Meeting for Mount Pleasant Town Council for Tuesday July 14th.

Real quickly, I want to remind everybody this is a special council meeting.

The only thing on the agenda is appointments to boards and commissions.

And we have applications about that thick.

And we do have public comment, but if you're here to comment on like the Highway 41 issue or some of the other issues on that's in the next meeting.

And if we took up this whole meeting for public comment, we would never have time to make these appointments and uh or give them the deliberation they're due.

So just a quick show of hands.

Is there anyone here for public comment for these for these items or any public comment at all?

Just one.

Okay, we can we can handle we can handle one or two, but if it was gonna be everybody, uh we couldn't do that.

So please keep that in mind.

So we are in public comment.

If you would like to make one, please come forward.

Um if a whole bunch more people decide to do it, we will we'll have to limit it for the purpose of this meeting.

Thank you.

Uh Michelle Stress, 545 around you.

Um my name is Michelle Stress, and I'm here tonight to express my interest in serving on the Green Commission.

For more than two decades, my passion has centered on bringing people together to solve environmental challenges.

I've worked alongside municipalities, nonprofits, schools, HOAs, and thousands of individual residents to turn ideas into real projects to improve our community.

I've helped develop programs like the town of Mount Pleasant Food Forest and a school sustainability curriculum that was featured internationally.

I have led native landscaping and habitat restoration efforts and have built partnerships that engaged more than a thousand households households in local conservation efforts with ripple effects on James Island and in the peninsula.

And I have done so by not beating people over the head with environmental guilt, but by showcasing the benefits of nature-based solutions and how it reduces the impact of stressors like heat, flooding, property maintenance, and the financial bottom line.

Thank you.

Next, please.

Okay, go to the case.

We need name and address, please.

Oh, my name is Karen Bennett, and I live at um 1116 Darling Street in Somerville.

Um but this is an issue that affects everybody.

Um in well, everybody in the whole country, but but we're addressing our state right now.

Um anyway, I'm sure you heard about the disaster that happened that killed hundreds of dogs recently.

Um this has been a mission of mine for years.

I've struggled to educate people about the number of breeders that there are that breed dogs.

Um probably over a thousand just in our immediate area on the internet.

And um what I hear is they keep in and I'm in like I said, I mean I'm in Dorchester County, they're they're getting ready to build a two or three million dollar shelter.

Someone said to me once, no matter how big you build it, you will fill it.

Something needs to be done about the breeding.

Um breeders need to be licensed.

Contractors are licensed, hairdressers are licensed, people that cut toenails are licensed, but people can breed dogs and they do it for the money, strictly for the money.

They're not a good breeder breeds to improve the quality of the breed.

But these people sometimes they're referred to as backyard breeders.

Um often they sell dogs that are sick to vulnerable people.

Um and that's a whole other issue that goes on.

But I I would really like to see people be educated to um to realize that um I I know you want to spend five thousand dollars to get the labradoodle, but every week they're killing 20 dogs at just Dorchester Pots because of ro lack of room, lack of space.

And um anyway, I I would just like to see that I know that there is a um our senator um Zetter and Zell with in South Carolina have initiated a bill that um that I guess was was killed, as they say back in last January, but they're gonna initiate it again.

So I I just hope that people would support this bill.

It is a bipartisan bill from from two senators, and it addresses the issue of um of breeding and and how to regulate breeders so that we don't have this kind of an issue.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Was there one more person who wanted to speak?

No.

All right, thank you all very much.

I appreciate y'all's understanding on that.

Item three, executive session.

We would be going into executive session for personnel, consideration of applications to serve on the Green Commission, consideration of applications to serve on the planning commission, consideration of applications to serve on the commercial design review.

Move to go into executive session for the items listed.

Thank you very much.

Any discussion?

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All right, let it be shown we are entered executive session.

When this is over, we will come back and reconvene in this meeting.

We will vote, we will adjourn, and then we'll start six o'clock meet.

Thank you.

Just a couple of things.

If you can, please scoop down to open up chairs.

We have some folks who really need a seat, who really need to be seated.

If you can do that, please, that would help.

And also, um, we hear there's some fire marshals around somewhere that work in this building, and um, it's their job to keep us safe.

And so if they come and have to do something about the capacity or being over capacity, we just ask your polite cooperation, please.

Do I think it would be like the planning report?

I didn't know anyway.

Thank you.

I have a chief.

I've parked there.

Well, wouldn't that just hold and fill this with the one all available?

I got that email about parking part.

To uh to please be quiet so we can conduct the council business here to wrap up the special council meeting.

We have reconvened from executive session.

No votes were cast, no action was taken.

Do we have any uh motions to result from the information received?

Mr.

Mayor?

Yes.

I move to appoint William Bill Cosgrove to the Green Commission.

Second.

All right.

We have a motion and a second for Mr.

Cosgrove to the Green Commission.

Any discussion?

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

Yes, sir.

Mr.

Mayor.

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

Okay.

Sorry.

All right.

Motion carries.

Yes.

Next, please.

Thank you for you and now.

Yes, I got it.

Yes.

Um, I have a motion from the planning commission.

I move that we appoint Daniela Harris to the planning commission.

Second.

We have a motion and a second for Miss Harris on the planning commission.

Do we have any discussion?

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

Do we have another motion, please?

No.

Um this is for design review board, commercial design review board.

Is there a motion?

Okay.

I'd like to nominate Robert Sachs for design review board.

Okay.

Second.

We have a motion.

We have a second.

Is there any discussion?

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion carries.

Mr.

Sachs is appointed to the design review board.

Um there was nothing legal in contractual.

And uh item five is to adjourn.

So this special council meeting is adjourned.

Please stand by.

We will we will reconvene for the monthly council meeting.

We are adjourned.

Great to see everybody here.

Haven't seen this room packed since COVID.

Before we get started, um, I want to mention that uh today we had several officers injured.

Um it's not my place to release their names.

Um, and so please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

They were serving the public at that time.

Um the reports that we have are are encouraging.

And um, then we will be standing shortly to observe a moment of silence for Senator Lindsay Graham and for former uh council member and interim mayor Kruger Smith, both of whom we lost this past week.

And that moment of silence will be followed by a prayer by Chaplain Richardson.

Where is Chaplain Richardson?

There you are.

All right, if you would please come forward.

So please observe a moment of silence that Chaplain Richardson will break when he is ready to begin the prayer, and then we will have the Pledge of Allegiance lit by Mayor Potem, Howard Chout.

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity to gather today in service to the town of Mount Pleasant and its people.

We ask for your wisdom to guide every discussion, every decision, and every action taken in this meeting.

Grant I grant our elected officials, staff, and citizens' hearts that seek understanding, minds that truth value truth and the coverage to do what is right for the community.

Help us to treat one another with respect, even when we disagree, and to work together in spirit of unity and cooperation.

We give thanks for the blessings of this town for those who serve and protect our community and for every resident who calls Mount Pleasant home.

May our efforts today contribute to a stronger, safer, and more prosperous future for all.

Guide us in humility, integrity, and a compassion.

May everything accompany us here today bring honor to you and benefit the people we are privileged to serve in your holy name.

Amen.

Please face the flag.

I fled to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands under God.

If I can get a motion uh to for the approval of the agenda, and the chair will follow up with a motion to amend.

Move to approve.

Second.

All right.

Uh we're in discussion.

The chair moves to move item 9B, which I think a few people are here uh for tonight.

Discussion of potential vote on Charleston County Highway 41 corridor improvement.

Move that to and and our attorney will will handle this for us.

It will come right after public comment.

I don't know if that makes it six B or seven, but it will be the item immediately following public comment.

Second.

All right.

We have a motion of second.

Is there any discussion?

All right.

Voting first on the amendment.

All in favor of amending the agenda as I stated, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

Now on the main motion, uh, any further discussion.

All in favor of the agenda as amended, please say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

Thank you very much.

Mayor, I'd like to approve uh vote to uh make a motion to approve consent items A, C, B, and we're not there.

Okay, we're not there.

All right.

Uh item four is public hearings, awards, and presentations, employee recognition.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, members of council.

Good evening.

I'd like to invite up Brad Morrison.

Hello, Brad.

I as you know, uh Brad is leaving us at the end of this month.

And I'd like to take a few minutes to offer a few comments on his 27 years of service to the town of Mount Pleasant.

Just think for a second when Brad first stepped into his role, there wasn't even a transportation department.

And think about that for a moment.

And as our community grew, we were in a position where we quite literally had to build our own roads just to keep up.

Well, we now know as a high performing department capable of managing multiple complex projects at once, simply didn't exist.

Brad helped build it from the ground up.

And not just the department, but the very infrastructure that supports this community.

In a town like Mount Pleasant, where we're surrounded by water and woven together by marsh, mobility isn't simple.

It takes vision, persistence, and a steady hand.

Brad has been that guiding force behind how people in commerce move throughout our town.

From roads to sidewalks, from planning to execution, his legacy runs through it all.

But what makes Brad truly exceptional isn't just what he built, it's how he led.

Brad's the kind of leader who doesn't seek the spotlight.

He leads with low ego, high integrity, and a deep commitment to doing what is best for the town.

He listens, he brings people together, and when it's time to make a decision, he leads with confidence and clarity.

He's what I call a servant's heart.

He's a solutions seeker, and maybe most importantly, he's steady.

In local government, change comes fast and often, but Brad has always been a calming influence, someone who can walk into a difficult situation, take the temperature down, and move everyone toward a solution.

That ability to diffuse, to steady, to lead forward, is rare.

Over the years, Brad's work has made all of our jobs easier.

I can say personally, when something needed to get done, and Brad was involved, it got done.

And it got done right.

That kind of reliability, that kind of trust is invaluable.

As Brad steps into this next chapter, the organization is going to miss his steadiness, his judgment, his quiet leadership more than we can fully express.

But his legacy will remain.

It'll be there in the roads we travel, the sidewalks we walk, and the systems that will continue to support this town for years to come.

And it will live on in the team he built and the culture, culture he helped shape.

Brad, on behalf of all of us, thank you.

Thank you for your leadership, your integrity, and your unwavering commitment to this town.

And on a personal note, thank you for your support over the years.

It's meant more than you know.

We wish you all the best in your next chapter.

You've certainly aren't.

On behalf of all of us and go dogs.

Is approval of the minutes from the June 9th special and regular town council meetings, the July 6th special town council meeting, and the May 2026 financial statement.

Move for approval, Mayor.

Do we have a second?

We have a second.

Any discussion?

All in favor, please say I.

All right.

Motion carries.

All right.

Item six public comment.

I think a lot of people are here for this tonight.

Mr.

Namora, how many people do we have signed up to speak?

Uh, north of 60, sir.

North of 60.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

So, by ordinance, everyone gets two and a half minutes.

Um, so if you're here to see us vote and we moved it, um, that vote is going to be um two two hours away, more than two hours away, two and a half hours away.

If um, everyone is welcome to speak.

We don't limit speaking, we don't tell you you can't speak.

But if your point has been made 30 times by the time you come up and speak and you think about passing, you might want to think about that, then neighbors can stay, you can stay, and then we'll all get we'll get on to the discussion and the vote.

But we ask that um because it's going to be so long and so many people want to speak.

When the town administrator says your time is up, please honor that and uh be respectful of your neighbor and their time to speak.

So, Mr.

Damora, I'm turning it over to you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

And ladies and gentlemen, um, to try to inject some efficiency.

I'll call two names up at a time.

First one, please come to the podium and speak.

Second person call, please stand back eight to ten feet or so, and you'll be next.

Uh, first speaker is Herb Sass, followed by Joe Boykin.

Good evening.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, Council members.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak and want to reiterate a few points.

As a Mount Pleasant resident, I understand why people care so deeply about Highway 41.

I do too.

That's why I think it's important to remember how we arrived at the plan before us today.

In my opinion, the two most important projects for the 2016 sales tax were 17 and 41 and 17 in Main Road.

Both are crucial to our region to reduce congestion, increase mobility and safety.

As you'll remember, this isn't where this project started.

Rather, it's the result of years, 10 years of refinement based on feedback from residents, stakeholder groups in the town.

We examined other options, including increasing capacity on Bessemer Road and Dunes West Boulevard.

Those alternatives were seriously considered, but were ultimately set aside because the community in the town did not support them.

Many plans were studied but did not work.

Without the parkway, those concepts simply did not provide the transportation improvements the corridor needs, which is why we have not emerged, why they have not emerged as a workable alternative and weren't further pursued by the county.

We all know this is a compromise.

Every side gave something, and that's precisely how we arrived at a plan that serves the broader public interest to improve congestion in our region.

We're now at a point where the choice isn't between this plan and a new concept.

The choice is between moving forward with this project or risking the loss of this investment for East Cooper and Mount Pleasant.

I don't want to see that happen.

I want to see this community benefit by receiving the transportation improvements County Council committed to in 2016.

Improvements that our residents have waited for and deserve.

Improvements we have all worked for for the past 10 years.

Without it, we will surely have more traffic in gridlock.

I hope we can continue that partnership and move this project forward.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Haney, and honorable members of council.

I appreciate the opportunity to speak and to reaffirm in person Charleston County Council's commitment to Highway 41 Improvements Project as currently designed.

This project didn't come together overnight.

It's the product of more than nine years of planning, engineering, environmental review, and public engagement.

We've looked at nearly 20 alternatives, held more than 200 meetings with residents, stakeholders, agencies, and community groups, and carefully considered more than 7,300 public comments.

This project you see today reflects all of that work.

Throughout this process, we have worked to balance several important priorities.

Improving safety and mobility, protecting our natural resources, and preserving the historic Phillips community.

We made significant changes to the project based on public feedback because those concerns matter and they shape the final design.

The county has invested more than 15 million dollars in engineering, environmental studies, design, permitting, right-of-way, and public engagement.

Permits are nearing completion.

Right-of-way acquisition is well underway, and we have secured $63 million commitment from the state transportation and infrastructure bank.

Any significant delay and permitting or agreements from the town would result in the project being discontinued.

And with those transportation sales tax dollars being redirected to other voter-approved projects elsewhere in Charleston County.

We know reasonable people can disagree on aspects of any major infrastructure project.

But after nearly a decade of work, we feel certain that this plan represents the best balance of transportation improvements, environmental stewardship, and historic preservation.

Our commitment is to deliver on the promise we made to the public, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with the town as we move toward construction.

Thank you very much.

And please let Rec show that's the chairman of County Council.

And we cannot have I'm sorry.

It's our rule.

We do not have any applause or booing because we would have to allow both to be fair.

So please please keep it quiet after each person speaks, and then we ask everyone to give their name and their name and address and to an apple this mr.

Next speakers uh Pat Brogamer, please come to the microphone, followed by Lisa Jones.

Good evening.

My name is Pat Roghammer.

I live at 3545 Tumor Killn's Circle, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

I'm in Park West.

Can you imagine the microphone?

I moved to Mount Pleasant in 2013.

Shortly after that, within within probably a year, this was all talked about.

And we've been going around and round, and we've had the same comments.

Nobody wants this.

We want it improved, but we don't want to have to tear up our communities to do it.

So we appreciate that you're here, you're listening, but I don't think a lot of the stuff those two men just said are is true.

I'm sorry.

That's all I got to say.

Have a good night.

Hi, good evening, Mayor, Council members.

My name is Lisa Jones, and I'm here on behalf of Historic Charleston Foundation.

We are here to speak in support of the Highway 41 Compromise Alternative.

We support the Compromise for the following reasons.

One, it addresses the transportation need without causing further harm to the Phillips community.

Phillips is a nationally significant historic community.

It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The community has already suffered from past road building decisions, including the construction of Highway 41 through the neighborhood in the 1940s.

The original widening proposal would have once again placed the burden of the expansion on this historic community.

Tonight's decision is about avoiding past mistakes.

Second, this compromise is the result of years of study and public engagement.

The Highway 41 alternative process has spanned more than a decade with numerous options evaluated for environmental, social, cultural, and economic impacts.

The compromise before you emerged from extensive analysis, public input and collaboration.

It reflects work of finding a solution that better balances the needs of the community with environmental concerns.

Starting over would likely mean another decade of additional delay to identify funds and permits.

Third, this alternative does not destroy Laurel Hill County Park.

The compromise does not cut through the heart of the park.

It runs along its edge, preserving the vast majority of the 750-acre public resource while also minimizing impacts to wetlands and floodplains.

Finally, this is an opportunity to do right, to not repeat historic wrongs.

Too often infrastructure projects have come at the expense of black communities.

Let's just be up front about that.

Tonight you have the opportunity to support a solution that respects a historic community, protects natural resources, and addresses transportation needs.

Sometimes the right thing to do becomes the difficult thing to do, but passing the compromise is the right thing to do for the Phillips community.

We urge you to support the compromise alternative.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Real quickly, if I may interrupt.

If you're here with young children and you would like to speak, would you like to go ahead and speak as if you have to get on your way?

We'd be glad.

That's not an invitation to leave.

I'm not signed up to speak, but we will probably do it for you.

I love it.

I'm a new granddad.

I'm I'm into that.

So that's great.

All right, next, please.

Okay.

And ladies and gentlemen, I think I'm going to go from two to three speakers at once.

So uh follow me here.

Adam Friend, please come to the microphone, followed by Larry Kabrowski and Kathy Landon.

So good evening.

Uh my name is Adam Friend.

I actually live on James Island.

Um, but um advocacy has no boundaries, so I uh I've been an advocate for about the last five years, uh fighting for uh oh thank you for letting me come by the way, Mayor Haney.

Name and address, please.

Yeah, thank you.

Uh addresses 448 Woodland Shores Road.

I started the Woodland Shores Road Coalition uh after a neighbor of ours got hit and almost died, and I had to uh learn the system to make uh safety comming measures become a reality on our road, and um I've been successful and have since gotten sidewalks and so I'm just somebody who cares about my community.

I've been here a little bit after Hugo, I'm a civil grad business owner.

Um I'm a recent uh primary winner of the Republican um party to uh replace Jenny Honeycutt on county council.

So I'm my bingo card was not something I thought was gonna include something that you guys are doing, but um my success at advocacy has decided that I needed to do this to continue my fight for the citizens of the low country who come out in force.

I love it.

Um generally speaking, one of the reasons I decided to become uh a a servant of the of the people is that I've had a great frustration of what I've seen happening in our area for gosh, a long time.

Um I've seen a lot of overdevelopment, I've seen a lot of money winning, frankly.

Greed seems to be the formula for success here.

If you have money and and you want a lot, you can get it here.

And we've been doing that for a long time.

And I think that uh one of the reasons I'd like to get up on the dais uh on the county level is because what I've noticed that we do a lot around here is a lot of times we make things happen.

We we do something.

That's what I like to call it.

We do something for problems or addressing our areas of need.

But in the in the big picture of things, what I've seen is that it's not the right thing, it's just something.

It'd be like, I guess I use an example if I had a brain tumor and I went to my surgeon and my surgeon said, Well, I'm offering you an appendectomy surgery.

And that's really not gonna accomplish or or save my life or keep keep me going in the direction I need to go.

So I just think that we need to be looking at the totality things.

If we're gonna spend a lot of money on a project, is it going to achieve the goal to the fullest of its capacity?

Is it going to do the job?

And if it's not, I think the days of spending money, especially today's world where money is becoming harder and harder to come by.

Time to go.

So anyway, that's what I wanted to say, just a generality that I think the days of doing something need to stop.

