Communities seek more growth, services while retaining rural character
Louise Bennett, co-owner of Rosebank Farms on Betsy Kerrison Parkway, with
the farm mule Stewart. The farm animals are a special feature of the farm
and market.
The owners of Rosebank Farms on Johns Island privately wondered three years
ago if they should close.
A gourmet grocery store had opened at Freshfields Village, a shopping
complex at the entrance to Kiawah and Seabrook islands.
"It almost put us out of business the first year because everyone had to go
to the 'new' store," said Louise Bennett, who owns Rosebank with Sidi
Limehouse.
Sales at the farm store on the Betsy Kerrison Parkway plummeted to a third
of what normally came in. Bennett and Limehouse stuck with it, hoping the
"new" would wear off the competing store and business gradually would return
to Rosebank Farms.
"The comment I get most of all is, 'We're so glad you're still here,' "
Bennett said.
Bennett and Limehouse capitalize on what makes their business unique by
growing as much produce and as many flowers as they can each season. The
animals at the farm continue to be a big draw, and this year, the farm is
making sorghum syrup.
"I think we have a little spot of our own that is local, that is true to
this area," Bennett said.
Like Bennett and Limehouse, residents and officials on Johns Island and in
towns west of the Ashley River, such as Meggett, Hollywood and Ravenel, face
the challenge of maintaining what is true to their areas while becoming
bedroom communities of Charleston.
"We're definitely going to have to try and control the growth in the town,"
said Ravenel Town Councilwoman Annie Brown. "Mount Pleasant is overcrowded,
so is Summerville. So I think this area, U.S. Highway 17 going toward
Jacksonboro, they're coming into our area."
"We don't want to completely stop it. We'd like to control it," Meggett
Mayor Grange S. Coffin Jr. said of growth in the area.
For these towns, development is "kind of like a double-edged sword. We want
to maintain a rural character, but, of course, everyone does like the
amenities provided in a larger area," said Edward Holton, Hollywood planner
and zoning administrator.
The towns have seen a few new businesses move in, but a car wash, restaurant
and landscaping business, for example, don't offer enough jobs to their
populations.
"We don't have enough business in the area for employment," Brown said. "A
lot of the people in the community go out of the Ravenel area for
employment."
The areas seem to be particularly attractive to home development, but the
towns can't offer the necessary services.
"We have paved some of our roads, but quite a few still need to be paved,"
Brown said of Ravenel, which just last year starting bringing in sewer
service to the area.
Several months ago, the town turned down a developer who wanted to build 250
houses in the area.
"We don't have the capacity for something that large," Brown said.
Though the economic slowdown has meant Hollywood and Meggett haven't had
developers knocking on their doors lately, officials in both towns said they
face the same issue.
"We don't have the infrastructure and resources," Coffin said. "A developer
is going to have to put their own roads in and take care of whatever septic
systems are required. We have sewer in the town of Meggett, but we have run
out of sewer taps, so there can be no more people tapping into the sewer
system."
Coffin doesn't necessarily see that as a bad thing. "I think it's going to
help us. We believe that will limit development," he said.
Like his neighbors in Hollywood and Ravenel, Coffin wants to maintain what
he loves about Meggett.
"The large tracts of land tend to maintain the beauty of this area. I don't
think there's any place I know of that's any prettier than Meggett," Coffin
said.
Hollywood is in the midst of developing its comprehensive plan, which will
address growth issues and designate areas that are geared toward development
and areas saved for nondevelopment, Holton said. He expects it to be done by
next spring.
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