All right, good morning, everybody.

Let's uh get committee day started.

Hope everybody had a great 4th of July and that you woke up on Sunday with a love for America, your family and friends, and most importantly, 10 fingers still on your hands.

Um this is uh bids and purchases uh 815 agenda item number one call to order, which we've just done.

Number two is approval of minutes from the June 1st, 2026 meeting.

So move.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

And those minutes are approved.

Uh item number three is public comments.

Is there anybody who would like to speak to this board?

Going once, twice.

All right, public comment is closed.

Item number four, award of a contract for the design of intersection improvements at Vening Road and Hungry Neck Boulevard.

Ms.

Harness.

Okay, it looks like we have a jumble of the slides in here.

Sorry.

No problem.

Um, I think we're on the public services committee on the board.

There we go.

That doesn't make sense.

No, it doesn't.

Sorry, one second.

Thank you.

All right, appreciate it, Noah.

All right, item number four, award of a contract for the design of intersection improvements at Vening Road and Hungry Neck Boulevard.

Ms.

Harness.

Yes, thank you.

Good morning.

Uh the bids and purchases committee previously approved the establishment of agreements with consultants to perform various types of transportation, engineering and development services on an on-call basis.

Design services are needed for the vending road and hungry neck boulevard intersection projects.

This project includes field surveys to determine accurate elevations and locations of existing facilities, the development of preliminary plans and construction plans to illustrate the alignment, grades, cross sections, construction limits, relevant dimensions, and location of existing features and proposed improvements, traffic signal design, and plans.

Additionally, it includes the development of drainage calculations, a stormwater design report, stormwater pollution prevention plan, and erosion control plan is necessary to facilitate permitting of the construction plans for this project.

The time required for design and permitting is approximately 365 days.

Staff have determined that this project will require the services of HDR Engineering Incorporated of the Carolinas to design the intersection improvements for this project.

Therefore, staff recommend contracting with HDR Engineering Incorporated of the Carolinas and the amount of 133, 720.68 cents to provide the design services.

Thank you.

Let's get a motion and get this on the table and approve.

All right, so we've got it on the table.

Any questions from committee members?

No, I just like to make one comment.

As I was coming in this morning after July 4th wicked weekend, I realized how uh fortunate we are and grateful that we live in a town and this had previous leadership and uh the staff that allow us to be able to pass on programs like this.

There's many times in meeting of the municipal government that uh there's plenty of places that don't have the good fortune to do that.

So we're we're blessed and should be grateful that we have the opportunity.

Miss Crosby, anything?

Yes, I just wanted to note um I think this would be uh a significant improvement for this intersection.

Uh drive through it pretty frequently in that venting road approach um uh to hungry neck often stacks up past the uh the driveway of the gas station, which is at the top right-hand corner of that slide.

And I think um separating that straight traffic from a right turn uh will definitely help uh that intersection flow.

And so appreciate staff's work on that.

Um let's go ahead and uh take the vote.

All those um in favor of awarding the contract, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

All right, and that carries three to zero.

Uh moves us to item number five, award of a contract for the construction of the Ferry Street and Pitt Street Inlet conversion.

Yes, the bids and purchases committee previously approved the establishment of agreements with contractors to perform various types of stormwater repair and rehabilitation services on an on-call basis.

This project will convert the existing great inlet to a curb inlet to improve drainage performance and reduce the likelihood of debris related blockages.

The project was initiated in response to recurring flooding of the intersection caused by debris clogging the existing inlet.

Additional project goals include repaving the intersection to facilitate stormwater flow to the new inlet and installing a crosswalk at a high pedestrian traffic crossing to improve safety and accessibility.

Move to approve.

We have a motion and a second.

Oh, it's okay.

Not quite done.

Yep, keep going.

Uh the time required for this project is approximately 90 days.

Staff have determined that this project will require the services of IPW Construction Group LLC.

Therefore, staff recommend contracting with IPW in the amount of 185,529 and 84 cents to provide the inlet conversion.

All right, we have a motion and a second, so this item is on the table.

Any questions or comments from committee members?

This appears to be primarily stormwater, correct?

Correct.

Well, it's a great uh area to do it in.

Well, not a great area, it's an area that has a lot of problems, so and many people walk it and use it every day, and it does at some times completely flood.

We've had people up uh waste deep trying to clear that um and which is quite an interruption, so that's a good use of the funds.

Okay.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Tinky, Miss Crosby.

Anything?

All right, let's uh go ahead and uh call for the vote on this.

All those in favor of awarding the contract signify by saying aye.

Aye.

And that carries three to zero.

Uh on to item number six award of a contract for the Queen's Court stormwater pipe replacement.

Ms.

Harness.

Yes, the bids and purchases committee previously approved the establishment of agreements with contractors to perform various types of stormwater repair and rehab services on an on-call basis.

This project includes removing approximately 230 linear feet of existing eight-inch concrete stormwater pipe and replacing it with 24 inch HP storm pipe to improve drainage.

This project was initiated in response to reports of non-structural flooding and confirmed pipe damage due to route intrusion.

The time required for this project is approximately 90 days.

Staff have determined that this project will require the services of IPW Construction Group LLC.

Therefore, staff recommend contracting with IPW in the amount of 190,000 140.68 cents to remove and replace the stormwater pipe.

All right, let's get this on the table.

Is there a motion?

Yes, we approved.

Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second.

Any questions or comments from committee members?

No.

Yeah.

Okay.

Let's uh go ahead and call for the vote.

All those in favor of awarding this contract signify by saying aye.

Aye.

And that carries three to zero.

And uh one more agenda item with um drainage improvements, which is a definite theme this morning.

Uh award of a change order for the design and permitting services for the Daubre and Alhambra basins drainage improvements.

Yes, the town previously contracted with Thomas and Hutton to provide survey and wetland delineation for the Alhambra, Daubray, and Saltgrass Point Basins drainage improvements project.

Since the initial contract, Thomas and Hutton has provided general consulting, survey phase, wetland delineation, and SUE evaluations for these basins.

Staff have now determined that full design and permitting are needed for the Alhambra and Dobray basins.

This design will include an additional topographic survey, development of existing conditions, hydrologic and hydraulic models, preliminary design, geotechnical evaluation, final design, and construction plans, as well as utility coordination and permitting services for all required federal, state, and local agencies.

The time required for this project is approximately 440 days.

Staff there for recommend request approval to award a change order to Thomaset and Hutton in the amount of 373,900 to complete full design and permitting for the Alhambra and Davray drainage basins.

Great, and let's get this on the table.

Um is there a motion?

Move to approve.

Second.

And we're not just going to upgrade the uh the line that you're saying, we're actually going to do some improvements that are going to be offline from this to bring water to the system.

And when if this goes through, when will this work start?

Well, right now uh we've got a grant deadline of September twenty twenty seven uh for permitting.

Um we will be um requesting what we currently are requesting an extension to the grant right now.

Um, so it's probably going to be twenty twenty-eight by the time construction starts.

Very good.

Any additional questions or comments?

All right.

Let's go ahead and uh vote on this one.

All in favor of awarding this change order for the design and permitting services signify by saying I.

Welcome to the Finance Committee meeting this morning.

Next item on the agenda is approval of minutes from the April 6th 2026 meeting.

Motion made and seconded.

Any discussion?

Hearing none, call for the question.

All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Ayes have it.

Next item is public comments.

Anyone here for public comments, please give us your name and address.

We have two and a half minutes.

Seeing none, uh, we'll move on to item number four, which is consideration of lease renewal for the visitor center and sweet grass pavilion.

Ms.

Harness.

Good morning.

So the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, our CBB has operated both the Mount Pleasant Visitor Center and the Sweet Grass Cultural Arts Pavilion for the past 17 years.

The 15-year original lease and two-year extension recently expired last month.

A lease renewal would continue the successful partnership as CBB does a good job of operating these facilities at Memorial Waterfront Park.

The current financial terms for both facilities would continue as is and are listed here.

And therefore, staff recommends approving a five-year lease extension through 2031 with the five-year renewal option at the end of that term.

Since this agreement requires a new ordinance be approved, we are looking for a recommendation from committee back to town council on this lease renewal.

Thank you.

Any other questions from Ms.

Harness?

We have a motion.

Motion made and seconded to move forward with the five-year lease extension.

Any discussions on the motion.

I would just say Ms.

Chapman, we uh we did the Explore Charleston uh lunch a week and a half together and got a great report, of course, um, from them and how much they do for our kind of community at large and in Mount Pleasant in particular with the visitor center here.

I think they do a great job, and I'm excited to uh recommend this to council for that purpose.

Great.

Any other discussion?

Um I I'll like to point out that during the ATACS meeting uh that we had earlier this year.

Um we discussed with the CVB how they could help some of our groups that were requesting funds for things just like the CBB does, which is provide information to the public about what's going on, number one, but number two, they can also help with distributing materials for various groups that are in the town.

So this is a great thing for us, and it's uh kind of an extension of what the city of Charleston did in 1991 when they started a very significant uh visitor center with the um city of Charleston, and it's worked out very well.

So I'm glad we have this here in Mount Pleasant to project what uh what's available here for not only for the for the groups that were with ATAX, but also visitors coming in.

I mean it's an easy stop to learn what's going on throughout the whole Charleston community.

So I'm very happy that we're extending this.

Um other discussion?

Hearing none, move for a call for approval.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye opposed.

The ayes have it.

Um there is no further business for finance committee.

And next item is to adjourn.

All right, five minutes.

Five minutes.

Let me call to order the uh special town council meeting for this Monday, July 6th.

I want to um thank everybody with the town for all of you know your staff, Mr.

Damore, for all they did over the holiday weekend and um had uh that serious accident.

I see we have our fire chief and police chief here, and kudos to everybody for the job they did on that and to our traffic folks.

There's Brad.

I'm sure that was not a fun day, but uh I'm glad that everything went as well as it possibly could.

Um item number two is public comments.

If there's anyone here with a public comment, would you please come forward, give your name and address, and you have two and a half minutes.

Anyone for public comment, Mr.

Mayor, honorable members of council.

My name is Robert Wills.

Um I live at 601 Coral Street in there for half of 32 years.

I'm here representing the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League this morning, asking you to encourage the support and support the so-called road to compromise regarding plan improvements to Highway 41.

This project represents more than nine years of careful planning, extensive community input, and thorough environmental review.

While unpacking a park is never ideal, the compromise alternative achieves a balance between nature and community, while also protecting historic communities and providing necessary infrastructure for reducing congestion, enhancing safety, and providing much needed bicycle and pedestrian improvements.

It provides much needed green space in our community, but then again, neither would we be advocating widening country highway through the front yards of families who have been here for generations before the growth game, nor would I encourage us to overlook the pleas of our neighbors to not disquiet the streets in their neighborhoods but track it in this following all of us here.

