Roofer in West Ashley, SC

CHARLESTON — Fencing and yellow caution tape already surround part of a West Ashley shopping center, where construction on the long-awaited redevelopment project along Sam Rittenberg Boulevard will finally begin after a ceremony planned by city officials and developers on May 7.

The overall proposal covers 35 acres that combines the larger Ashley Landing shopping center and a vacant lot across Sumar Street where a Piggly Wiggly once stood. Plans call for more than 6 acres of green space, a four- to five-story apartment complex with 285 units, 100 townhomes and 240,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.

"We're addressing what people have been wanting there," said Councilman William Tinkler, who represents the district where the site is located. He called the investment completely unprecedented for West Ashley, home to more than 40 percent of the city's population.

Demolition of part of the existing shopping center will kick off the construction. This will make way for a new Publix. The grocery chain is currently located across the parking lot in the middle of the planned development.

Publix will remain open during construction, as will many retail and commercial spaces along the periphery of the shopping center.

The same can't be said for the Crunch Fitness or Charleston Stage's West Ashley Theatre Center, which are also slated for demolition.

The theater production company preforms at the city-owned Dock Street Theatre downtown, but rehearses and holds classes and programs at the West Ashley location.

The developer behind the shopping center's upgrade is renovating a vacant 10,000-square-foot space for Charleston Stage in the same development, according to Marybeth Clark, the company's artistic director.

"We're not going away," Clark said. But there will be a pause in their fall classes as they wait for the new location to be complete, she said. The new space will feature more studios, office space and theater seating than they have currently.

"Ultimately, we will have a beautiful new space in a beautiful new center," said Clark, who hopes to be in the new location by the start of next year. "Between now and then, it will be inconvenient."

West Ashley project a longtime coming

People visiting the shopping center should expect to be "inconvenienced for the next few years," Tinkler said. But once the dust of construction settles, he believes the "vibrant community" left behind will be worth the wait.

The city and county are both planning improvements to traffic around the site, which Tinkler said is one of the biggest complaints for residents who live nearby. He hopes the investment will encourage additional traffic mitigation from state authorities.

"This is revitalization," Tinkler said. "We're finally realizing plans that were envisioned 20 years ago."

Back then, his father sat on City Council, and every councilman since has pushed for redevelopment of the area, he said.

Past proposals ground to a halt as council failed to come to a consensus last year about what to do with the smaller former Piggly Wiggly site the city bought in 2017. When Mayor William Cogswell took office, he began courting developers with deeper pockets to tackle the larger redevelopment effort.

The overall plan will cost taxpayers an estimated $48 million, with another $300 million investment from Edens, a Columbia-based real estate company that owns properties in Mount Pleasant, Kiawah, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and California.

Edens purchased the Ashley Landing shopping center in October for more than $38 million, and in December paid the city $1.1 million for the 3-acre Piggly Wiggly parcel, according to county property records. That's nearly $2 million less than the city paid for the property in 2017.

The city also changed how it approves development along the busy commercial corridor in order to fast track the project. The property sits in a tax-increment financing district, or TIF district, which the city is relying on to fund its portion of the site's public infrastructure. That will include $10 million for affordable housing; $9.6 million for public streets and right of ways; $4.7 million for parks and green space; $1 million for a 3,000-square-foot community space; and $13 million for stormwater infrastructure.

A TIF essentially allows municipalities to borrow against future tax revenue generated from improvements to blighted properties and reinvest it back into the district. The West Ashley TIF was created eight years ago, and according to county tax records, still hasn't accrued any revenue. If the city doesn't issue any bonds within the next two years, then the TIF expires.

If all goes to plan, construction is slated to complete in 2028.

Reach Ali Rockett at 843-901-1708. Follow her on Twitter @AliRockettPC.

Downtown Charleston is about to temporarily lose its main library for renovations, but it’s gaining a major gap: a used bookstore.

The Charleston Friends of the Library is moving its stockpile of thousands of books from its operations on Calhoun Street to Citadel Mall in West Ashley, where the volunteers will organize donations to sell on a daily basis.

It means no more having to wait weeks between pop-ups to pick up a bargain book, although Friends of the Library executive director Leah Donaldson said there’ll still be plenty of events that locals have come to love.

