Spinal Decompression Therapy in James Island, SC

A year long project and vision to improve the Folly Road corridor has wrapped up another year of research and plans.

JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - A year long project and vision to improve the Folly Road corridor has wrapped up another year of research and plans.

The Rethink Folly Road Complete Streets Initiative has a goal to improve congestion and connectivity with pedestrian and bike lanes. Officials hope the work will also improve the value and quality of life along the thoroughfare.

The idea behind the project began in 2015 and Charleston County, Charleston City, Folly Beach and the Town of James Island approved the initiative in 2016. It’s a collaborative effort to study the area, design improvements and secure funding for work.

For the past three years, Toole Design has been working with the county and cities along the corridor to do research and community studies on how to best implement the biking and walking paths.

Lakeesha Dunbar, Office Manager for Tool Design, says the design phase and securing property is often longer than actual construction.

“The last two years is getting the design of the Phase One project done in coordination with the state. And so that’s a big piece in itself. And then since I’ve been on board, um, in the last year, we’ve done quite a few little things to keep it trying to keep the momentum going with the community,” Dunbar says.

Tool design worked with the county on designs and also collaborated with business owners along the road.

“We have to get buy in one because we’re having to get easements and property from property owners along the corridor,” Dunbar explains.

The Tool firm’s contract with the Rethink Folly Road project ends and the end of 2022.

“We’ve been expansion of staff to coordinate the steering committee and the BI monthly meetings. I think just that continued coordination and communication between all of the jurisdictions because there are the multiple jurisdictions along the corridor - that’s key,” Dunbar says.

Going forward, the jurisdictions hope to see phase one completed in the next two years. Phase 1 is the initial phase of the bicycle and pedestrian accommodation project stretching from Lowe’s to Walmart.

Charleston Councilwoman Jenny Costa Honeycutt says in the coming year, people will notice disjointed parts of the paths going in.

“There’s been several improvements within that area already and as different areas like the Chick-fil-A that’s being remodeled as they get improved, you will see isolated, you know, paths and all built in those areas, but along for the long term is going to take a little bit longer to acquire all the property we need,” she says.

Honeycutt compared the goal for Folly Road to how Coleman Boulevard functions in Mount Pleasant – a main road but with bike lanes and sidewalks that connect the nearby community. She says it’s a grand vision of a safe community road that will take a while to accomplish and asks people to be patient as the county and involved cities continue designing and construction.

“So, you’ve got the county who’s sort of the applicant that’s sort of running the operation, you might call, but you have all of those stakeholders involved in at the table and as we progress, we want you know, the community’s input, particularly business owners along the corridor to make sure that it reflects what the community wants,” Honeycutt says.

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Two fake stop signs have been found in one James Island neighborhood, which the mayor says has caused confusion and controversy between town officials and local

JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Two fake stop signs have been found in one James Island neighborhood, which the mayor says has caused confusion and controversy between town officials and locals.

A neighbor’s security camera captured the Town of James Island’s public works department removing the illegal stop signs from the corner of Clearview Drive and Tennant Street on Oct. 21.

“You cannot put your own stop signs out. You can always come to the town and make a request, and it will always be merited,” Mayor Bill Woolsey said. “We won’t often be able to put them up, but you can’t put them up yourself, and how we respond is we immediately contact SCDOT. We would have been very surprised if they put a stop sign out there without telling us beforehand.”

A worker could be seen wiggling one of the signs a couple of times before lifting it out of the ground and placing it in the back of a truck.

Not only were the signs put in illegally, according to the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, but the ground next to the street was painted with white stop bars, as well.

“It’s the first I’ve ever heard about it, and I hope it doesn’t spread,” Woolsey said. “[I’m surprised] someone would come and paint a line in the road and buy some online stop signs and install them themselves in the middle of the night or early in the morning.”

Deputies said they were patrolling the area the night before and didn’t see any new signs, but when they went back the next day, they said the signs, which were apparently purchased online, had been put in overnight.

The South Carolina Department of Transportation has also confirmed they have not installed any stop signs at the intersection.

Neighbors initially thought the stop signs were put in by DOT to help with speeders and said the fake signs hurts their ability to address the issue.

“I guess somebody duped us, and they were putting in fake stop signs,” neighbor Jim Boyd said. “They looked to all of us legitimate and 100% real. We are just in favor of anything and everything that we can get people to slow down. Yes, we understand first responders need to get here quickly as well, but we want everything and anything.”

However, Woolsey said he believes the signs did not pop up at random.

“If we find out who did it, they will be charged, and we believe that, most likely, it was someone who lives close by,” he said.

