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MOUNT PLEASANT — Requests to rezone a property in the heart of a historic Black community in Mount Pleasant to accommodate a 41-home subdivision have been scrapped. After years of revisions, opposition and meager support, the Hamlin Acres Planned Development, which asked for a rezoning of the property to allow for higher-density housing, was withdrawn on Oct. 21, days before it was set to be heard before Charleston County’s Planning Committee.
The project quickly became unpopular with residents of Hamlin Beach when it was first proposed in 2018. Hamlin is a historic Black settlement community with roots dating back to the late 1800s. Today's Top Headlines Story continues below He was a key player in New York's punk scene.
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Mount Pleasant taco restaurant suddenly closes less than 2 years after opening A petition signed by 268 people called on county officials to deny the request for rezoning earlier this year. “We, the undersigned, are concerned landowners and citizens who urge our elected leaders to help protect and save the Settlement Communities in Charleston County from over development,” a statement at the top of the petition stated. Proposed Mount Pleasant subdivision would destroy character of settlement community, opponents say Critiques of the project included disrupting the neighborhood’s character and that the subdivision, which would have been built atop nearly an acre of freshwater wetlands, would exacerbate flooding.
The current zoning of the parcel allows for up to three single-family homes per acre. Other uses for the land include a library, community recreation and a community garden. At a public hearing for the zoning request in August, Paragano indicated that if the county did not approve the planned development, Nova Development, LLC would likely move ahead with plans to build fewer homes with septic tanks on the 13.
5 acre parcel, rather than the 41 homes with water and sewer supplied by Mount Pleasant Waterworks. "I hate to say it, but it's going to be one or the other. It's either going to be the 41 lots .
.. or we will do 24 or 25 septic tank lots,” Paragano told council members in August.
"I thought that it would make sense to bring sewer and water and help the people that have failed systems." 10 Mile community near Awendaw further protected with 'historic' rezoning The Hamlin Beach community is tucked behind Rifle Range Road in Mount Pleasant, though is not technically part of the town and is in unincorporated Charleston County. According to the county's zoning map, the property is zoned a special management district.
That zoning allows only three units to be built per acre, with a minimum lot size of 12,500 square feet. The planned development requested that the minimum lot size be amended to 5,500 square feet, slightly increasing the density, and to allow for construction on wetlands. Comments from county zoning staff noted the smaller lot sizes and increased density don't align with the existing development patterns of the parcels along Hamlin Road.
They recommended that council not approve the rezoning request. After the August public hearing, the county's planning committee was slated to review the request for the planned development. The item was deferred twice before it was finally withdrawn on October 21.
County spokesperson Chloe Field said no reason was provided to the county for pulling the application. "There isn't a maximum number of times an applicant can defer, but a withdrawal is a separate matter and can't return to Council in the same way a deferral can. The applicant would have to start the process from the beginning with an application submission to Zoning and Planning," Field said.
Paragano did not respond to questions about future plans for the property and the reason for withdrawing the application. Phillips is first SC settlement community listed on National Register of Historic Places As the developers pursued the subdivision, members of the Hamlin Beach Community were seeking a historic district designation . The distinction, which county council has yet to approve, would offer some protection from future developments.
Hamlin Beach would become the fourth settlement community in the county to earn the historic district designation, following in the footsteps of Phillips in Mount Pleasant, Beefield in James Island, and Ten Mile in Awendaw. "The Hamlin Beach Community maintains the history and culture of the founders and families of freed post-civil war Africans who were enslaved," Community President Myra Snipes-Richardson wrote in the application for historic designation. This designation would add extra scrutiny to future developments in and near the Hamlin community.
The Historic Preservation Commission would review development plans and zoning changes that would impact the community. A public hearing for the historic designation request is planned for Nov. 21.
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