But here we are.

This is not a project designed without environmental considerations.

This is a project that is a result of environmental considerations.

Contrary to some assertions, the data is clear that Parkway will provide necessary relief from congestion on both Highway 41 and Vessemar Road.

In fact, these improvements are dependent on construction of the Laurel Hill Parkway for the project to function.

As traffic models showed, the 434 lane structure on 41 requires the parkway to handle diverted traffic.

Without it, the county cannot implement those changes because they would be rendered pointless.

With the addition of the county's contribution, the state has allocated $60 million for this integrated project.

If borrowable parkway is abandoned, we risk losing the entire allocation and force Mount Pleasant residents to deal with traffic with no relief in sight.

But there is value in the collaborative process that brought us here, and we believe it is the best solution available to us today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else here for public comment?

All right.

Public comment is closed.

Item number three, administration of oath of office to uh two newly reappointed judges, Judge Kelly Young and Judge Jack Sinclair.

If y'all will come forward, I will do the honors.

I do solemnly swear that you solemnly swear that I am duly qualified according to the constitution of this state.

To exercise the duties of the municipal judge for the town of Mount Brothers.

Exercise the duties of the municipal judge for the town of Mount Pleasant.

And that I will to the best of my ability.

That I will to the best of my ability.

Discharge those duties.

Discharge those duty.

And we'll preserve, protect, and defend.

The Constitution of this state and of the United States.

I pledge to uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary.

I pledge to uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary.

I pledge in the discharge of my duties.

And respect.

I pledge to listen courteously.

Act promptly.

And rule after careful and considerate deliberation.

I pledge to seek justice and justice on the same justice.

And um we get in one week, uh meet as the police judicial legal community.

Thank you.

That concludes item number three.

Item four is executive session to receive legal advice related to Charleston County Highway 41 improvements.

Do I have a motion to go into executive session for that reason?

So move, Mr.

Mayor.

Any discussion?

All right.

No votes will be taken on executive session items.

This is so that uh our lawyer can give legal advice to everybody at once, but we have to do that in a uh called meeting with the published agenda.

So all in favor of executive session for the reasons given, please say motion carries.

Where are we going today?

Courtroom upstairs.

So that moves us to it, number six which is true.

Good morning.

Calling the public services committee meeting to order.

Monday, July 6.26.

And before I start this, I'd like to thank the police.

And before I start this, I'd like to thank the police public services and the fire department for a wonderful job over the July 4th, 250th anniversary for uh keeping us safe or uh dealing with the challenges and the accidents we had and making it a wonderful weekend for us.

With that, could I have approval of the minutes?

Move to approve.

Is that good?

All those in favor?

Aye.

Motion uh passes.

Uh any public comments, please.

Seeing none, public comments are closed.

Umployee years of service.

Yes, sir.

Um, I have one that uh it's Dawn Roscoe.

She's been with us for five years.

She's not available uh to come to the uh to committee today, so we'll recognize her in-house.

But she's a grounds and events uh foreman and does a phenomenal job for us.

So if you'd like to bring her back, that'd be fine too.

We'd be delighted to do it.

Yes, sir.

And now Mr.

Weiss, would you like to take us through the presentation overview of completed public services operations center and administrative building information?

Yes, sir.

Um as you know, we recently completed you know, phase one through three of the public services operations center out at six mile.

And what I'm gonna do today is kind of give you some background information and then show you kind of what we had before and and where we're at now, and you'll see it's it's night and day, you know, and uh so we started the process of master planning the public services facilities in August of 2018, and we looked at both the six-mile facility and the Leiban Road facility.

Um we had the guidance was to design a facility that would last us for 50 years.

So we had to look at our current requirements and try to project out future requirements.

In saying that, you know, when when the master plan was complete and we went to start building, we focused on the six-mile facility because it really is a strategic location for the town uh being centrally located, and it really allows us to actually provide the services we do and in a timely manner.

Um the importance of of completing the first three phases there was it allowed us to consolidate the public services department in one location, which we really haven't been able to do in years.

Um when we build it, we plan for future growth so we've got space to grow into as I said we broke it into three phases because the challenge uh for the build, because the challenge was to keep everything operational and functional at the same time while we undertook a big build at the complex.

Um the intent was to make the three phases uh somewhat concurrent in construction, but we did have a delay on the operations uh building, but it it all worked out in the end.

So phase one was the transfer yard, which we completed in July of 2024, and it takes our bulk items and our vegetation items and allows us to collect them weekly and and drop them in one spot to be hauled by bigger trucks to the landfill.

And we also built a vector uh pad for dumping the vector truck, which cleans a lot of the storm water pipes in that at the same location.

Second phase was the fleet maintenance building, which again was completed in 2024, and we have four heavy-duty bays and six light duty bays, as well as offices and parts storage for for the fleet maintenance folks.

And the beauty of this building is it's got the it's got the ability to expand.

We can make uh we can we can uh build another heavy bay into more light bays uh as the town grows in the future.

And then phase three was the public services operations center proper, the uh the admin building, and we just completed it in June of 2026.

We're still working through a few punch list items, but uh, but all in all it's complete.

It's a 19,818 square foot facility that really gives us all of our office spaces.

Uh there's a training room similar to what's here at town hall for the police department, uh which can double as a backup EOC if needed.

There's a kit an industrial kitchen that would give us the ability to feed the people working storms and such, as well as some uh small laundry facility for employees during storms, uh, employee fitness centers, conference rooms, and and the such.

The total cost for for the three phases of the project was 39,729,000.

And then you can see it's broken down by phases.

The transfer yard was you know over a little over five million.

The um fleet maintenance building was 13 million seven hundred sixty-nine, and then the admin building was twenty million six fifty-five.

Some before and after pictures.

This is our backer pit and our transfer yard prior to the new uh building being built.

And this is really what the area looks like now.

It's uh night and day.

These videos are way too high speed for me, so I've got smart people that make that happen.

Uh phase two was the fleet maintenance building, and this is what it used to look like.

It was across the street from its current location, and this is what we've got now.

The office spaces that we had prior to the admin building being built.

We were spread across some trailers and some smaller buildings, uh and we crammed a lot of people into some small spaces.

This uh the picture on the left shows what the break room in the training room used to look like.

The uh the employee gym was in one of the little buildings out there.

Then you uh this is what we have now.

The break room is on the left, the training room is in the middle, and one of the conference rooms is on the right.

This is what the office space looks like.

Here's pictures of the kitchen and the laundry room.

Employee fitness center, and there's the indoor fitness center, and there will be a small outdoor fitness center as well that employees can get off the truck and try to knock something out quick before getting in their car and going home, not having to change into gym clothes and just being able to stay in their uniform.

And this is what the uh the complex looks like now in the end, or where we're at.

This video kind of does a decent job of showing all of it.

The top left side uh the video, you can see where the transfer yard is and fleet maintenance, looking at the admin building coming from the employee parking, and then it shows what the future phases we uh we have, which we just are in the process of finishing the updated master plan for those that side there where you're seeing in the video now.

Um we had to remaster plan it because we had to move some drainage around uh during construction of the project, and future phases we'll have a uh a new fuel island for the town, and then uh warehouse space for our different divisions to hold material and equipment, uh, as well as a sign shed and then open material storage.

Uh so we're currently in the process of finishing that updated master plan for future CIP consideration.

That concludes the update on the public services operations center if you have any questions.

Just like to make a couple quick comments.

I'd like to thank previous counsels for their leadership.

I'd like to thank um Mr.

Weiss and your team, uh Mr.

Bohr for your leadership and getting this through.

It's truly a world-class situation.

You saw the floor of the facility, you can eat off of it.

Having been there, uh they have tremendous uh pride in what they do and uh having lived through Hurricane Hugo and knowing what our population was then and what our population is today.

This is really important that we are able to have uh uh a space to evacuate and work uh through the storm that's so well done.

So congratulations to each of you, and I look forward to seeing the uh future uh phases of it.

Uh I'm sure we're gonna post all this on our website so people could be proud of what they have.

I also want to thank uh um uh Mr.

Weiss for working with the neighborhood community and Mr.

Damore on noise.

Uh they've continued to realize that even though they're they they don't fall under the ordinance, they're they're gonna be a good neighbor.

And so there have been some trees planted, some things done to provide uh buffering for that, and some operational things done as well.

So you y'all have done an excellent job with that, so I want to thank you, but turn it over to comments from either of y'all.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Just looks like a great facility to be proud of.

Yes, ma'am.

Everybody's very excited.

It's uh it's nice.

Now we've got to learn to you know keep it nice.

When do you anticipate phase uh three as you go through the design and uh approval process?

They said we've got the the master plan, we've got the first draft of that um with a cost estimate associated with it.

We caught a few errors that uh we're working with the engineering firm on to now review it.

So with that, we'll present it as a CIP project in the next fiscal year uh and see if it if it meets the threshold for funding, and and then we'll move forward with the you know the detailed design of the facility and then construction if it's approved.

Thank you.

Okay, item number six overview of um FY2026 quarterly project updates and upcoming project schedule.

Yes, sir.

As we talked about previously, we're going to try to do a quarterly update of our CIP and CMP projects uh in order to keep everybody informed.

Um first slide here is the CIP projects we have that are assigned to public services.

So we just talked about the operation center phases one through three and phase four.

And the beauty of uh one thing I guess I neglected to mention uh looking at the future phases as we remaster plan that side, we've tried to make it in in the or design it in the in a way that we could break it into phases again uh if that helps with funding the project.

But we're in the we're reviewing the final uh draft, and like I said, we'll get a cost estimate and uh a design or a plan out of that.

And then we've got the Pitt Street Bridge project, which at uh the council retreat uh council voted for us to kind of consolidate it into one big project and trying to spread it out in phases.

So what we've done uh in fourth quarter, we did some exploratory digging out there and didn't really find anything of significance other than that the the soil is very fine, and that's what's creating a lot of the sinkholes as it runs out through the uh through the seawall.

Uh so that and what we've done is developed a scope and we're looking to start uh contract that out to one of our on-call engineering firms that will then go into the detailed design, start the detailed design process in first quarter here of uh of the new year.

Next item here is pipelining in the fourth quarter.

We completed $588,000 worth of pipelining in the fourth quarter uh in neighborhoods like Hidden Lakes, um Wharf Indigo was is next to Creekside.

That was a private neighborhood that annexed into the town and hobcall on the enclave.

And here are the pipelining projects that we're looking at doing here in the first quarter.

There's a TBD on the paddy lane one because we've got to do some more research to see what else needs to be done there.

And then here's the rest of the planned lining projects.

