center at 1400-1421 Shucker Circle and 1440 Ben Sawyer Blvd.

Tim Rowley of the commercial real estate firm Coldwell Banker Commercial Atlantic represented the landlord, an affiliate of Atlanta-based Dewberry Capital.

The property owner presented plans to the town in 2021 to transform the long-vacant former Bi-Lo grocery store building into office and retail space. Oyster Park already includes a 269-unit apartment development.

Rowley also represented Paragano Associates of Mount Pleasant, the owner of the redeveloped Montague Corners Shopping Center at 5060 Dorchester Road in North Charleston in several leases.

Among the tenants are Latin fusion restaurant El Callao, Silver Crowne Liquors, sports bar Whiskey Run Grill, Sticky Fingers Rib House, Kanji Sushi & Hibachi restaurant, 540 Vape, Platia Greek Goodness dining spot and The Montague Room, an upscale steak and martini lounge.