kitchen countertopsIn Daniel Island, SC

This week there are a large number of multifamily and large residential developments coming before the various City of Charleston boards and committees. Below are those items as well as the application results for specific items to Daniel Island and the Cainhoy area.

More detailed agendas and results can be found at charleston-sc.gov/agendacenter.

UPCOMING

CITY OF CHARLESTON TECHNICAL REVIEW COMMITTEE

Feb. 2: A major subdivision road development plan at Cainhoy Del Webb on Clements Ferry Road and Cainhoy Road for 164 single-family residences.

Feb. 9: A site plan at Mikasa Apartments (Aventon) on Clements Ferry Road for the construction of five multifamily residential buildings (320 units), clubhouse and parking lot.

RESULTS

Jan. 26: A site plan at 1900 Daniel Island Drive for a proposed sidewalk, plantation mix path and yard inlets. Results: Revise and resubmit to TRC.

A site plan on Clements Ferry Road for one industrial building with a stormwater detention pond. Results: Revise and resubmit to TRC.

REGULARLY SCHEDULED CITY & COUNTY MEETINGS

Berkeley Co. Bd. of Education meets twice each month. Executive Committee meets at 5:30 p.m.; meeting starts at 6:30 p.m.

Berkeley Co. Council meets fourth Mon. of each month, 6 p.m., Berkeley County Admin. Blg., 1003 Hwy 52, Moncks Corner.

City of Charleston Council typically meets the second and fourth Tues. of each month, 5 p.m., City Hall, 80 Broad Street, Charleston, SC and/or virtually via Conference Call #1-929-205-6099; Access Code: 912 096 416. Exceptions: Summer Schedule - 3rd Tues. of June, July, and August; December meetings on the 1st and 3rd Tues. Dates and locations subject to change.

City of Charleston Technical Review Committee meets every Thurs. at 9 a.m.via Zoom.

City of Charleston Board of Zoning Appeals – Site Design meets the 1st Wed. of each month at 5 p.m. via Zoom.

City of Charleston Board of Zoning Appeals – Zoning meets the 1st and 3rd Tues. of each month at 5:15 p.m., except for January and July when no meeting is held on the 1st Tues.

City of Charleston Design Review Board meets the 1st and 3rd Mon. of every month at 4:30 p.m.

City of Charleston Planning Commission meets the 3rd Wed. of every month at 5 p.m.

City of Charleston Board of Architectural Review – Large projects meets the 2nd and 4th Wed. of every month at 4:30 p.m.

City of Charleston Board of Architectural Review – Small projects meets the 2nd and 4th Thurs. of every month at 4:30 p.m.

As traffic flow changes throughout one of the state’s busiest thoroughfares, so do the plans for the proposed I-526 Interchange Improvements project at Long Point Road. Although the traffic ramp reconfiguration will take place near the Wando Terminal at Exit 28 in Mount Pleasant, the impacts will be felt down the stretch of interstate that leads to Daniel Island.

The $165 million project proposes to improve the operations of the I-526/Long Point Road interchange and I-526 mainline and reduce operational conflicts between port-related and local traffic. The average daily traffic from Daniel Island to Long Point Road was approximately 78,000 motorists in 2017, according to SCDOT. If there was no build out or mitigation by 2050, a projected 131,000 motorists would frequent the same stretch of road daily – a 69% growth rate.

The South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) deems the current Long Point Road and I-526 interchange configuration is deficient because it does not have the capacity to accommodate the forecasted 2050 traffic as outlined in the I-526 East Lowcountry Corridor Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) Study Report.

Last August, SCDOT personnel held a public information meeting to discuss the project’s proposed alternatives. Recently, as a result of community feedback received, the preliminary design of the new partial interchange, including the associated flyovers, have been adjusted in order to reduce or avoid impacts to Seacoast Parkway in Mount Pleasant, according to I-526 Lowcountry Corridor Project Director Pete Poore, who replaced SCDOT’s senior engineering project manager Joy Riley following her resignation after 13 years in December 2022.

Poore noted that the adjustment to Reasonable Alternative 2 is now the Reasonable Preferred Alternative for the project. The proposed alternative includes new ramps from the Wando Terminal that would connect to the truck climbing lanes on the Wando River Bridge.

