Car Accident Attorney inJohns Island, SC

A new elementary school planned for Johns Island is making its way through the approval process with the City of Charleston.

Published: Mon Feb 06 2023

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - A new elementary school planned for Johns Island is making its way through the approval process with the City of Charleston.

The construction plan went before the design review board for the second of its three times, on Monday. It’s a standard, but lengthy, process any builders go through with big projects in the city.

Executive Director of Capital Programs Jasmeen Shaw explains the school is going to be state of the art and offer STEAM – science, technology, engineering, arts and math – education.

“The island truly deserves a brand-new school and we’re able to bring them a brand-new school which as well as alleviates some of the overcrowding that’s been caused by growth in the area – which is a great thing,” Shaw says.

The elementary school will be off of River Road. It is planned to be two stories and serve 700 2nd through 5th graders.

During community meetings last year – some people expressed concern about traffic. Part of the construction also includes building a roundabout on River Road to enter the school property. The project also includes adding a left turn lane from River Road to Brownswood Road and adding a right turn lane from Brownswood Road onto River Road.

“We’re going to bring several road improvements to the area, which is not only going to benefit the school which operates Monday through Friday for the most part, but even on weekends and as a whole, this particular school is going to be an asset to the entire community,” Shaw says.

Stephanie Yesil and her husband live in a neighborhood off River Road.

“Maybe it will help with the development of River Road and turning it into a safer place. Maybe adding some sidewalks, maybe adding some additional controls, maybe some new lights, maybe some new signs to make it even more family friendly. So, this could be a really good thing if it’s done well,” Yesil says.

She is a former education who says she doesn’t have kids yet, but supports investing in education.

“My husband and I hopefully one day will be parents but for now, I mean, we love our neighbors and almost every single one of them have new children and it would be really nice to make sure that this is more of a community-oriented place rather than having a bus kids all over the place,” Yesil says.

The elementary school is meant to help with the crowding at the Angel Oak Elementary, which is operating at 129% capacity over operating ability. The $53.5 million dollar brand new school will offer STEAM programs. Then, the Angel Oak Elementary building will be converted to serve as a head start and 1st grade center, so all levels are included. The goal open date for the school is the start of the 2024-2025 school year.

“I think education is always a great idea. I think there’s always going to be a need for it. I can’t speak to other city planning. I can’t necessarily speak to any other kinds of businesses that we should have over here. But you’ll always get a yes vote for me when it comes to bringing in good teachers, good people and giving more and more space for kids to go to places to learn,” Yesil says.

Monday, the design review board approved the conceptual plans and submitted the information to staff for a further focused review. The board made some aesthetic suggestions to the plans like more fencing around the back of the building, but overall supported the designs. Charleston County Schools says the project is on track and they expect to start site prep work in March.

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.

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The $75 million in funding that Charleston County Council approved for the Mark Clark extension project last week has the potential to be transformative for Charleston County and Johns Island in three ways, but not in ways council members or residents may think.

First, the project could be financially transformative in the short-term because it could be the largest county financial debacle since the millions “invested” in the former Naval Hospital.

Why? Because council is betting taxpayer money that a slew of low-probability events take place that make this $75 million bet a sure winner.

These events include betting that:

These bets don’t even include the bet that the state Joint Bond Review Committee will shirk its fiduciary responsibility and approve the infrastructure bank’s request for matching funds. This despite Charleston County having no real plan to raise the additional funds needed for the project.

If this low-probability bet is lost, county taxpayers will not only be out $75 million, but they also would have to reimburse the infrastructure bank for 50% of all funds it provided. And we would have lost $75 million that could have been spent on making much-needed improvements to our roads now.

Second, the project could be financially transformative for Charleston County in the long-term since the true cost of the project will likely be much greater than $2.2 billion.

Why? Because of the intergovernmental agreement Charleston County signed with the infrastructure bank and the state Department of Transportation, the county is solely responsible for all additional costs. These costs include any cost overruns and lawsuits; funds for bond servicing; and the cost to upgrade River Road to accommodate the traffic from this project.