We need to do the right thing.

Mr.

Damore, can we keep the door closed, please?

There's too much noise coming in from the lobby.

Thank you.

Well, thank you.

Um Larry Kabrowski.

But I'm here tonight, not as a member of County Council, but as an individual, somebody who's we need your address, Lear.

Oh, 402 Seabrees Lane, Sultan's Island.

Uh lived East Cooper for almost 50 years now, Mount Pleasant, I'll palm Salton's Island, and by half my time in McClellanville.

So I spend somebody who's represented all of East Cooper uh on the school board.

And I'm here today to address that.

And also I have two daughters, two son-in-laws, soon to be seven grandchildren, and I hope they'll live here for 50 years.

So I'm here.

Um again, you've heard my colleagues on county council.

I have a different perspective.

You know, I've driven down 41 many times, and I remember distinctly during you go pulling off the side of the road.

It was a quiet country road.

And I agree that the people in Phillips did nothing to bring all the people here.

But now whether your family's been here since 1690 or recent arrivals, everybody in this room, we're always Cooper.

Everybody's an equal citizen, and I believe that the plan does not do the job.

It's and it's just gonna create a bottleneck.

We have we don't control it in Charleston County Council.

We have thousands of homes about to come from Berkeley County.

If we're just and I think everybody in this room knows we're just gonna kick the can down the road.

Five years, ten years, we're gonna have to come back and build those extra lanes.

There's no other way to do it.

And the what the harm done to Phillips, nobody's fought harder to preserve the federal communities than I have on county council.

I tried to create long-lasting moratoriums and control over people's own destiny.

The harm to films was done when 41 was put through there.

I've been through there countless times, including this weekend several times.

Nobody can casually cross that road to be a death wish.

It's like constant travel, constant people going fast.

The harm has been done.

The create 99.9% of Phillips would not be affected by the extra lane to preserve Phillips.

There'd be moratorium on subdivisions, the type of homes giving people control over their own destiny.

We can do walkways so people can walk.

That intersect that it was bisected, that harm was done when they created 41.

And I challenge anybody to think that you could just casually cross that street now.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor, I just have a quick question.

I've never been here with this big of a we do not allow outbursts of any type.

I've never been here with this big of a crowd you have.

Do we do we let them know that they'll be able to come in for public comment or or I don't know if we've told anybody what's that's what the protocol is that's up to staff to manage as it's we're at capacity so people leave and others can come in and speak.

Okay.

Did they know that?

We told them, I guess.

We will in part yes, thank you.

Yes.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

I'm Kathy Landing.

I live at 2114 Seawee Indian Court in Dunes West.

Thousands and thousands of Mount Pleasant residents have expressed a massive negative outcry against tearing down many acres of trees, filling in wetlands, and moving paving through a park that is in a conservation trust in order to create a bypass of a road that already bypasses 41, which has been in constant and and this has been a constant since the vote for the current plan in 2021.

The county has not listened to them.

Many of you ran into in your last election on this exact issue, promising to do better.

For years, I have advocated for keeping the 434 design, but greatly enhancing the fluidity of the two intersections to mitigate a bottleneck.

Why?

Because the intersection of Bessemer Joe Rouse 41 is the fail point of the of the whole project if it doesn't have Laurel Hill Parkway.

I shared many ideas verbally with County Council, but no one ever had the engineers actually draw up alternative designs for the worst intersection.

Finally, I did it myself with a modified traffic circle, and they said it would fail.

Then George Freeman, one of the uh leaders of one of our major settlement communities, came up with a better idea.

Keep the light for the northbound lane so everyone had a chance to enter the circle.

Coincidentally, I had just witnessed this in action while driving through Scotland, where many highways use only traffic circles.

For the heaviest traffic lanes, they have a light and it works perfectly.

If Charleston County was denied the permit by DES, they would be forced to go back and reconsider the plan, possibly avoiding LHP.

If you decide tonight to deny Miss Municipal Cent with the idea that you want the county to rethink this one aspect of the flawed plan, it will not be to say no to the project.

The engineers have told us repeatedly that they are constrained by not being able to go one inch into the Phillips community.

I asked if they did not have that constraint.

How would they have changed this project?

Still keeping 434.

And he said it could have been completed two years ago.

But just extending the merge of the two lanes into one lane about 500 to 800 feet on the other side of Bessemer, might be enough to allow the project to move forward without LHP.

Or maybe it would take a little more effort, but that is an idea that was not mentioned before.

Why not take a little more time and get this right?

I know many of you would love to purchase the Republic Track and are hoping the county will help with greenbelt money after the sales tax referendum, but that money doesn't exist yet.

What if they simply were reworked the plan to avoid spending the money on LHP and join together with the town to buy the Republic Track with the 25 to 30 million so that everybody would have a win-win-win?

That would really work for all the surrounding communities and the town.

Thank you.

Next to the microphone, Karen Bennett, Penny Altman, and Mike Tucci.

You can go first.

My name is Penny Altman, and I live at 3085 Casbian Court.

I have three things I'd like to say.

I'd like to say that the Mount Pleasant is not the Mount Pleasant of 10 years ago when plans were drawn up.

Nobody foresaw COVID and the mass migration we would have to this area.

I think it's time we look at plans and change them accordingly.

I met with somebody after that meeting on transportation that said you were exactly where you were supposed to be in your seven-year plan.

And I said, Oh, you had the foresight to know COVID was coming and everybody would work from home and move here.

I think that it's an outdated plan.

I think we need to take into consideration the other people that have moved to this area.

I also want to say that I sat there about a year ago at a church on 17 when Mike, you and Will Haney said you would not support the road to compromise.

I'm so disappointed, I can't even say.

Lastly, I believe that we need to listen to the people who represent the state and the department of transportation that say we will not lose the funds because I don't believe that we will.

If you guys let them have their permits.

Thank you.

Karen Bennett, 1116 Darling Street.

I am in Dorchester County, but I'm uh a fan of the state.

And I I spoke earlier, everyone, and and so I'll make mine brief.

Um, I'm a dog advocate.

I'm here on behalf of the support of licensing breeders.

And I have a bill here that was initiated by two of our wonderful senators here in South Carolina.

And I just want to urge everybody to please support this bill when it comes uh due in January because it would help regulate um some of this unethical and inhumane breeding that goes on.

And I'm I'm sure everybody's aware of what's happened recently, and we just we don't want to see this happen anymore.

And it's just a step in the right direction.

So thank you.

Hello, everybody.

Uh, for the record, uh, Mike Twee, 2536 Willbrook Lane, uh, and that's in Rivertown.

Um, just a quick intro.

I am the vice president of the Rivertown Property Association.

Um, I come with their support.

Um, obviously, we're our we are not in agreement with the plan that's being proposed tonight.

Um I heard a couple issues real quick uh when uh the first couple speakers went about um surveys from uh and you know, politic public comment from people.

Um I don't think anybody in the room got that comment because uh I didn't, and I don't think we'd all be here today if we were all surveyed as well.

So uh, but the main two issues I see with this is uh safety.

Um, if you need an ambulance, you need a police.

Um, you know, a three-mile drive down 41 between 4 and 6 p.m.

can take upwards of 30 minutes.

Um another safety issue is even for the Phillips community.

I see people turning off to go to their homes, and it's creating uh frequent car accidents, people slamming on their brakes.

Um, they can't pull out of their driveways, they can't turn into their homes.

Um so I know some of them don't support the project, but I think there's a solution that could work for everybody that I think we really need to take back to the table and look at.

Um, you know, there's there's options where we could build walls to protect for noise, we could build sidewalks.

Um so with the safety issue.

I also think it's egregious that you know my kids can't ride a bike to school.

You know, our school, there's there's uh they're they go to Jenny Moore Elementary School.

There's no bike, there's no walkway.

Um, you know, they're forced to take a bus, the buses have to use 41.

Um, and right now, if you were to drive down 41, um the school's out right now, and it's still horrible, and it gets more it gets worse every single day, it feels like, and we need to address this issue, or else uh like the gentleman said earlier, we'll just keep kicking the can down the road.

It's gonna happen eventually.

We're building more homes, more people are coming here, and we need to address the issue.

And since I'm running out of time, the last issue I want to uh upbring is the undue burden on small business, especially mom and pops.

Um, people don't want to go out between four and six because of the traffic.

We can't bring in more businesses because there's no room to put anybody, and I think that's uh undue hardship on businesses, and if you bring in more business and more money to our local economy, I think that's something that needs to be considered so we could uh really improve the area.

Thank you so much.

Next three speakers, C and Wolf, please come to the microphone, followed by David Spedon and Lori Carey Cother.

Good evening.

My name is Cann Wolf.

I live at 1291 Hogan's Alley and Charleston National.

Um, I think some of these items have already been hit on, but I'm just gonna read what I have here.

I'm here to ask you to withdraw municipal consent for the current Highway 41, quote, road to compromise, and quote, plan.

This proposal cuts a new road through Laurel Hill County Park, protected green space, that once it's gone, it's gone for good.

And it pushes highway traffic directly into our neighborhood streets in Park West and Dunes West, putting our families and kids at risk.

Many residents living here today weren't even residents when this plan was first designed nearly a decade ago.

They never had a voice in shaping it, yet they're the ones who live with the consequences for decades to come.

And here's the thing this plan doesn't even solve the real problem.

With the growth already coming to this area, we'll be back here in a few years dealing with the same congestion, except by then we'll also have lost the park for nothing.

Any real solution also has to be fair to the Phillips community who've carried the burden of this highway for decades.

A true compromise protects their neighborhood and our park, not one at the expense of the other.

Many of you ran on protecting this town's green space and putting residents first.

We believe do.

Withholding consent is the one real leverage this town has to send the county back for a plan that actually works, not one that sacrifices our park today and still needs to be redone tomorrow.

You were elected to represent us.

Please vote to withdraw consent.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Dave Spedon 3429 Tumer Kiln Circle.

Mayor, Council members, thank you for your service to our community.

Twenty-four feet.

And I'm going to get back to that in a moment.

For many months, I've spoken at meetings, written letters, met with town, county, state officials, and carefully reviewed this project.

I've read your lengthy and detailed social media posts, and I kept coming to the same conclusion.

The county's current Highway 41 plan is the wrong solution.

I respectfully ask you to stop reacting to the county's conditions and manage them.

Deny consent at this time, but provide a constructive path forward.

Tell Charleston County before the town can consider consent, it expects an objective decision matrix, comparing the viable alternatives, including alternative one, the current plan, and other options.

And it sounds like a lot of this analysis is available, but has never been put together factually for anyone to review.

If no one knows how to start that, I'll be more than glad to work with you or the county, which I have offered several times to do.

I think it's important.

This is a quarter billion dollar investment, and it should be based on measurable facts, not subjective judgment or political compromise.

The evaluation should examine four areas effectiveness of the transportation solution, cost of the taxpayers, environmental impacts, and community impacts.

Let's let the facts determine the outcome.

Instead, the county is asking you to prove to approve a plan that costs more, provides less transportation benefit, but limits direct access to go north across 41 onto Highway 17, builds a new road through Laurel Hill Park about three-tenths from where the Joe Rail center section is, adds two new red light signals, and does almost nothing to improve congestion on 41.

The traffic volume stays the same.

This is not the stewardship that me, you or any taxpayer should accept.

Council members, you did not create the situation, but you have an opportunity to improve it.

Respectfully, tell the county, not yet, come back with an objective analysis that demonstrate this is truly the best solution.

The difference from the best possible and current wasteful one is 24 feet, two 12-foot lanes of traffic.

The county's wisdom felt that was good for parts of Highway 41.

Why not all of it?

That would solve everything up front.

Thank you.

Let me make an announcement, please.

Staff will be letting everyone know when the podium's open.

So if you want a seat, but you still want to be able to see what's going on, and then you can get in here for your time to speak.

Just know that that option is available if you need it.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Good evening.

My name is Lori Carey Kathera, and I'm the interim executive director for the Coastal Conservation League at 131 Spring Street.

I'm here tonight to share three points that illustrate our continued support of the compromise alternative for Highway 41 and to encourage the town of Mount Pleasant to support the plan as well.

First, this project has been in the works since 2017, a process which included 15 alternatives to ensure that environmental, social, cultural, and economic impacts were considered.

The compromise alternative ensures the necessary balance between nature and residents while also protecting historic communities and providing necessary infrastructure to reduce congestion, enhance safety, and provide bike and pedestrian access.

Second, as an environmental advocacy organization, it is rare that we would support impacting green space.

However, it is our responsibility to support a strategy that minimizes impacts to the historic Phillips community who has already been disproportionately harmed by road projects in the past.

We would like to reiterate that this compromise minimizes wetlands impacts and preserves nearly 98% of the park.

The parkway is contained to the outer edges of the park where there are no existing trails and very limited foot traffic.

It does not bisect or cut through the middle of the park.

Finally, if the compromise alternative is abandoned, we risk losing the entire allocation and force Mount Pleasant to deal with traffic with no relief in sight.

We encourage the council to base your decision on the nine years of dedicated studies and valuable community input.

Additionally, we would like to comment in support of continuation of the moratorium and acceptance of processing of major subdivision applications in Charleston County Historic Districts as the development in Mount in the town of Mount Pleasant continues to expand.

It is crucial that we continue protecting Charleston's historic properties by preventing further encroachment on unincorporated areas like the Philips community.

We greatly appreciate council's care and support in this matter and ask that you support the compromise plan, uh the compromise alternative plan and the continuation of the major subdivision moratorium in Charleston County Historic Districts.

Thank you.

Benjamin Brown, please come to the microphone, followed by Joshua Silverman and David Quicking, members of Council, Mayor, staff.

My name is Benjamin Brown.

I live at 1241 Illusion Lane, not Pleasant, South Carolina, 29466.

Coming to you tonight uh in uh support of the uh increase of the AMI request for Gregory Ferry Towns, uh Mount Pleasant's first workforce community.

Very proud resident of there and also very proud to uh be a town employee.

We've come across uh an issue at Gregory Ferry, and unfortunately uh that takes us to have to come and request a change to our uh paperwork from you guys.

And that request is to be able to increase it from 80% AMI to 150% AMI.

Reason I'm requesting that is we have homes there for sale for over a year on the market, including one homeowner who had to rent her home out due to the financial burden of owning two properties.

Renter fell through with paying rent, she had to go through the eviction process.

Three months of rent, she had the burden uh by that person not paying rent.

And on top of that, the HOA fees that come with it.

When I moved to South Carolina, I moved here with $350 in my pocket after paying my first month's rent and getting everything I needed to be established.

And in that time, I've been very fortunate to work in uh governmental jobs that not only make sure I have food on the table, but they also are able to help me with my education expenses.

So after moving here, I went through paramedic school and I also finished my associate's degree.

And I'm fortunate enough to be one of the people who were able to buy Gregory Ferry and uh call myself a resident that not only lives in this town but works for it as well.

That increase is going to be essential for Gregory's Ferry to sustain and to continue to be a community uh that helps workforce uh and middle class people.

It is not affordable housing, it is obtainable housing.

Affordable housing is the Edmund Jenkins homes that we have on Bank Street.

If affordable houses are needed in town, uh then we need to build more.

But this is not affordable housing, it is attainable housing, and we asked for that increase for those reasons.

Um, as far as 41 goes, I will say that I was uh very uh happy and and and Charleston County and the uh team did uh come in and change part of the project so that we don't lose uh as much of our street and frontage road.

I wish I had more time to talk more about it, but um that's all I got.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Joshua Silverman, 2048 Blue Bay Boulevard, John Zowen, South Carolina.

Hopefully I'm not the youngest person speaking tonight, but uh here I am.

Mayor, good evening, Mayor and Town Council members.

I'm here on behalf of Katie Miller, who is running for Charleston County Council District 1.

She is unable to be here as she is out of town caring for a hospitalized parent.

I respectfully ask that you delay municipal consent for the Highway 41 project at this time.

I understand many residents want to see this project move forward after more than a decade of planning.

However, approving a project of this magnitude because of a manufactured emergency timeline is not smart growth, and it's not good public policy.

The public has been told that if the town does not act now, funding for Highway 41 improvements will disappear.

But that pressure is not coming from SCDOT or any outside agency.

It is coming from Charleston County.

Using the threat of withdrawal funding to force municipalities into approving a project is not how regional partners should work together.

Local governments should not be asked to choose between accepting a project they still have concerns about or risking the loss of transportation improvements altogether.

That approach only creates confusion and further erodes public confidence in a process that should be based on collaboration and transparency.

The transportation challenges facing our region were created over decades and they will not be solved by rushing a decision under an artificial deadline.

This lack of public confidence puts voters' referendum transportation funding at risk.

The town should also consider the long-term implications of consenting to a parkway that would require infrastructure through land that was leased to Charleston County with the understanding that be used for passive recreation.

Regardless of the legal authority involved, the public perception matters.

By granting municipal consent, the town becomes part of a decision that many landowners will remember when deciding whether to partner with local governments on future conservation efforts.

If people lose confidence that commitments about land use will be honored, those partnerships become much harder to build.

Municipal consent is one of the most important decisions before you.

Those of us who know our history know the origin of Bastille Day, don't we?

A lot of people will frame the so-called Laurel Hill Parkway controversy as a NIMBY issue.

It's not.

For a road that won't fix the problem.

Uh now, or when the Canehoy Peninsula cranks up.

There's a lot of traffic coming down this way, and they're not going to be using Laurel Hill Parkway.

Maybe part of the disposable mentality by Charleston County is the term green space itself, quote unquote green space.

When the voters approve the sales tax money for green space, I think there's a natural assumption that it will be preserved in its natural state.

It is not.

To the county, you can use sales tax money for sports complexes complete with artificial turf.

It is, after all, green colored plastic.

Um, or you can use it for roads such as Vaughan Ed Key, the $10 million road to nowhere, and the ex and soon the extension of Billy Swales Boulevard.

But Laurel Hill is different.

The late John Mueller worked as a male carrier.

He never married, never had kids, he saved his money and bought Laurel Hill.

This was his family.

In his will, Muller said this.

It is my will and desire that my trustee shall cause Laurel Hill plantation to be maintained in its natural state insofar as possible.

And the property is generally kept in such a condition as to make it an enjoyable place of natural, undeveloped beauty to those who may visit it.

This was 1984, long before the subdivisions sprawled up 17 and 41.

Muller had a vision.

I have often thought wondered what he would think about what was happening 42 years later.

This council thinking about destroying part of the only green space we have left.

I recently read an opinion piece written and signed by three people on this council.

Come on, that the disapproval of the parkway is a scorched earth mentality.

On the contrary, paving over mature forest ecosystem is about as permanently scorched earth as it gets.

Thank you.

Please.

Thank you.

Joe Calandra, please come to the microphone, followed by Myra Snipe Richardson.

Anyvet Thomas.

Good evening.

I'm Joe Calandra, 2514 Harriet's Island Court, Mount Pleasant.

We meant people mentioned history.

So the history of this road predated anything called the Phillips community.

It was built by the Lynch family, and we're going to get to that because the Lynch family was also Laurel Hill Park before it was Laurel Hill Park.

The road was paved in the 20s, 30s.

It was designated as a state highway in the 40s with all the appropriate right-aways.

A recent town hall with SCDOT said not one home had to be moved if this road was widened the full length from 17 all the way to the bridge on the Wando.

Not one home would have to be moved.