Uh right now there's $318,000 worth of projects on the books that we've uh we've got locked on, plus the uh whatever the adjustment is for the paddy lane for pipe replacement, fourth quarter.

We uh we really just had one relatively large pipe replacement in the enclave, cost us $350,000, almost $359,000.

And then uh, and that goes to some of the complexity of the pipelining.

Originally that was going to be a lining project, but as they started the project, it was it was in way worse shape than we could evaluate and ended up having to replace the pipe.

There's two that uh that are on the books for first quarter.

Uh on this slide, Queen's Court was approved at bids and purchases today, and then we're looking at Parker's uh pipe on Parker's Landing in Rivertown, and that will be a uh that's a pretty complex project we've had to have designed.

And then here are two other uh projects for uh first quarter, the ferry street and pit street uh was approved at BMP this morning, and then we're looking at doing one on Anna Nap, but we don't have a price for that yet.

As far as structure repairs go, these are stormwater structures.

We completed 128,000 in fourth quarter, and we have 414,000 planned for first quarter around town for ditch maintenance uh and rehabilitation.

We completed two about 208,000 worth of work in the fourth quarter.

As of right now, we don't have anything scheduled for first quarter because we're getting ready to rebid this contract, and we're gonna add some uh some new capabilities, hopefully, that will enhance our ability to do repairs, uh, such as hydro excavating ditches, which would allow us hopefully to get uh get in there with a contractor to do uh to excavate the ditches via using water instead of having to get equipment back there.

Um we'll work in some situations, not others, but it's not a cheap, cheap way to fix ditches, but it's currently not a capability we have on call.

The um Edwards Park uh pump station VMP several months ago approved the purchase of new pumps.

We're waiting, those should be in here shortly.

They're waiting on a couple couple smaller pieces to arrive, so those can be installed before the thick of hurricane season.

So uh this project is uh four and a half or 456,000.

And then really this leaves us one last thing to to revitalize the pump station, and that'll be a new generator that we'll start taking on, and then looking at the best way to do that because it needs to be elevated.

You know, we want to keep it uh, you know, have it uh where people don't see it and everything.

So that'll be the next project and should be the final phase of revitalizing the pump station down there.

For bridges and docks, um, we're working, we've completed uh inspections were we're mandated to inspect a certain percentage of our our bridges and and uh stuff every year, and so the inspections were completed last quarter, and now the repairs will take place this quarter.

A lot of those will be done in-house, and if we don't have the ability to do it, we'll then contract it out.

Um we are in the process of completing the David Simmons boardwalk, and then we're also in the process of developing the scope and finding one of our on calls to look at replacing the all the boardwalks and everything at Shem Creek.

It's getting to be that time.

That'll be part of the uh the maintenance program.

Sidewalk repairs and fourth quarter, we completed about 134,000 worth of repairs.

In first quarter, we have uh 377,000 allocated for uh repairs we're trying to make in different neighborhoods around town for the uh the the what we call the town wide fund, which is the specific facilities maintenance uh of town facilities.

First quarter or fourth quarter of last year we we had one of our on-call firm study there's a sewer pipe issue at the town hall gym here, which needs to be re you know, the pipe will need to be replaced.

So we completed the assessment and kind of the design there.

We're working on having the Derby building uh reviewed and looked at because we know there's extensive repairs that will need to be done there.

Uh we also replaced the patio at the old village library, and then we put some new fencing up around the recycle point at uh the Whipple Road tennis facility.

Uh there was a lot of cardboard that people just dump and debris that was getting in the ditch there.

So we tried to do something to make sure that wouldn't happen anymore.

These are projects planned for first quarter, like we talked about the sewer pipe, uh, the Darby building.

We're also looking at replacing the roof at the Park West Pool.

Uh, the Alhambra Hall and the Edwards Park parking lots will be uh recurbed and repaved, and then we're doing some work at Fire Station 3 on the fire alarm panel for uh landscaping and right-of-way maintenance.

Uh highway 17 is the big project.

We presented that to committee a while ago.

Um we had some permit hurdles we had to get over working it with SC DOT and coordinating the night with the contractor and the night work.

Plants had to be ordered and and grown.

So we're making progress on that and hoping to start that here first quarter.

We also replaced the landscaping uh at the Veterans Circle and the flagpole there, as well as some work at the children's circle, and then we completed the townwide mulch and and pine straw installation.

And again, we'll be working on highway 17 as well as the median on Whipple Road up there by Long Point, and then we'll be doing some tree pruning in that bat on South Morgan's Point for field uh field renovations.

We are working on um installing new lights around the batting cages at the Jones Center.

Um we're also looking at replacing the old lights around uh Sloan Park, and then we're working with CCSD on the moultry field, which per the MOU, um, you know, the town's responsible for maintaining uh in conjunction with C CCSD.

So we're utilizing CCSD contractors because they had their one theirs lined up, and then we're going to pay for it.

But that allowed us as our fiscal year was transitioning to keep moving forward with the work so it could be done prior to school going into session.

For the asset replacement program uh for street sign replacements, we completed area 15, which is basically the west side of Highway 41.

We're working on area 14 now.

And once 14's done, there's most of the town will have been completed.

There's a couple little donut holes and areas that uh that we haven't hit uh you know, in the Park West Carolina Park area, just you know, little areas that you know are newer signs in general, say for Carolina Park, but they didn't meet the retro reflectivity standards.

So we'll have that uh done.

So we're almost done with the street sign replacements around town, other than the old village, which you know, we basically didn't do because of the obelisk and things like that.

Other projects that um we just are about wrapped up with the town hall uh generator and the town hall gym generator.

This was a 1.3 million dollar project to take the old generator from here that only powered part of the building, and uh to put a new generator in here that would power the whole building in the event of a storm uh and power outage, and we moved the old one to the gym.

So now we've got a gym that's got the ability to to keep power in the in the event of a power outage in case if it were needed for some sort of shelter or for billeting of personnel or whatever.

And then we work with MPW to complete an update on the sanitary sewer uh pump station there, and where basically the town MPW identified the equipment, the town paid for it, and MPW did the work, which then gets that up to speed, and MPW will take that over with a maintenance agreement here now that it's it's up to standard.

That pretty much concludes my presentation, unless if there's questions.

Well, I tell you what, I got tired just listening to it.

Yes, sir.

But I I want to thank um Howard Chapman, our previous uh chair, for his leadership with this group.

Uh I want to thank um again, as I mentioned before, the town council of leadership that we run a uh a town that's fiscally uh secure, uh has a good reserve, but is able to do an amazing amount of work all over town.

And I think it's helpful to see this because when people see this, they know that uh they're being taken care of, they're being listened to.

I also want to thank you for your communication because communicating ahead of time allows people when these processes happen in their neighborhoods to realize wow, this is something that's really gonna help me.

It may interrupt me a little bit with my traffic and all that, but then result is much better.

I also want to thank you for being proactive.

Uh so for the example, the Shem Creek boardwalk and whatnot, there's a few little areas there, but you're way ahead of it.

Move trying to move ahead to make sure that there's there's safety issues taken care of and whatnot.

So I want to thank you for that.

And I also want to just uh on the eve of the 250, I want to recognize Pitt Street Bridge.

You know, in uh 20 uh uh July of 1776, the Pitt Street Bridge was made up of boats that were lashed together, and they had barrels of whiskey that were lashed to that because they couldn't get enough boats, and then they put planks over that, and that was an opportunity for uh the Patriots to get to uh Sullivan's Island or Fort Moultrie.

It wasn't called Fort Moultrie then, and to evacuate Fort Moultrie if they wanted to.

So that bridge has been used since the uh prior to the rev revolution, and it's been used in a variety of ways.

It also was Gadson's bridge.

And one of the things that's so nice about Gadson's bridge, and you think about don't tread on me, Gatson's message and his curled serpent, by the way.

Ann Gatson Scheimer was at our July 4th ceremony holding that flag that her ancestor had uh fought in uh that and passed away uh because of it, was that 13 rattles on that snake was to say that the 13 rattles were the 13 colonies and we had to work together.

And rattlesnakes are defensive.

They respond to being attacked, they don't attack on their own.

But the fact that we had to work together and be strong was an important message for us then, and it's an important message for us now.

So the fact that we'll be looking at that bridge and and uh talking about the bridge and how it's been used since uh pre-revolutionary time is is great.

But uh let me turn it over to my fellow.

I appreciate the presentation.

Um for that brief history on the bridge.

I didn't know any of that.

Um but just a quick question how can people project that they see want to get fixed or roads or pipelines hit on requests?

Basically as issues are pointed out or um you know we notice them then you know we go out and investigate uh as soon as it's called in and then like say for pipe repair you know there's uh there's a lot of pipes that need there's probably I think uh 29 miles maybe of of metal pipe if I'm not mistaken and I've got a better number for you uh in my uh that I can give you um all that will need to be lined at some point but we have to kind of rack and stack the priorities what's a safety concern what's the condition of the of the the pipe uh you know do we think it can last a little bit longer and then we we work that with the budget and so you know as as the uh our challenge is any time somebody reports uh there's a sinkhole you know and it's it's in my yard well we'll go out and secure the area but if it's not a true safety issue it may not it's going to be that resident's top priority and I I appreciate that but from a town perspective it may not be the top priority so that's where um you know so as soon as we get it we'll investigate it it goes on our list of work uh the engineers have kind of some criteria that they look at to see how uh you know where it stacks on the process and then we we go and we tackle them and you know we eventually get to all of them but some of them do take some time proactive and not reactive and councilwoman uh crossby one of the reasons of this type of presentation is if you're not on the list yeah you need to get on the list and this will allow you to know that you're perhaps not on the list.

So help you well there's a lot of small things to get taken care of well I mean people aren't shy about reporting issues.

I mean we get we get issues reported every day and and half of uh you know half of the you know part of the job is going out investigating it initially to then determine the scope of the issue and then we have then we have to figure out how to tackle it is it something if it's something we can fix in house it's it's generally a pretty easy fix although there may be a weight on that as well but it might not be as long if it's something that has to be contracted out it will depend on you know is there truly some engineering that needs to be done that we have to design a system like Parker's landing the one that's getting ready to go um this quarter that's been in the works for quite some time but there's some significant engineering and design associated with that as well as permits and uh and permitting is another issue that that can cause some delays but like I said generally people aren't aren't shy about reporting things we can't fix it if we don't know it's broke so we do appreciate that but then it's racking and stacking them to make sure we get the you know figure out what's the most important or the biggest safety issue or or whatever.

One final comment we have an excellent communications department a lot of these projects as people have been look listening or watching our streets or small areas to the extent that going into it we can alert alert them whether it's door hangs or mailers or signs to let them know it's coming with QR codes and whatnot that really helps because then they can be really behind the project and realize it's it's a money interruption for a greater good.

