On Tuesday, after a recommendation from the planning committee, The Mount Pleasant Town Council approved a rezoning of 12 acres along Park Avenue Blvd, to be developed into a new attainable housing district for a maximum of 100 housing units.
Residences will be single-family, three-bedroom units priced between $300,000 to $400,000 and restricted to buyers earning between 80% to 150% of the area median income ($77,750 to $145,800).
The development’s impact findings were presented to the planning commission during a meeting on February 21st.
Conceptual site plan
The Charleston County School District anticipates little impact to Thomas Cario Middle and Wando High Schools from the potential development however, they expect a moderate impact to Carolina Park Elementary School until the expansion is completed which they anticipate to be sooner than January 2025.
Thomas & Hutton, the development’s traffic engineering consultant, expect the zoning change for attainable housing will result in a development that generates less traffic than most land uses allowed under the previous zoning.
Despite these findings, a large majority of residents attending Tuesday’s meeting expressed strong opposition to the proposed housing development and called for a more thorough impact study. They wanted to clarify that they are not against attainable housing, but are concerned about how the development could affect traffic and overcrowding in schools located in the Carolina Park area.
Proposed features
The residents who advocated for the project explained that attainable housing allows for a stronger workforce in your town. Denise Marie Fugo, the executive director of Housing for All - Mt. Pleasant, gave an example stating if you want to live in a world-class city, you need to house the people serving the residents.
“They’re teachers, they’re nurses, they’re policemen, they’re technicians at the hospital," she said. "They can’t afford to live here.”