Required to be moved.

The uh which hasn't been mentioned is that this road is a designated evacuation route for hurricanes and other natural disasters.

The road to nowhere or the road to compromise does not take that into account.

That it is a that's just a waste of 50 million dollars.

We need an evacuation route, Isle of Palms and the Isle of Palm Connector and everything north has exploded, and we need an evacuation route.

It is in and the two uh councilmen who spoke, the Charleston councilmen, they were either disingenuous or they were misinformed.

I've been involved in this since day one.

Option 1A, which was to widen this road the whole way, was what the most of the county, most of the people who voted wanted, and that's the truth.

And anything else is a lie.

Okay, I've been involved.

So this um the land, the Laurel Hill was taught was Thomas Lynch Senior's land.

Dunes West was Thomas Lynch Jr.'s land.

Thomas Lynch Sr.

was a physician who took care of the people in the area, both black and white.

And many of you know Thomas Lynch Jr.

signed the Declaration of Independence, fought in the fought in the Revolutionary War.

We're doing them a distance service when people talk about history.

We're running through real historic US historic lands.

Um the main thing I want to bring up, oh, the 50 million dollars of tax money.

So we're paying 50 million dollars the taxpayers to and and then going to have our land taken away from us.

That's that's very contradictory.

Pay more and get your land taken away.

All council, all county member, all people in Charleston County are gonna have to pay for that.

So thank you, sir.

Good day.

My name is Myra Snipe Richardson, address 2755, Earl Johnson Lane.

I'm the current president of the Hamlin Beach Community Association.

I'm here before you today, thanking you for the opportunity to speak and also asking you to please extend the moratorium for the historic districts in Charleston County into Mount Pleasant, the lands that have been annexed out of Charleston County Historic Districts.

I'm also here to speak about the 41 compromise.

When you say taking people's lane, our communities have always been the subject of our lands being taken for improvement.

I've asked this question over and over again.

Why does progress always mean a death of a black community?

Historic community.

When you say the land or replacing things, these communities, if you go through the Phillips community with four or five lanes, where are you going to place the people that you displace?

Are you going to provide an area where you're going to build their homes back?

Provide a place for those businesses that are going to be lost.

The compromise, not one home, not one business will be destroyed.

If you don't have a place for those people to reside, what happens to when we say justice for all?

When you talk about history, they had they're living on ancestral land.

They're not bentamias, they're benyas.

If you want to go there, so the people that are in the areas now that are saying we don't want our traffic.

They're the people that are in Park West and Doomswest.

Why won't you take your traffic and relieve the traffic that's going through the Phillips community?

When you build Vaughn Ed's Keith Parkway, that destroyed lane.

There's a recreational park that's wiping out a hundred acres, and the mayor, you've said yourself.

We can't be hypocrites because you started the Vaughn Ed Key Parkway in 2018 was a design.

It was completed November 2023.

The park concept was designed in 2018, and you're on your way now, or 2023, and you're on your way to wiping out all of that green space.

Where's the uproar for those things?

Please support the compromise.

Thank you.

And we're gonna partner with our neighbor since we live right next door.

Good evening, Mayor Heaney and members of council.

My name is Peter Pelicani.

I'm a resident of Dunes West with three main concerns.

First, title wetlands.

There's a title wetland standing between Dunes West residence and highway 41.

Wetland 31 designated as critical and the project's own junk public.

I'm sorry, joint public notice on sheets 18 and 19 carrying permanent clearing and armoring impacts.

Title wetlands carry dual jurisdiction under section 404 of the Clean Water Act in South Carolina's coastal tidal lines and wetlands act.

HDR Incorporated, the project's own consultant confirmed wetland 31 exists at this location.

Yet the Army Corps of Engineers project manager told me in writing that in their field in delineation found no wetlands here whatsoever.

When I requested the delineation documentation to understand the uh discrepancy, I was directed to file a federal foyer request.

That request is still pending.

Here is what concerns me most.

Critical title wetland, the delineation methodology unresolved, the documentation unreleased, and the current impact acreage has never been publicly disclosed or formally renotised to the public.

We do not know what is being done to that wetland under the current design and construction bids go out later this year.

Second noise testing.

The noise assessment came in just below the 66 decibel level threshold for sound barrier qualification using a single live microphone placed at the furthest point from the highway with software modeling used to forecast levels at the homes closest to Highway 41.

Independent readings by Dunes West residents at actual property lines show levels well above that threshold.

Those measurements were also taken in 2022.

Traffic has increased substantially since then.

If a sound barrier is not designated into this project from the outset and must be retrofitted after construction, the environmental cost of that failure and planning will be paid twice.

Once when the highway is built, and then again when the barrier tears through whatever wetland buffer remains.

Third, project roof.

This project is built on outdated data.

The city of Charleston approved up to 18,000 new homes along Clemens Ferry Road.

Point Hope alone could bring 12,000 units.

Leaders project the population along Clemens Ferry Road will reach 80,000 people within 10 years, exceeding Mount Pleasant's current population.

There is also 185 acre tract.

Sorry, guess what?

No, it's one once you speak.

Mr.

Merrick, this is um he was the next speaker.

So he was about to get called up anyway.

He's just the next speaker, that's all.

Okay.

Yeah, we live in story.

Well, it was in sequence.

Well, somebody's time is up.

Yes, sir.

That's right.

Now it's my time.

2874 Clearwater Drive.

I just want to add that basically our homes back up to 41.

Right now, we're 112 feet from the back of our fence to the two-lane road.

Once those roads get widened, we will essentially be 66 feet from a four-lane highway with speeds up to 55 miles an hour.

My other concern is safety.

What if a bear a car comes barreling down that road at 60, 65 miles an hour, fears off that road, crashes through the fence, crashes through my back bedroom, which is on the back half of the house, which most of our houses are on on that back lane.

We're all retirees, veterans, retired law enforcement 36 years, educators.

We have um gold family members living next to me.

She's a widow with four kids.

We all have served our country.

We have all served numerous years, and at this point, nobody has fought for us, Dunes West POA about the noise barrier.

We were told in the meeting that we are not going to pay for the noise barrier.

Go ahead and let the construction continue in four or six years.

We'll go ahead and reassess it to see if in fact the noise is going to be too loud for a noise of barrier.

So right now, everybody's passing the buck on whether or not to build a noise barrier for us.

At this point, this plan is 10 years old.

It's 10 years old.

Look at a bypass north of the Wando River.

Because of so much construction off Clements Ferry Road and in North Mount Pleasant.

I think it's at this time we need to look at alternative measures measures, building a bypass north of the Wando River, make it a toll road, and that way everybody can back bypass through 41.

Thank you.

Next to the podium, Daniel Satuniaki, followed by Rodney German and Richard Habersham.

Hello, I'm thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name's Daniel Satanayaka.

I'm at 1028 Provincial Circle, just over there.

Um I'm a runner, and I've run hundreds of miles in Laurel Hill County Park.

And the whole time I'm there, I'm running past people and nature.

I'm seeing parents teaching their kids to fish.

I'm seeing um deer walking around in the woods.

I'm seeing alligators, I'm seeing um older couples out for an evening stroll.

Um places like Laurel Hill County Park are our interface between the humans and the nature of Mount Pleasant and of the South.

And to me, as someone who's moved to the South because I love it.

I think this is what makes the South a different place to somewhere like New York or Boston or San Francisco.

Um we have this relationship with nature, a relationship with the things around us that other places lack.

And sadly for Mount Pleasant, Laurel Hill is one of the last places that we have that has that.

It's one of the last interfaces between real-world nature and real local people.

Um it's the only place where you can run for five miles without seeing a paved road.

And um, I think it's just really important to reflect.

Once we decide to delete this, once we decide to get rid of a piece of this, you know, maybe a little piece today, a little piece in ten years' time.

You can't get that back.

Um it's an irrevocable decision.

It's something that belongs to the public that's being eaten away.

Um, and the public deserves that we take time and reflect on making these types of decisions.

Um, we need to make the best choices that preserve the character of the places we live, and I think that's why it's so important to consider um revisiting the decision.

Thank you very much.

My name is Rodney German.

I live at 2355 Old Georgetown Road here in Mount Pleasant.

And I just want to ask that we support the compromise.

Um I've lived here all of my adult life, except for a few years away, and uh been back with 30 plus years.

The compromise is not unreasonable.

I know there's a lot to be concerned with, but some traffic going through Park West through the Laurel Hill to come to lighten the load of what's going through 41.

The bulk of traffic that travels through 41 drops off before the bridge.

So going through is not that bad of a deal if people that lives in there anyway.

For the remainder of time that's left, I'll deal I yield to Mr.

Habersham.

We actually start the clock over for a new speakers.

All right.

Good evening.

My name is Richard Habersham, 2938 Ban of Charles Road.

Uh, let me start off and telling everybody.

This process started in 1999, doing a comprehensive plan.

Not 10 years ago, but 1999.

And um I got some maps here to show people that this problem could have been solved all along.

That's best that's the best of the road.

That's when nothing was over there.

You know, they they could have used that as a bypass, and we wouldn't have this problem now going to Long Hill.

But this area was was um developed.

So now we got a problem with um Lower Hill.

Yeah, and um 2000, 2002 or 2003.

We thought our own plan.

This is the plan that we had for 41.

We got Walterhood, um, the individual dogs technically design um the garden for African Medical Museum.

He um started the process, and then we got uh to planning company that paying from uh Gatlin, Jackson, Kitna, and um Angland.

They've been in depth planning for us on this road.

So we've been working on this since 1990, uh 19 excuse me, 2003-2004.

Now we took this plan, the chats and cog.

We took it to COG, and it came up.

This is this is their plan.

The only thing they like about our plan, we had a roundabout.

They said that roundabout wouldn't work on 41 because of the volume of traffic and truck traffic.

So they took the wrongabout out and they uh put all these in.

The only thing we don't like about it is the trees in the middle.

This 2005, and this was came about along with um the plan off transfer to have that our turn to 12.

See that that is the power line.

We thought we could we all could run a whole new road.

And and uh everybody would um everyone would have Richard benefit from that part with dual with Rovertown, all of them account another Audrey for this road.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Robert Maynard, please come to the microphone, followed by Brian McElvean and Dan Pope.

Good evening, and thank you all for the opportunity to address the council.

My name is Robbie Maynard, and I serve as a policy advocate with the Southern Environmental Law Center.

Our office is based in Charleston on East Bay Street, but we work in six southern states.

Um it is very, very rare that we come to meetings and speak in favor of highway widening projects, but this is a very, very unique corridor and a unique situation.

Uh and we are proud to stand alongside Mr.

Habersham and the Phillips community in supporting this current plan for Highway 41, otherwise known as the Compromise Alternative.

This plan was not designed 10 years ago.

The process kicked off to officially begin looking at alternatives, and a preferred alternative was brought forward, and this was redesigned in 2021.

Uh I was here in a part of that, as many people in this room have been.

Um we continue to support that compromise alternative because we believe it is the most equitable and balanced alternative for this very, very unique corridor where growth has exploded.

Um other thing I I want to address is that the Phillips community is absolutely a historic living breathing community um that that is is been recognized by the National Register, and in my mind, communities like Phillips define the low country in our culture and what makes it such a special place that people from all over the world want to come to.

So we certainly understand the concern with impacts to Laurel Hill County Park.

Nobody loves green space like I do.

Fortunately, only a very small portion of the park that is not currently accessible to the public through trails would be impacted.

So all of those trails that people enjoy running, not one foot of them will be impacted by this highway project.

Withdrawing municipal consent at this very late point in the process is not a productive way to influence the project.

It is essentially hijacking and derailing a project that has been in progress for 10 years, a compromise that has been reached, and millions of dollars of taxpayer dollars spent to get to the point where we are now.

Just want to remind folks that the Phillips community has been in this area for over 150 years before Highway 41 even existed.

And the gentleman that said they would appreciate a turn lane is absolutely correct.

They've been calling for one as Mr.

Habersham said since the early mid-1990s.

So please support the compromise alternative and do not withdraw municipal consent at this time.

Thank you for your consideration.

Y'all for a little help.

If people could stay within time, that would really make things a lot easier here.

Keep things moving.

All right, sir.

Thank you very much.

Hi, I'm Dan Poppy.

I'm a resident of Mount Pleasant since 1985.

Uh I uh have seen a tremendous I live at 182 Revetment Lane in Bell Hall Plantation.

I'm a realtor with chart with Carolina One Real Estate.

I've sold a lot of homes in the area.

And uh I have told my clients over the years that this was in the works, that it would become a four-lane road, and I'm hoping that you can work with Berkeley County to.

I don't like what they have done up off of Clements Ferry Road.

Uh that's an evacuation route.

It always has been, even before the airport was out north of town.

There was talk of making this a four-lane highway, but nothing ever happened because it is an evacuation route.

I ask you just to please make the right decision.

You know, because if you we all remember the what it happened years back when the governor decided not to reverse the late, and we were really in a mess.

I know we never made it out of the area on that storm.

And with all these people coming to the area now, uh, I I think we we have a serious problem.

So please please make the right decision.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Travis Corson, please come to the microphone, followed by Tierra Wells and Carlos Gonzalez.

Uh I just had two handouts that I wanted, so with the members uh to the clerk, please, sir.

I'll I'll I'll give you everything at the end.

Um thank you.

So, as chairman of Smart Growth 41, I've spoken with many of you about the road to compromise and it's many.

Oh, sorry, Travis Corson 3850 Bessemer Road.

Uh, many of you about the road to compromise and its many flaws.

So I'm not going to focus on that tonight, my remarks.

I also want to thank everyone who's come out tonight and spoken for sanity and a better design for Highway 41, and many of you that are part of the uh Smart Growth 41 organization.

But instead, I want to focus my comments on the commitments that many of you made to voters regarding Highway 41 and what this vote will and will not do.

As candidates, you all answer our questionnaire, expressing your opposition to any new road through Laura Hill Park.

We request that you honor that commitment with your vote tonight.

The reason given for the change in the position, many of you have shown has been this false premise that we must accept the county's decision as presented or lose all improvements to Highway 41.

That is not a legal inevitability.

It is a political choice, and one that has been clouded by conflicting claims.

Earlier warnings that Mount Pleasant could face automatic state penalties or that state funding would simply disappear if municipal consent is withheld, have weakened under scrutiny.

Now the argument is that the county itself will move the money elsewhere.

But if Charleston County abandons Highway 41 rather than revisits its design, that will be the county's decision alone.

No one wanted this disagreement to reach this point.

For six years, residents have asked the county to reconsider a design that would permanently alter public parkland and do little to solve long-term traffic issues.

Yet the county has refused to make meaningful changes and now insists the only remaining options are total acceptance or total abandonment.

Municipal consent exists to give local communities a real voice when another government proposes a project that will permanently reshape their neighborhoods.

If your municipality may exercise that authority only when it agrees with the county, then consent becomes meaningless.

Withholding consent is not a vote against improving Highway 41.

It is a vote for a better solution for meaningful local authority and for the principle that public infrastructure should be built with communities, not imposed upon them.

On behalf of the more than 600 members of our coalition that submitted comments this evening, all of which I will be leaving with you again by by writing and the more than 3,000 members of our coalition, I request that you vote to withhold municipal consent.

Thank you for your time tonight.

Good evening.

My name is Tiara Wells.

I live at 2928 Bobo Road, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and that's in the Phillips community.

And I would just like to say that I personally am for the compromise because I don't see how four lanes through our community is supposed to help alleviate traffic when the majority of the traffic comes from the subdivisions in the first place.

For all the talk about protecting green space, the subdivisions were green spaces before they became homes.

So maybe reevaluate some of these developments that are coming up for you know whatever reason.

Some of these developments aren't even full, like completely full of with the houses that are available.

And I just really don't see the point of putting four lanes through Phillips just to have to turn around and come up with a whole new plan for the continuing overdevelopment of the area.

Thank you.

Mr.

Gonzalez going once, going twice.

Okay, Tom Biddy, please approach the microphone, followed by Michelle Stress.

Ms.

Stress, are you up to speak again?

Michelle.

All right.

Let me keep going.

Mr.

Biddy, you're on your way.

Chris Lathbury and Diane Tosig.

Please come forward.

Okay, uh, my name is Tom Biddy.

I live at uh 3695 Cadoras Court in the Riverside Carolina Park area.

And I just wanted to make a few general comments.

Appreciate, you know, mayor, council members uh listening to a lot of the perspectives that we have in this community.

So my concern is that this project has been discussed for more than I thought it was eight years, now it's nine years, ten years, it sounds like a long time.

And I believe we've lost sight of the long-term transportation needs of our community.

Highway 41 is a major corridor connecting Berkeley County to Upper Mount Pleasant.

The current proposal widens the highway to four lanes, narrows it to three lanes to the Phillips community, then expands it back to four lanes while also constructing a relief parkway through Laura Hill Park.

I don't believe this is the safest, most efficient, or most sustainable solution.

I respect the Phillips community's desire to preserve its character.

However, we also have a responsibility to consider the thousands of residents who rely on Highway 41 every day and the many more who will use it in the future.

A continuous four-lane roadway with appropriate turn lanes where needed provides a safer and more practical long-term solution than creating bottlenecks and building a new road through one of Mount Pleasant's most beautiful natural areas.

Laurel Hill Park is a tremendous community asset.

And I just want to make a comment.

Mike appreciates so much the time you took to really experience what that park is all about.

It is a phenomenal asset for Mount Pleasant.

Instead of cutting a roadway through it, let's invest in making the park more accessible with an entrance from Highway 17, additional parking, and expanded trails for walking, running, and mountain biking.

Finally, I encourage everyone involved to return to the table and work toward a solution that benefits both the Phillips community and the broader public.

Through respectful negotiation, fair compensation and compromise, I believe we can achieve continuous four-lane highway 41 while addressing the concerns of the Phillips community.

Let's make a decision based on safety, sound planning, and the long-term needs of our entire community.

Appreciate the time.

Thank you.

Next one.

Hi, my name is Diane Tossig, and I live at 807 Ocean Boulevard, and I'm not here to talk about Highway 41.

I'm here.

Just a little bit.

Thank you.

And I'm not here to talk about Highway 41.

I'm here to talk about agenda item 9A.

Um we moved here 20 some years ago, just nearly 20 years ago.

Really hadn't heard of Mount Pleasant.

My husband's company had relocated to Bluffton.

Um we moved here because our daughter was going into fourth grade and not reading.

And we discovered Trident Academy.

We decided to split our family in two.

Girls and I lived here, my husband and Bluffton.

We did that for eight years.

Within a couple years, my daughter was reading at grade level.

She went on through Moultrie, Bishop England High School, George Washington University, and is now protected citizen, thankfully.

And it's been a privilege to serve.

Not too long ago, we invited Mayor Haney and Mr.

Damora to come visit us.

We were looking for a win-win situation.

We had land behind us, and we were talking about selling that land.

Um we had an open conversation about the entire topic with them.

Um Mayor Haney indicated that he had a relationship with one of our former headmasters, Myron Harrington from the Citadel, and how well he thought of him.

Um the last we heard from um both of you was reading in the Moultrie News about this proposed rezoning from R1 to P1.

I just asked that you think about the churches, the schools, the nonprofits, the synodog synagogues that you also represent.

That land behind us represents a future for our school.

We're looking at under a dozen homes.

That is not gonna reshape Mount Pleasant.

It's not gonna change the traffic flow.