SCDOT previously performed a safety analysis for the existing truck climbing lanes on the Don Holt and Wando Bridges and concluded that it was safer to leave the existing truck climbing lanes in operation rather than closing them to decrease the number of accidents.

Although these adjustments do not have any direct impact on Daniel Island, the Long Point Road interchange improvements are expected to greatly improve the commuter flow of traffic all the way to Daniel Island’s interchange at Exit 24.

The project has been funded by a combination of federal funds with state matching dollars through the Interstate Improvement Program in SCDOT’s 10-year Plan. Construction is expected to begin by the spring or summer of 2024.

The project’s next step is to obtain National Environmental Policy Act documentation in order to get environmental approval sometime in early 2023. NEPA compliance is estimated to take up to 12 months and the design and construction is estimated to take up to 32 months.

The I-526 corridor program includes $7 billion of interstate improvement projects representing the largest and most complex projects developed by SCDOT to date.

“SCDOT welcomes input from the communities wherever infrastructure projects are planned,” Poore added. “Our goal is to work with our partners, which includes the public. We encourage citizens to make comments and offer suggestions.”

For more information and virtual access to the project or to provide public input, visit 526lowcountrycorridor.com.

DANIEL ISLAND, S.C. (WCBD) – A new medical unit is patrolling Daniel Island designed to better respond to people experiencing a medical emergency.

“We’ve recently added what we call a ‘QRV,’ or a Quick Response Vehicle,” explained Berkeley County EMS Chief Michael Shirey.

The QRV includes everything you would find in an ambulance, including a paramedic. In fact, three paramedics were hired to put the vehicle in service.

“It serves Daniel Island and the surrounding communities, and the purpose is to put a paramedic on scene faster,” Shirey said.

The only thing the QRV cannot do is take a patient to the hospital. But there is an ambulance that is stationed in the Daniel Island area that will respond when warranted. It also allows the QRV to respond to additional calls when the ambulance is in use.

“Often when a unit that is stationed on Daniel Island is already on a call, a second call for service comes in. We have to respond the unit from another location from another community,” he explained.

That can mean a long wait time for those who need immediate help.

“That response time could be anywhere from 15 to 29 minutes,” Shirey noted.

But this new unit will already be in the area to provide help to those in need.

“It is critical that we have this quick response vehicle that’s available to respond to that second call until that transport vehicle can get there,” said Berkeley County Councilman Josh Whitley.

And since the QRV can’t transport, that means there will always be a paramedic with equipment in the Daniel Island area.

“We’ve had response times in the 15-minute range for cardiac issues. It is critical that we get to patients as fast as possible,” said Shirey.

It also means better responses in other areas of the county.

“Adding this unit here may decrease the need to pull a unit from another part of the county that can respond to calls in Goose Creek and so forth, so it’s just good for the system, systemwide.”

Berkeley County still needs additional paramedics, however. They increased salaries for that job a few months ago.

CHARLESTON, S.C. – 2023 Australian Open champion and World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka has committed to compete in the Credit One Charleston Open, the largest women’s-only tennis tournament in North America. The tournament, which was recently named the WTA 500 Tournament of the Year, is the annual clay season kickoff event on the WTA Hologic Tour. The Charleston Open is set to return to the renovated and modernized Credit One Stadium on Daniel Island in Charleston, South Carolina, April 1 - 9. With the addition of World No. 2 Sabalenka, the tournament’s player field now showcases five of the world’s top 10 players, including World No. 3 Jessica Pegula, World No. 4 Ons Jabeur, World No. 8 Daria Kasatkina and World No. 9 Belinda Bencic.

Sabalenka’s 2023 season has been exceptional thus far. She began the year by winning the Adelaide International 1 and then captured her maiden Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open.

“Aryna’s addition to our player field reinforces an already incredible line-up for April,” said Bob Moran, Tournament Director of the Credit One Charleston Open and President of Charleston Tennis LLC. “She plays consistently strong tennis and is at the top of her game, recently adding Grand Slam champion to her already impressive resume. With a deep player field and a schedule filled with off-court activities, our ticket sales have been going extremely well and we have officially sold out of all tournament ticket packages. We encourage our tennis attendees to purchase their single session tickets in advance for this year’s tournament.”