So I want to thank you all for your wonderful work.

Thank you for excellent report if there's no other things we are adjourned

Call to order our planning committee meeting for Monday, July sixth.

Good morning.

Next item is approval of minutes from the June first meeting if we have a motion.

So move.

All in favor?

Aye.

Motion passes.

Next item is public comment.

If we have anyone to address the committee, we just need a name and address, and you have two and a half minutes.

I'm from the Philx community.

And we hope that the Mont Pleasant does do the same thing.

So now my Philip and Hammond, we're doing our overlay district.

We're trying to do it together so we can speed the process up.

But since we don't have a staff, and we don't have the exercise like the county have, we just had to wait on them so we can get started.

Hello, my name is Hacker Burr.

I'm the head of school at Trident Academy.

Um just speaking on the issue of the rezoning that's on the on the table.

Um I just wanted to give some context around uh Trident Academy and what we do.

The school has been around for 55 years.

Uh, don't know how many people in this room uh are connected to someone they love who has uh learning disability, but that is what we do at Trident Academy.

We um we've served students for the last 55 plus years.

We've served over 2,000 families from the Charleston area, and quite honestly, what we do is we change lives.

Um a lot of times students who are unid our unidentified and struggle with some of the things that we work with go through life thinking that they're stupid or they're lazy.

Um we have uh a group of students at Trident Academy who are brilliant in many ways.

Uh these are minds of the future.

Uh jobs of the future are going to be looking for divergent learners.

Um, and the school is small and mighty.

Uh we've been around, as I said, for a very long time, done great work over that time.

Uh, and really what we are trying to do is uh after a deep strategic planning process, one of many, uh, we are just trying to set the school up for the next hundred years to continue to serve this community.

Uh running the demographic data in Charleston, if anybody wants to do that and look at the percentage of students who struggle with learning differences.

Um, it's in the 10,000 plus.

Uh so we are needed, and we're just here trying to make sure that we can set our school up for success in the future and to keep serving this community for the next hundred years.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Uh my name's JC Taylor.

I'm here to speak on behalf of Trident as well.

I'm um I'm a former parent.

Uh now I'm the chair of the board.

The uh hacker reference of strategic plan several years ago, we began revising a plan for the next five years to make sure that we could do a couple of things.

We are attempting to buy our school back.

We lost it during the recession, but to also create financial stability for the school so we can continue to serve the community.

One way we serve them too is by being able to increase the scholarships and get more people into the school.

Um we've spent a lot of money over the last couple of years.

We own a piece of land adjacent to the school, trying to understand what our options were available to monetize that land as part of that strategic plan.

Um we understood what our buy right entitlements were.

We went as far to meet with Eric and the mayor a little while back.

Um we had an interesting conversation about the possibility of it being a passive part for the community.

We, in our opinion, kind of gave them the opportunity, what was essentially a first rider refusal if they were interested in preserving that land.

Um I don't think the timing was right for Mount Pleasant, which is fine.

And so we've continued down the path of trying to understand what our options are.

Uh two weeks ago, we read in the Moultrie News that the property is going to be rezoned.

I would just ask that the council think really carefully about that.

This isn't really just about Trident, but it would have a really significant impact on our plans for the school for the future, like forever, right?

The rezoning of that land, I think would decrease the property by millions of dollars.

And I don't think that was ever the intent.

And I think it would be really I think you need to be thoughtful because it's not just Trident, it's all the churches that are on that list and all of the other schools too.

And I understand the motivation and what I think I understand what the thought is, right?

We don't want any more houses around here, we don't want any more people on Mount Pleasant.

But I think it's really important that you think about the monetary implications that are going to take place to the people that are impacted in the schools, right?

Like we're not a developer, right?

We're not building a shopping center.

We are a school for children with learning disabilities, right?

And I think it's a really sad thought that we don't want more houses.

We could have the financial impact that it would on Trident.

Trident is really in good shape now and has had great years the last several years, but this would really set us up for like Hackers said the next 50 years.

That's all I've got.

Thank you guys.

Good morning.

My name is uh Barrett Brewer.

I'm a board member at Trident Academy.

Um, I want to to echo what my my colleagues have said about the school and its uh history of excellence and its importance to the community here.

Um I'm a local attorney in town.

And the thing that that struck me when we learned about this potential rezoning issue after we met with the main uh the mayor and Mr.

DeMaran was the not just the effect that they'll have in our school, but the effect that this kind of ordinance will have on your resident nonprofits schools and uh and churches from raising money from major donors, right?

This school was gifted this land with the generosity of the Dettons family years and years and years ago.

They did it for the purpose of our being able to use this property to fund the school the way we needed to.

One thing that that when I thought about this potential zoning ordinance and what potentially town council and planning committee sees as a benefit of it, you're trying to restrict the use of an existing school itself, right?

We're existing church building.

And in our case, what you have to understand is we are operating in a school building that we do not own.

We had to sell it coming out of the recession because they lost everything.

And all we've retained is the land next to it.

So for us to be able to have the resources to even buy the existing school building back so we can stay in your town, this town, our town.

We have to be able to create fundraising opportunities.

And if this zoning ordinance passes, donors will forever reconsider gifting property and gifting assets to these schools and churches for fear that the town will effectively take it so that it can't be used for the purposes they gave it for.

And in our society, that can't be what the purpose of the zoning ordinance to be.

So we would again ask you to think carefully.

We will be here again and we'll talk to you again.

We really appreciate your time today.

Thank you.

Thousands of hours among the different community members, not just in Hamlin Beach, but across Fullups 10 Mile.

We have created a community alliance that we inform each other what we're doing, how we're doing it, to take the steps to take the difficulty out of making these projects happen in a timely fashion.

Just for instance, our ACA.

Hamlin just ACA was just uh area character appraisal, was just adopted by Charleston County on the 25th of June.

This project started in 2023, when the Gallup T corridor put this project together with a grant.

2024 is when they secured a consultant, which was Weston and Samson to actually oversee this project.

We met with them, we met with the community.

It took us until 2026 to get everything done because we had to go out and get signatures from our community.

We had to explain the project to them.

We had to let them review the project before we could bring it back to Charleston County.

So it took us from 2023 up until 2026 to complete an ACA.

And that was with professionals.

When we did our historic district, we wanted to do the two together, and we started that in 2024.

We met with the 10 mile community.

Ms.

Pearl Ask you.

We met with Mr.

Habishab.

They explained what they did for their project to make it easier for us to move forward.

And we are continually to do that with each one of the communities in the Mount Pleasant area.

So we're asking for the time to work together to establish and get these things in place.

And truly, like I said, I like to thank Mr.

Tanky because he's a very first person.

We're volunteering our time.

We're putting efforts together, and we're not professional.

So thank you again for considering to extend the moratorium for these communities.

Anyone else?

No.

Okay.

Seeing none, we will move on.

Um next item is employee years of service.

Thank you, madam chair.

You want to come up there.

I almost didn't recognize her.

She's dressed up too.

Thank you, Val.

Um, so I'm honored today to recognize Valerie Pentillo today for five years of dedicated service to the town.

Val started her career with the town as a business licensed specialist and served in that capacity until October of last year when she made the move over to the planning department.

Um, but Val was a part of our planning family long before she emiss officially made the move, so it was a very easy transition.

They Val came into a challenging situation where one of our land codes inspectors had just resigned, and unbeknownst to us as she was being trained, the other land codes inspector would resign just a few weeks later.

So she really was thrown into the job and had to learn quickly and somewhat independently.

Through it all, Val has assumed the role with grace and a positive attitude.

She is always kind, helpful, and compassionate when interacting with our residents.

As you can imagine, this is difficult because being a land codes inspector typically means you're dealing with the public in a in a situation that is not positive always.

It's typically there's been a complaint.

And so the the type of interaction she has with folks is not always going to be positive, but she keeps a great attitude.

She handles it with uh the utmost professionalism.

Val is truly an advocate for the department and for the town, and we are very fortunate to have her representing us.

So please join me in welcoming Val and jo and recognizing Val for five years of service.

Thank you so much.

We appreciate her.

All right, next item review of planning commission recommendations from the June 17th meeting.

Do we have Mr.

Stone?

Thank you.

Thank you, madam chair.

This is a request to annex and I'm just gonna use that.

All right.

Annexon zone point seven three acre parcel that has dual frontage on highway 17 and old Georgetown Road.

As you can see here, water and sewer is available, and that is part of the driving factor behind this request.

The other factor is the zoning and the versatility that allows for.

So the annexation request, the request to be base zoned office professional one, and to be added into the sweetgrass basket overlay.

Those are all requests from the applicant.

They perfectly align with the conference of plan.

And for that reason, the planning commission gave it uh recommendation of approval.

Okay.

Do we have any motion?

Um make a motion to approve.

Second.

Okay.

I'm sorry, is that for annexation and zoning?

Yes, thank you.

All right.

Anyway, yes, Mr.

Tinker.

My my understanding too is in the sweet grass area, the intent there is a mixed use.

So if they had a uh residential, that would be second floor, first floor would be uh commercial, is that correct?

Not just standalone.

Not just stand uh office, not just office, excuse me, not just standalone um residential.

Correct.

And that's that's the way this overlay is set up, and I've actually shown an exhibit here that would have highway 17 commercial frontage and CC single family residential fronting on old Georgetown.

So it's respecting both the character of each of those streets.

So it is something that the sweet rest basket and intended for.

And one thing to note within the county's version of the sweet grass basket area.

It's a little bit vague, but bank and medical office could be allowed for for the town's version of the sweetgrass basket.

It's it's just general office, and you're limited three thousand square feet.

Thank you.

Any other comment?

Move to approve.

All right.

We have to do that.

Okay.

All right.

All in favor of the motion, say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay.

Motion passes then.

Okay.

Next item is Gregory Ferry Towns.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

PD amendment.

So from the outset, uh, I want to be clear about the scope and terminology because we have had a handful of PD amendments this year, and typically we shift into a thought of what is the density height, uh, layout of the master plan.

This is not that.

Uh this is a discussion of area median income as it pertains to this PD, and this is essentially a text amendment.

So the area median income for this metro statistical area is 117,000.

And that forms a baseline to then inform bans of affordability that would be applied to that.

So if this AMI is 100% of the area median income, affordable housing would be anything, and this these are all HUD standardized numbers that anything 80% or less would be considered affordable housing.

80 to 120 would be workforce housing, and there's this third category that's come about that allows for municipalities housing authorities to become creative with how they show those bans and how they target the need.

And that's actually this request is to kind of operate in that third category.

But what's important to realize is the comp plan validates all three of these options.

Requires some tailor and customization uh to it.