It would make all the difference to the world for Trident Academy.

Our school has been here for over 50 years.

Our community and the greater Charleston community deserves to have it.

And I believe you also have responsibility to these schools and churches as well.

And I just ask you to consider that.

Thank you.

Good.

Hi, my name is Chris Lathbury.

I live at Creek New Lane, Hollywood, South Carolina.

And I find it very difficult to follow the passion that preceded me.

Uh, but I respectfully request the council defer the final reading of ordinance 26028.

The annexation was pursued in connection with the highway north uh village PD that was uh denied last month.

And uh the change that changed the uh zoning outcome in a way that I need time to evaluate to move forward.

Um I don't did not want to be in this position for a reconsideration of the annexation, but the circumstances have changed, as you know.

Uh if the deferrow is not taken up tonight or approved, uh, I would like to be on the record requesting the withdrawal of the annexation petition.

And uh I'll just keep it short and sweet to allow the compassion or the passion to continue.

Thank you.

I can have my seat as well as well.

Aaron Stampy, please come forward to the microphone.

Clay Luton and Matt Williams following Ms.

Stampin' Well, good evening.

My name is Aaron Stampy.

My address is 1230 Illusion Lane.

I am a founding resident of Gregory Ferry Towns.

As much as I would love to talk about Highway 41 tonight because Winnowing Way is in my front yard.

Um, we're also on the agenda for Gregory Ferry, so that takes precedence.

I'm also a board member for Gregory Ferry Towns.

I'm here tonight to ask that when we do discuss the amendment that's being proposed to the AMI all the way at the end of tonight at the bottom of the agenda.

That if you have any questions, I will be here straight through to the end tonight.

Other residents are here, board members are here.

We really welcome the opportunity to make sure that any questions that you have are answered.

Um, we do appreciate your consideration in increasing the AMI for our neighborhood.

As a co-resident had mentioned earlier, we have many homes on the market.

People are unable to sell within our community.

I was very fortunate to purchase my home in 2019 as an original owner.

At that time, I worked for uh Charleston County School District.

And I prayed that I didn't get a raise because if I had made $500 more that year, I would not have qualified to purchase my home as a single person living in Mount Pleasant, working in Mount Pleasant since 2019 when I purchased my home under the leadership of Anita Huggins, CCSD is in such a great place.

Teachers are earning so much more than I did in 2019.

We would love for teachers to live in our neighborhood.

If they are a family of two or more, they cannot purchase homes in our neighborhood because they make too much money.

Thank you for your consideration and for being here tonight.

Good evening, uh good evening, council.

Uh appreciate the time this afternoon.

And by my count, I think that's about 30, so we're about halfway through.

Uh you're doing great.

Um so uh I'm playing Luton Live at 27 uh one Cambridge Lane in Rivertown.

Um I hear a lot tonight about all the time and money and effort is taken to get this plan in place.

And um, you know, I can understand the passion from the folks that have worked on this a long time, but 10 years and millions of dollars for the wrong plan doesn't change the fact that it's the wrong plan.

It's just not good enough, and that's the bottom line.

The other thing that concerns me as someone who lives right there on the neighborhood off 41 is that we're forced if this plan is approved to live through three, four years of construction only for it not to solve the problem.

The development happening in Canehoy is happening.

You know, that's 9,000 homes plus.

But if we think about the solution that I think a lot of the folks in this room want, a four-lane road, and we compare that with what's being offered here with the three lane road, it's hard to imagine that that uh has a dramatic, dramatically uh, you know, harder impact on that community than what's being proposed.

Uh in addition to that, uh, you know, the green space is green space for a reason.

It's meant to not be disturbed.

Um, because I think it brings value to our community for for a lot of reasons.

So I would ask you uh to vote uh to withhold public uh uh municipal consent because I think it's just not good enough.

And I think if if we put our heads together and take a little bit more time and go through a little bit more pain, I think we can get something that's that's uh that's more durable.

Thank you.

Good evening, council.

My name's Matt Williams.

I'm the CEO of Low Country Land Trust.

We're located at 1362 Old Town Road.

We are a leading conservation organization that works to protect critical land and water in 17 South Carolina coastal counties.

For 40 years, we've been a land protection partner in Charleston County.

Together, we've supported permanent land protection regionally and locally, including the protection of the Rutledge Tomb, which is a cultural landmark and public gathering place in the Phillips community.

Tonight, we would like to express our support for the compromise plan for Highway 41.

Transportation planning can and often does affect conservation work.

Specifically, the five-lane design for Highway 41 proposed in 2020 raised many concerns for the Low Country Land Trust and our partners.

We felt it not only placed undue burden on transportation improvements on the Phillips community, but we were also alarmed at the potential impacts this would have to the Wando River watershed that expansion would cause.

A project of that scale would have enormous negative impacts on water quality, fisheries, oyster reefs, and resilience for existing infrastructure, neighborhoods, and roadways.

And as someone who spends a lot of time thinking about the future conservation challenges we'll face 10 to 20 years from now, I'm deeply concerned that a five-lane design would open the door to future expansion towards UG and Jamestown and negatively impact the Francis Mary National Forest, which is one of the most biodiverse places in the whole world.

On the other hand, we feel that the compromise plan for Highway 41 would have minimal conservation and environmental impacts.

The Laurel Hill Parkway spur will affect just 1.3% of the 750-acre county park.

There's been a lot of dispirited debate here tonight, and this is really what uh democracy looks like.

But what I find interesting and encouraging is that this conversation offers another opportunity that will actually benefit Laurel Hill County Park.

We agree that this is an incredible community resource, and we pledge tonight we would support its permanent protection.

At present, Laurel Hill County Park is not permanently protected.

As a community partner, we would welcome the opportunity to work with the landowner, the town to negotiate the permanent protection of Laurel Hill County Park with a conservation easement.

Thank you very much for your time this evening.

Yes.

Oh my god.

Next to the microphone is Andrew Johnstone on deck, Patrick McAdams, and David Dant.

Yes.

Absolutely.

Good evening, Mayor, members of council and staff.

My name is Andrew Johnson, and I'd like to speak on two agenda items tonight.

Share one common principle.

Keeping promises we make to this community while planning responsibility for the future.

First, regarding Gregory Ferry Workforce Housing, workforce housing is not the same as affordable housing.

Affordable housing is designed to serve the with the greatest financial needs.

Workforce housing exists to help people who keep Mount Pleasant running every day.

People like you know, teachers, nurses, firefighters, etc.

Uh, people like me that are uh young families.

I have two young daughters and a wife.

Um I'm the only person that makes income in my family.

Uh the goal is simple to allow local force workforce to live in the community they serve.

When Gregory Ferry was established, an 80% area meaning and income cap may have made sense today with significantly higher home prices and mortgage interest rates.

It no longer reflects the reality of facing work for working families.

Many people earn just as just above the threshold yet still cannot afford to purchase a home in Mount Pleasant.

At the same time, current homeowners face a very limited pool of qualified buyers where they're ready to move, making it difficult to sell and move into the next stage of life.

I really don't want to be stuck 120 days trying to sell my home.

Comparable work working force housing communities, including Carolina Park and Clemens Ferry utilize 120 and 150 AMI standard.

I respectfully ask the council to consider providing Gregory Ferry the same opportunity for so the program continues fulfilling the original purpose, not yesterday's economy, but today's.

Secondly, I'd like to address Highway 41 in Laurel Hill.

This is also about keeping a promise.

Protected land should mean protected land.

I do like what he said about permanent.

Um protected land should have argued that one percent of Laurel Hill Park uh conservation isn't measured by percentages.

Once protected land is used for infrastructure, we've established that protected has exceptions.

After nearly 10 years of planning, I think it's fair to ask a bigger question.

Are we solving today's traffic or are we building a transportation system that will serve Mount Pleasant 20 years from now?

Point Hope will continue to grow.

Highway 41 will continue to grow.

Mount Pleasant will continue to grow.

If we know growth isn't slowing down, then we should ask whether it's protect whether this protect project is truly long-term solution or simply the next next step in a cycle of expanding roads to catch up with development.

I also encourage the council to think beyond moving cars.

The best transportation systems improve mobility, not just road rate capacities, sidewalks, bike lanes, multi-use paths, and safe pedestrian connections, give people real alternatives to driving.

Everyday trip made on foot or bicycle is one less car on Highway 41.

Real quick, because it's one percent today.

Uh what's the stop from becoming 5% tomorrow or 10% down the road?

Where does it stop?

Thank you.

Hi, my name is David Dant.

I live at 3439 Tumor Kilns Circle, Mount Pleasant.

And I've attended several of these town hall meetings and tried to read everything I could from both sides in regards to the Highway 41 expansion.

And I'm in total opposition to the road to compromise for all the reasons that have already been given tonight.

And those are factual reasons.

It doesn't solve the traffic problems.

It's too expensive.

You're gonna destroy the Laurel Hill woods.

So I hope all the members of both boards look at the facts that were given here tonight.

And based on everything I've read and been to the meetings, I've never heard Charleston County council give a specific reason why they favor the road to compromise.

When questioned, they don't answer the question.

They say, no, our plan is better.

I wonder if they've actually looked in depth at some of the other proposals that make a lot more sense.

Let the facts make your decision.

About this decision.

It's very important, and it cannot be made on subjective political reasons.

But if I look around, I don't think everybody here tonight has an open mind.

I think they've got your mind already made up, and they've got your feet dug in, and they're not going to look at any other options.

And I think that's a real tragedy.

So I just ask everybody to listen to what was spoken tonight.

Let's get your plan out with all the charts and crafts and financial information and compare it factually and objectively to some of the other proposals.

Just keep an open mind, compare the facts, and then make your decision.

Thank you.

Next to the microphone, Marsha Bosum, followed by Kathy Avon and Jill Murray.

Good evening.

My name's Patrick McAdams.

I live at 3069, Caspian Court, Investment Park, directly adjacent to Laurel Hill.

For the past six years, I volunteered with Smart Growth 41, leading our communications efforts.

I manage the marketing, email campaigns, website, and that website includes an Action Center portal where citizens send personal comments directly to elected officials, just like yourselves.

And that gives me a perspective very few people have.

And that's because I've read every single submission.

We don't moderate them.

We don't filter them.

We don't delete the ones we disagree with.

They're all sent.

Every voice is counted.

They come from every neighborhood in the Highway 41 corridor and across Mount Pleasant.

These aren't isolated to one pocket.

They come from every one of your neighborhoods too.

We have a Google map, it's all plotted out and take a look at the asclater.

Oh, as of today, I read 4,014 individually written comments, which is great.

3,967 of those comments opposed Laurel Hill Parkway, aka the Road to Compromise.

Out of 4,000, only 46 had supported mixed or unclear comments about this project.

Speaking of percentages, that's 98.8% of people that disagree with this.

Here's another number.

37 people independently wrote in objections to calling this the road to compromise.

And they are right.

Because compromise isn't something that you declare.

It's something that people are presented, negotiate, and agree to.

When nearly 99% of the people reject the proposal, calling it a compromise doesn't make it one.

It makes the public wonder whether anyone's listening.

And that's the real issue tonight, not whether Highway 41 needs improvement.

It does.

Not whether traffic deserves a solution, it does.

But if the goal is reducing congestion long-term, why have we been told that this plan will be at a near failing grade when it's finished building?

That's not a long-term solution.

How is that acceptable?

Mount Pleasant residents have so far asked 3,967 times why build a 200 million dollar band-aid.

Tonight this isn't just a vote on a road project, it's a vote on whether public participation has any meaning at all.

If 98.8% of 4,000 voices can't earn a serious reconsideration from our own town council, what message does that send?

Why should we have faith in our town leadership?

Leadership isn't stubbornly doubling down because you spent years on a plan.

Going with the flow is easy.

Strong leadership is having the discipline to stop, evaluate, and change course before a mistake becomes permanent.

Please withdraw municipal consent.

Represent the citizens with strength, not cowardice.

Hi, uh, good evening.

Um I've been a resident of Dunes West for 28 years now, and I firmly disagree with the um plan construction through Laurel Hill Parkway.

The county plans to spend 30 million dollars of our tax pillar payer dollars, and we'll be responsible for maintaining those roads.

If we're going to spend 30 million dollars, it should take make sense.

Does it?

I say it doesn't.

There are a lot of flaws to this proposal.

Everyone agrees the best remedy is going straight down 41, but Phillips community objects to that.

So the county came up with their own route, a zigzag, through multiple neighborhoods, do this west, park west, some other ones down there by what is it, willing willing way or whatever.

Um then going through the Laurel Parkway.

And personally, I would rather stick with the 434 or do nothing.

There'll be a lot of disruption with all this construction going on, which I don't know how many years that will last.

And besides being expensive, I don't believe it's going to solve the problem.

I really don't think that building that extra road through Laurel Parkway is going to take care of it.

And so why do I object?

Well, first off, I don't like the road zigzagging through the communities and affecting our children, being able to play, walk, go to school.

Secondly, I don't understand why we are taking private land that was granted to us that we really don't have that right to take.

And it should be for the residents, it should be up for our wildlife.

And by using this land, you're impacting the wetlands, flooding, and our wildlife.

Even though it's a small section, you say.

But a small section next becomes the big section.

When wouldn't you say no the next time?

You know, that's the problem.

And I feel most people are going to continue driving down 41 rather than taking the detour as they do now.

It's just common sense.

Most people would rather go down a straight line than curve all around.

So I really do not think Phillips community is going to see the relief they expect by having a road go through Laurel Parkway.

Anyway, so I hope this simple.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Hello.

My name is Kathy Ava, 1700 Bridwell Lane, Mount Pleasant.

And I oppose the Road to Compromise, and I'm not going to repeat what everyone has said.

But one thing I would like people to remember that in 2018, there was a plan for a five-lane highway through Laurel Hill Park.

So once we start through going through the park, you know, when does it end?

Um Mount Pleasant has long promoted itself as a community that values both the quality of life and environmental stewardship.

Preserving Laurel Hill is an opportunity to demonstrate that those values still matter.

Sends a message that progress does not require sacrificing every remaining natural space and that some places are worth protecting.

The Mount Pleasant Town Council has an opportunity to stand on the right side of history, even if Charleston County Council chooses a different path.

Years from now, residents may not remember every transportation project that was proposed, but they will remember whether their leaders had the vision and courage to protect one of Mount Pleasant's last great natural treasures.

I urge you to do everything within your power to preserve Laurel Hill for generations that follow us.

Good evening.

My name is Jill Murray.

I live at 1413 Timoda Court in Mount Pleasant.

I'm here to speak tonight about the importance of having a clear escalation process for repeated animal welfare complaints.

Like many residents, I followed the recent case involving Audra McCall with concern.

I understand that the criminal case is now before the courts.

However, what has become clear to many members of our community is that there were repeated reports to animal control and law enforcement over extended period of time before an arrest was ultimately made.

Whether or not each individual complaint standing alone met the threshold for enforcement, the pattern itself should have triggered a higher level of review.

When multiple neighbors independently report concerns about the same animals at the same location over a course of weeks, months, or years, those reports should not simply remain individual calls in a file.

They should become a signal that something more serious may be happening.

I respectfully ask the council to adopt a formal escalation policy.

For example, after three animal welfare complaints within a 30-day period, a case could automatically be reviewed by a supervisor.

Continued complaints could trigger a joint response involving animal control law enforcement or a licensed veterinarian when appropriate.

Every follow-up visit should include photographs and written documentation so changes in an animal's condition or environment can be tracked over time.

These changes would not require officers to assume guilt or bypass due process.

They would simply ensure that repeat complaints receive additional attention and oversight before a situation becomes a tragedy.

Most importantly, this type of policy protects everyone.

It protects animals from prolonged suffering.

It supports animal control officers by giving them a clear process to follow, and it gives the public confidence that persistent concerns will be taken seriously.

I hope the council will review our current procedures and consider creating a formal escalation process for repeat animal welfare complaints.

If this case teaches us anything, it is that repeated reports should be never should never be reviewed in isolation.

They should prompt us to look more closely before it's too late.

Thank you all.

Next to the microphone, Eric Krutner, followed by Phyllis Maltis and Barrett Brewer.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor and Council members.

I'm Eric Rordner.

I live at 906 Vista Perch Lane in on James Island.

And I'm here as the assistant head of school at Trident Academy.

Sorry to distract y'all from the discussion about the highway.

I'm new to this role as of last week.

Before that, I was the admissions director at Trident Academy.

I was the one whose office held uh lots of boxes of Kleenex for the moms and dads who were crying because their children's deficits in reading, writing, spelling, or math were too great for their schools to be to be able to continue to serve them, so they came to see us.

But our next greatest asset is our property.

This property was a gift to Trident Academy and has always been a part of our school's long-term strategic plan.

Assets of real estate are oftentimes critical for nonprofit organizations like ours.

And our plans for our asset will allow us to continue fulfilling our mission of serving families of uh Mount Pleasant and the Low Country.

Over half of our students live in Mount Pleasant.

Um, these children learn differently and often just can't be served by other schools.

A change in zoning will have a negative impact on our students and our families and could result in our school having to leave Mount Pleasant or even worse, having to close our doors.

On behalf of Trident Academy and the 160 plus other organizations that might be affected by this zoning change, I ask you to revisit this initiative and seek a better resolution that doesn't hurt these organizations like ours that serve the community so well.

Thank you for your time.

Hi, thank you.

My name is Phyllis Malcast, and I live at 1352 Windbrook Trace.

And it's important where that is.

I live in Colonnade, the very first development off of 41.

It's part of Brickyard.

It's very important, and no one's brought it up tonight.

The other part of this situation, which is completely untenable, is that there won't be any left turn north onto Highway 17.

And the more I thought about that, it kind of is I I just couldn't put my head around it.

I don't know if any of you have ever driven on Winnowing Way.

It's very narrow.

It has townhouses on one side, apartments on the other side.

We were bringing someone there for an apartment.

They did not take the apartment because the apartments told them we do not have enough park now.

If you take the street tiny street parking away, then they will have no parking.

Winnowin Way is so short, not just narrow, very narrow.

Go there.

And it's very short.

You add the part that's going through the upper end of Laurel Hill Parkway or the edge of it.

Another, I don't know if it's wetlands being impacted, the woods there, and you go to 41.

There's very little space.

School buses, trucks.

Everyone would have to turn left on Winnowing Way and try to get onto 17.

It honestly doesn't make sense.

There's no way to enlarge Winnowing Way.

And for those of us who are living in Oralbeck Creek Colonnade, we would live literally need to turn right and turn left.

And talk about evacuation routes.

It would not, it would not exist.

School buses on Winnowing Way.

Right now, the way it is, if you go on to Winnowing Way, and you can do this any day.

Sometimes you have to wait for two lights because now you're not dealing with Dingle Road.

You're dealing with Cors Bluff, Oakland Plantation.

The market's here.

The business is here.

SEALs outboard.

Think about it.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Here at Haiti Council.

My name is Barrett Brewer.

I'm at 477 Settlers Rest East in Mount Pleasant.

I am a board member at Trident Academy.

I will not belabor what my two other compatriots have said tonight, but I will raise that we are here to oppose the rezoning of church and school and nonprofit lands from R1 and R2 to a public institutional land.

And the reason why is we Trident Academy have been serving children with learning disabilities here in the area for 55 years.

We hope to do it for a hundred more.