Woolsey also said there was a recent incident where an illegal speed bump was found and removed near the intersection. He said the speed bump had black and yellow stripes and was similar to one found in parking lots across the Lowcountry.

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The price tag for the Mark Clark Extension linking West Ashley to Johns and James islands has more than tripled to $2.35 billion and Charleston County would be responsible for most of the bill.

Some opponents are saying the excessive new cost figure for the final loop of the Interstate 526 system shows the route has gotten too expensive and should be dropped.

“It is time to say enough is enough,” said Jason Crowley of the Coastal Conservation League. “This to me is a perfect opportunity for Charleston County Council to walk away from this project.”

The S.C. Department of Transportation is asking the county to agree on moving forward, but with the local share of the project pegged at more than $1.9 billion it’s not clear where Charleston County would get the money.

Also favoring the completion is the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, which sees rising expenses as a reason to get it done as soon as possible, and the city of Charleston.

“No question, the cost estimates for major infrastructure projects in South Carolina are exploding, and (Interstate) 526 is no exception,” Mayor John Tecklenburg said in a prepared statement. “But that doesn’t change the fact that our West Ashley and Island residents need and deserve the traffic relief and public safety improvements this project will bring.”

The connection between Interstate 526 and the James Island Connector, aimed at easing traffic on and off Johns Island, has been debated for decades and growing more costly all the time.

The DOT’s new cost estimate is more than three times the $725 million price calculated in 2015, but all of the increase would fall to Charleston County because the state’s share of the cost was capped at $420 million in a 2019 agreement with the county.

Charleston County had expected to contribute about $305 million, not more than six times that amount.

“We’ll wait to see how the county responds,” said state Secretary of Transportation Christy Hall. “Our recommendation remains ... to proceed with preliminary activity on the project and get to the point where it would be shovel-ready.”

In a letter to the county April 25, Hall said DOT is asking the county and the state Transportation Infrastructure Bank Board for approval to spend $150 million for ongoing work to make the road plan ready for bids. The county would pay half that amount.

Beyond that, the highway department wants the county to demonstrate “a reasonable financial approach to the entire project.”

“I don’t know if people are going to have an appetite for it,” said County Council Chairman Teddie Pryor. “Where are we going to get the extra money from?”

County Council was expected to discuss the issue at its April 26 meeting, but instead Pryor announced that Hall would be attending the council’s Finance Committee meeting on May 5. No member of council mentioned the road project or the new cost estimate at the meeting, but several members of the audience did.

“My personal opinion is, we should just cut our losses and not spend another dime on the project,” said Linda Miller of Johns Island.

Supporters and opponents of the road plan have expressed shock over the new cost estimate. Bradley Taggart, a co-founder of Charlestonians For I-526, told County Council members that a temporary spike in commodity prices was likely to blame and could prove temporary.

“We could be looking at a project that costs half as much in six month’s time as the market rebalances,” he told council members.

The county and the state have each spent about $12.5 million on the project so far, Pryor said earlier in the day.

“The longer this thing is delayed, the more it’s going to cost,” said Pryor.

Hall said one reason the cost has gone up so much is the soaring price of real estate in Charleston County. Acquiring the land needed for the road would cost an estimated $261 million, she said.

The DOT estimate assumes construction could begin in 2028, and also assumes there would be two or three years of litigation before that.

A legal challenge to the project has been winding its way through the courts for years already, with the Coastal Conservation League fighting Charleston County’s 2019 agreement to pay all the costs exceeding $420 million.

Crowley, CCL’s communities and transportation senior program director, suggested the new cost estimate could open the door to negotiating a way out of the contract were the county to seek an exit.

The county is currently spending about $200 million improving Johns Island roads, the Limehouse bridge over the Stono River and the intersection of U.S. Highway 17 and Main Road.

The Coastal Conservation League has strongly opposed the I-526 extension, calling it in 2021 “a last-century highway project that benefits few and impacts many.” A community organization called Nix 526 has also been fighting the project, and Charleston Waterkeeper and the S.C. Wildlife Federation have raised objections.

Supporters of the proposed roadway include the Charleston Trident Association of Realtors and the Trident CEO Council, the city of Charleston, Charlestonians For I-526, and many residents of Kiawah Island.

“The new cost estimate is a direct result of what happens when a critical project is continually delayed, costs inevitably go up,” said the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce. “The current cost of the project heightens the important need of completing this effort now.”

While Crowley said it’s time to say “enough is enough” the Chamber said “Now is the time to double down on our efforts” in a statement April 26.