And so the comp plan definitely wants us to think about yes uh across town it is addressed in the comp plan that a community issue is affordable housing.

But the way the comp plan allows us to reframe that question is specifically locally, what is the need here for affordable housing?

What type of affordable housing is needed right here?

And this development is essentially at the corner of highway 17 and highway 41.

Within a two to three mile radius, you have 10 schools, three medical facilities, and three fire stations.

So that that equates to teachers, nurses, municipal employees, and that was very much considered in 2019 when town council approved this development for 36 units.

Teachers, nurses, firefighters currently live in this development.

However, it was exclusively limited to 80% AMI, and that is unique because it's the only development, affordable housing development that I'm aware of in the town that utilizes that strictly 80% AMI.

We have a couple in the 80 to 120 range, and then we have the towns at Carolina Park, they utilize the 80 to 150 range, and that's actually the motivating factor behind this request.

They they saw the the utilization of that 80 to 150 at the towns at Carolina Park, and is now leading us to this current text amendment that we have for 80, well, zero to 150 is how they've they've worded it.

So it still captures everything from zero to eighty as they currently sit, but it's looking to add up to 150 percent.

And you could read this text amendment at just the plain reading of the text and develop some assumptions about why, but in until you I guess ask what what is the problem that they're solving for, uh, you really get to that second level, which was done really well at Planning Commission, but the applicant shared a couple of scenarios which I'll I'll share with you.

Um being two Charleston County School District teachers uh in a four-person household, so meaning two teachers, maybe they have two kids.

That would put them in a hundred ten percent AMI, making 135,000.

The issue for this, if they applied to be a part of this development, is that the band limits them threshold is 80% AMI, so they would be priced out just based on what they're making, they would not be able to apply for this attainable housing.

The second scenario that came up was okay.

Let's say that someone does meet the 80% AMI, and they they meet all threshold requirements.

This this would be a single nurse uh with a household income of 70,000.

The issue that came up was that's that's great that you qualify for that, but would you be able to be approved for a mortgage for a 360,000 dollar home?

And it really and all mortgages are structured differently, but it was some of the debt to income ratio, the down payment you're willing to offer.

It was it was very slim that you would be able to comfortably be able to apply for this mortgage and then a bank would approve you.

So those were kind of the two scenarios that were brought about at Planning Commission.

So ultimately, what they're trying to do instead of operating within this zero to eighty percent range, they are looking to expand to 150.

And right now there's a a very small segment of people that would be able to thread the needle and find a home within this development.

This would open and increase and expand the pool of people that would be able to live here.

So planning commission did give it a recommendation of approval, and I'm glad to discuss that that conversation that they had uh to get to that conclusion.

I believe uh we have residents and the applicant is here from uh Gregory Ferry and could also uh talk about why the HOA voted to put this amendment for you.

Um have a question or statement?

I have I have lots, but I figured we wait on the motion.

Okay.

Um does anybody have a motion because I was gonna ask a question before.

Um give given the six to one, I think it was a six to one vote, the six to one vote that were with the chair and the vice chair and having conversations with them and going through the scenarios that you so well put forward, also recognizing that this is the AMI.

Uh it's not the price of the uh the units, so there's no speculative opportunity here, which was the other side of it.

There isn't it's not a speculation that a developer could come in and flip them.

This is really trying to address a pool of non-buyers that the board members were experiencing of having their houses on the market for over a year, um, and recognizing that some of these in their current situation, because they've are two household in uh earners, they wouldn't be able to buy their house today.

Um so with that, I'd like to at least for put it on the table for discussion, uh, the motion uh to uh adopt the zero to one fifty um AMI for Gregory Ferry.

Do we have a second?

For discussion on second did you have you had a question?

I did.

Um so what is the current percentage increase allowed for the sale price?

I know that's a a HUD requirement or formula, but what is the max increase that someone can uh can sell their home for basically?

It's it's capped at three percent.

And then there's also another element to that equation when they have capital improvements, and I'll say this approved capital improvements.

You can't go and redo a bathroom just on your own.

You have to have that approved.

And Origin SC, which is a nonprofit, uh maintains and regulates all of this, they would limit your resale to 3%, and any qualified capital improvements that you make would then be allowed to contribute to that resale value.

Okay.

Um reason I ask is one of the things I think that was brought up in commission and in my conversations with some of the board members as well, is that you know the idea or to them what they say is a goal of you know uh selling their home for more than they bought it for in order to then be able to you know put money down on a second home when they're ready to to do that.

I understand that would be the individual's goal.

That's not in my opinion, the town's goal for this development is to help the first buyers or or subsequent buyers get a higher profit on their sale.

So that's why I have some concern um of going all the way up to 150 um to reiterate some of the scenarios you shared, you know, going from 1175 as a as a income for a family of four to potentially 150, which is 176 250.

Um I do think that we get away from our intent of this being our only truly affordable housing development um with the zero to eighty percent AMI.

Uh I understand and I'm I'm I'm persuaded I think by uh the qualifications for a mortgage are different now than they were, and so that is a the gap there is people that want to buy and meet the AMI of under 80 percent but can't because they can't get a mortgage that is compelling to me.

Um but again we have this other these other developments for those situations that are up to 150 percent.

Um so I I have a hard time approving up to 150% AMI for this because I do think it gets away from the intent of having truly affordable housing in our community.

I agree with uh Ms.

Blair, and I'm just curious if increasing it doesn't knock out any line or that's correct.

You you can uh everyone that moved into this development met the threshold requirement at that point, uh whether it be a cost of living uh increase or just uh a raise new position, that does not then eliminate them and they have to vacate the premises.

That would not that is not the case.

Right.

Um I guess knock out potential buyers.

Oh, potential buyers.

This would expand the pool of buyers that would be uh eligible to to apply.

Well, I just fear if you keep increasing it, it's gonna go to bare market value.

Yeah, including yeah, I agree.

I think I mean to me this does shift it does increase the pool of potential buyers, but it shifts the target demographic from lower income to middle income.

And also both people don't have to be on the mortgage.

We'll have we have mission.

Could you address that um about um there's four people uh go back to the slide of the four people that could be two adults and two children I get that um are they required uh for the purposes of getting um the ability to buy the one that showed the four uh let's see right here that's two times.

Yeah, four.

So the um are they required uh to uh state the income from both parties or just one party?

It'd be both parties, and so both parties have to show their income.

Okay, thank you.

Um can we go back to the slide that shows the 120 percent classified as you had like tiers and it said workforce housing right here?

Yeah, that's sorry, the this one, yeah.

Yes, okay.

It shows the 80 to 120 percent.

Um there was an maybe it wasn't this one.

It's it classified up to 120 percent as work for house workforce.

Where you had workforce attainable, you had affordable workforce and yeah, there we go.

So the ranges of affordability use is this what's defined by the county?

So HUD definitely recognizes the affordable housing and workforce housing.

This attainably, this third category is so new and it's becoming it's it's very amorphous, and I know of some municipalities using it for certain purposes, but HUD definitely recognizes the first two categories.

This third one is still in its emphasis stages.

Yeah, I feel like what we're lacking in Mount Pleasant is affordable housing and workforce housing.

So that's the problem we're trying to solve.

So I don't feel comfortable going outside of those either one of those categories, and and I agree, you know, this is one of the few places that we even have to be affordable housing.

And the other thing about considering mortgages, I mean those parameters that are fluid, they change, you know.

We've had interest rates at one percent two percent, you know.

So it's it's hard for me to change this based on the the current rules for mortgages.

Um and I feel like the more we broaden the audience, the less opportunity we're we're giving to the people on the lower end, because you know, people at the top end are the ones that are gonna get in there and take those opportunities away.

So the current motion is not something I'd be in favor of.

I'd be willing to withdraw with a caveat um that the price there's different factors as a mortgage that's the price of the unit, so there's AMI.

The price of the unit is capped.

So yes, there'd be more people could buy it, but right now they're not buying it.

So we need to have some increase, and so I'd be happy to withdraw if the will of the other council persons as a different motion.

Or make an amendment make a motion to increase it to one to one.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Um Ms.

Crosby, I think you seconded the arrangement.

Thank you.

And make a new one and make a new motion to increase it to the one to one.

You can.

Yeah.

Are you gonna second?

No, uh I'll second.

I just wanted to have a question as to um I'll second.

Uh the question is uh um is there does this have any um detrimental effect you feel on the uh Gregory Ferry and the people there, other than broadening the pool of buyers.

This does increase the pool of buyers, uh but I guess the only difference would be that uh uh thirty uh that 30 percent, right?

Yeah, I I think the 80 to 120 is typically what you see.

Um Carolina Park was a little unusual, um, in my opinion, going to 150, and we were just discussing this is a different uh this is different than what they're requesting.

Uh but and maybe our legal council needs to win, but uh my thought is that because what the motion uh the motion that has been made would be a more conservative um a more restrictive uh amendment than the one fifty that perhaps it would not need to be readvertised or anything.

Um I I think we would be okay moving forward with the change.

I think we're fine.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Okay.

I did second.

Yeah.

All right.

We have any other okay.

All in favor of the motion.

We're recommending this to council, this amendment to up to 80 120 percent.

All in favor.

And opposed.

No, no.

Okay.

So 2-2.

So no recommendation.

But it'll move forward for discussion of council.

Okay.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Okay.

Next item is 1465 Stuart Ingers Boulevard.

Request annex and zone.

Thank you, madam chair.

This is a.

And they're requesting annexation and AB1 zoning, area wide business district one, which would be consistent with the surrounding zoning and the future land use of the comp land designation for town scale commercials.

So AB would be appropriate for this, and Planning Commission did recommend approval.

Okay.

What size is the lot?

It says what size of the parcel.

Do we know?

See here.

Oh, point three four acre uh lots.

So with AB1, they could add they couldn't add any residential because the lots are big enough to do I mean like a second use.

It's currently two-story, it it looks like it was constructed as a two-story residential home.

Okay.

And the county has it zoned commercially and it's being used actively to I'd say there's probably three to four businesses in there at least.

And so the entirety of it, the 4,682 square feet, is commercial right now above the above the ground floor, second story uh could be residential.

But right now I I don't think that's the intent.

I think the the main thing was Mount Pleasant Waterworks encouraged them to get onto water and sewer.

They're currently operating on septic right now.

So that was the push to apply for annexation.

Okay.

Second.

Okay.

Any further discussion?

Okay.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay.

That motion passes.

Let's see.

Next item is discussion recommendation to extend the resolution providing for temporary moratorium on the acceptance and processing of major subdivision applications in Charleston County Historic Districts.

I think we are all very encouraged by the process that's been going on.

So yeah, and just I just have a c uh a few um things here on the slide that we did the town did adopt it.