And these funds that we raise from our assets and our donations in our land are critical to our ability to raise money, purchase the school back, and to ensure that we're able to educate these children for years to come.

You're not just gonna affect this school, this will affect all churches, institutions of the area, not only that have received donations for their land, but also institutions that have purchased at fair market value, and council's action in rezoning these lands will devalue money they've already paid arm's length value for, and now we'll have almost no recourse left.

These institutions are part of the fabric of our community.

It's part of what makes it special.

We are not a one-dimensional town of no development.

We are a town of multi-faceted institutions that give flavor to this town, and we ask you to slow this process down to work with these schools and institutions and to have a process where they can have a voice as opposed to it just popping up as fast as it currently has.

We appreciate your time.

I look forward to seeing you at the next meeting where this is on the agenda.

Thank you so much.

Next speaker is Sandra Connell, then Mary Orris and Nathaniel Bendor.

Hi, um, my name is Sandra Connell.

And oh, am I too loud on y'all?

Waking y'all up.

Okay.

Um I was born and raised in Charleston.

So let's see, I've lived in Charleston County for 64 years.

And I grew up in Avondale, I moved to Mount Pleasant 30 years ago.

I love Charleston.

What I'm sad about is that Charleston County is putting neighbors against neighbors.

Why anyone could look at that plan and think you can go from two lanes to one lane and then to two or four to three to four.

It doesn't work any in any universe.

Just try to get on 526 at five o'clock or three o'clock.

It doesn't work.

I would rather, not that my opinion is important, but I would rather help our neighbors in Phillips community understand that four lanes through your the subdivision, we can help with that.

How can we help lift up your subdivision?

How can we let more people know about your history?

No one knows it now.

I mean, we can do better.

We can do better than what's presented.

And I'm sorry, I don't believe that Charleston County has put Mount Pleasant first.

And we are district one, and we should be considered.

And some of the proposals are like funnel this through Dunes West.

That doesn't work.

We got our own problems.

So you guys, I would ask you to come to Dunes West at 7.15 on a school morning and try to get through Dunes West Boulevard as is.

So I'm sorry that a major highway is through a beautiful community like Phillips.

I'm so sorry.

But that is the only thing that's gonna work is to make four lanes, but somehow lift up that community and make it better.

Going through Laurel Hill, no one's gonna go through there.

We already have Bathummer.

There's not that much traffic, other than we're gonna go to Park West or I'm in Dunes West, by the way.

Um, but it just it doesn't make sense, and I think that's why the frustration is here.

And we're asking you to just make it make sense because um it just doesn't.

And we have been waiting for this a long time.

I know a lot of people have, but anyway, thank you guys for your time.

Thank you for letting me talk to this microphone.

And one more thing, can I get on any kind of animal welfare advocate committee?

Because we are struggling, you guys, and I would love to be part of that.

So help us out.

City of Charleston did a wonderful job.

Thanks.

Okay.

Uh Mary Oris.

You're next, ma'am.

My name is Mary Morris.

I live at Pignatelli Class 3224, that's in Jones West.

I've been a resident there since 1998.

So I've been through this whole thing.

And I only want to make a couple of comments.

One is we have not been listened to by Charleston County Council since the vote to compromise came out.

I have we have all sent in letters.

We have all told all the problems we saw.

None of those have been addressed.

I haven't seen any changes to help meet mitigate the flooding you're gonna have.

When you fill in 11 acres of wet ones and create 17 million gallons of water and then take down about at least a thousand trees.

And all the homes along there are built on slab.

They are not elevated like my house.

So that's a permanent flooding problem.

And the other thing is I don't think you have to start back on zero.

We have 10 years of data.

I mean, you've been the engineers can put things together from things they've done before.

We don't have to start all over again.

We just have to look at the choke points.

The main one being as Kathy Landing said, right at Bessemer and Howie, you know Bessemer and Highway 41.

So just get those things.

I really urge you to withdraw municipal consent at this time.

They need to listen, and I don't think they're gonna listen unless you do that.

Mr.

Bender.

Yes.

Hello, my name is Nathaniel Bindor.

I work or I live at 3533 Timmer Killn Circle.

Um just off the bat, I'm not really here to talk to you guys.

I'm here to talk to people behind me.

Um I did not grow up here, I don't live here, I wasn't here for 400 years.

I grew up in Dallas, Texas.

My family has had a farm out there since 1876, and guess what?

We have been through the intimate domain, roads going through, highways going through, 10 foot water pipes going through.

We've been there, done that with this.

I'm gonna tell you now.

I feel for the Phillips community, just like the hundred acres that was taken from my family.

I'm gonna tell you now, it may not be these people, but in the future, just like they did to the families over in Berkeley County, they will come.

And they will run any lane they want through your land.

I promise you that.

Now, the going through the wetlands is not a fix.

I mean, you don't have to be a genius or an engineer to know that you're not going to divert 9,000 people come from Berkeley County, through a little two-lane thing going through Laurel Hill.

Do I love Laurel Hill?

Yes, I absolutely do love Laurel Hill.

I have pictures of it.

I put it on next door.

You know what I'm saying?

So I do love it.

But the fact of the matter is, is even in five, six, ten years, Laurel Hill is going to get developed just like freaking Jones Park did in Rockwell, Texas.

So I'm just here to tell the community now that Berkeley County or this, and then another thing here, I'm on squirrel.

There is nothing worse than hearing a city council member talking about extremist.

Like if this doesn't happen, then it's going away.

That's the most extreme talk I've ever heard in my life.

You know what I'm saying?

Like my my family, my great my grandfather was a county commission for 24 years in Rockwell County.

Uh DA's family members and senator senators and congressmen.

And I'm gonna tell you now, remember what you said when you sit when these people voted for you.

If you said you were gonna say yes, say yes.

If you said you're gonna say no, say no.

Don't go change your mind midstream.

That is the most ridiculous thing as a dang politician I've ever heard in my life.

But I'm gonna tell you now, I do feel for the village community.

It's a great community, but I'm telling you now, it may not be now, but one day they will come.

And it may not be these people up here, but they're gonna put a road to that property.

It's the easiest way from point A to point B.

So that's all I got.

Y'all have a great day.

Okay.

Next up to speak, Paul Sperry, followed by Jim Posda and Susan Fox.

Mayor, Councilman, um, Paul Sperry, 238 Gates Avenue.

It is uh quite a bit ironic that usually I'm here in this building to meet with this guy over construction issues for my construction industry clients, given the topic here today, that's not why I'm here.

I'm not here as an attorney for my clients, I'm here as a dog advocate.

And I know you've already heard some people speak today.

It's primarily because of what we just saw recently, unfortunately, with the Husky case, and then even more unfortunately with the situation I happen in Georgetown.

We have a human created problem that unfortunately our animals suffer from.

And until we address the human creative problem, our animals will continue to suffer because of us.

And to do that, I'm going around I'm asking different people this.

Not just you guys, Charleston County, Brooke County.

I've been in front of the uh state Senate subcommittee.

But somebody needs to step up and pass some laws and enhance the walls.

You guys have good you have a good ordinance.

I've read it.

Um it's got some good broad language in there to help, but it has to be some narrowing of that ordinance and an effort to really enforce it.

Uh you've already heard Jill talk about escalation.

Uh that's one thing that would be great to address it.

Let's get some things in there that prevent people from doing it over and over again.

I do think you have some great regulations and laws already about tethering.

I appreciate that.

Not everybody does have that.

Uh you are probably missing some better definitions on what is a good shelter.

Uh, what can we do for extreme uh heat, you know, that type of situation.

And so I'm not here to argue with you or fight against you.

I'm here to hopefully help you.

I put this out a couple of times out there to others.

Um I I I really would rather be here in this building talking about helping dogs and working together for our furry friends than here talking to this guy.

And it's no offense to him.

He's a great attorney, doing great hands for David.

But I would want at least one of you guys to step up, go to David, get my phone number, and you're gonna have the best advocate free that you can have to help you write, not rewrite, but at least write some new rules into your ordinances to help our furry friends.

And I want Mount Pleasant to be the leader on that for other folks to come.

And so please why don't you give my number from this guy?

Thank you.

Jim.

Good evening, y'all.

Um, Jim Paul's at 353 Caspian Court.

Um, I've been a resident of the town for going on 43 years now, so I do also remember before North Mount Pleasant was a thing.

Um, and really what I wanted to say tonight is I guess I'm getting a little tired because here we are again, um, talking about this again.

Um, and I'm tired of the narrative that is the town of Mount Pleasant Um against the Phillips community because that's just not true.

They're not our enemies, they're our neighbors.

Um we ought to treat them as that.

We ought to think of them that way, they ought to think of us that way.

We ought to be able to work this out.

Um we ought to respect what they want and and deserve, and they ought to do the same for us because we're neighbors.

Um I'm getting a little tired of Charleston County not listening to the town residents.

Um very tired of that.

So what I would say to you is um I appreciate your time and your efforts tonight, but I think you really have a gift here, a real opportunity to vote down municipal consent and give the town residents their voice back.

Let's get in a room and figure this out.

Um, I think the town residents deserve that, and I think you guys should provide leadership for that to happen.

So thank you for your time.

Hi, good evening.

Susan Fox, 1257 Harrow Street, Charleston, South Carolina.

Um, I'm here tonight, um, not for 41, but I don't know that much about it, so I can't speak on it.

But I'm here as an animal advocate.

And I would like to speak in response also to what Paul had to say.

Um, I share shared Paul and Jill, and if you could work with Paul and get some, you know, help with the ordinances, we really would appreciate that.

Um, following on what happened with the Otter McCall case.

A lot of residents have been following that case and have been concerned with that.

Um, one thing that um we would really appreciate is if you would look at the ordinances and look at what shelter means.

Because it says you have great ordinance that says you must provide shelter, but what does shelter mean um exactly?

Is it just four walls?

And I mean, is it just that or should it also have something to do with temperature?

Extreme temperatures, because that is something in this Charleston summers, and even of course in the winters, we've seen dogs who have frozen outside if they don't have long hair.

So this is something that we kindly ask that you um take into consideration.

Um adapting, updating the ordinances a bit to think about adding what shelter really means and considering extreme temperatures.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Teresa Templar.

Next is Perry Rourke and Bob Brimmer.

I'm Teresa Templar, I'm 36th and Dunes West Mount Pleasant.

Good evening, Mayor Haney and Council.

I live um I'm here as someone who travels Highway 41 every day, as someone who cherishes and enjoys Laurel Hill County Park.

I'm here to implore council to not put funding, sorry, to not put the funding for 41 improvements at risk.

We can listen to the experts in the room, we can support our neighbors in the Phillips community.

We can get traffic improvements to 41.

It is abundantly clear the way forward is by staying the course.

Mr.

Rambo, Mr.

Ikefano, Miss Hyatt, Mr.

Brownstein, please stay the course.

Do not put our needed improvements in jeopardy.

Thank you.

Good evening, Perry Roy 2004 Brick Hill Parkway.

Government's priority when it comes to infrastructure should be that our tax dollars are invested in projects that address both current and future transportation needs.

The plan is called a compromise for a reason.

It compromises those objectives.

Unfortunately, it is projected to operate at a level of service D upon completion, meaning it fails to accomplish the long-term solutions, residents were promised from their tax dollars.

When many of us voted in 2016 for the transportation sales tax referendum, we were told those funds would improve Highway 41.

The original proposal widened Highway 41s to four lanes to address both current and future transportation needs.

This plan does not.

I also want to remind council who you represent.

Your responsibility is to represent the residents of Mount Pleasant, not Charleston County Council.

If the county threatens to move funding unless you approve a project, your duty is to fight for a better project, not simply accept a bad one.

We are supposed to believe a group of engineers sitting behind computers running traffic simulations have a better understanding of Highway 41 than the people who drive it every day and have watched its patterns evolve firsthand for years.

How many of those engineers have even driven Highway 41 during rush hour?

Do their models account for the real order impacts of school district rezoning that just occurred less than a few years ago.

Do they capture the reality that many families don't drive the same schedules every day or that traffic regularly backs up in neighborhood interests because of activity nearby shopping centers like Harris Teeter?

Computer models can never replace the insight gain from living with these conditions every day.

Here's what concerns me the most.

The people making these decisions don't have to live with the consequences.

No Charleston County Council members and no Mount Pleasant Town Council members commute Highway 41 every day to get to their homes zero.

Unlike all of you, there are thousands of Mount Pleasant residents that will have to live with the consequences of your decisions.

Many of you completed the Smart Growth Highway 41 candidate survey.

I'm just going to remind you of those.

When asked if you oppose the current road to compromise design, Mayor Will Haney, Alex Crosby, and Catherine Whitaker answered yes.

When asked if you oppose any expansion of Highway 41 through Lower Hill Park and support a new design review for Highway 41 expansion, Mayor Haney, Alex Crosby, Mike Tinky, and Catherine Whitaker said yes.

Nothing has changed about this plan since you've made those promises to the voters.

When I asked council members to attend a recent neighborhood meeting and raise their hands if they would commit against municipal concern for this project, Alex, Daniel, and John raise their hands.

Tonight I'm asking each of you to keep your promises to the voters.

Finally, I would like to ask everyone in attendance tonight, please stand up if you'd rather wait to see a plan that truly addresses our current and future transportation needs than Russian approved plan that we are not destined to failure.

Bob, you're Bob Bremer, uh I live in Parsonage Woods Lane in Mount Park West, Mount Pleasant.

Um good evening, y'all, and uh thank you for your service tonight.

Can you head to here you can hear me now?

I'm a I'm a stop speaker.

All right, so um I had some comments, but I'm just gonna kind of speak.

Um I thought folks have done a really good job tonight, kind of laying out the facts.

Um and I think we've been down to we've talked about the facts a lot, so we kind of know that.

So if your mind is made up tonight, if you think this is the best plan going forward, addresses all the issues, then I'm probably not talking to you.

But if your mind is open tonight to the possibility of considering other things, then I just want you to consider a few things for me.

And it's interesting that last time I was in this room seven years ago, I was sitting in your chair, and one of the last conversations I had was about Highway 41.

And here we are seven years later, having the same conversation.

Um I was on council from 15 to 19.

Um, I was frequently, at least the first two years, I was frequently the fifth vote on a very divided council.

Four on one side, four on the other, and me.

So I know what it feels like to sit here tonight with a decision that could have ramifications for decades.

Um it makes for a tough day at work when your email is going off constantly, got hundreds of emails and calls, so I get it.

I know where you're sitting.

It's not a great place to be.

However, I'm here tonight to say that I support withholding municipal consent for all the reasons you've heard tonight and some others.

Um the gentleman who spoke just a few minutes ago saying that he was disappointed in the fact that county council would come here and put an ultimatum on this group.

Um that is bad politics and not very respectful, this group.

I would ask you all to stand with the residents, do your jobs.

Do your jobs.

You're in this position because you're representing the folks in Mount Pleasant.

I've never seen a room this packed in my four years on council.

People are speaking, and whatever your concerns are about money, it's not about you.

County council's gonna do what they're gonna do, but consider the fact that your vote tonight can send a message to County Council that we need to be heard.

Thank you.

Thank y'all.

Bill Macio.

Bill, I saw you a moment ago.

I think you might have stepped out.

Okay, Mr.

Mayor, it's all the speakers I have signed up.

There are no just one second, sir.

There are no speakers in the EOC.

Um no one in the EOC wishes to speak.

Okay, those who did not have an opportunity to speak, please come up.

Uh name and address, two and a half minutes, please.

And I'm gonna ask again, everyone please um abide by the rule.

When you're two and a half minutes are up, please stop talking.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Diana Dupuis, and I live at 1647 Red Tide Road, Mount Pleasant.

I have lived in the Charleston area for 25 years.

I've lived in Mount Pleasant since 2003.

Um and I was actually at a meeting in 2015, of which had a whole lot of people in it.

Um and I didn't speak then, but I strangely was actually asked to speak on the news as I came out of it.

And I was very, very pregnant with my son who is now almost 11 years old.

And my son asks me every day why they keep tearing trees down in Mount Pleasant and everywhere that we live.

Um so although I don't live right along the 41 corridor, um, I really don't think you should be going through one of the few parks we have left.

Um I also live very close to the Edvon Key Parkway that was recently created, and quite frankly, I've walked it.

I think I've seen four cars go down that road.

Um, so that's not really being used as an access either.

I live right near Rife Marge where there has been talk for years about a park, and now as I understand that might end up having a whole bunch of trees knocked down to make turf and more green space.

Please leave one of the few spaces that is still around green.

Um I'm also a certified tour guide for the city of Charleston and have been for over 20 years.

Uh history is a huge thing.

Uh the Phillips community is the Mount Pleasant community, and I think everybody has to stop saying them and we and them and we.

We are all, we are the town of Mount Pleasant, and everybody deserves a voice.

Everybody deserves to be seen.

Everybody deserves to be heard, and that also includes all the animals that we are now displacing.

And animal control is gonna get a whole lot more calls with a whole lot more coyotes and foxes and everything they don't want in their yards, too.

Just putting through things in green space.

So I do hope that everybody listens.

Um I thank all of you on the board.

I also know uh the town administrator makes a whole lot of decisions as well.

So although everybody's listening and it sort of all funnels down to one person, but I do appreciate everything that you do.

My father was a mayor of a small town and a talent councilman.

Um I know it's not an easy job, but thank you for listening to everybody and have a good night.

Yes, sir.

Name and address book.

Uh David Bean, 1802 Chaucey's Court.

Uh, for y'all's sake, this whole thing needs to be scrapped.

It's simple.

15 million dollars.

And we this is the best we can do.

This is ridiculous.

The one lady that was here earlier had the best answer of all.

Take Clement's ferry on up.

We need more bridges across the wondro.

You need more bridges across the Ashley.

It's time for the county to get serious and hang not y'all.

You're you're getting hung out tonight.

It's that simple.

I mean, after what I heard.

That's my money, your money.

Everybody in here's money.

I don't care if it's in a state bank.

We all do in South Carolina.

Don't threaten me with that.

Don't let them threaten you with that.

41 needs to be stopped.

We need to rethink.

We need more roads in this area.

Because we're gonna grow, which is great.

We live in a great place, guys.

And we need more roads.

And we may have to go outside the box to other counties to make it happen.

But you take it up, come down facing the road.

Very little man has to be boat.

That's the next place.

Okay.

I'm Harold Wilkins from a 2605 turbine place, Mount Pleasant, and Planet's Point, right on Highway 41.

I'm lucky we have a red light out of our subdivision because I'm trying to get out of the other subdivisions.

And it can take a long time to make a left turn.

Anyone on Highway 41 if it's not a red light.

Um I lived on the Isle of Palms in 1986.

They voted against the Allah Palm Connector.

Um during Hugo.

Nobody could get off the island.

We all had to go through Sullivan's Island.

It was a total disaster.

And some safety committee said you're getting the Allah Palm Connector, whether you want it or not.

It's a safety issue.

Same is true of Highway 41.

People have to evacuate for hurricanes.

They're not going to go weave out through the neighborhoods through Lona Park and Park West, they're going to go straight down the middle.

And there's going to be a disaster.

People are going to die.

And then they'll make you make you get that road widened.

I feel sorry for Phillips community.

Um, but there's ways that we can help them out.

We can build a bridge across probably where that church is, build a bridge from one side of the other, a walk bridge.

It's also possible to move houses back farther from the road.

Most of those lots are pretty deep.

And if the county has to pay to move their house a hundred feet back, then do it, you know.

