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ScribeBy: Arlie Porter of The Post and
Courier Staff
Originally Published on: 3/4/03
Page: A1
A Charleston County zoning board rejected a plan to build a $9.7 million waterline across Johns Island late Monday after a wild and wooly discussion over whether it would hasten development of the mostly rural island.
"This island is on a roll to stop this reckless development," a jubilant Thomas Legare, a farmer and leading opponent of the waterline, said immediately after the 7-1-1 vote to kill the project.
The St. John's Water Co., a private utility, is proposing the waterline to serve the future development of Johns Island and provide an additional source of water to Seabrook Island.
"We're out of water," said Joseph W. Hall, a commissioner from Seabrook Island Utility and a member of the Johns Island utility board. Hall said Seabrook Island residents could have to boil water and ration their existing supply this summer due to a lack of water.
The two utilities have since 1998 planned an 11-mile waterline, which would stretch along River Road to near the entrance to Kiawah and Seabrook islands.
At a meeting Monday, however, some Johns Islanders bitterly protested the waterline, saying it will promote development they have for years tried to avoid.
"If you don't think that a waterline won't do anything as far as development goes, just look at Mount Pleasant," said Doug Hardman of Johns Island.
Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League, backed residents, noting that the county's long-range plan calls for Johns Island to remain rural.
Jane Lareau, a spokeswoman for the conservation league, also suggested that the waterline is proposed primarily to serve Seabrook Island and not current residents of Johns Island.
"Seabrook seems to have a crisis watering lawns," she said.
Wadmalaw Island residents also objected, claiming that the waterline could jump across Church Creek and speed development of an 800-acre tract known as Anchorage Plantation.
At times, members of the Charleston County Board of Zoning Appeals struggled to keep the meeting orderly as people in the audience regularly interrupted speakers.
"It seems we're going to have an uprising here," John Hope, chairman of the appeals board, said at one point.
About 50 residents gathered in the county office building in North Charleston objected to the waterline.
About 10 supported it.
Hall said after the meeting that he does not know if St. John's will appeal to circuit court or re-apply in 60 days.
During the meeting, he said that without the waterline, low water pressure may prompt state environmental regulators to impose a moratorium on new development on Seabrook and Johns islands. Seabrook Island has considered digging additional wells, treating the water and pumping the water back underground for storage, a system Kiawah Island is now using.
But, he said, Kiawah is taking a big risk with the relatively new technology. He also said that a new backup source of water is needed for about 4,500 new homes that are planned for the near future on Johns Island, including 600 at Hope Plantation.
Before their decision, appeals board members went behind closed doors to receive legal advice. But during that meeting, they reached a consensus to make a decision on the waterline, according to Hope.
South Carolina law prohibits a public body from voting in secret. After coming out of the closed-door meeting, the board then voted to deny a county permit needed before the waterline could be built.
In their decision, board members noted that a county planning staff analysis concluded that the waterline did not comply with the county's comprehensive plan.
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