Council adopted this resolution July 10th of last year.

It does parallel what the county adopted last year.

They are they just had first reading to extend it.

Um their first vote, their first reading did exclude 10 mile out of it just because I 10 mile does have the adopted zoning overlay, and um they still have to have two more readings on it.

But it is for the town, it is set to terminate um later this month.

And as was mentioned in the public comment, Hamlin Beach um community did just get their ACA adopted.

Um, and this the status of the others, Phillips community.

Um there's no ACA, but they are on the national register, and as you heard, they're working towards this.

And then the 10 mile, we have the zoning, but not the ACA yet.

So that's kind of the status of our our three communities that we've been talking about.

But yes, Mr.

Tinky.

I sat in on the last two county council meetings.

Um I was encouraged that they wanted to extend the moratorium for because it's a difficult situation as expressed by the audience.

It's mostly volunteer.

In the case of Hamlin, they got a grant from Clemson, God bless it happened.

But 10 mile didn't.

10 mile, however, put in an ACA two years ago, and the county then uh uh asked them to put that aside for a second to get the historic overlay and the uh ordinance.

There were a couple uh the vote was very close uh in county council and the exclusion of 10 mile, and I believe they had some misinformation that in a new vote and second or third reading it will change because the uh there was some uh misunderstanding about where 10 mile was in the process.

There was also um some interest in uh I hate to call it this, but spot zoning.

And so um, but I think uh there was one person missing, um uh councilman Huntycutt was missing at that vote.

So I think it my understanding is next Tuesday to the county council they'll bring this back up with the uh amendment to include back back and include ten mile.

I can't say what will happen, but I think they will.

So my thought would be that we need to parallel this if we have our meeting next week that we would parallel uh parallel it and extend the two years as they are recommending to do and include ten mile.

I would just I just say extend it because we don't have to include or not include if we just extend it.

The other thing that came up at county council was a good one.

The moratorium doesn't have to go two years.

If if these things are completed prior to that, then they can be they can people can come on and uh we can change it based on those communities, but this just gives them the time to do it because it is a having been part of this is very time consuming.

So I would recommend that we move to extending ten miles.

Include well, just moved to include just move to extend the moratorium period.

We have a sec we have a second.

Second.

Okay.

Any other discussion?

All right.

All in favor?

Aye.

Okay.

Motion passes.

All right.

Review uh and discussion of the town noise ordinance as it relates to construction hours.

Um we've had some complaints about some early morning weekend construction, and um I was really curious about what surrounding communities are doing.

I think do we our ordinance is just any day of the week.

It's the same, whether it's the weekend or not.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

Um actually it was a it was interesting to do a little research on this, and I've got Mr.

Talby here, our uh building official, so he's this is his area of expertise.

So I'm gonna go through a couple slides where we did do a comparison, and um it's it's quite interesting what some other municipalities are doing.

But as you're uh familiar with the town's noise ordinance went through a great deal of um scrutiny and what we have really the building noise is the same as our other in that it's it's nine to seven, um nine p.m.

to seven a.m.

Uh noise is prohibited, including building noise, construction noise, and then um uh it really kind of applies to all all days of the week, um, as you can see.

So City of Charleston, um they actually and most of the municipalities were similar to ours in that if they're after hour complaints, they call their police department and it goes through that avenue.

But as far as the construction noise ordinance um that's been adopted, the city of Charleston is uh Monday through Friday seven to seven, Saturday nine to seven, and then they do not allow uh any loud noise, including construction noise on um city holidays and Sundays.

Uh City of North Charleston is more similar to ours in that, but they are actually a little less restrictive.

Theirs are between 11 p.m.

and 7 a.m.

Um Isle of Palms uh was similar to the city of Charleston.

Monday through Friday they have set hours, Saturday, 9 to 4, Sundays prohibited, and then holidays prohibited.

Uh Sullivan's Island uh was somewhat similar uh in that Sunday and holidays, no um construction or noise is allowed.

And then Charleston County was uh similar to ours and that it's prohibited 9 p.m.

to 7 a.m.

And so um you can definitely see that there's um that several of our surrounding municipalities do have more strict when it comes to Sundays and holidays and how they address the noise ordinance.

But um that's all I have.

If y'all have specific questions, I know Mike can answer them and um and guide you through that.

So okay.

I was just interested in taking a look at this because I have heard complaints about the lease weekends uh and I guess potentially how I don't think they work often on holidays because it often they take those off, but still I guess it's a consideration.

So I didn't know if the committee had any opinion um when we reference other other municipalities if if they thought the weekends should be more restrictive than during the week at 7 a.m., you know, on Saturdays and Sundays.

Um if y'all have any opinion at all.

I think it's always an interesting process to see what's happening in other areas.

Um it's an iterative process.

It would be thing we would want to do a knee jerk action on.

However, I do think it's interesting to see the the later hour, which is not uh uh which is not much, but on Saturdays.

Um the flip side of that for the construction workers during the summer, they say the heat.

And uh so there you have to look at both sides of the issue.

Um Sundays certainly is uh blessing if there was a rest on Sundays, but certainly we'd have to see what the unintended consequences are for businesses to understand that the um I do think the uh holidays makes a lot of sense to have the holidays off because that's when you're gathering families and whatnot, and uh, to have uh that be an exclusion, but I wouldn't be ready to make an action on it yet as we gather more information from people.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay, I think it's good that we're looking into it in maybe now that we've we've brought up the subject, we can hear more from the community if they have any opinions because this is sort of the first time we've had this conversation.

All right, thank you.

Um executive session.

Legal advice related public institution zoning.

If we have a motion to go to executive question.

We had a second.

Okay.

And I'll also say committee may take action on any item including any subsection of any section listed in an executive session agenda, or discuss an executive session during property house meeting.

From our executive session, no votes for cast, but we might have a question.

Okay.

So this will take this to council.

Council on Tuesday night.

Okay.

So all in favor.

Let me call to order the flood resilience committee for this Monday, July 6th.

I hope everybody had a great holiday weekend, a special time in a spectrum since um our region in Hadgill's Point was involved in um Carolina Day, the original one, and all that was going on.

So it was quite a time to be a resident of Mount Pleasant.

Item two, approval of the minutes from the June 1, 2026 meeting.

Second.

Any discussion?

All right.

All in favor?

Aye.

All right.

The minutes are approved.

Public comment.

If you have a public comment, please come forward, name and address.

Two and a half minutes.

Hello, my name is Robert Adams.

I live at 35 East Lake Road in Mount Pleasant.

I strongly support uh making the Green Commission a permanent town of Mount Pleasant Commission.

Uh since its inception and especially over the last two years, I believe it has provided significant uh valuable input to the town council and on a wide variety of green issues.

So I hope that the this committee will recommend to the town council uh that the Green Commission be made permanent.

Um unfortunately I will not be here next week.

So I'm making my comments today in person.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, please.

Good afternoon.

Uh my name is Olivia Flynn.

I live at 1914 Kiln Court.

I sit on the town's green commission.

I'm an environmental engineer, and I'm licensed in two states as a professional engineer.

I run a national service group for my consulting firm.

I'm a mother of two who attend Christ Our King's Telemars.

I've lived in uh Dunes West for more than twenty years.

I strongly support the Green Commission as being established as a standing committee on the town.

One of the most compelling reasons is very simple.

Some of them sitting over here today, at no cost to the taxpayers.

The commission includes professionals in environmental engineering, environmental consulting, sustainability, conservation and natural resources, marine conservation and environmental management, client resilience, health and human services, and we even have the former commander of the Charleston District of the U.S.

Army of uh Corps of Engineers.

These individuals spend their professional careers addressing the very issues facing Mount Pleasant today.

So the question I would ask you is why would the town not want free consulting and strategic advice from experienced professionals who care very deeply about this community and are willing to volunteer their time, such as myself.

Additionally, the commission has demonstrated results as presented in last month's presentation.

I won't get into those again.

And perhaps most importantly, a standing green commission aligns with the culture and the future direction of Mount Pleasant.

Our residents consistently value clean waterways, healthy marshes, tree canopy, wildlife habitat, flood resilience, and thoughtful growth.

These resources are not temporary priorities.

They are foundational to the character and the quality of life that make Mount Pleasant special.

Establishing Green as a standing committee demonstrates that environmental stewardship and resilience are long-term commitments to this community.

The commission has proven its value.

We have attracted talented volunteers.

We've produced meaningful results.

And so I respectfully ask that you make the Green Commission and use use of the Green Commission as a permanent part of the town's advisory structure so it can continue to provide expertise, public engagement, and thoughtful guidance for years to come.

Thank you for your consideration.

Next, please.

Good afternoon.

How are you all doing today?

My name's Leah Colavello, and I'm a member of the Green Commission.

When I think about the opportunity to serve on the Green Commission, I think about why the Commission exists in the first place.

And so I would encourage you to reflect upon the leadership that thought that a Green Commission was going to be a great idea for this town.

I don't want to repeat what Olivia said, but having a standing commission, I believe would empower you all to utilize us more.

It's more part of the team, not just the group that, you know, it's temporary, we're testing it out.

But we're here as a deep thoughtful resource of experts for you all as you drive decision making here in the town with regards to its future.

So as you've reflected upon the past, there was a reason this commission was established, and I don't know all the intricate reasons for that.

This several years ago that it happened.

But let's look now forward-facing.

The Green Commission has provided a lot of great work over the past few years, but our work is actually just getting started.

We're getting more comfortable in our roles as town leaders.

And we're also identifying a lot of gaps in sustainability, conservation, and resilience leadership in the low country that this town has opportunity to fill and be real leaders within the state of South Carolina around some of the most critical issues facing our time.

We are all here if you have any questions about the efficacy of our work, but we're all very passionate about the opportunities that you have all provided us thus far, and I hope that you will provide us moving into the future.

Thank you.

Anyone else for public comment?

All right.

Thank you all very much.

We will close public comment.

And item four is related to all the public comments we just heard.

Um continued review of the Green Commission 2025 report of accomplishments.

And uh Chris, I know you're probably gonna take it from here, and David is here because you start you started this.

I don't know if you need to come up and finish or if you just want to be available for questions.

Either end or both are good.

Were you prepared to go ahead and start talking?

Absolutely.

Okay.

So I don't think I can add really much more than what Olivia says as a mic drop speech, in my opinion.

Um, and I fully support what they said and and the contributions of this incredibly talented group of people that I'm privileged to be a part of uh are doing with this town.

And also I'd like to to kind of underscore the fact that you know it took us six months to just catch up to with all the existing regulations and how the town works, and we're just now hitting our stride.

Um so there's a there are a lot of things in the works right now that if we don't become a permanent commission in.

I mean, uh we've got a uh uh tree canopy restoration uh uh grant program that is coming in in August.