Um also the guy's right.

We need more bridges.

We need alternative roads besides Highway 41.

We need another road in case there's an accident or something.

That's another thing.

Ambulances.

You need five lanes so that an ambulance can get through.

I actually got on a wreck at Highway 41.

It took forever for the ambulance to get there because traffic was backed up.

The ambulance could not get to me.

Um's an ambulance, he's in charge of pleasant actually.

Um, but um the ambulance needs to get down highway 41.

We got five roads, five lanes, but left turn lane, the ambulance can come right down the middle because everybody's backed up because of the accident.

Um, so that the ambulance needs to be able to get in there, pick up the person and take them to the um take them to the uh anyway.

I think for safety reasons, we need to have five lanes, the close distance between two points.

Any kids know is a straight line.

That's the best way to go between two points, should be the cheapest way, the most effective way, the way all the big trucks are gonna do.

They don't want to go weaving all through the neighborhoods, all these trucks going to UG.

Also, yeah, your plan was good back when um you made it when all the traffic was out of Park Western dudes.

What's coming out of Cayhoy?

Your time's up.

Hi, I'm Sarah Posa, 3408 Henrietta Hartford Road.

I'm here to oppose the road to compromise.

But while we were here, my daughter on her own started taking notes and said she had something she wanted to say.

So I hand it over to you.

Hi, I am here to keep the woods.

People may be annoyed by the traffic, but once you're in the woods, it makes you completely forget about the traffic.

My family had so much fun out there, and half of it is already gone to the tour boat.

I hope to keep the other half.

Being out there, seeing the wildlife is magical.

It just adds so much to Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm Steve Safe.

I'm Steve Safe.

I live at 2793 Rosedown Point.

Thank you all for serving.

I tell you, I really admire your uh willingness to serve under stamina.

To me, it's obvious 41 needs to be widened, and we didn't know we're passing going from 17 to 41.

I've lived here for 30 years, it's obvious.

Hi, I'm Teresa Ward, 260 Bancrop Way, um, Mount Pleasant.

I live in the Park West community.

Um, I do agree.

Thank you for serving, first of all.

I do agree with everything that people have commented before me.

Um, I have not heard many people comment about this, and this is my number one concern.

The children in Park West.

We have a lot of bike riders.

I have almost hit a bike rider, and it has almost ruined my life.

Um, I did not hurt the child.

Um it's gonna be it's gonna be too much traffic.

There's too much traffic in Park West now.

And I just don't want anything happening to children.

Thank you.

Kevin Cadene, 3032 River Fist the way.

Um I just wanted to make it clear, you know, Facebook, Twitter, all that stuff.

There's no bar exam required to post there.

So if there's legal advice thrown out on social media, probably not a good idea.

Okay, I'll repeat it.

There's no bar exam required for Facebook or sort or uh Twitter or X or any social media really.

So if you're following legal advice from social media, please, especially if you're on council, not a good idea.

Um, I went to law school.

This gentleman here is an excellent lawyer.

I don't know recall where he went to school, but he's an excellent lawyer.

We the taxpayers pay him to advise the town.

And if you have a legal question, run it by Mr.

Pagarini.

He's an excellent lawyer.

We pay him a lot of money.

He knows what he's talking about.

When you get advice from social media, probably not a good idea.

And just gonna echo what Bob Bremer said.

I was on council for a couple of years, and Bob was at that swing vote, and everybody would bombard the guy every meeting.

Hey, which side do you want?

Where are you going?

What are you doing with this?

And one of you is in that role now.

I don't know the dynamics of what's going on, but that one swing person, they're gonna get blamed no matter what.

So when you look at this crowd, and it is the biggest crowd.

I've been pretty regular at these meetings for well over a decade.

And as long as this building's been here, this is the biggest crowd you've ever seen.

So think about why they're here.

How many people who have a Mount Pleasant address oppose this?

You had interest groups, sure.

The I call them paid agitators, maybe they're here to speak, but they're not residents of Mount Pleasant.

The residents are the people in Philip, the people in Dunes West, people in Park West, they're all here.

Carolina Park's here.

Everybody's here.

You see where they stand, and now I'm gonna ask you to please represent them.

Not some strange fight that people want to pick.

Thank you.

My name is Jeff Poland.

I live at 2841 Caitlin's Way.

Uh it's in Carolouk subdivision, which it borders um Laurel Hill Park.

So this will affect my house.

Um to call it a compromise is a joke.

And to be presented as you either accept this or you lose this program.

That's not a compromise.

That's a strong arm.

And I don't appreciate it.

And I'm sure a lot of people in here don't.

Um, I would just ask that we use common sense.

Highway 41 is a uh hurricane evacuation route.

Everybody on here has been tried has tried to traverse this road from 6 a.m.

to 9 a.m.

and 3 p.m.

to 7 p.m.

Tell me on the normal day that we're gonna get out safely if there's a hurricane.

That's just the people that have to traverse that.

This is not a life and death situation, it's gridlock for seven hours of the day, and that's without anybody having to say you got to get out or your life is in danger.

So when it really comes down to it, it's it's a safety factor.

Where is the common sense?

It's got to be a safe road to get out, and right now it's not.

Thank you.

I'm Gail Marquet, 2409 Draymore Port in Park West.

I moved here in 1998, and my late husband, when we bought our house in Charleston National, said to me, You have us as far out of Mount Pleasant as you can guess, and still be in Mount Pleasant, and if he saw it today, he's rolling over in his grave.

The ten years ago or so when this started, and I've been writing emails and text messages to anybody and everybody all those years.

Dunes West is built out, Rivertown, Planters Point, all that is now built out.

We have a lot of traffic there, yes.

But I've had the occasion the last three weekends to go out to Hughie, and you go out to Hughie and it's just subdivision after subdivision.

You go out Clements Ferry and between Del Web and all the housing that they're building there, and all where is that coming?

It's coming down 41.

We need to go back to the drawing board and we need to partner with Berkeley County, and we need to work with Berkeley County because that's where all so much of the traffic is coming, and it's not putting that little road through Laurel Hill, and I'm not for it at all, but I'm not for it because it's not gonna solve a problem, it's gonna do nothing.

You built the all-American Boulevard from um Lexington Drive over to Publix.

I transfer sat three, four times a week.

I am the only car.

I'm in, other than the landscapers who have the road blocked off.

And I think this is gonna be the same thing, it's not going to solve the issue.

So I would urge you not to don't don't be held by Herb Sass, who at one point in time when they were gonna block customer, and I suggested I said to him about the impact that was gonna have, and he told me it was only gonna take an extra three minutes for EMS to get to me, and I said, Well, that could be the limit of life and death, but thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name's Alan Hodge.

I'm at uh 1925 North Creek Drive.

Um, thank you all for your service.

I know that y'all are tired of this conversation.

It's a hot button online every day, it seems like.

Um so those of us that live through the Clements Ferry widening experienced a great relief when it was done.

It was simple, it got wider, and then cars could pass through.

That's what happened.

Um where is Charleston County and all this?

We're I feel like we're beating you guys up online looking for answers, and we don't have anybody to talk to from them.

Um, why are they not answering us?

Why can't we have a direct line of communication to them?

Um what is the relationship between Charleston County and Berkeley County?

We have so much going on across the bridge, and all that is coming down 41.

They need to be helping figure out the solution, they need to be funding some of this problem.

Um we can't control them as Mount Pleasant and Charleston County, but Charleston County needs to work with them.

If widening 41 is not the answer, well, they need to help fund something that is the answer because the current compromise is not the answer, it's not gonna work.

Where we live, we're gonna go down 41, we're not gonna take any other detours, and everybody that travels the way they do today is gonna continue to do that, and that's that's just what it is.

It's it's not gonna work, it's not gonna change anything.

Um that's that's all I have to say.

I don't uh there's a lot more that has been said already, and I I echo a lot of the same sentiments.

Thanks for your time.

Please next place.

Good evening.

I'm Fred Smalls.

I live at 2959 Elijah Smalls Road in the Phillips community.

No one understands this traffic situation on Highway 41 better than those of us who live in the Phillips community.

The difference is all of our neighbors, you get to drive through it and complain about it.

We actually live it.

So you're talking about the numbers.

If you look at the demographics in this room, all of the people in here who look like me right over here.

We are not residents of the town of Mount Pleasant.

We have no voice in the town of Mount Pleasant.

So we thank you, Charleston County for supporting us in this effort.

We have always advocated for a situ uh solution to this problem.

One that benefited everyone.

One, if you were to widen Park West Dunes West Boulevard, their complaint is it's too much noise, too much traffic, it's unsafe for their children.

Which is very true.

But if you were to widen Highway 41 anymore, the houses that are directly right along Highway 41.

Where are those families?

Where are those children that we were talking about?

It's the same issue.

Now we're talking about skirting, skirting Laurel Hill plantation.

That misconception about going through Laurel Hill Plantation and destroying 10 acres, it's not true, and it has been settled several times by the engineers.

So why have you keep saying that?

I don't know.

But we know that that is not true.

So now we don't want to even skirt Laurel Hill and help alleviate some of this traffic that everybody claims they don't want.

Our only solution that our neighbors say, destroy our community.

So this time's up, sorry.

Destroy my home so that you can get to yours that you've just built.

That's the problem.

Next, please.

Don't lose it.

Good evening.

I'll be quick.

Patrick Huber, 1717 Tolbert Way.

Um sorry.

1717 Tolbert Way, Patrick Huber.

Um, also representing Park Westmaster Association.

Um Park West Boulevard has been widened.

It was widened to four.

Um, I don't think that anybody is actually saying that we want to negatively impact the Phillips community.

What we are saying is you need to consider that this plan has already been proven that it's going to fail.

Take into consideration that the plan is a failure.

Go back to the drawing board.

Nothing has to be stopped.

Reconsider other options.

That's it.

Plain and simple.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Well over two hours.

Um, we are going to take a seven and a half minute break, as I promised many people.

Seven and a half minute break.

And when we come back, we will be uh on the agenda item as we amended the agenda uh where we will be discussing uh just highway 41.

We are in recess.

I know you're here to hear this discussion and observe this vote, so it's time to get moving.

All our council members are here.

Please everyone, we're trying to reconvene.

All right, we have concluded item number six.

And so as we amended our agenda, the next item has been moved from B, which is discussion and potential vote on Charleston County Highway Forty One Corridor Improvement Project.

All right.

And that is not referring to the full length of the Laurel Hill Parkway.

They have the right to build it.

However, Duneswest Boulevard which it would tie into is a town owned road and therefore that is the motion they will not be able to tie into that road if this motion passes.

Understand but um would is your does your motion then not um deny municipal consent on the highway 41 corridor improvement improvement plan known as the road to compromise.

Yes sir that is correct I I'm not denying municipal consent on any this motion does not deny municipal consent on any other portion of the project simply denies municipal consent for Laurel Hill Parkway to tie into Duneshow Boulevard.

And Mr.

Attorney would that be your interpretation of the motion as well yes sir as stated I understand withholding of permits and applying connecting to town rights of way and roads that is where it applies as I understand you're saying correct sir.

Yes and I do understand to the Laurel Hill Parkway portion.

That's correct.

Yeah not the overall project right I understand I understand that part are we allowed under the law to withhold municipal consent on pieces and parcels of a chosen permitted preferred alternative or do we have to address municipal consent to the entire uh proposed alternative in this case being the road to compromise sir I know of I know of nothing in state law that would require it in the entirety okay if that's the question it would not be in the entirety um of course as I've said this matter has not been litigated in the state of South Carolina there are no cases it is a novel issue as far as our courts are concerned and and why has it not been litigated I don't know of any circumstance again the statute applies to to the South Carolina Department of Transportation.

Is that they have never been challenged on the issue to the point where it was litigated.

Okay.

But it is your advice that municipal consent only applies to portions of this that are within the boundaries of the town of Mount Pleasant according to that state statute.

By definition any municipality cannot take an act um outside of its boundaries in this circumstance there are some exceptions to that but not as I read it as related to municipal consent.

Yes Rambo would you read your part again about the permits yes sir I'm happy to reread my full motion uh to move to deny municipal consent to include any permits or approvals necessary to utilize or tie into town right of way for the proposed Laurel Hill Parkway as part of the Highway 41 corridor improvement project.

Okay.

And I believe I had a second yes yes you got it you got a second okay so keep that handy because either you or the clerk is going to have to read it for us at I'm sure several times because this is going to take a while okay luckily it's all on video thank you.

Okay so while we are in discussion um we have people from the county here we think that we need a short presentation um this will be my time um I'm asking you to come forward give us a short presentation so that everybody hears all the facts while we're all together and that this is on the record mr reidenbach thank you for being here if you'll introduce yourself and and and what's your uh position is place.

Yeah thank you Mr.

Mayor and and members of of town council uh my name is Rhett Rodenbach and uh I'm a Charleston native and own a 10 year old civil engineering company that's located in in North Charleston South Carolina I was gonna actually uh defer to Mr.

Morrison so he could have one final hoorah before he uh left us for retirement and let him take take the shots up here but I'm I'm happy to stand on in front of you uh as a member of the consulting team that works for Charleston County I'll also like to take a quick second if I may and introduce our our council our our team that's here today because I I assume that there's gonna be some debate that hopefully we can add some some information and add some value to it to to make sure that that everybody has the facts associated with this project and then it's not based on um a motion or an opinion that it's based on you know the engineering judgment and science that drives the decisions that we made up at this point to recommend um the uh the road to compromise so I'll start with Debbie Tacoma um she's you know from from Somerville from the local area 25 years in in the area um in consulting civil engineering trip public works and also uh transportation construction um she she's our project manager most of y'all remember call Oyer who was kind of led us for a while for this project she's been with us now leading this for uh just over a year um we also have uh chloe feel our public information officer who's been tracking a lot of of the the public feedback and and a lot of the social media and the coverage has been um secured up to this point um we also have Alex Saunders who's our expert in right of way um that works for Charleston County those three collectively are our Charleston County um representatives here that are on the on the leadership team

She's been with us now, leading us for uh just over a year.

Um we also have uh Chloe Field, our public information officer, who's been tracking a lot of of the public feedback and a lot of the social media and the coverage that's been um secured up to this point.

Um we also have Alex Saunders who's our expert in right-of-way that works for Charleston County, those three collectively are our Charleston County um representatives here that are on the on the leadership team.

Um also most of you know Michael Darby.

Michael Darby's a uh a 30-year transportation engineer and expert in the field, um, has lived here for a long time now, and um his firm HDR is a lead consultant.

We're helping them deliver this project.

HDR is a lead consultant, internationally known expert in transportation.

Um, and then to his left, you or two people, three people to his left, you'll see Stuart Day, who's who's a well-known um transportation engineer, 20 years experience, um, spent a lot of time in the community, works directly for the town of Mount Pleasant, knows a lot about the area.

And I start off by saying that just by making the point that you have local experts here working on this project that have national expertise that bring to the table to guide you through a complicated project like this.

And as my my Wando Warrior fellow alumni uh well said that that we do a lot of work behind the computer, and we do look at you know, visual simulations and a lot of things that inform our decisions and the things that we recommend.

And we we it really helps us see it clear and and keeps us from you know having opinion kind of get in the way.

Um and we do drive these roads by the way.

We're not we're not doing this in a bubble.

I mean, we we've been on this project for you know nine years.

I've been in this community for 52 years.

I remember when you know the Dunes West Bill Board was announcing it in 1990 at the foot of the Cooper Bridge.

Um, so we we certainly are sensitive to the to the local issues of that as they've gotten more complicated over time.

Is the presentation up?

Yep, there we go.

Um so I'm gonna go through a series of slides and in deference to the mayor.

I'm gonna go through them as quickly as I possibly can to be efficient with our our communication.

Um but I want to I want to talk about how we landed on the road to compromise, um, the county's plans moving forward and the importance of the highway 41 corridor improvements and kind of kind of set the record straight, hopefully, for some of the information that's that was shared up here that wasn't 100% aligned with the documents and the data that we published.

Um of Dunes West being developed, and then I look back in the 1990 Plan Development District, the town of Mount Pleasant approved for the massive mega development of Dunes West.

And you know, the recommendations even back then were to have a four-lane highway 41, a five-lane park west boulevard, and a four-lane Dunes West Boulevard.

It said part West Boulevard may need to be six lanes, by the way.

So just keep that in mind that even in 1990, the regional planning was calling for some very large infrastructure to serve this area town.

And in our our research with with Brad's help and the town, 30% of the town lives in this area.

So there's a lot of existing congestion that's created by the development that's here today.

But we're here not just to try to respond to that existing development.

Um, just in the past you know, 10 years, you've seen Dunes West and Park West and Carolina Park add nearly 3,500 homes in this area.

Um Kane Hoy is driving a lot of the decisions that we make here.

Uh we're talking about 12,000 potential uh new homes.

Uh 25% of those homes are gonna come based on the models down highway 41 to come to Mount Pleasant.

Um, and and so that's a lot of the new regional growth that we're having to respond to with the recommendations uh that that are moving forward.

And by the way, when we talk about modeling, this isn't a model that we created nine years ago.

This is a model that has been constantly updated and developed over the progression of these alternatives and the analysis that is so that's associated with it.

Um the last major model run was in 2024.

It's been tweaked a couple of times as soon as recent as last year.

So the idea that we're like making these recommendations based on bad data, old data that's not relevant today, I disagree with.

I think we're doing the best we can with the things that are available uh to us uh to analyze.

So I don't want to uh rehash everything the chairman said about public outreach.

Highlights are simple, nine years, 200 plus meetings, 7300 comments, evaluation of over 20 alternatives.

We're at the point where we have to decide whether a better solution actually exists.

We cannot let the perfect become the enemy of the good.

Um this is a process that is driven by NEPA.

It's regulated by the core, it's based on document-based analytic data that has been cut cobbled together after years and years of studies, and all the information is public.

It's all accessible for those that want to read it.

It's very technical, very nuanced, but it's all what has informed us up to this point to make the recommendation to move forward with the road to compromise.

And central to that is the impacts of the Phillips community.

And in 2020, it's been rehashed a couple of times already.

Alternative one was recommended as the per preferred alternative, which included four travel lanes down the entirety of Highway 41.

The county received 794 comments opposing that project.

That public outreach is what informed the county to come up to the decision with the decision based on the feedback to direct us to stay within the 75 foot road right away in front of Phillips.

Limit the widening and and of highway 41 through Phillips to simply uh a two-way left turn in the middle of the highway to make it safe for the residents that try to turn left into their homes or out of their homes or the small side streets that are there.

So then get out of the way and not slow down the traffic that's going north and south along that corridor.

Um this this set the consultant team to start exploring other options.

We didn't land on Laurel Hill Parkway at the beginning.

Um 7A is probably something that I wish we could pull back on because the idea of a five-lane road down Dunes West, a five-lane road down Bessemer that impacted Dunes West, that impacted Bessemer significantly, that was bypassing around the Phillips community.

I think it's a hangover that we haven't been able to shake on the Laurel Hill Parkway solution.

Um, but it was something that we heard quite clearly that Dunes West and Park West did not want to see.

The town of Mount Pleasant said the same thing that that was not an alternative that wanted we wanted to move forward.

Rick, while you're on that point, yes, sir.

And I think this is critical.

And this is not an engineering question, this is a community question.

So there was at one time an alternative that would have put that many lanes at Duneswest or Park West or Bessemer.

