Aquatics Center – Windsor Hill Boulevard Development-
Storm Water Drainage Initiatives – Dorchester County Road Improvements ?
Aquatics Center Update – Yes, that was site work surveying going on last week at the Aquatics Center development site, at Patriot Boulevard and Appian Way. This project still has some documentation hoops to maneuver through, but our city and Dorchester District 2 Schools are committed to move it along. Site planning is under way and our mayor has shown Council building design concepts. It’ll be a $21 million facility with Olympic-sized features and programs aimed at swimming instruction and swim competitions. There will be ample general public access. A new ingress-egress for the school will be created and the center will utilize parking at Fort Dorchester High school, and there are fresh thoughts that the planned Dorchester County Library Commission’s new North Charleston branch might be located nearby. I’ll keep you informed and we hope to have a completion timetable soon.
New Subdivision – For many years, the Cathedral of Praise Church has owned an old borrow-pit land footprint at the end of Windsor Hill Boulevard, bounding the Indigo Palms community. The property currently is zoned for multi-family residential and limited business. But the Lennar company is finalizing an application for a planned development district to cover a 199 single family homes buildout. The site covers about 70 acres, but development will be limited and defined by environmental features such as designated wetlands, walking areas and playground areas. The Lennar firm’s representatives and consultants have been responsive to city concerns about grand tree preservation and drainage system designs. One immediate concern is traffic flows along Windsor Hill Boulevard and especially light sequencing at Ashley Phosphate Road. Another is incremental runoff volumes into the McChune Branch storm water drainage courses. Federal and state regulators are still permitting the project, but design details so far show high-capacity deeper draft wet ponds. The Indigo Palms homeowners association’s officers have reviewed the conceptual plans and will highlight the drawings at the association’s annual meeting Saturday, March 11. The site abuts major wetlands footprints and is about 900 feet east of the Coosaw Creek Country Club wetlands. The planned development district application will be heard first by our city’s Planning Commission and then by city council. This process should begin in April. Here are links to a rendering of this work-in-progress….
Here for the rendering.………………………………..Or here for the high resolution source.
McChune Branch – We are hearing more about this important natural drainage infrastructure after seven major rain events over the past 17 months. It is not just important, it is strategically imperative. Some have claimed that constraints within this runoff course are primarily the cause of flooding events in Pepperhill and threats to Coosaw Creek and Indigo Palms homes. I have repeatedly asked via this newsletter and at public meetings for any factual evidence of McChune Branch efficacy issues. I have received none. But the city and its consultants are in constant touch with state and federal agencies and routinely monitor McChune Branch. This has led to two planned improvements.
One involves design improvements to an old roadway right-of-way on Collins Farm property, east of Palmetto Commerce Parkway. This has been documented as a capacity flow constraint during very heavy rains, thus slowing runoffs upstream into Pepperhill and possibly Coosaw Creek and Indigo Palms. The “Collins Road project“ will be replacing two existing 42-inch diameter pipes crossing under Collins Road with two 10’ x 8’ box culverts – a significant capacity expansion and a more easily maintained bridging. City engineers seem assured this will improve runoffs, particularly in heavy rain events. The project is currently in design and permitting. It will cost about $400,000 and will be jointly financed by our city, Charleston County and – very interestingly – the City of Charleston’s water company.
Another design constraint is the 60-plus-year-old Highway 78 bridge, just west of the Interstate 26 interchange. As one engineer declared to Council, the bridge is “designed for volumes in the Fifties.” A rebuild with a greater horizontal span and higher clearance is in design. The project is included in Charleston County’s new “half-cent” sales tax transportation funding program.
I will keep everyone posted on both projects and again invite any other evidence of efficacy issues related to McChune Branch runoff courses. In the meanwhile, a reminder to owners association officers that privately owned drainage systems must be maintained to assure the efficacy of storm water runoff systems, especially drainage wetlands heavily damaged by fallen trees during Hurricane Matthew. This maintenance responsibility is often overlooked in the fiduciary formulas, but drainage is not just a quality-of-life factor, it is a private values determinant. I’ll be glad to resend the best practice maintenance documents I circulated last summer. Just contact me.
Dorchester County Road Plans? – County councilmen have been discussing a new county road improvements program. Projects would be funded by a new one-cent countywide sales tax that would be proposed to voters. District 4 projects discussed conceptually include widening and resurfacing of Wescott Boulevard, widening of Patriot Boulevard and general improvements to Windsor Hill Boulevard. To be very clear, there are no firm plans and timetables, but kudos to our Councilman Larry Hargett for joining his colleagues in the formulation of a rational proposal for taxpayers.
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Please always contact me at rbrin@aol.com for information or to share your comments and counsel.
