Planning Commission denies developer's application
Residents urged to oppose cut-through road
Incumbent board officers re-elected

Planning Commission denies developer's application

A developer's application to annex and rezone 8.7 acres between Ivy Hall and Gregorie Ferry Road to make way for a 46-home residential community was denied by Mount Pleasant's Planning Commission in an Aug. 18th meeting.

However, the 8-1 vote doesn't kill the application. Nor does it kill the prospects for a road that would connect Ivy Hall to S.C. Highway 41 via an access point off Seaborn Drive.

The application now will go before the town's Planning Committee, but it will do so without a recommendation by the Planning Commission. The Planning Committee doesn't always agree with the actions of the Planning Commission, so Ivy Hall residents still need to pay close attention to this issue.

The next Planning Committee meeting will be 3 p.m. Wednesday Sept. 8th at the town's Municipal Complex. If the application is approved at the meeting, it then would move to Town Council for a first reading on Tuesday Sept. 14th. The application would need to pass two Town Council readings to be officially approved.

The Aug. 18th action by the Planning Commission was its second denial of the Gregorie Ferry Tract application. In June, the panel voted 9-0 to deny the application because the planned density was higher than the town's "Comprehensive Plan" allows. The developers later withdrew the application so they could rework it. This week they returned with a plan that includes more acreage and green space, but also greater density. Commission members, some of whom expressed amazement at the higher density given the panel's previous denial, said they had no choice but to deny the application again.

An estimated 20 Ivy Hall residents attended the meeting, and a handful spoke during the public comment period. Most who spoke expressed opposition to any cut-through road.

Bob Lang, president of the Ivy Hall Property Owners Association, stated the Association's official position: that we support for the annexation and rezoning provided that the developers include a 25-foot buffer between our property and their new neighborhood. Lang also stated a case for the Association's strong opposition to any cut-through road to S.C. Highway 41 (see story below).

Lang brought 115 signed declarations of opposition to the cut-through and presented them to the town's planning staff.

Even though the road issue wasn't a part of the annexation/rezoning application, the public comments made an impact with at least one commission member who stated that Ivy Hall's roads "weren't built to handle" the kind of traffic that the new road would bring.

The Association sincerely thanks all residents who attended the meeting and/or dropped off signed declarations. We're still accepting declarations if anyone has one. Click here for another printable form. Simply put them in our new drop box by the message sign.

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Residents urged to oppose town’s plan
to connect Ivy Hall to S.C. Highway 41
 

The Ivy Hall Property Owners Association Board of Directors is prepared to support a plan that would allow for a 46-home neighborhood on an 8.7-acre tract off Gregorie Ferry Road. However, we DO NOT support the town’s desire to connect this new neighborhood to Ivy Hall via an access point off Seaborn Drive, thereby creating a cut-through to S.C. Highway 41 (click on above map). The town’s planning staff wants this cut-through despite the fact that both the property owner and the likely developer are content to have sole access to the new neighborhood off Gregorie Ferry Road. Town staffers want the connecting road for one reason: to ease traffic on busy U.S. Highway 17. The Board understands the reasoning but feels that lightening the load on the highway would be done to the detriment of Ivy Hall. Specifically, here are our reasons we oppose the connecting road:

• Additional traffic. More cars on our quiet neighborhood streets would increase the potential for accidents (we’ve had three here since spring), not to mention the added risk to our children. The likely cut-through route traverses the intersection of Seaborn and Lexington drives, where many children often play.
• Detour threat. Traffic already backs up considerably each weekday afternoon at the U.S. 17-S.C. 41 intersection after the new Wando High School lets out. If we have a cut-through, student drivers could use our roads to avoid the traffic jam. An even scarier scenario would be when there is an accident at the 17-41 intersection. Imagine all southbound traffic on U.S. 17 cutting through our neighborhood to get to S.C. 41! It could happen.
• Increased crime. Local police tell us that neighborhoods with multiple points of access typically have more crime than neighborhoods with just one entrance. It makes sense, especially when you think of each entrance as a thief’s “getaway route.” Ivy Hall, with its single entrance, has one of the lowest crime rates of any neighborhood in Mt. Pleasant. We’d like to keep it that way.
• Wear and tear on our roads. Increased traffic would put increased stress on our roads, resulting in quicker deterioration than if we didn’t have the additional vehicular activity.

The Association strongly feels that our opposition to the cut-through must be put on record with town officials to give us a chance at defeating it. To reiterate, the Association is supportive of the rezoning/annexation application. But we vehemently oppose the connecting road that town staffers recommend.

Anyone who hasn't already done so can sign a declaration of opposition to the road. The declaration statement was on the bottom of a flyer distributed the week of August 16th. Click here for another printable form if you need one. Simply put the forms in our new drop box attached to the message sign. All signed declarations will be forwarded to the town's planning staff.

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INCUMBENT BOARD OFFICERS RE-ELECTED

All four incumbent officers have been re-elected to one-year terms on the Ivy Hall Property Owners Association's Board of Directors.

Bob Lang remains president, Gary Jaster remains vice-president, Gary Brown remains treasurer, and Robin Richardson remains secretary. The nine-member board conducted the election July 28th in the wake of the Annual Meeting.

Board member William Ray, elected to the board in 2003, was appointed chairman of the Architectural Review Committee for the second straight year.