Is that is that correct?

Correct.

Okay.

What you hate to hear is people saying there has been no compromise, but that could have been the preferred alternative that we were sitting here voting on tonight.

But there was there was compromise.

Uh the Mount Pleasant, you know, legally Mount Pleasant that are in the town limits were heard, and the idea of putting that many lanes through those neighborhoods went away.

Is that correct?

Okay.

I just I know you know I spoke to a group recently, and and um we'll ask people how many had lived here five years or more, and ten people raised their hand.

So this goes back, this predates a lot of people moving here that there has been a compromise on on these things, and it has occurred.

And um, and so I'm I'm not asking people to think that all all of a sudden you you have to like the road to compromise.

But there was a lot of compromise that occurred, and this was years ago.

So yes, sir.

It was the beginning of the spirit of compromise, honestly.

Um may I ask him a question?

Yes, sir.

I mean, I still have the floor, but you're welcome to it's a question on your question.

So when that letter was sent in 2018 from the town of Mount Pleasant, that's I believe that's when they asked you to not look at Bessemer.

I've reviewed the the minutes from that meeting.

I think it's 2018.

No, sir, it wasn't 2018, though.

Yeah, June 20 of 18.

I read the minutes.

Did you guys fully study Bessemer at that time, or did you just present to the town of Mount Pleasant that it could be five lanes, or did that letter shoot down the full study of Bessemer at that point?

So that that had been brought up to the level of an alternative to be a part of the analysis.

There was some high-level study on it.

It didn't go to the level of detail that the alternative one would have gone to.

It didn't go to the level of detail that the compromise alternative road to combine is officially went to.

Was it fully studied?

It was studied to a uh uh a great extent, but not the fullest extent required to be a recommended alternative.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

So to continue down the the Phillips um discussion, you know, in 2021, Phillips received the historical designation from the county.

2023, we heard about the National Register of Historic Places.

Today, Phillips and the County have finalized their agreement for mitigation that locks in this 434 and the three-lane section through through the Phillips community.

Um, so from from the consulting team's perspective, at the direction of the county and the stakeholder work that we've done at this point, three lanes through Phillips is what we got.

Um so there's been a lot of discussion about why the 434 alone is not a long-term solution.

And then that this is something we got to clear up.

434 alone fails within five to seven years of opening.

Okay.

When I say fail, I mean level service E or F.

That means you're close to gridlock, you're not there gridlock yet, but you're getting to the point where it's getting extraordinarily difficult to move through intersections and make their way through.

The traffic modeling that we have done for the 434 shows that that traffic on Bessemer Road would be backed up almost a mile to Dunes West Boulevard, the traffic circle.

Traffic down Dunes West Boulevard trying to get on a 41 will be backed up almost three-quarters of a mile down Dunes West.

Okay.

This failure right here is why we're not recommending proceeding with the 434.

You will see it very quickly.

The residents of the town of Mount Pleasant will be upset with it.

We couldn't make it meet the purpose and need of the project, which is to relieve congestion and improve mobility.

All those things compounded on each other, basically prove that the 434 doesn't work.

And and and this stuff isn't like me just qualifying it, it's quantitatively spelled out with the best tools we have available to us as engineers to test it and prove that what I'm saying is is true.

Now, the question comes into why do we need Laurel Hill Parkway and how does it fix it?

Okay.

So Laurel Hill Parkway, it basically adds capacity to the intersections of Park West and Highway 41.

Okay.

It gives people that live in Park West and Dunes West a new way to get around that congestion that I just explained that happens because of the hourglass design that 434 presents itself.

The models are showing in 2045 that Laurel Hill Parkway is going to be attractive to 12,000 cars in a day.

Okay.

That's similar to rifle range road when you come off the connector and start heading north.

So that level of traffic is what you're going to see.

People are going to want to use that piece of infrastructure because it's it's it's it moves smoothly.

There are no curb cuts, it's a fairly you know, good speed, so you don't have to you know worry about going 25 or 30 miles an hour.

There's no congestion, people turning in and out of it.

We think all the commuter traffic that goes down Bessemer Road now, which is in the four to five thousand trips a day, will shift over to this road because it's that much easier, that much better for them to get from that point at Park West Boulevard down to Highway 41.

And what the models are also showing, and this is what the models can predict that no one else in this room is willing to really kind of acknowledge, I think, is that the people in Dunes West and Park West that would normally want to go to Highway 41.

About 10% of the residences that live in that community, they now want to go use Laurel Hill Parkway because it's free-flowing, it's simpler, it's operating a high level of service.

They're not slowing down at Park West, they're not slowing down Highway 41.

And this road is literally a road for the folks that live in Park West and Dunes West.

And it protects Phillips, it keeps from needing that you know, widened extra travel lane in the north and south direction.

Now, I do have to dispel a myth here.

This project is recommended, the road to compromise in 2045 operates at an acceptable level of service by engineering industry standards.

Okay.

Level D level service of D is what the models are calculating, the intersections at Dunes West Boulevard and uh 41 and Laurel Hill Parkway in 41 are operating at.

That's acceptable.

And it's 20 years in the future.

2045.

We're not spending 245 million dollars on a solution that doesn't work.

That's just not true.

The models do not tell us that that is the way it's gonna behave.

Now, a lot's been said about Laurel Hill Parkway.

We've done our best.

And look, we're we're just we're in the same spot as you are.

And when it comes to wanting to preserve the park, protect the environment.

We have an ethical responsibility to protect the environment, by the way, professionally and ethically.

And and you know, we've done our best to minimize the impacts to this to this park.

It can't be avoided.

Um, 10 acres of the park is what we need.

Two acres of wetlands is what will be impacted.

Uh we're making the road as narrow as possible, but still safe.

We're putting 400 trees along the corridor, which is significant, no curb cuts.

It'll be control of access along the entire roadway.

This is not a development road.

This is a road responding to the development that's occurred that's going to occur.

It's not generating new development whatsoever.

You're not gonna be able to turn left and go to some new, you know, Laurel Hill community or whatever it's gonna be.

Um, you know, uh could be in the future.

It's not gonna do that.

It'll be protected in perpetuity, it will be deed restricted, unable to do that.

Um there's also been a lot of discussion about Bessemer.

We had we studied Bessemer.

I mean, this this was something in 2021 and 2022 that we actually spent some time figuring out what would it look like if we use Bessemer.

And the same theme I mentioned earlier.

You gotta have higher capacity at either Dunes West, Park West, and to get more traffic funneling through there.

You gotta have more capacity at 41.

So the problem with Joe Rouse is it's too close to the fit through the Phillips community.

So in order to get the alignment of the lanes and to get the intersection to work, requires impacts to the north on Highway 41.

So we looked at actually building the Laurel Hill 41 intersection, connecting it to Bessemer, let Bessemer be the through lane as opposed to Laurel Hill Parkway, make improvements to Dunes West or Park West, whichever one was the best solution when he kind of bowed it all down and looked at the traffic circles.

Um the bottom line is Bessemer is a two-lane road without a center two-way left turn.

There's a lot of curb cuts, a lot of residential streets down Bessemer.

Engineers have to take in in consideration safety.

We've heard safety a number of times in the uh the comments we saw today.

In order for it to be anywhere near safe, it would have to be similar to what Phillips wanted to see.

A two-way left turn through the community.

You would have to be able to get out of the road, let the traffic go by, be able to find a gap, turn left, and get in and make all and make make the movements work, or the congestion would be there, things would fail, and it wouldn't be an acceptable level of service.

Not to mention pedestrians and bikes.

This project is a critical component to connecting Mount Pleasant Way into the Park West, Dunes Wests.

And so we'd have to add a multi-use path down Besser Road.

It would require us to widen the road, add a path, move curbs, move drainage, move right away, or move uh utilities, which cause additional ride of way.

60 residences plus you'd have to get property from down Bessemer to make Bessemer a safe thoroughfare that would do what Laurel, something similar to what Laurel Hill Parkway would do.

You talk about compromise.

That's why we didn't push Bessemer.

We didn't want to put that burden on the Park West community.

Just like we didn't want to widen Dunes West for the Dunes West community, just like we didn't want to widen Highway 41 through the Phillips community.

That is the spirit of the compromise and why we call it the road to compromise for those reasons right there.

Finally, um the concept that we're not listening, I I tell you, that's hard for us to really kind of kind of kind of buy that narrative.

Um, even up until last week, we're making design tweaks and changes all day long to this project.

We've talked to Abbott's Glenn, Poor Chase Preserve, Rivertown, Dunes West Master Board, Brickyard Plantation, Gregor Fair Townhomes, Enclave Egregory, businesses up Winterwing Way, more people than than that, but that's the highlights.

We've done things that reduce some of the right-of-way impacts to make it less problematic.

We've done some things to slow down cut through traffic.

We've done some things to improve monument signs and wayfinding and that sort of thing to try to listen to the community to make a good plan better.

So, you know, I will have to say, in defense of our design team, I think we've done a really good job.

And the and the leadership of a lot of the council members in this in this room right here is why it's all happened to make this plan better than than it was before we started.

Now, a couple final little points here as we as we kind of wrap up.

Um $15 million has been invested so far.

We've heard that number.

$63 million has been appropriated from the state infrastructure bank for the road to compromise alternative.

$245 million is the total project.

Take Johnny Dodd's Boulevard in 2010 numbers, fast forward to today, it's not 245 million dollars.

Wow.

This is this will be the biggest investment in infrastructure in the town of Mount Pleasant in the history of the town.

You know, you could you could it rivals the Cooper River Bridge.

Let me while while you're on this, um, you and I had a conversation today about uh it has been said that the state infrastructure bank money doesn't go away.

But that's if if uh if uh uh municipal consent is withheld.

Um tell us what happens with that money.

Well, I will say right now um that the Charleston County is not in compliance with their agreement with State Infrastructure Bank.

They've missed the deadline to start construction, they've asked for an extension to that, of which they haven't got a response.

It's been months they haven't heard back.

The state infrastructure bank.

If this project doesn't continue, if the project is deviated from the road to compromise, we have to update the application, resubmit all the documentation associated with the 63 million dollars.

And there's a chance that another municipality, another county, some other jurisdiction in the state of South Carolina is going to see an opportunity to pounce.

That's very competitive money.

Um that that's not that's something that everybody's fighting for, and there's a lot of senators out there that have promised things to their constituents that if they see a chink in our armor or a way to get into the um in the fold, they will.

There's another issue I want to bring up that I think it's very important.

Part of the compromise here, a hundred and seventy-one parcels are being acquired for this project.

But how many relocations or total takes do we have?

We have zero total takes.

I think I think the design team's done an incredible job of accommodating the existing conditions and the context of the communities that are around it, long-term needs for the town of Mount Pleasant.

A couple of last little things.

Uh, mentioned the uh the purpose and need, you guys have seen this before, congestion relief, safety, mobility.

Don't forget we've got multimodal all in this with with multi-use pass and stuff for bikers and hikers.

Um, but I do want to make just kind of one statement um before we close about the schedule.

Um Highway 41 project has never been about finding a solution with no impacts.

It's about finding the solution with the fewest overall impacts while still meeting the project's purpose and its need.

Numerous alternatives were evaluated.

Widening through Phillips is unacceptable community impacts.

The best of more alternative requires significant residential right-of-way acquisition.

Alternative seven shifted a lot of impacts in Dunes West and Park West.

The recommended alternative remains the most balanced solution that could be funded, permitted, constructed, and successfully delivered.

And we talk about being delivered.

If this project gets a green light from you guys today, in 90 days, it's being advertised for bid, and we're breaking ground at the beginning of next year, and there are 245 million dollar investments being made into the community.

We rest uh we're here today to kind of answer any questions you may have.

The chairman and the councilman are here as well.

Um we have sub dramatic experts, and we're happy to be a part of the conversation.

Thank you.

If you'll stay there, council members, if you'd like to ask Mr.

Ridenbach any questions, please.

Yes, sir, Mr.

Ramble.

Um I was first elected in 2019, you presented in 2020.

You presented in 2020.

Sir, uh, you presented to this body in 2020.

Yes.

Um, you talked about alternative seven, you talked about alternative one.

At that time, um, directly from still on the highway 41 website, it says the project team in examining compared the environmental impacts, costs, and logistics of these reasonable alternatives and alternative one was identified as the pro proposed alternative due to greater improved traffic times, lower, lowest overall project cost, less effect from noise, fewer impacts to Lower Hill County Park, fewer wetlands impacts.

Um talks about lowest overall project cost.

Do you know what that project cost was when you presented in 2020?

Uh alternative uh Council Rambo, but I've got to be able to do that.

I looked it up, it was 125 million.

Yeah, we'll have fixed the problem, right?

125 million, it would have fixed the problem.

And five years later, we're sitting at 245 million dollars, and it doesn't really fix the problem.

It's kind of a band-aid that's kind of a temporary solution.

Like, what are we doing?

I get that this is not on you as the design team.

You guys are working with the parameters that were set out by county council, and even you, Mr.

Boykin, I'm not directing this particularly at you because I don't even think you were on county council in 2020.

So you're inheriting this, but it's it's that's hard to swallow.

And that's hard to swallow for the people in this room.

And and we talk about how some people feel like there wasn't public input.

You guys presented in 2020.

You guys did not come back to us until our council retreat this year in 2026.

So that we have not had a full council public hearing on this kind of thing in that amount of time.

I don't even know when the road to compromise was developed.

It was never presented to this body formally, at least.

I think there might have been members on this body that were invited to a secret meeting.

I'm not exactly sure.

Um, but that's hard to swallow.

A hundred and twenty-five million to fix the problem, and now we're at 245 million, a 245 million dollar band-aid.

Please.

Y'all it's late at night.

We're not gonna lose, we're not gonna lose it.

Everybody's been great.

Um part of that is is inflation from um COVID.

Excuse me.

Excuse me.

We learned at Mount Pleasant Waterworks that that over the past several years that construction prices are up 75%.

Absolutely.

Mr.

Rambo was there with me when we were given that figure.

Yeah, and so I will say this, Council Rambo.

I, you know, I think you know, we we stand behind what the original preferred alternative was.

I mean, alternative one, widening highway 41 is the no nonsense, makes the most, you know, point A to point B, the point the point that was made earlier.

Um, and and and I will say that that 120 million dollars, I don't want to give you number, but it was probably gonna be closer to 200 by the time we get to the day's numbers, the way these con these numbers are escalating, and you can ask the county right now.

He's doing 17 in Maine for 450 million dollars.

Okay, no one thought it was that when they bid it.

Um, but but you know, it's a different day.

I believe I saw four.

Uh so I mean, I don't know how modeling shows safety.

Um is highway 41 through Phillips a safe road currently to trout to cross for your kids to play next to.

I mean, would that would you allow your children to play next to that road?

Uh as it stands currently.

It does not meet the safety regulations of the day standards.

Correct.

So it it we're when we say protect that ship sailed a hundred years ago when the road was first put in.

It it's not a safe road currently.

The original alternative had all of these great things like a pedestrian crossover.

It was gonna rebuild a couple of homes, newer, nicer homes for some of the folks, and it had a lot of things for the community in there.

I don't know what the community is getting out of this.

It's still not gonna be a safe neighborhood road.

So it's it's much safer than it is today, Councilman Rambo, when we're done with it, yes, sir.

Okay.

Yes.

Uh thank you.

So um thank you, Mr.

Raddenbox for it.

Appreciate the presentation.

Um, wanted to follow up on one thing with Councilmember Rambo.

So he said to Channel 4 on July 7th that you can build the other components of the plan.

434, 17 and 41 intersection.

All that sounds great.

We do not think the parkway is necessary for the project.

Uh he's expressed that opinion again tonight.

Um, that nobody thinks we need it.

Um council member Ikafano reiterated that, saying the parkway is expensive and unnecessary and will not provide meaningful congestion relief.

Again, an opinion.

Um, I would like you to share with us as a professional engineer, 10 years working on this project that you've covered with other traffic and public safety professionals.

Um the facts regarding the necessity of the parkway, how many acres are affected in the park?

First the total acreage, and how many trails are impacted for the right.

Once again, yes, ma'am.

So see if I get them in the right order.

Um it's it's 10 acres of of parkland.

It's two acres of wetlands, and no trails are being impacted by the total acreage at Laurel Hill is 741.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um, just want to make sure I heard some things correctly.

Um, the best traffic approach, alternative one, correct?

Yes, yes, sir.

Uh the length of construction that this plan is going to take, how long is it going to take for it to be fully open?

Four and a half years.

Four and a half years.

The grade of the road at completion.

In 2045, no, at completion.

Oh, a completion.

Better than D.

Okay.

I think I heard you say Tetering D at a previous meeting, something like that.

C maybe into D territory.

Does that sound about right?

Yeah, when we don't usually analyze a year of failure or like take incrementally each year to see what would happen.

But it's D in 2045.

It's going to be better than D when you open it up in five years.

Okay.

So you you think that the useful life of this project is, I guess, around 2045 is when we kind of think that we're gonna have to do something else.

No, we're not we're not saying that you have to do something else in 2045.

Okay.

We're saying that based on the information we have right now, the development patterns that are in place and all the things that we have feedback on, 20 years from now, roughly, is when the project, as far as you can see, you can't the horizon's only so far.

It's as far as you can see, and that's we're behind a level service D, we're supporting a level service D at that point.

And when it uh eventually fails, whether that's 2045 a little bit later, a little bit earlier, what happens then?

Then town of Mount Pleasant, SC D OT, or some other sponsor can be looking at a different another project that complements the current transportation network and solves whatever problem you're trying to solve then.

And what problem are we likely to be solving in the next phase of this project?

Oh, that's my crystal ball's not that clear, Councilmember Brown's scene.

I mean, uh to the some of the comments that were here a lot earlier today, and uh extension of climate sphere.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I mean, uh there's all kinds of different concepts that can be explored over the next 20 years.

The widening of 41, the roads of dude West Park West, school road, these things that were originally contemplated were 36 years ago.

If I told you that the next solution to the problem is finishing off the widening of highway 41, do you think that's a likely scenario?

I think that that's going to be a difficult scenario to accomplish with the protections by the National Register of Historic Places.

It's a federal issue.

If the DOT of the town of Mount Pleasant or any other project sponsor went through the process of trying to widen um through Phillips, it would take a lengthy environmental process to get through for approval.

Is it impossible?

I I'm not an expert in it.

I think it could happen, but I don't know if it's it's it's likely.

But wouldn't you, you know, so you're you're saying that this is a viable alternative.

The regulatory agencies are going to make us try to do anything that we can possible to to save the Phillips community.

Correct.

So we do that project, it fails.

Wouldn't the logical next step be to widen Highway 41 to solve the regional traffic issue between Charleston County and Berkeley County?

So from a purely traffic solution, yes, sir.

Okay.

Um and so we're at the the cost is 245 million dollars.

Um can you talk a little bit about the constraints that were placed on you as an engineering or design team by county council?

Well, yes, sir.

I mean, during during the alternative development process, um and and after we received the feedback for from alternative one, um we had a series of meetings with various stakeholders that culminated in a meeting um at town council or uh Charleston County Council where the road to compromise was was proposed and county council unanimously approved it.

And so there, and so in other words, the county said um uh aside from the center turn lane, don't touch the fill and the the multi-use paths don't touch the the Phillips community.

Yes, sir, that's correct.

And so one one of the I guess failure points that's been referenced is the intersection of Joe Rouse slash Bessemer and 41.

