November Leaves are Falling

Hurricanes and Tropical Storms Are Not Finished

Since the hurricane season stays in effect until the end of November, I am keeping this notice up. Let's keep hoping they all pass as the last few have. For more information, please click here.

Now That's Interesting

So, does anyone know what is the South Carolina state bird?

The South Carolina state bird is the Carolina Wren.  It was designated as the official state bird in 1948, replacing the mockingbird. The Carolina Wren is a small songbird that is found throughout the state of South Carolina. It features a brownish-red back and a cream-colored body with white stripes over the eyes. The song of the Carolina Wren is described as “tea-ket-tle, tea-ket-tle, tea-ket-tle” and can be heard year-round, day and night, in all kinds of weather.

Seeing Our Community Flourish

Just want to acknowledge and thank Interim Board President Sarah Yuncker and her husband Brian for some great work adding new amber safety lighting on all three of the residence buildings. I had the pleasure of helping them connect the lighting electrical line and positioning the lights to illuminate the steps and porch areas.  

The front sign also received a new light that shines brighter on our community entrance. Just a reminder, these new lights are not designed for lighting up the whole complex or high-lighting shrubs, but to provide safe conditions to enter after dark. 

Just A Reminder

Until we move into colder weather in our area, we are still under the watch of our crawly friends. 

Please remember, there are 38 snake species in South Carolina, only six of which are venomous. Keep your eyes open for any movement in the brush. Be diligent.

Many snakes provide an important service keeping rodent and other pest populations under control. The venomous species tend to be secretive and are less frequently encountered. All snakes are nonaggressive when left alone. Click here to download the South Carolina Department of Natural Recourses Guide to venomous snakes of South Carolina (SCDNR) (image of download to the right). 

Our Next-Door Communities

A high density planned development is proposed for Betsy Kerrison Parkway near Kiawah Town Hall.  The development ... which would allow professional and medical offices, general services, retail, restaurants, and multi-family housing ... goes by the name "Island Park Place Health & Wellness Village".  

Under current zoning, no more than 53 houses could be built.  Due to the location of the wetlands, it is likely that the actual number of houses would be less than that.

Although some of the occupants of the development could be medical in nature, this is not an actual medical facility such as the Trident Medical Center to be built on Maybank Highway or the MUSC medical facility to be built near Freshfields.

As is abundantly clear in the site plan graphic above, this would be a very high-density development.  It would consist of 14 two- and three-story buildings, a parking garage, a private wastewater treatment plant, roadways and parking for 557 vehicles.  To accomplish this the developer proposes to fill in up to 2.5 acres of wetlands and cut down 12 grand trees.

The remaining parcel would primarily consist of the required buffers, stormwater ponds and what remains of the wetlands.  This does not remotely resemble the bucolic wellness campus the developer had described in the past.

It would be a 159,846 sq-ft mixed use development, which would include 18 multi-family units (e.g. apartments).  In comparison, Freshfields is 192,000 sq-ft, which would make this development about 83% the size of Freshfields.

If the developer cannot make a go at it, it would revert to General Office (GO) zoning.  This zoning would allow even more by-right uses, including hotels and motels.  It appears that it is solely up to the developer to decide that they cannot make a go of it.  We asked you to give us your views on the proposed "Health and Wellness Village" proposed for Betsy Kerrison Parkway.  This proposed development would be located just north of Kiawah Town Hall. 

Note that this is NOT the Trident Medical Center proposed for Maybank Highway or the MUSC medical facility proposed for near Freshfields. The survey showed overwhelming opposition to the rezoning.  This was the case for both those from Johns Island as well as those from Kiawah and Seabrook Islands. This rezoning will come before the Charleston County Planning Commission on Monday, November 13, at 2:00 pm. A notice from the Johns Island Advocate will be send out an action alert once the application package becomes available. This should be at least a week before the meeting.  The action alert will include where to send your comments and the location of the meeting. 

Survey Result Details

As shown in Chart 1, over two-thirds were opposed to the rezoning.  Even among those who were for the rezoning, the majority wanted the project to be drastically reduced in scale.

Chart 2 shows the geographic distribution of the responders.  As expected, most of the responders were from Johns Island but over a third were from Kiawah and Seabrook Islands.

We continue to be encouraged by the number of residents of Kiawah and Seabrook Islands who are in solidarity with Johns Islanders.  (The Johns Island Advocate)

Good Luck 

Just want to say congratulations and good luck to our good neighbor and friends Roger and Barb Swasy. They recently purchased a home in the Lake Wylie area of South Carolina and are happy to be very close to their two daughters who live in Charlotte, North Carolina. Roger was a farmer from Pennsylvania, and recently worked in the produce section of our local Harris Teeter grocery store, and Barb is a registered nurse and works for naviHealth as a patient care coordinator and also has vast experience in Pre-Service Care coordination and Admissions. We wish both Roger and Barb well and hope they enjoy their new home on the lake.  

Final Image of the Month

As a father and grandfather, I am proud of both my daughters and our new grandson. So in keeping with the blogs final image, I present 2 images I am very happy to put up on line.

Both Kathryn and I were extremely happy to celebrate our oldest daughter Allison's wedding. She and her new husband Jeffrey were married at the William Paca house in historic Annapolis Maryland. The wedding was on Saturday October 14th, and typically when some aspect involves me, there needs to be a problem. The wedding was an outdoor wedding, and the Paca house does not have any indoor celebration areas, so of course it rained like the second coming of Noah. That was not as bad as the 1700 era mansion lost power even before the wedding started. So lets sum it up. Raining on the bridal party, (the ladies were supplied umbrellas, the groom and groomsmen were not supplied umbrellas.....yup soaked...) and no power for the reception, a catastrophe right....nope, everyone had a great time, candlelight made the ambiance. We father/daughter danced to an iPhone and a small speaker, and it was the best thing that I could have imagined. Congrats to Allison and Jeffrey. 

As a extremely proud grandfather, I needed to share a photo of my grandson RJ in his Halloween costume. See if you can guess what he is going as..... If you said Panda, you are correct. Ok, Hey RJ, don't let your mother hog all the snickers bars....She will do that you know.

The blog will be short this month. I have been busy with various activities that have taken away from my writing time. With the holiday seasons approaching, November and Decembers blogs will be short, but will return to full, hard hitting, kicking butt and taking names blog in January... hmmmmm or maybe just some dog photos and fun stuff......