Um we end in August.

We that I don't know where that goes.

And uh and that's you know, a bridge to probably what the tree task force will be you know recommending as far as a a very uh vibrant tree planting program.

So I'm here to answer any questions.

Um the town staff provided a really fantastic annual report for me to uh to read off of last month, and um so love to hear any questions or concerns from this committee.

Y'all have any okay.

Chris, did you have some prepared things too?

I know staff always does a lot of work, so no, this is all we had.

We just had uh the slides same from last month on there, so that's all we uh can I also recognize Jim Western Holdover.

Yes, I saw Jim over there.

Thank you for your service.

All fantastic people and and and you know, very busy people that you know uh have to carve out a lot of time in their lives to do this.

Right.

Um just a couple of things I wanted to um ask about, and I mean, I think you know how I feel about the Green Commission and my background in conservation, so I'm obviously a yes vote.

I just wanted to to point out and and um is this is this report available online for people to see what all the commission has.

I mean, can you find a link somewhere?

You can through the agenda, but I don't think we have it linked to the green commission page at this time.

Okay, okay.

Um I don't want to get ahead of myself.

I don't know what the protocols are for when something I mean, do we have to receive this report and vote on it before staff can put can anybody to they can just put it this is their report, okay?

That that would be great.

So um if you look at this, um it has on there what the what the mission is, and it is to provide and recommend sustainable and resilient practices aimed at protecting and enhancing green spaces, environment, ecology, and natural resources to Mount Pleasant Town Council for the benefit of our citizens, and I certainly think that y'all have done that.

Um the first report, the first years were captured in the report that was dated January 28, 2025, and it was presented to this committee on in February of last year.

And um some of the the work plan for 2020, this is under 2025 was the tree canopy restoration project, guidance for development of residential environmental um residential environmental program to encourage use of low impact development techniques, engaging local schools and all those things like uh Mount Pleasant specific curricula and pollinator and tree planting programs, outreach to HOAs, and this brings me to one just as I have worked with some neighborhood groups and things like that.

We're not gonna tell y'all what we think y'all ought to do, but in my experience, both just as an elected official, but also working personally with with groups and and being at neighbor some neighborhood things and all that.

That seems to me like one way to be like a force multiplier for y'all and for us.

So if y'all can think about making that a real high priority, I think that's where the gains are to be made.

You know, that's where a lot of the ponds in the town are managed.

I learned through y'all's reports.

We have a thousand ponds in the town of Mount Pleasant, and that's huge.

Um that's where we'll get some changes on more sustainable uh landscaping and things like that.

And um, I know as a commissioner of Mount Pleasant Waterworks, I see what the irrigation meters have been doing the last month, and people are paying a lot of money to um to have to keep those lawns and plants um going in this drought that we're having.

Um I want to commend you on the work days and hand-on opportunities, and David, I have been to a good many of those, not all of them, but a good many of them.

I see you there, a lot of them, everybody.

But um, I don't know, I I don't want the members of the commission who are basically doing professional work for us for free, as Olivia mentioned, to get burned out.

I'll go pick up trash, you know, and others and and keep scheduling those, but I don't want any commission member to burn out on that stuff when it's your professional knowledge and all that.

And I think everybody knows what what I'm saying.

I don't think I have to lecture anybody on that.

But I would hate to lose a commission member because there are too many work days or too or too many outreach.

But look at the outreach.

1,105 residents engaged in outreach conversation.

682 trees planted and gifted 300 native plower uh flower plugs gifted in six new pollinator gardens installed, and we've got a long way to go to get to get to our goal of a thousand, but that's that's a great start.

Um one question I wanted to ask is in out of recognition for their time and their service, would would have less than one meeting a month be a possibility, you know, every other month or quarterly or something like that, because all the I think the the rhythm and the activities and all are well established now.

All the cleanup days the pollinator gardens and that kind of stuff.

I would hate to lose any members or not get good applications because it is a big commitment of one meeting every month.

I don't know I don't sit in on them and I do that on purpose so that nobody feels like the people who vote to extend it or appoint the members are sitting there keeping score because I'm not but um I I wouldn't be you know sad if I heard that they were meeting every other month or maybe if if there's back to back ones needed but don't feel like that is something we expect to see y'all meeting every month.

It's not like the Planning Commission where we have to have those things you know those applications looked at um and you got great staff um doing the work but I just think this is an excellent um report and I agree with what um somebody who has worked with and for this town for decades said when y'all were in panel this is the most highly qualified panel that has ever been put in place in the town of Mount Pleasant I'm proud to have played a small role in that and look forward to working with y'all for as many more years as I have left doing this.

anybody else yes before before the next can can I address the the meeting issue I I'm not sure I I can speak for myself that I feel like a monthly meeting is warranted.

We always have plenty to talk about and a lot of times not enough time to talk about it.

But you know I'd love to get some feedback from my fellow commission members here if you sense that it's too much.

Yeah I'd be more in favor of every other number okay I feel that the world's on fire and there's no time to lose so I do it every month Olivia I think it's a decision that the Green Commission should discuss among our members.

Yeah yeah yeah we do have the option have the conversation we do we do have the option of having people join online so we're very flexible in that and we do have that ordinance that's board and commission wise wide of how what percentage of meetings you can miss and all that and that's correct.

And if you have some leeway in that maybe consider it or that's correct y'all just like Olivia said y'all just have the conversation come up what's works best.

Yes.

I know with the recreation commission we designated that they will be required to meet quarterly when we last extended it but then they always have the option to meet more often for themselves.

So that might be something we would consider that our if we're going to have a commission that we would want them to meet require quarterly but um anything more would be on your own decision.

It's it's my sense that we get out of rhythm if we go if we would go less than that I mean in and to use an example is we would combine November and December into one meeting and it always seemed like we came out of that kind of off pace a little bit.

So I think there is I think there's merit to meeting monthly and there's plenty to talk about we could consider what I thought that's a good idea just putting quarterly as required but let them decide how often they they do meet yeah okay sorry I just wanted to sure yes sir Mike well I I totally agree we have a deep diverse and incredibly qualified group and it's core the Green Commission is core to the town's culture and its history and we'd be remiss not to have this as a standing committee because it helps us coordinate with all the different departments but it also helps us to part with intergovernmental departments about pleasant waterworks very close relationship with that obviously we have two members town council members on that but that that has been very fruitful the the work there it's also been very helpful to work with a lot of the environmental groups in town who've come and joined us in this endeavor we've also had seen the Green Commission be thought of as a leader in the community and not only the community in the Charleston area but at large and I think it starts at home so we're just now starting to understand what best practices are and incorporate them.

And um the the in addition to the areas we've talked about, the wetlands was a very important one for y'all to take a leadership role in.

And with the tree task force just now coming up with its recommendations, then you'll be there to help determine the best tree at the right place as people ask for grants.

You can refer to their research and find out where the best place tree at the right place is.

Did we vote?

Last time we did not vote last time to recommend that we establish.

So I would be looking for a motion.

David, thank you.

Well, you can sit down.

Um a motion that we recommend the full council at our upcoming July meeting.

Um to I I'm not sure what the right words are, but to how is it on the uh agenda?

Well, this is continued view.

Um establish the Green Commission as a permanent commission for the town of Mount Pleasant.

Uh I would move that we establish as a permanent commission of the council.

Right.

I'll second, and I have an amendment.

Okay.

All right.

We are in in uh discussion.

Okay, and I'd like to suggest that we require that the commission meet quarterly, but allow them to determine a different schedule as long as they do meet quarterly and forward an annual report to council.

Okay.

And that wording would be no less than quarterly, I guess.

Correct.

All right.

I accept that all right.

All right.

So uh did I get a second?

Was that a second on his amendment?

Yeah, second.

Any further discussion on the amendment?

All right, all in favor?

Aye.

All right.

And now we're back to the primary motion.

Is there any discussion on that?

All right.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All right.

It's unanimous.

Thank y'all.

So that's our recommendation.

We appreciate y'all being here.

Would love for y'all to be back for our council meeting on the 14th, which I'm assuming this would be during the regular meeting that starts at six, not in the special special meeting.

Okay.

Thank y'all very much.

That concludes item four.

Item five is to adjourn.

So we will stand adjourned.

Good work.

Thank you.

Good to see everybody here.

Item two is approval of minutes.

Do we have a motion?

Second.

Any discussion?

Oh, minutes are approved.

Public comments.

If you're here to make a public comment, please come forward.

So move to the second.

Executive session, of course, there were no votes cast and no action was taken, and there does not need to be any follow-up after that.

So let's move on to item six update on ongoing projects.

And I think we're gonna have an emphasis today about e-bike enforcement because I know that our police have been doing a lot not only on enforcement, but also on e-bike education out there.

That's something we hear from the public and the media about all the time.

So if you all take that, and we're gonna have the chief come up, or whoever his designee is to speak a little bit about the enforcement, and then we'll talk about some beach traffic.

So and careless operation disregarding traffic signals are the top locations.

And we'll continue to do that.

And sure Brad can talk about that a little bit more.

E-bikes um e-bike collisions we've had three two of which were single vehicle um 15 citations related to e-bike uh activity.

Um not necessarily to the e-bike law but in some instances um operating motor vehicle uh knowing allowing a uninsured uh child or operator on a vehicle no registration um these are the fences that were using the trapping fences that were using the chart parents who allow their kids to ride so um 46 e-bike warnings two golf cart warnings we've conducted multiple patrols in our high area activities uh got out with some several large groups of kids and done education done two sweeps of middle schools uh park west and moultry where we've gone in and um policed up some unlawful electric motorcycles and educated parents um so far this year we've had nine failure stop for blue lights kids running from us on e-bikes um one was an adult on a stolen e-bike he was arrested so sometimes adults engage in uh e-bike violations as well so any other questions chief I think one of the big things that is and will help with the whole e bike issue is the parents understanding that they can be find personally for allowing their children can you can kind of give us an idea of what kind of um information you're putting out to the public for the adults to understand that they have not only a responsibility but they can be fined right and and arrested because they allow something to happen like their children.

We're we continue to put information uh such as that uh out on social media um we've had a meeting with uh Moultra Middle School uh as a way to educate parents further um partnering with that with them to do some inspections of bikes at the schools um developing that project hopefully to implement it so when the kids come in for fact and feed days if they plan on riding a bike here's all the regulations you have to have your bike inspected so uh we're in the middle of working on that this summer as a way of educating parents and and how many did you say you have already cited I I know in your report you said there were citations given yeah so we've uh we've issued 15 citations um one juvenile was cited with three citations the rest were issued to parents so um the majority of those citations are actually going to the parents right that's who it should go to that's right not to the children thank you yes sir I want to thank you uh too for having your officers at the July 4th parade in the old village it was quite helpful Janet Newman and her husband were involved with that but what was great just to have the fire engine then all the bikes and then the golf cars.