These costs could easily add up to an additional several hundred million more dollars. Just imagine how the bond rating agencies will assess the county’s creditworthiness with this unbounded financial obligation.

Third, the project could be transformative to Johns Island because the Lowcountry character of the island would be lost forever.

Why? Because large road projects like these attract large “Anywhere USA” residential developments with their multitude of cars, big box stores and national franchises that push out local businesses. They also dislocate long-time residents. All of this would greatly and adversely impact our quality of life and worsen traffic congestion.

If you need some examples of this, just look to Mount Pleasant and the Cainhoy Peninsula.

Once the Ravenel Bridge was completed, growth in Mount Pleasant exploded. The town is now grappling with its growth and congestion at nearly every Town Council meeting. For example, the town recently announced it will perform an in-depth study to see what can be done to reduce the number of vehicles traveling on roads throughout the town. The study is not about building new roads but managing traffic on existing ones.

Without Interstate 526, the Cainhoy Peninsula was not attractive to developers. Now, there are plans to build 9,000 homes there and to fill vast stretches of wetlands — not to mention the eventual dislocation of long-time residents.

Even without the 9,000 Cainhoy houses, I-526 is currently so congested that the state and federal governments (not Charleston County) are looking to spend billions of dollars to try to relieve this congestion.

This is not the future Johns Islanders want.

There will be those who say that this is a much-needed project. This despite effective lower-cost alternatives that do not alter our island forever.

There will be those who say that residents are overwhelmingly in support of this project. This despite the latest DOT survey showing that fewer than half of them support the project.

There will be those who say that we need a third way on and off the island. This despite, in comparison, that we have only 10% more daily traffic than Hilton Head on our bridges. Yet we have two bridges with eight available lanes, while Hilton Head is about to spend millions to expand its single bridge from four to only six lanes.

Do we need to improve safety and reduce congestion on our roads to improve our quality of life? Yes.

Is betting the county’s short-term and long-term financial future, losing the soul of what makes Johns Island who we are, ignoring effective lower-cost alternatives and ignoring the desires of the majority of the residents the way to do it? No.

So what will happen?

The county could be saved from itself if the Joint Bond Review Committee votes against authorizing the matching funds. Then we can get back to the business of improving safety and reducing congestion on our roads.

John Zlogar is a cofounder of Rational Roads for Johns Island.

A 72-unit senior affordable housing development on Johns Island is running into funding hurdles due to recent changes in state tax-credit policies.

Developers are about $2 million short of the $22 million project budget because state legislators recently took action to limit spending on such projects.

In May, Gov. Henry McMaster signed House Bill 5075 into law, reforming the state-low income housing tax- credit system. It put a cap on the program, stating that South Carolina can’t allocate more than $20 million worth of tax credits to affordable housing developments each year.

Among other changes, it stated that the amount of tax credits that an individual project receives is based on whatever the anticipated cost of the project is when it is first proposed, not when it breaks ground. If, after going through months to years of approval processes, the estimated total cost of the project goes up, the amount of tax credits allocated to the project when construction begins will not increase.

That’s what caused the funding gap for the Johns Island complex, developer of the project Raymond Nix said.

“It can be 18 months between when you apply for tax credits and the time you are breaking ground,” he said.

The new method of calculating state tax credits is a departure from the previous process. Under the same program at the federal level and under the prior version of the state program, once a project broke ground, it would receive tax credits based on its most up-to-date cost estimate.

Inflation, increased construction costs and other factors meant that the developers had to recalculate the total cost of the Johns Island project before breaking ground. But the tax credits received from the state won’t reflect those cost increases.

“The (state law) adjustment resulted in a $1.7 million hole in the project immediately,” Nix said.

Nix, president of Nix Development Co., gave a presentation to the Charleston City Council’s Community Development Committee on Nov. 17, asking if the city is able to step in and fill the project’s funding gap.

The 72-unit development, called Esau Jenkins Village, is located at Maybank Highway and Bohicket Road. It will be run by Sea Island Comprehensive Health Care Corp. The nonprofit, which has an office in front of the 7-acre development site, operates programs for senior citizens and disabled people in parts of Charleston and Colleton counties.