The move comes as the main library at 68 Calhoun St. takes its turn on the docket as the 13th library up for renovations thanks to $108.5 million referendum passed in 2014.

“We thought if we have to move everything out temporarily anyway, let’s try a retail space,” Donaldson said. “We have a lot of great independent bookstores in Charleston and surrounding counties, so obviously there is a market of refer readers here.”

The store fills the particular hole in the market for used bookstores, especially after local shop Mr. K’s closed its doors in North Charleston in 2023 after 11 years.

“That was like a death,” Donaldson said. “So I think we're filling a niche here, sort of county wide, but also in West Ashley where you don't have any other used bookstore.”

The Friends of the Library store was to hold a soft opening April 7 right near the mall's center court and Medical University of South Carolina outpost. Hours for now will run Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Following the nonprofit’s “Big Book Sale” June 5-8 at Omar Shrine Auditorium in Mount Pleasant, the entire sorting room will be then moved to Citadel Mall for a grand opening, Donaldson said. At that point, she’ll announce how to donate or volunteer to support the program.

Charleston Friends of the Library funds more than 7,000 programs annually at the Charleston County Library with its events — most notably its short-term book sales supplied by donations from Lowcountry residents.

“We’re doing it this way because while we have extensive experience in selling books at book sales, we’ve never done retail, which is a little bit of a different animal,” Donaldson said, adding the store is entirely volunteer-run. “We want to make sure we give our teams enough time to get up to speed and fix whatever snags we hit.”

The new store will be dual purposed with retail space for a variety of genres, be it fiction, non-fiction and children's books in the front. The back of the site will serve as storage and a sorting room for donations.

“The space is going to be packed to the gills,” Donaldson said with a laugh. “Anyone who says people don't read books anymore, I'm like, ‘Well, come out to a brewery on a Saturday and check out how many people are buying these books.’”

As every discount book sells, backroom stock will be moved up in replacement, making the collection ever-changing.

“I’m a huge used bookstore person and for me browsing is part of the fun,” Donaldson said. “There will be organization but there’ll be opportunity to browse and explore and find your next cool read.”

Kristi Tolley, marketing and specialty leasing manager for Citadel Mall, said the shopping center is looking forward to the new tenant.

“This addition brings a valuable community resource to our visitors and complements our current mix of local tenants,” Tolley said. “The Charleston Friends of the Library offers a unique service for the Charleston community, and we are excited to see how shoppers will engage with this new offering.”

The main library’s renovations will conclude plans more than a decade in the works after the $108.5 million referendum passed by a three-to-one margin.

With the funding, 13 existing Charleston County libraries were earmarked for renovations and five new ones have since been built.

The Wando Mount Pleasant Library was the first new branch to open in 2019. The four others now in full operation are on James Island, West Ashley, Hollywood Library and North Charleston.

Also, five regional branches and smaller branches were renovated.

Whatever referendum funding is left over will go to the overhaul of the 27-year-old main library, said Angela Craig, the library system's executive director. She envisions updating floorplans for better programming in the space and meeting technology needs, but her big wish is to invest in the youth area.

“Right now the children’s area and the teen area get a lot of love, and the teen area was put in years after the building opened," she said. “ So it’s definitely served its purpose.”

The county is working with locally based Liollio Architecture for the renovations. A timeline had not been determined as of April 7, library spokesperson Doug Reynolds said.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The Charleston County Planning Commission will be taking another look at a potential rezoning for a farmland property to allow for a multi-family residential community.

The 10-acre Storybook Farm property sits at the intersection of Bees Ferry Road and Bear Swamp Road and is currently zoned R-4, which allows for 4 homes per acre. If the rezone were to happen, it would be changed to the Storybook Farm Planned Development and would allow up to 144 housing units total.

The plans say that this will be a condominium community and include six four-story buildings with 24 units in each.

At the initial presentation to the planning commission in February, the proposal said that Storybook Farm is designed to meet the demand for both workforce and market-rate housing, with a focus on the “missing middle” price point.

The developer said that the units would be for sale only, not for rent with a goal of keeping prices attainable. He said the starting price point could be $300,000.

Proposed plans also say that 5% of the units would be deed-restricted as workforce housing, which means that those units would remain attainable even if market prices increase over time.

The proposal also includes amenities that tie in the farm property’s features. Those include a farmstand gathering space where residents will be able to purchase produce as well as community gardens where residents can grow their own plants and vegetables.

