JOHNS ISLAND--John McCormack has almost everything he needs to develop some 300 homes off River Road, including the right zoning, financial partners and surveys showing how roads and utility lines can weave around the site's grand oaks.
But McCormack still needs one more critical thing before he can start work, and he isn't sure when he can get it.
The Jacksonville, Fla., developer is one of at least five people that the St. John's Water Co. has told it cannot serve until it builds a new waterline.
The utility wants to run a 30-inch line over a 12-mile route from James Island, across the Stono River and along River Road, but a nonprofit environmental group is fighting the plan in court and also rallying the utility's customers against it.
That group, the Coastal Conservation League, says it could accept a 24-inch line, and St. John's board could consider downsizing the line as early as next month. At issue is whether it's better to build a smaller line now and risk needing to build another waterline one day or continue fighting for the larger 30-inch line and risk more short-term problems.
Developers aren't the only ones in a pinch.
Last week, repairs on an existing Bohicket Road line left a few customers without water for about four hours, said Colleen Schild, a project engineer with B.P. Barber & Associates, which works with St. John's. Many more saw a drop in pressure.
"They are in a really bad position," Schild said of St. John's. "Because their system is at capacity, one little problem, which for any other system would be a normal operation repair problem, becomes a real tight situation."
The Kiawah Island Utility Inc. and the Seabrook Island Utility Commission also had to plan for a pressure drop last week. The utilities normally receive about 3,500 gallons a minute, but that flow ebbed to only 500 gallons during the work.
Kiawah general manager Becky Dennis advised customers not to water their lawns. "There is no redundancy in the waterlines coming out here, so if we had not planned ahead and taken the steps to have the water stored, it could have been troublesome," she said.
A 30-inch waterline would cost about $10 million and would be paid for partly by a $7.1 million federal loan. The average household customer would pay about $1.50 more a month to help pay for it.
If the utility were to build a smaller, 24-inch line, it could shave about 20 percent off that cost, said A. Paul Smith III of B.P. Barber. But if the utility had to build another line one day, then those savings would vanish and its total outlay could be three times as much.
The Coastal Conservation League says the 24-inch line is ample to serve all development currently allowed under the county's comprehensive zoning plan. Megan Terebus of the league said a 30-inch line would satisfy the demands larger than the town of Mount Pleasant, which has a population about four times larger than Johns Island.
The league's legal fight won an important round earlier this month when a South Carolina Court of Appeals judge reversed an earlier ruling that required the league to post a $7.5 million bond before continuing its lawsuit against the waterline. The league also is trying to collect enough signatures to force the St. John's utility's 3,700 customers to vote on whether they want a 30-inch line.
Terebus said if the larger line is built, then St. John's would be more able to serve the less- developed Wadmalaw Island next door and future county councils and zoning boards will feel more pressure to change the plan and allow more development on Johns Island.
"The more infrastructure, the more pressure there will be to make use of it," she said.
While a 30-inch line is only 25 percent wider than a 24-inch line, it could hold 56 percent more water.
McCormack said his property is within the urban growth boundary, and he has invested more than $300,000 in deposits, tree surveys and other engineering work.
On Monday, he spent $3.5 million to close on the several parcels that will make up the site, which includes about 112 acres of high land. He plans to build single-family homes, townhomes and a few stores. A public road would follow along the Stono's edge, making the river accessible to those living closer to River Road.
McCormack said he favors controlled growth and requirements for developers to help install their needed roads and utility lines.
"I don't have a problem doing my fair share, but I sure would like an opportunity to do it," he said.
Clinton Dunn of the engineering firm Seamon Whiteside & Associates Inc., which is working with McCormack on The Park on the Stono, understands St. John's can't commit water it doesn't have.
"I can see where each side is coming from, but if you're St. John's Water Co., and you know you can get a 24-inch line and avoid all the legal fees, why would you not take it?"