So they were captive and so they were there for a a nice uh discussion and education and what I heard and what I experienced seeing was you didn't have the illegal motorcycles in the parade like you did last year because people had gotten of the message but also by design what you're talking about focusing on the middle schools is a good way and focusing on events like this where you have so many people and so many um bikes or or motorcycles was helpful but your officers did a great job and uh and we had a safe uh parade so thank you.

Thank you.

Um so is is the school district still considering some measures um when the school year starts up about either education or their own regulation not that they take over law enforcement we know that but no um the last meeting I was present at um Michael Ridenbach from the school district was there principal from Mulch Middle School we sat down had a good discussion about uh what that looks like and we're continuing that so um happy to give you an update at our after our next meeting that'd be super thank you and Chief the uh I think Ryan Miles from uh uh the school district said they were prepared quite frankly to do um to licensing or to uh for those bikes if that's appropriate with with you all for their schools but uh that that would be up to you all and what you did but they were happy to do some stickers and whatnot.

That's one of the discussions is the stickers and are they in are they individualized to each school, things like that?

Is it a countywide thing?

Um those are what we're working through right now.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, Chief.

Appreciate it.

Beach traffic.

Okay.

Well, mayor and committee members, as you know, for many years, uh the town has um had traffic signal regulations and operations specific to uh our beach traffic, which starts in um late May and all the way through into nearly September.

So uh what we thought we would give you today is Molly Lemon here, our operations division chief is going to go over some of the um recent things that have happened as far as our timings and and how staff prepares for this time of year.

Let's get beyond that.

There you go.

We do run a different signal coordination.

There you go.

We do run a different signal coordination, specifically poor beach traffic on Saturdays and Sundays, and that's from 9 30 a.m.

to 6 p.m.

And then recently we did an analysis of all the beach traffic from the past couple months, and we did make some tweaks to that.

And what we realized was that we were not giving enough time for people coming off of the islands.

So we've made adjustments to that.

And we've also developed an emergency timing plan where we can push traffic off of both IOP and Solomon's as needed, and that's something that we can do on demand when never needed.

Um we have not needed to use it yet, so that's good.

Um and below is a chart, it's kind of a snapshot of June.

And what I've provided is the peak hours on Saturday going to Solomon's and I la bombs, and the peak hours coming off on Saturdays and Sundays, and then the weekday traffic.

And although even on weekdays, the volume is still around a thousand vehicles per hour.

That's about the max on those peak hours on Saturday and Sunday.

It gets well above a thousand vehicles per hour.

So that's just the snaps are up too.

But we have made some tweaks and uh we continue to adjust it and evaluate it.

So that's all about really the timing, obviously.

Generally a uh a steady flow throughout the those weekdays, but on that weekend, as as we know, um those those thousand vehicles per hour rate uh is confined to a shorter period of time.

That's why you get the higher volume.

So it's it's always a challenge, and uh I was kind of surprised by these numbers understanding that the the weekend was that high.

I didn't, you know, even with beach traffic, I didn't think it was that high.

So um it's uh we're doing doing pretty well, and of course uh our police can always override signals and and we have the ability to actually call, I think uh our folks up in ca Kansas City at any time and say, Hey, can you look at this real quick?

And they can react within probably 30 minutes.

Okay.

And do you find um as we are actually in the implementation of it that those uh yearly meetings we do with all the partners, you know, Ila Palm, Solomon's Island, County, State, uh Sheriff's Office, you know, the the big one that we have in the nice lunch, um, that that coordination is getting results that are worth the effort always, just because the the better we communicate about things, if it's something small, right?

Um if somebody from the island calls us and say, Hey, we saw something recently.

It was with this uh they were noticing the backup, and we looked at some of the volume uh and timings, and we realized hey, there was an opportunity to increase the outflow green time.

So that communication is the most important thing, and certainly every year us getting together to talk about it beforehand is is critical.

Okay.

That was something I picked up on earlier.

So the about the it's the greens from was it I palms and Solomon's or just Isle of Palms that you increase to get traffic moving better off.

It was mainly from Sullivan's.

I'm sorry.

Okay.

Okay, interesting.

Any other questions on that?

Any feedback from Alabamas or Sullivan's Island, they pretty much in sync with what you're saying.

I haven't heard any complaints.

That's good.

That's good.

Good answer.

Yes.

We receive emails from both agencies thanking us and praising the work with them.

Super, thank you.

Great.

That's great.

Well, um Do we have a copy?

Was this given to us this chart?

No, sir.

But we can get that would be very helpful.

If if you would send that.

Mr.

Tinker, what was your no?

I was just saying, uh, y'all do such good reports.

If y'all could uh sometimes you're doing an update on uh on traffic projects and that type of thing.

If you could do those updates and send them to us ahead of time, like on the Friday before or whatever, if whatever's appropriate, that would be good.

We can go over it, and then that also would be it posted so people can uh grab it off off the agenda.

Yes, sir.

Super.

I love I love these.

This is this very pretty fascinating.

It really is.

Uh anything else on that?

No, sir.

Well, thank you.

And Molly, thank you for your report under less than ideal circumstances for you, but super job.

Yeah.

Thank you so much.

All right, keep keep going.

Billy Swells is underway.

Right now we've started the two-week period for the trapping of the yellow spotted turtles.

Um to date we have not trapped any.

But if we do, we have a stand tech in conjunction with TNR to release those to a safe place.

And then we have the tree walk scheduled for July 17th.

Okay.

Yeah.

If you're gonna go.

Yeah.

It'll be a little warm.

All right.

Any others?

Safe streets for all.

We can cover the we can cover all of these.

Sure.

So safe streets for all the projects are either a conceptual design or further.

One of the things I want to bring up that's not highlighted on the slide is we did have a transportation fair, and we did have a pop-up event with the last farmers market, and we've already received over 11 public comments, and almost all of them have been positive for all the projects.

And considering we haven't really done a lot of bubbling outreach with the individual projects, that's a great turnout.

So we're excited about these.

Awesome.

Unless you have any projects about these individual ones.

Any questions?

Did I skip one?

There we go.

Um, Park West is still under design and permitting.

It's on schedule.

Planned to be led for construction in summer of 2027.

Any questions about that?

That's that's a that's a great project project.

Just having that light up there has made a huge difference too.

It has, and we and we uh in fact, we just coordinated with Park West HOA on that signal timing.

Um, Mr.

Corsen made a comment last time he was here and and we looked at it and he was dead spot on on what he was seeing, and and uh we we made some adjustments there, and I think it's been very uh favorable.

Good.

516 Coleman.

We're gonna be advertised that in July.

So what we did is we um tried to provide some additional clarification on the project scope, and also separates out some of the bed items to hopefully get better bid prices and attract more bidders.

So hopefully that next advertisement will get some lower beds and more bidders.

Okay, yes.

With the um with the county, uh I didn't see the final vote from DRB, but with the county, I believe approving the parking down at the creek, Shem Creek.

Is that correct?

Uh they they're having additional trailer parking.

Does that help alleviate some of the part of the problems we've had, or is that just we're still behind the uh the eight ball on it and we're just trying to catch up.

Yeah, it's I can answer that.

Um what they have planned was part of the greater solution.

So it's there were several components to it, and that moving forward is one of them.

Okay.

Still narrowing need of more parking.

Okay, thank you.

And I just want to reiterate, I know there's some discussion on council of of not making the trailer improvements and all this, but we we can't we we can't have such short-term focus that we get away from what we originally did.

So you know, that's why you see that there's root the root pruning has already started.

We ran that by the qualified members of the Green Commission and our own staff and everybody else, it will work.

But but that and what what uh Mr.

Demora just said is it was not either or, it was both.

It's our parking and improved parking, and it's the counties.

And um, I just don't want us to you know start something, we bought this, and then our we lose our attention span and then we go to something else.

We gotta stick with the capital improvements for the purpose for which they were gotten in the first place.

So anyway, we'll just keep doing that.

Thank you.

That's my editorial for today.

We have a ton of Mount Pleasant Way projects.

Um updates haven't changed since the last meeting.

Um we've got a lot under construction, a lot under design, and a lot that we're starting design for.

Um the biggest one is that we did apply for a build grant, and we're hoping to hear back from that hopefully this month or next month.

That's $10 million.

That's that's a bit we we got one.

Um this is the one, this is the only one we have not won so far.

It's and we've gone after it for four years.

Okay.

But it's that would enable us to finish all the design.

Is that correct?

For Mount Pleasant Way, if we get it.

But if you have any questions about the individual ones, I can update you.

Okay.

The recent one on Matthew's Ferry, um, the across from the fire station.

There's it's been a nice improvement, but is there some under planting though that's gonna come in at that area because it's pretty barren right now.

I I suspect there must be some under canopy planting, or if if there is, could you tell us about it?

With the Skillenville Park area, that's complete with all those plantings before the the ones.

I would have to look at the design.

I know that all of our Mount Pleasant Way projects do include landscaping, but I'm not specific what's going on at that area.

But I can get you that information.

That'd be great.

Thank you.

It it does include that.

I I don't know the specifics, but I asked the same question.

I I saw the dead vines and the trees.

I'm like, we're gonna clean that up, right?

And James, I could yes, we're that's that's gonna happen, and it does include planting so it's a lot of things.

It does include quite yes, sir.

But we can get you the specific information.

That'd be great.

Thank you.

Any more questions on Mount Pleasant Way projects?

Yep.

Okay.

I think that's it.

Bike and Ped, you want to go through those?

For bike and pad, we really don't have a whole lot of changes here either.

Because we do have a lot still under construction.

Um we have a couple that are be going out to um pets and purchasing.

That's the crosswalking RVs that walk and don't.

And we've got our next round under design for sidewalks and some advisory bike and bed lanes.

The safe under design and permitting safety improvements on Weldon Royal Corridor, is that being included into the new transportation sales tax, or is that something we're looking for independent of that as far as because I think a lot of it was repaving.

Um what's the status, if any on that?

Uh uh I think about 80% of it is repaving, so a lot most of that cost is uh in in the asphalt.

Um I I do know that we've had discussions about uh if that could happen and what whether we could pursue either a TST or a CTC project to get the rest of the funding.

I I will have to follow up with James on that one.

That's that's his project, but unless you know anything else more than that.

It is on our list for request of CTC funding.

Okay, thank you.

TST did not award Indy funding this year.

All right.

That's it.

Is that it?

Yes, yes, sir.

Are there any further questions or comments on the update?

If not, that concludes item six.

Item seven is adjourned, so we stand adjourned.

All right, thank you.