The 24-year-old has been a mainstay in the WTA’s top 10 rankings since 2019. Her powerful game has propelled her to 12 career WTA singles titles and six WTA doubles titles, including the 2021 Australian Open and 2019 US Open. Her 2022 season included nine quarterfinal or better appearances, with finals in Stuttgart and ‘s-Hertogenbosch and semifinals in Rome, Cincinnati and New York at the US Open. She was also the runner-up at the WTA Finals in Fort Worth.

“I am really looking forward to competing in Charleston again this spring,” said Sabalenka. “I love visiting the city and the fans at the tournament are always so welcoming and fun. I had a great time last year and I’m excited to be back in April to hopefully win this time!” The 2023 Credit One Charleston Open will be Sabalenka’s third tournament appearance where she holds a 2-2 win/loss record.

The nine-day Credit One Charleston Open showcases a singles draw of 56 players, a qualifying draw of 32 players and a doubles draw of 16 players. The event traditionally hosts more than 90,000 attendees on Daniel Island.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

A leading Charleston technology employer has eliminated about 500 jobs since the middle of last year, including some this week, to streamline parts of its business and improve its financial performance.

Blackbaud Inc. CEO Mike Gianoni told investors and analysts on Feb. 14 that the software company has reduced its headcount by about 14 percent since the third quarter of 2022. In the latest round, he said workers were notified starting Tuesday that they were being let go after a “slowdown in voluntary attrition.”

“So we’ve had some reductions from across the board,” Gianoni said.

Blackbaud declined to provide an exact figure of this week’s cuts.

During a quarterly conference call Tuesday, an analyst asked Gianoni whether the 14 percent “workforce rebalance” from last year was based on the 3,600 workers the company told investors that it employed at the end of 2021.

“Those numbers that you mentioned are right on,” he replied.

That’s equal to roughly 500 jobs. The last time the company made comparable cuts to its workforce was 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the economy. Blackbaud’s global payroll fell to 3,100 that year from 3,611 in 2019, according to federal securities filings.

Explaining why and how the latest round of cuts were made, Gianoni said, “What you’re seeing, we’re getting a lot more scale and efficiency in the business.”

He added that the workforce reductions included a service division that now accounts for a dwindling percentage of revenue.

“So we’ve needed less resources there,” he said.

Blackbaud also closed four data centers and has brought in “partners” to handle some tasks.

It also continues to hire in key growth areas including engineering and “customer-facing” sales roles, Gianoni added.

The 41-year-old Charleston tech-industry pioneer sells fundraising software and analytical services to nonprofit organizations worldwide. Last quarter, Blackbaud announced plans to lower its overhead expenses by as much as $50 million amid the slowdown in the weakening global economy.

The company provided its latest workforce update as it announced that its fourth-quarter loss widened to about $21 million from $7 million. Revenue for the October-December period totaled $275 million, less than some Wall Street forecasters expected but up 11 percent from last year.

For all of 2022, total revenue surpassed the $1 billion mark — just barely — for the first time in the company’s history. Blackbaud also disclosed that it spent $57 million last year on legal fees and other expenses tied to a 2020 cybersecurity breach.

Blackbaud’s Nasdaq-listed stock fell more than 5 percent to close at $58.07.

Gianoni on Tuesday outlined plans for 2023 to “remain focused on driving efficiencies and improvements ... as we progress along our ‘Rule of 40’ journey,” referring to a financial measurement that calls for a software firm’s sales growth rate and profit margin to equal or exceed 40 percent.

Blackbaud expects to climb to the 34 percent marker this year from 29 percent in part by staying “intently focused on managing costs and driving significant improvements to margins throughout the year,” finance chief Tony Boor said.

It remains to be seen whether the cost-savings measures will appease a hedge fund that increased its ownership stake in Blackbaud to 18.4 percent last year. Clearlake Capital Group also announced that it changed its investor status from passive to active.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the firm’s partners said last year that they were “evaluating alternatives for their current investment and potential future investment” but have not commented further.

In response, Blackbaud adopted a stockholder rights plan last fall to defend itself against the possibility of a hostile takeover. The so-called poison pill remains in effect until October.

On Tuesday, Clearlake filed a mandatory update with regulators about its Blackbaud holdings. It has not bought or sold any shares since its previous disclosure.

Editor note: This story and headline have been corrected to show that the 14 percent workforce reduction included the job cuts announced Feb. 14.