Other amenities proposed include a dog park, walking trails and enhanced parking and access for Light of Christ Ministries Church, which sits next to the property.

West Ashley resident LaDon Paige says she has lived off of Bees Ferry Road for almost 20 years and is not against development, but would like to see it done responsibly.

“I just don’t know that increasing density is going to do us any favors. We have a lot of traffic already, there are concerns with that. There is concern about losing greenspace,” Paige says. “There is already zoning in place in R-4. I am opposed to rezoning that. I think there could be better uses for that property. I don’t know what the county could do. I mean, maybe even a fire station would be great. We have that small little fire station for St Andrews, but that would be something that would not allow as much density, would not allow as much traffic, but could also be an asset to the entire community.”

Angie Murto, another long-time West Ashley resident and local realtor, says she believes that the area could support homes with the current R-4 zoning, but that the number of units proposed in the planned development is too much.

“They have the R-4 zoning there for single-family homes, four per acre, which I think we can handle that. When we’re trying to do the multi-family, I just think it’s too much density for that area,” Murto says. “As a realtor I am looking at the market all the time and you know we want development cause we need it and Charleston is a very hot place to move to but we need to do it responsibly and pay attention to the infrastructure and make sure we have enough resources for those who are coming here and those who already live here.”

Justin James grew up in West Ashley and says he has long-term concerns if more development is brought to the area.

“What is traffic going to look like right? What is all of this going to look like 10, 15 years from now? I’m going to tell you, if you think today is terrible with the amount of kids to one teacher in a classroom. If you think it’s terrible trying to get I-526 to I-26 and get to your job on time by 7:30 or 8 a.m. without leaving three hours early, it’s just going to get worse,” James says.

The public is able to fill out a survey about the potential rezoning up until April 10. You can find the link to it here.

This rezoning will be brought before the planning commission again on April 14.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Charleston County School District staff could shift certain operations in West Ashley as families begin to feel the impacts of current and projected city growth.

The City of Charleston reported a total population of 162,499 in 2024, with 71,648 people located in West Ashley. This nearly doubles the peninsula, sitting at 36,867.

City leaders project West Ashley to reach 1 million inhabitants within the next few decades with changes in commercial and residential development on the way.

“Most of the complaints I’ve heard have been related to the mobility issue, the inability to move. When you go places, it is very crowded,” Board of Trustees member Leah Whatley said.

West Ashley sits within Constituent District 10 and is the foundation for 10 schools.

Families within public education say the increase in traffic holds a trickle-down effect. One parent, with children in third and fourth grade, said the traffic can impact their students’ route to school by doubling the drive times. This can lead to issues with tiredness and interfere with extracurricular activities.

“It goes well beyond West Ashley; the growth throughout Charleston County has affected a number of our schools. With traffic to and from school, it’s affected bus routes and the duration of time people are on buses. We’ve seen it across the district, West Ashley has been rising as of late,” Chief Operating Officer Jeff Borowy said.

The district believes increasing bus ridership could be a mediator. The district is among the few with a large number of bus drivers, but Borowy said the students on board only fit half the capacity.

Borowy said any student on a late bus would not be penalized, and the district records which buses are consistently tardy to monitor “hot spots.”

“The ultimate goal is to want parents to be comfortable and safe and say, ‘I’m going to put my kid on the bus, I’m good to go’ to reduce the number of cars on the road,” Borowy said.

Parents suggested in the summer of 2024 and again in March 2025 that the district consider building a new school or redrawing district lines to allow zoning that eases transportation concerns.

The district is not considering either option because none of the schools are at a point of overcapacity.

“When I moved here 11 years ago, I was told right away, ‘You’ve got to build a new school on Savannah Long, because the kids are coming.’ The homes are not there. We would have had an empty school if we built one back in the day,” Borowy said.

Borowy said there is property, formerly the C.E. Williams Middle School, to use as a backup if space is needed to build a new school. The district would also consider the Savannah Long property near Drayton Hall as a short-term expansion option.

The district is offering community input for projects in a special buildings funding program through 2029.

If needed, Borowy said any project within the new program could be started two years before. The master plan will be released in Spring 2026.