Um in order to fix that or or to to expand the capacity of that intersection, you would have to infringe upon the Phillips community by how much?

Uh 1500 feet.

1500 feet.

Okay, I think that's gone up since the the last I think it was a about a thousand last I heard, but I I will accept that.

Um so no, you gotta go.

So you're speaking the microphone.

Speaking of the microphone.

Um so your through lane past Joe Rouse has to go a thousand feet before you then merge it into a single lane.

So that's the 1500 feet.

That merge is another 500 feet to get down to a single lane.

And how much right of way does the state or county um have in the Phillips community?

It's a 75 foot existing right-of-way.

Okay, and so the existing road is two lanes, is that 24 feet, 25 feet, something like that?

And so to add two lanes to that um would make it how how wide.

So you're just suggesting just two lanes northbound, two lanes southbound, no center turn lane.

Yeah.

That'd be 48 feet wide.

Okay.

So it's a shoulder sidewalks, curb and gutter drainage that would all have to fit within that as well.

Okay.

So that's less than than 75, correct?

Uh incorrect.

That would be 78 feet.

So minus the the paths on both sides.

Less than 75 feet.

It would include the paths on both sides.

That's a requirement of S C DOT for their complete streets policy.

Okay.

And it's a safety concern.

And you would want a center turn lane out there, especially with the number of driveways within the Phillips community to be able to pull people to pull out safely.

Otherwise, you've got a worse situation than a three-lane road out there.

How um if if you were to expand the road um as alternate one suggested, uh, how many homes would you have to demolish in the Phillips community?

Um as we had it drawn up, there were no homes that would be demolished, but we were so close.

I mean, this was very 10% level right away that we had drawn up.

Yeah, by the time you're to close for comfort, I'm not sure how you're not able to get your yeah, they're yeah, they're parking the tail end of their trucks or sitting in the road.

Yeah, yeah, I get it.

Um if you were able to improve the Bessemer Joe Rouse 41 intersection to be a higher capacity intersection, would that combined with turn lanes on Bessemer Road left turn lanes on Bessemer Road?

Um negate the uh reason for building the Laurel Hill Parkway.

So your suggestion is.

My suggestion is if you if you did that, would it be in the neighborhood of being as good as the Laurel Hill Parkway?

Similarly, we would have more 25 that would slow down the proof.

Not quite as efficient, but it's a it's an improvement.

Would that work with a 434 lane configuration to get us to the ballpark of 2045, 2040, 2045?

So again, you're suggesting a full build out of the Joe Rouse intersection that carries you a thousand, fifteen hundred feet into the Phillips community.

Uh yes.

And then a center turn lane on Bessemer Road.

Not not a center turn lane just left left lane, left turn lanes at the big at the big neighborhoods and the daycare that's sort of.

We looked at that um back in 2022, and the by the time you build out and taper out those turn line the left turn lanes, you wind up cutting off access to other driveways along Bessemer Road by doing that.

So you have so many driveways along there, you need to be able to provide left turn access to them.

So that's why we recommended a full center turn lane on Bessemer Road the whole length.

Um swit switching gears for a second.

Um where are you guys proposing to mitigate the wetlands that you're filling for this project?

Those are being purchased through mitigation banks.

And where would that mitigation bank be uh located?

Um point farm mitigation bank.

And where's that?

That's in Watemala, and then fresh water still to be determined, but I mean there's nothing in the Mount Pleasant area.

If you want to start a mitigation bank in Mount Pleasant, that'd be great, but I think that land's a little too valuable.

The mitigation for the wetlands will be done in a similar watershed.

Um so it'll be nearby, but maybe not in close proximity to the existing wetlands.

Okay, so you guys are gonna fill the wetlands and you're gonna pay to create wetlands in another area.

Is that is that how it works?

Technically, you're you're paying for credits that preserve areas, not necessarily creating new areas.

Okay, so you guys are destroying wetlands here and you're paying to preserve them somewhere else.

Where they're higher than right.

Okay.

Well, I I want to thank you guys.

Uh my my beef is is not with you.

You've been nothing but helpful.

Um I've been in probably a dozen plus meetings with with you both.

I understand the constraints.

I got sick of seeing you there.

I know.

Well, you look good.

You're your knees uh healed and you're you're moving around good.

So I appreciate that.

My beef is not with you, it's with the constraints placed upon you.

And um, you know, I think this is a situation that calls for some out-of-the-box thinking, and um I'm optimistic that maybe we can get there.

Thank you.

Other questions for these two?

Yes, ma'am, is what um I I just wanted to uh reiterate some of the community aspects and community meetings.

Daniel sort of alluded to the meetings he's had with you all, but wanted to also mention since January um we've had 12 community meetings uh with our county colleagues and the project team.

You've made yourself very available for those, and I appreciate it.

I was uh put some of those smaller ones together for various neighborhoods and stakeholders along the road.

Um we've heard why not take some more time, why not go back to the drawing board?

Um I don't think withholding municipal consent is a meaningful way to influence this project.

I think it has been influenced as evidenced by the meetings you've had and the changes that you've made.

And just a few examples of those from those community meetings.

Um we added a crosswalk for Porsche's Preserve.

We're providing property for beautified entrance to Rivertown.

We're eliminating Emma Lane across from the colonnade at Brickyard intersection.

Um we have reduced the project footprint footprint around Gregory Ferry, as we heard to preserve street parking, and we reduced the clearing in Dunes West through collaboration with Dominion and Waterworks.

All of those things that you all have done.

I've also gotten commitments from the project team and our county colleagues to continue those efforts even through construction.

Where there are ways that we can influence this project, the team is open to us doing so, and I look forward to continuing that collaboration with you all.

So thank you for that.

Thank you, ma'am.

Yes, sir.

I I there was uh thank you, by the way, and and the county.

I I I really think I really think and uh and things were brought up today.

This was I commend the county because the state didn't have the money, and the county stepped up.

And the reality is this is a multi-county solution.

So they were dealt a bad hand from the beginning, and they did step up.

I mean, the greatest thing to do, hindsight's 2020 was to raise the money instead of giving it to the state and said, you all fix the road, because I know you all are done with it, and I know you guys have gone through a lot.

I really do.

So you did step up to help Mount Pleasant and to help Charleston County on a multi-county issue on a state road that the state was giving no money to.

So I think people do need to realize that.

And I know y'all are done.

I mean, I know you I know you want to run, so thanks for being here tonight as well.

And and really, you know, facing a a lot of a lot of citizens.

So thank you.

I know that's not easy.

Um there there was a question that I don't think was all the way answered, Dan go all the way through it about some turn lanes on Bessmer and some driveways.

There is room to just put a turn lane all the way through Bessemer then right now.

I mean, I'd say you have the space, but there will be the need for right-of-way in order to build that turn lane.

Right away taking a building or not taking a building.

My biggest concern would be up at once you get up closer to the to the Bessmer Park West Roundabout.

The town homes there on that right side, they're very close to the road as is.

So any improvements as you get closer up there would be very uh very close to the back door.

But possible, possible to go 1,500 feet, maybe Phillips community with keeping it 434 would agree to 1,500 feet into their neighborhood.

I'm not gonna speak for them.

I do have a question.

When you do do a road project, 245 million dollars, do they typically have a 15-year life on them?

Like a 600 million dollar bridge.

Was is that a hundred-year life on 50-year life on the Rabile Bridge?

What's typical lifespan of a large project?

So our initial design constraint was a 20-year 20-year look.

Now we were assuming construction was going to be complete last year.

So we've with delays in the project.

Not just this project, but any project.

I say, hey, so I got a 250 million dollar road project that's I don't know, what is it, five miles long?

Is it is three?

Five five miles of highway 41.

Overall, we've got about nine miles worth of road.

But five miles of five miles of road, 250 million dollar project.

What would the typical life expectancy of that road be?

10 years, 15, 20, 40.

Again, typically you go out in 20 years.

20 years.

So we're gonna fall short of that.

And then I'm I'm guessing SE DOT is just gonna have to come in and fix the problem anyway, right?

So I mean that's where I stand as a is is a fiscal responsibility uh to the taxpayer.

So and I do I really do appreciate everything we've done.

You guys have met with us.

I I do not envy the county.

They tried to step up, they did a half cent sales tax, they raised money in which the state should have come in and given.

It's a multi-county issue right now, especially with what's going on over the bridge.

Excellent solutions on going up the other way, right?

And go, you know, come around the other way.

So I again thank you for everything you have done.

That doesn't mean I doesn't mean I agree.

Just it just means I I I I I see you, I hear you, and I feel the pain that you're going through.

So thank you for that, Mr.

Ikafano.

I do want to make one small little point.

Uh I don't think we have actually modeled the year where those intersections fail when they go to a level service ERF.

So it's gonna be beyond 2045.

We just don't know which year.

I've heard failures of 2045.

Didn't we have that discussion?

I'm just a dollar.

Okay, we have a dollar.

I said 2035 up at them a dollar.

It's 2035.

If I'm allowed to bet, I don't know, but I did.

And uh but you told me two thousand forty-five failure.

That that's when level of service D is we're experiencing congestion.

Beyond that is gonna fail.

So on New Year's Eve 2045 into 2046, we fail.

Okay.

Then I'm good.

I'm I'm glad we clarified that.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

We've we've we've thanked the county, but I'd like to thank each of the people that have come today and for their attendance tonight and their calls or texts or emails or letters or social media posts, etc.

You know, I I see you, I hear you, and because of the positions I've taken, I decided that I would go and meet with as many people and I'd go up and down the highway and search for solutions that would not go into the park.

I mean, that was my goal.

Absolute my goal.

And so I'm the last person that would want to have anything go through the park.

I absolutely want to have net 1,500 more trees every year.

So I look for this.

And then I also looked uh to uh and I asked the question when we organized these meetings that many of the people in this room were at.

I said, if if you if municipal cent is m consent is not given, what is your solution?

What is your solution?

Because I just want to know what it is.

And I wanted to have it before we'd have a meeting like this tonight.

So I was told it was Bessemer.

And we have gone through this in January.

We went through it in March with Kathy Landing, and we went through it recently, as recently as a month ago, going through these same things to see what the level of service was, what the difference was between a direct pathway or one going by daycare centers, townhomes right on the road, and you talk about safety.

That's some real safety issues there.

I mean that I would want my kids to live there.

So uh so we went through that.

So that Bessemer was a big one.

We even said I I was so concerned about trying to get a solution not going through the park.

I said maybe uh Daniel and I said let's maybe build a bridge.

Let's build a bridge basically where Laurel Hill Parkway starts, and then let's go in there and it still goes over the wetlands, still goes over the park.

But um what we found was exactly what you said.

It has to go in somewhere, and unfortunately, Bessemer would have been the perfect solution when it was built.

But since then, councils before us allowed road uh uh daycare centers, houses, etc.

to be built on the road.

So it is no longer a perfect solution because of the density that you have.

I I was so concerned about I took my bride up there and we drove it a couple s times and so do you want our grandchildren to be there if this was expanded like that and was resounding?

No.

I wouldn't want my grandchildren there.

It just doesn't work.

So so I looked at that.

Then the second one was, and that was the solution.

Then the other solution was, well, just do nothing.

Well, you know, the what we saw is this was a problem.

We have a reta uh we recognize the retiring uh um uh incredible uh public servant, Brad Morrison today, and he said it was a problem 25 years ago.

Well, you know, when I was president of Wild Dunes, we developed Dunes West.

We developed Dunes West.

And so and I and I know this for a fact because my daughters my my daughters um one of my daughter-in-loves uh my daughter-in-love's dad was a civil engineer for the project.

And so we knew it would be a big problem.

Back then.

I I mean I I went through the woods there.

There was nothing there.

It was dirt roads.

But we knew it was gonna be a problem because civil in engineers can predict things.

So what did what would he do?

He made it wide enough, because we own the land.

We could do what we wanted to.

So we made it as wide as we could to plan for growth.

So if you had to go in there today, you wouldn't have to get any easements, any imminent domains, you wouldn't have to do anything.

There's ro there's room there for five lanes.

And it could be done today, certainly for four.

And so that was done, but when you look at the alternatives, I I want to make this b make this really clear.

This is not about the county versus the town.

That's non-productive.

That's non-productive.

We we're we're expected to play well in the sandbox.

And so th it's not about that.

It's about what's happened over the the iterations that have put restrictions on it.

So that opportunity to go through Dunes West was taken off the table.

The uh a circular route around tying in to Park West with five lanes was taken off the table.

It was taken off the table to go to Bessemer.

And so and the only one that said, I'll give at the table, I'll give to the bank is uh is uh Phillips that said, let's give a lane.

So let me ask the question more succinctly now that I've stated that.

Um the other s the other well, the solution, the other solution was do nothing.

And so the do nothing, we know that a lot of people pay tax money since 2016, and they're looking for something to happen, and we just know the cost is gonna go up dramatically.

So when you looked at Bessemer, uh go through that again why uh and we looked at we looked at the one where it didn't have to go with the 15 feet, 1500 feet.

Because we're at the meeting and we said we don't want to go 1500 feet in the Phillips.

Let's start back at where the bridge starts where the uh Laurel Hill Parkway starts.

That way we don't infringe on it, but we still go into Bessemer.

I had my fingers crossed.

I was hoping that that would work.

Tell me why that doesn't have the same level of service as the Laurel Hill Parkway.

So from a traffic standpoint, a limited access roadway has a much greater capacity than a two-lane or three-lane local neighborhood road that has turned driveways off of it.

Um and I don't I don't know if you have those numbers or not.

I mean, sure, so that I would say that that's the kind of a traffic reason, but the the the practical solution practical reason behind it why it doesn't work.

Um it's because the impacts to the properties up and down Bessemer in order to make Bessemer a safe road to account for additional traffic are gonna be problematic.

I mean, we're gonna be taking sixty different properties that potentially impacting some residences' houses that could be the only takes in the entire project.

What kind of public outcry would we get if we start moving that that alternative forward?

And by the way, the analysis that we did with the intersection at 41 at Laurel Hor Laurel Hill Parkway to connect into Bessemer to improve Bessemer and then get to Park West Boulevard was more expensive than Laurel Hill Parkway.

It took two years to build it.

It took all kinds of utility coordination to make it happen.

So that's the practical reason why that alternative doesn't work beyond the the fact that it's not nearly the the traffic solution.

So when it was turned down and the town voted not to do it, uh in what year?

2018.

2018.

Uh was there a big outcry from the community?

Is that why is that one of the reasons why did we have meetings similar to this, and they just said we don't want to have that?

Yeah, so we we have presented alternative seven at our public meeting in I'm gonna say it was like May, April, May of 2018.

Um neighborhood on Bessemer Road, Arlington had a a big public outcry at that point in time, and that's that's where that then fed into the town um putting out the you know against alternative seven, which again was a five it was a five-lane, two lanes each direction with a center turn lane along Bessemer Road.

And that was reviewed and uh supported by a lot of the people in the room today, correct?

Well not to doubt not to that extent.

So let me ask the question a little a little different.

Um a little different way.

I have an old adage when in doubt asked the customer.

I asked it how many customers were asked it would would that be an acceptable solution for you on Bessemer Road?

That's where I'd really like to get the feedback because those are the ones most impacted by it.

And again, when I went with my what wife through there, it was too darn close, but we haven't even asked them.

And then the last part is if we're gonna be opening Billy Swells Boulevard pretty soon.

That started many years ago before almost anybody here was on council or town council, and that's just getting started.

So if we go back to the drawing table for something that we think is essentially flawed to start with, how many years would it take and how much a delay would it be for the uh for that to go through?

I would have said I would say at a minimum for design and permitting um to just go on Bessemer Road, you're talking three years minimum to get through that process before you can go to construction.

So um again, um I think we all in the room agree that we want more green space, we want to take care of our safety and our infrastructure, we want to balance between the two, and so we've had a lot of choices that the the consumers have said that our the people that voted for me said uh we we uh we really feel strongly that we don't do these things.

And and we listened, and so therefore we ended up with uh a choices that we have today, and uh we have the opportunity to get started with a program.

Um I know there's gonna be a lot of uh trees, there'll be trees go down.

I know a lot of trees are gonna be planted in that area.

I don't want to see a single tree go.

I've walked that parkway a lot of times, but I think we're in a good I think for for me, I think you've addressed the issue because the issue was if we vote no, what is the next day?

What are we going to look at?

And it's going to be Bessmer, and I haven't heard anything else.

And we just discussed that.

So thank you very much for your time.

Thanks, Chris.

Who's next?

Right.

I um I think that's all.

Thank you for for being up there.

Um Chairman Borkin, can I ask you to come forward, please?

I did not be done.

I could have.

I could um one of the things that that you have told me is um y'all are y'all would be acquiring the right-of-way uh in Laurel Hill Park.

Yes, sir.

So we that would be the respect.

That would the county would take possession of that through the eminent domain process, and so we would have that, and I think right now what we're talking about is gonna be limited access, so no curb cuts, right, and potential deed restrictions.

But in the event the end of all this, we would like to convey it to the town of Mount Pleasant, so y'all would have ultimate dominion over it to do it.

Which we would like.

Um I didn't used to think we did, but now we do.

Um we want that, we want control of that.

So um uh our attorney and I um did some looking at um at Laurel Hill Park.

Mr.

Muller uh left it in charitable trust with Wells Fargo as the trustee.

When I was the executive director of the Low Country Land Trust doing conservation easements for a decade, um I dealt with them.

And the problem at that time is there are three income beneficiaries of that, and and and it got very messy and we couldn't get anywhere um with an easement.

You heard tonight that Matt Williams, who has that same position at the land trust, said they will reach out and work with them to put it under a conservation easement.

But um besides the fact that um according to our attorney that Mr.

Muller's trust says uh we heard the the language tonight, I forget who read it, but it's supposed to be left as natural uh as possible, doesn't say you can't do anything there as natural as possible.

There's that um there is a trustee who is responsible for seeing to Mr.

Muller's wishes, and that's Wells Fargo.

It is under a 99-year lease to Charleston County Parks, is that's my understanding, yes.

Okay.

So Charleston County Parks is not a developer, right?

They they can't probably can't transfer that interest, so it's it has that protection.

And you're gonna deed restrict the access road so there are no curb cuts to it, and if everything goes well, the whole thing will be under a conservation easement.

And I asked a question of Mr.

Williams at the land trust.

I said, Does the fact that one percent of that part, because there's a thing called conservation value, and when you are a land trust, you have limited resources, limited time, and you have to defend an easement in perpetuity.

And so I asked him, if if we were just coming to you with something like this, and we had 741 acres, and 1.3% of it was gonna have a two-lane restricted road through there, would that cancel out the conservation values and make you walk away?

And he said, absolutely not.

And that's why they're gonna pursue this.

And I see um Mr.

Maynard was it with the Southern Environmental Law Center.

Um in y'all's opinion, does this road that takes 1.3% of it, does it spoil the park completely to where it's not worth conserving anymore?

We don't think so.

Okay.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mayor, if I may add, I mean, we convey this road over to the town of Mount Pleasant.

Y'all are free to restrict it any way you want to.

Which we which we definitely would.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Oh, I have a question.

Yes, sorry.

So is it a 99-year lease or is it no is it multiple leases?

Um I've not looked at the four 25 year leases or one ninety-nine year lease.

We're calling it 99 year lease.

Oh, calling and oh no, sure.