The construction site abuts a nearly 19-acre undeveloped tract owned by Angel Oak Park LLC. The city of Charleston owns 6.5 acres around the Angel Oak Tree and nearly 8 acres are owned by St. Johns Church.

An existing 88-unit, single-story, subsidized housing complex affiliated with Sea Island Comprehensive is across the highway.

Nix and other leaders of the project are seeking funding from local governments and nonprofits to fill the $2 million shortfall.

The city of Charleston hasn’t taken any action yet. Officials indicated an interest in helping it get across the finish line if other funding avenues don’t pan out. But the Esau Jenkins Development isn’t the only one of its kind seeking more funding.

“Quite honestly, this has probably been the fifth request that we’ve had to help with gap financing as a result of state housing change in legislation,” said Geona Shaw Johnson, Charleston housing director.

Nix said he’s aware that he’s not the only developer seeking out assistance after facing unanticipated costs. Even projects that have already broken ground are having to adjust their funding sources, he said.

“I would argue that any affordable housing developer that you call right now is grappling with this same issue except for ones that were just recently awarded funding,” he said.

The tax-credit program, called Workforce and Senior Affordable Housing Act, was originally approved during the state’s 2019-20 legislative session. It was designed as a way to provide a first-of-its-kind, state-level affordable housing tax credit that would match federal housing tax credits to help get affordable housing proposals to viability.

Lawmakers saw it as a bargain. According to a fiscal impact statement associated with the bill, state analysts anticipated the credit would cost the state roughly $16 million in annual revenue by the 10th year of the program, all while filling a significant hole in the state’s housing stock.

Affordable housing advocates credit the program with spurring the development of nearly 9,600 units across the state in just two years. But it was also unsustainable, fiscal hawks argued, with the number of applicants far exceeding the anticipated number of credits lawmakers thought they were agreeing to.

The original cost estimates, based off of historical demands for state affordable housing credits, were well off the mark.

According to a 2021 memo from Frank Rainwater, executive director of the S.C. Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office, the state treasury was on pace to issue more than $50 million in tax credits in 2021 alone, with an anticipated impact of $5.16 billion to the state’s general fund over the next 20 years.

Tax-credit applications were put on hold at the beginning of 2022 while lawmakers hashed out the details of the reform bill that ultimately capped the program’s annual spending.

CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCIV) — Ninety acres on Johns Island are now being protected. The Oakville-burden Creek area is right by the Charleston executive airport and was set to be turned into hundreds of homes.

The Charleston County Aviation Authority, Lowcountry land trust and several other conservation groups came together to protect the land.

"It's just under 100 acres of forested land. It's at the headwaters of burden creek and flows into the Stono River," said Ashley Demosthenes, president, and CEO of the Lowcountry land trust.

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The Charleston County aviation authority purchased the land, and the Lowcountry land trust purchased the conservation agreement.

"We didn't pay full value. They donated the lion's share of the value. We paid for the easement interest via funding from South Carolina conservation bank and Charleston county green belt program," said Demosthenes.

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Conserving the land is important for everyone involved. For some, it's about keeping the unique character of Johns Island.

"80 percent of Johns Island is incredibly rural. Farmland, forest land, and old settlement areas. Where we are sitting today is right at the line of the interface of the urban and rural area," said Michelle Sinkler, Open space institute.

Some say the project is about finding a balance between development and conservation.

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"It's security related, it provides resiliency in terms of flooding, it provides wildlife habitat. It provides numerous public benefits associated with the protection of this land," said Demosthenes.

The conservation will also benefit the Charleston Executive airport. They will extend their runway from 5,000 to 7,000 feet.

"Not only does it protect JZI and our airfield. But it protects River Road, Johns island, and the resiliency issues we have with flooding here off the Stono River," said Elliott Summey, CEO Charleston County aviation authority.

The group calls land preservation a win-win for everyone.

"Economic development and conservation can both co-exist together. We live in one of the most beautiful places in the world," said Summey.

"More open space on Johns Island is a win for the community," said Sinkler.