Johns Island residents have been divided on the project, which would make it easier to get on and off the island but could increase development there. The island’s population has been growing quickly and many new residential subdivisions are underway.

Charleston governs a large part of Johns Island and has long supported the road project. City Council on April 26 unanimously adopted a resolution urging the county to continue moving forward.

If the extension were completed, there would be a highway loop around Charleston, with the interstate running from Mount Pleasant across Daniel Island, North Charleston and West Ashley, then becoming more of a low-speed parkway across Johns Island and connecting to the James Island Connector on James Island.

While the project would extend from the end of I-526 in West Ashley, DOT calls it the Mark Clark Extension. It’s separate from ongoing plans to widen the existing parts of the interstate from West Ashley to Mount Pleasant.

JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCBD) – Charleston City leaders provided some insight on a flood-prone neighborhood on James Island that saw an excess of water after Hurricane Ian.

News 2 first introduced viewers to Michael Miller and his wife on Friday when Hurricane Ian flooded their home and others on Shoreham Road.

According to Miller, it took about five to six hours for the water to drain on the street and about three hours for it to recede inside his home.

“We just started getting as much of the water and as much of the dirt out as we could. Putting up fans, scrubbing down everything. Trying to assess the damage,” said Miller.

According to Charleston City leaders, Shoreham Road is known to flood because it sits in a low-lying area.

“It’s a neighborhood where when that water falls on the streets and on the roofs and on the properties it’s hard to move it out very quickly especially if we get higher tides,” explained Matthew Fountain, the Director of Stormwater Management for the City of Charleston.

There are a few projects in the works to help prevent flooding in the neighborhood. Fountain said one includes a rain garden that is set to be built at the site of a former flood-prone home the city acquired through federal grants.

He said the other small project consists of constructing a drainage swale system to help store more water in the neighborhood. While these projects can help with a typical thunderstorm/rain event, Fountain said it will take more to prevent flooding in a major storm like Ian.

“That neighborhood is going to experience flooding. That’s part of the reason we’ve looked at home acquisitions and demolition in that location giving people the opportunity if they have a heavily flooded home to have the city work with the federal government and eventually buy their homes,” explained Fountain.

Meanwhile, drainage projects on other parts of James Island seem to be showing signs of improvement. News 2 met with Charleston County Councilwoman Jenny Costa Honeycutt at the Charleston Municipal Golf Course where drainage improvements are underway.

She said Hurricane Ian was one of the first big storms to hit the area since rolling out the projects. Because of the work that was done over the last few years, Honeycutt said the water in the system was able to drain within one tide cycle, as opposed to sitting for days as it has in the past.

“One of the parts of the improvements that really helped was cleaning out the Stono River outfall and then back up the ditch system to the entire watershed, so that water could drain out faster. In conjunction, we also enhanced these ponds you see on the golf course to allow more water to stay in the system as the tides change,” explained Honeycutt.

According to city leaders, they monitor streets like Shoreham Road ahead of big storms, making sure the pipes aren’t clogged.

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CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The City of Charleston’s Planning Commission on Wednesday will review plans for a new residential development on James Island.

The property has both low-lying wetlands and high ground, which appears to be causing concern for some James Island residents.

One James Island resident, Franny Henty, said she is concerned about the flooding problems that developments in low-lying areas may cause for surrounding neighbors.

Developers are proposing to build the ‘Harbor View Towns’ near the intersection of the James Island Expressway and Harbor View Road. According to the submitted plans, it will consist of six single-family and 10 multifamily units.

Henty lives off of Folly Road, right near Publix.

With the multiple jurisdictions interacting on James Island, she said she hopes the city is being careful with its stormwater retention plan, especially considering the low-lying areas and wetlands on the property.

“Adding so much development can flood out the neighbors, and that’s not apparent immediately, its apparent years later, Henty said.

City of Charleston Director of Planning, Preservation and Sustainability Robert Summerfield said the majority of the property is high land, but the portion of the property containing wetlands will be “pretty significantly” buffered away.

He said the developer’s plans include a stormwater retention plan, and even though the multiple jurisdictions can be confusing from a planning perspective, he is confident in the city’s stormwater requirements.

“This property is in the city, this property is not, and so on and so forth. But this one is in the city, has to meet all of our requirements. And again, our stormwater requirements, I would put those up against any in the state in terms of their stringent requirements to safeguard against future, and particularly downstream, flooding,” Summerfield said.

We are waiting to hear from the developer for comment.

Today’s planning commission meeting will take place at 5:00 p.m. in the Public Meeting Room on the first floor of 2 George Street.

The meeting will also be live streamed and recorded on the City of Charleston Public Meetings YouTube channel.

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