“The school district isn’t directly responsible for the roads’ situation. We don’t have the authority to widen roads or add additional roads,” Whatley said. “These days, everyone is frustrated by the traffic. If something goes wrong in the area, it creates a nightmare for everybody.”

Whatley expects to bring the topic up through a board discussion and public comment period in April.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.

When Charleston annexed Long Savannah in 2007, the massive planned subdivision came with promises of developer-funded roads.

That was meant to alleviate concerns about the congestion that would come with the city’s biggest expansion since Daniel Island.

Nearly two decades later, the 4,500-home development is finally on the way — but without the “h” in “Savanna,” as The Post and Courier’s Teri Errico Griffis notes.

And without any new roads.

As Griffis recently reported, there are nearly 6,000 new housing units planned for the outer rim of Charleston’s largest suburb. Which is scary.

That's because there are no accompanying plans for new highways or parkways to handle all the new traffic that will follow. Studies suggest that many houses will add thousands of car trips to existing roads every day.

Locals are rightly concerned.

In the past few years, West Ashley has grown three times as fast as the national average, as anyone who drives around the area knows. Look at the numbers.

The S.C. Department of Transportation’s average daily traffic count for Savannah Highway between Interstate 526 and Savage Road rose by 5,000 cars — to nearly 57,000 — between 2021 and 2023.

At the same time, Glenn McConnell Parkway and S.C. Highway 61 are up 4,000 cars each.

More than 20% of West Ashley roads are over-capacity already, and all this new building isn't going to help. In fact, it’s about to bring the bustling suburb to a standstill.

There’s little DOT can do here — Savannah Highway and 61 can’t be widened, and Glenn McConnell recently got a decent upgrade. Plans call for intersection improvements throughout the area, and barriers to prohibit left-hand turns to keep traffic flowing.

Some local officials have encouraged more mass transit, and suggested more people walk or ride bikes. But Savannah Highway is dangerous enough for people in cars — a disturbing number of people often don't even brake for its numerous red lights.

All this uncertainty and overcrowding adds to the consternation of residents. They are griping pretty loudly, which is understandable.

But they also rejected plans to extend 526 onto Johns Island, which would have gotten an estimated 15,000 cars off West Ashley roads every day. Don’t expect to see those plans resurface again anytime soon.

So what’s a growing Charleston suburb to do?

Lacking any better alternatives, many folks simply blame local officials for allowing all this development without the accompanying infrastructure. Sometimes that’s even appropriate.

South Carolina is a state that foolishly doesn’t require necessary infrastructure to be in place before development like, say, Georgia.

But many of these plans — including Long Savanna, which accounts for 75% of the new homes planned for West Ashley — were approved years ago, back when the region was hungry for an expanded tax base … and long before serious gridlock was an issue.

There's one solution, which Charleston County Councilman and West Ashley native Brantley Moody explains quite well.

“Eighty-four percent of our residents leave West Ashley at 7:30 every morning and come back at 5 p.m. The longer they have to commute, it keeps exacerbating our traffic problems,” he says. “I’m an infill guy. I believe we need to build where there’s already infrastructure, where people have grocery stores, shops and restaurants nearby, even within walking distance.”

The site of the former Ryan’s restaurant and Food Lion on St. Andrew’s Boulevard (Highway 61) is the sort of redevelopment Moody is talking about.

Developers want to convert that property, just a couple of miles from downtown on a well-established thoroughfare, into a mixed-use development.

You know, like the Sumar Street plan, which the city of Charleston is shepherding along off Sam Rittenberg Boulevard. Which is an infinitely better idea than continuing to throw up new houses toward Jacksonboro.

“Somebody redevelop the Chuck E. Cheese, somebody build at Citadel Mall,” Moody says. “This is where our new development belongs.”

Not, he says, along Church Creek — where more homes only increase flooding … which in turn requires expensive fixes that take money away from other infrastructure.

The county is helping the St. Andrews Fire Department build a new station near the creek, which redevelops a property that otherwise might've been filled with dozens of new single-family homes.

That’s smart. The city and county need to do more to discourage development in such areas, mostly by encouraging it in places in serious need of suburban renewal.

All it takes is a private developer with a lot of capital and a little vision … and it really doesn’t even take much of that. West Ashley has already proved it's a popular choice for new residents.

But if its traffic woes continue, that won’t always be the case.