kitchen countertopsNear Awendaw, SC

A angular swath of timberland known as the Nebo Tract was an early poster child of the development pressures that were bleeding over into Awendaw and the Cape Romain Wildlife Refuge some 15 years or more ago.

The debate hasn’t relented about growth in and around the rural town of about 1,500 residents, just up the road from Mount Pleasant.

But as for that particular piece of real estate — it’s off the table.

The Nature Conservancy now owns the 355-acre parcel along U.S. Highway 17, bounded by Mount Nebo AME Church and the 259,000-acre Francis Marion National Forest.

The land-protection group bought it from the previous longtime owner from the Chicago area earlier this month for $3.6 million. The property had been marketed for several years through NAI Charleston for $4.5 million.

“It was Christmas in March when we closed,” said Dale Threatt-Taylor, executive director of the Nature Conservancy in South Carolina.

She said her organization had been keeping its eye on the Nebo Tract for some time. It decided to step in after a deal with another would-be buyer fell through.

“We made an offer to purchase it, and the owners accepted,” Threatt-Taylor said. “So we were delighted and moved forward with it.”

For now, the nonprofit has no firm plans for its latest acquisition in the Sewee-to-Santee district, between Awendaw and lower Georgetown County. Typically, the group will quickly sell or transfer its land holdings to a like-minded owner, such as the U.S. Forest Service, but that’s not likely in this instance, Threatt-Taylor said. She also stressed the conservancy won’t “go off mission.”

“We’re actually going to look at this property to find the best path forward. We want to engage the community in the conversation. ... Also, we may do something totally new ... and innovative that we can lead from here in South Carolina and show our partners across the nation, ‘Hey, it’s a new day in conservation.’”

The purchase follows a state Supreme Court decision that put to rest a lengthy legal battle.

The hand-wringing began around 2009, after a real estate developer proposed to build about 360 homes and commercial space on the Nebo Tract.

A financial hitch was that the property was in an unincorporated area. The town, with less restrictive and more lucrative land-use rules than Charleston County, was asked to annex it.

One of the primary concerns at the time was the possibility of a domino effect. If the Nebo Tract was added to the town, other large nearby parcels that were part of the former Fairlawn Plantation could soon follow.

As Awendaw saw it, the 355 acres it was eyeing already were bumping up against its municipal boundaries, which is a requirement for annexations in South Carolina. Around 2004, the town had annexed a 1¼-mile-long, 10-foot-wide strip within the Francis Marion, as well as the church next door to the Nebo Tract. That provided the mandatory “contiguity.”

It wasn’t until October 2009 that Town Council annexed the Nebo Tract. At the same meeting, it approved a development plan for the property.

Two nearby residents and the Charleston-based Coastal Conservation League mounted a legal challenge. They alleged in a lawsuit the next month that the Francis Marion annexation wasn’t legal because the owner — the U.S. Forest Service — never signed a petition formally authorizing the change, as required.

The litigation eventually worked its way up and down the appeals system, giving the S.C. Supreme Court the final word. It found that Awendaw’s annexation was invalid, citing the town’s “false statement” that it had obtained written authorization from the Forest Service for the 10-foot strip. Mayor Miriam Green, who was not serving in that role at the time, did not respond to a request for comment.

The Coastal Conservation League said it’s pleased that the Nebo Tract has found a buyer that “will be working directly with the Awendaw community to chart the best path forward for permanent protection of the property.”

“We know that large and sprawling development within and adjacent to protected public lands like the Francis Marion ... can pose threats to both people and wildlife in addition to creating barriers to important tools for managing the ... forest, like prescribed fire,” project manager Robbie Maynor said in a written statement. “This is a huge win for our communities and coastal critters.”

And as it turned out, all the early unrest about development at the nearby Fairlawn properties also has faded, courtesy of some of the region’s biggest industrial employers. Boeing Co., the Port of Charleston and others have ponied up the funds over past decade or so to protect about 5,400 acres of the privately owned property to mitigate the environmental impacts of their expansion plans in other parts of the region.

The family-run partnerships behind the sales of the Fairlawn and Nebo Tract parcels are conservation-minded Lowcountry landowners and investors that have been selling property to groups like the Nature Conservancy, the Audubon Society and the Open Space Institute for years. They’re affiliated with descendants of the turn-of-the-20th-century lumber titan and Berkeley County forest namesake Francis Beidler.

A representative for ECB LLC, which sold the Nebo Tract, could not be reached for comment last week.

AWENDAW, S.C. (WCBD) – Officials in Awendaw responded to a vehicle fire overnight on Guerins Bridge Road.

According to Awendaw McClellanville Fire District, crews responded to reports of a vehicle fire in the 1400 block of Guerins Bridge Road around midnight.

Upon arrival, first responders extinguished the fire. Crews remained on scene to clean up the incident.

No injuries were reported.

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AWENDAW, S.C. (WCBD) – Officials in Awendaw reported a crash on Guerins Bridge Road overnight.

According to Awendaw-McClellanville Fire District, crews responded to a two-vehicle crash on Guerins Bridge Road near Woodville Road.

No injuries were reported

The cause is under investigation.

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A potential new middle and high school in Awendaw has a chance to be a partial magnet school, and students from multiple parts of the district can be pulled to

AWENDAW, S.C. (WCSC) - A potential new middle and high school in Awendaw has a chance to be a partial magnet school, and students from multiple parts of the district can be pulled to take part in a specialized curriculum.

Charleston County School District Board Members and the people of Mount Pleasant got to hear new details about the potential schools on Wednesday. District officials told people at the meeting, held at Laing Middle School, that a lot of the plans right now are just ideas with no specific timeline.

This new middle and high school would be located on 107 acres at Highway 17 and Jenkins Hill Road. As part of this plan, district staff presented concept maps with multiple options for rezoning.

Jeff Borowy, the Chief Operating Officer for the district, says this plan will be a challenge.

“Most of the times we build a school, we just build a specific zone of attendance for that school, but in this case, we want to have a number of students to offer the right programs for those students,” Borowy said. “So, we have to look out of the box and look for something different beyond the zone.”

District staff says one of the main challenges is making sure that each school holds a maximum of 500 students. This would pull in kids from D1, the Awendaw-McClellanville area, and some from D2 in the northern Mount Pleasant area.

Staff also say they are continuing to research desirable education options for a partial magnet school to reach that target enrollment.

“It’s going to be very important to let’s build the school from up, but at the same time, let’s figure out what we’re going to be doing inside,” Thomas Colleton, D1 Constituent Board Chair, said. “The curriculum needs a lot.”

There is currently no timeline on construction for the schools because the district does not know if this magnet option will be included. The district says it is possible that the earliest we can start to see construction would be in four years.

Jonathan Mars, a parent of two children at Carolina Park Elementary, says this could be an option for his family when his kids get older.

“But it does sound like they’re going to have very specific programs at the school,” Mars said. “So, for example, if there’s a great art program and my daughter’s really into art that seems like a great option to have.”

As of now, this project is not fully funded and the district says they do not have a price estimate.

They say the next step is to charter a blue-ribbon committee in mid-October that will look at enrollment numbers and look at the best options to make this project successful.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Awendaw, S.C. (WCBD) – Awendaw residents on Thursday gave their input on their town’s future during an open house meeting on the town’s Comprehensive Plan.

Residents of all ages were invited to the open house to give input on development goals and guiding principles for years to come. Dozens of different colored sticky notes were left covering the presentation boards. The use of sticky notes and stickers was a system Berkeley Charleston Dorchester Council of Governments Planning Director, Kathryn Basha, said will help signify where residents stand on important topics.

“What we’re asking them to do is to put orange stickers where they agree with those principles, and green stickers where they don’t agree with the principles or vice versa,” said Basha.

Ten main principles were created to help guide the plan for Awendaw’s future and for the discussion. A major concern for some like Awendaw local, Susan Cox, is environmental protection.

“Home to turtles and dolphins and birds, it’s extremely ecologically important and to the extent that we build dense housing developments here with septic tanks. It’s going to damage the Cape Romain and none of us want that,” said Cox.

Others like Awendaw local, James Walker, said he hopes more development in the area will also bring more businesses.

“If there is nothing that can stop the development at this point they need, I mean a grocery store or anything something that’s 24 hours that people can always go to. The Dollar General is great but the hours, they’re not as good,” said Walker.

However, many locals like Gale Hall, are hoping the town they know and love stays the same.

“I like Awendaw just the way it is and I hope it stays rural and not a future North Mount Pleasent, that’s just the way I feel. And I’ve been here since 1986 and I love it,” said Hall.

The Berkely Charleson Dorchester Council Government said they will have the results of this workshop posted on their website by next week.

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