Town Council - Special Meeting

All right. Good morning, everybody. Let's get committee day started. Hope everybody had a great 4th of July and that you woke up on Sunday with a love for America, your family and friends, and most importantly, 10 fingers still on your hands. This is bids and purchases 815 agenda item number one, call to order, which we've just done. Number two is approval of minutes from the June 1st, 2026 meeting. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. And those minutes are approved. Item number three is public comments. Is there anybody who would like to speak to this board? Going once, twice. All right, public comment is closed. Item number four, award of a contract for the design of intersection improvements at Venning Road and Hungry Neck Boulevard. Ms. Harness.

Okay, it looks like we have a jumble of the slides in here, sorry.

No problem. I think we're on the public services committee on the board. There we go.

That doesn't make sense.

No, it doesn't.

I appreciate it, Noah. All right. Item number four, award of a contract for the design of intersection improvements at Venning Road and Hungry Neck Boulevard. Ms. Harness.

Yes, thank you. Good morning. The Bids and Purchases Committee previously approved the establishment of agreements with consultants to perform various types of transportation, engineering, and development services on an on-call basis. Design services are needed for the Venning Road and Hungry Neck Boulevard intersection projects. this project includes field surveys to determine accurate elevations and locations of existing facilities the development of preliminary plans and construction plans to illustrate the alignment grades cross sections construction limits relevant dimensions and location of existing features and proposed improvements traffic signal design and plans Additionally, it includes the development of drainage calculations a stormwater design report stormwater pollution prevention plan and erosion control plan is necessary to facilitate permitting of the construction plans for this project. The time required for design and permitting is approximately 365 days. Staff have determined that this project will require the services of HDR Engineering Incorporated of the Carolinas to design the intersection improvements for this project. Therefore, staff recommend contracting with HDR Engineering Incorporated of the Carolinas in the amount of $133,720.68 to provide the design services.

Thank you. Let's get a motion and get this on the table.

Move to approve. Second.

All right. So we've got it on the table. Any questions from committee members?

No, I'd just like to make one comment. As I was coming in this morning after July 4th weekend, I realized how fortunate we are and grateful that we live in a town that's had previous leadership and staff that allow us to be able to pass on programs like this. There's many times in meeting at municipal government that there's plenty of places that don't have the good fortune to do that. So we're blessed and should be grateful that we have the opportunity.

Ms. Crosby, anything?

Yes, I just wanted to note, I think this would be a significant improvement for this intersection. I drive through it pretty frequently, and that Venning Road approach to Hungry Neck often stacks up past the driveway of the gas station, which is at the top right-hand corner of that slide. I think separating that straight traffic from a right turn will definitely help that intersection flow. And so appreciate staff's work on that. Let's go ahead and take the vote. All those in favor of awarding the contract, signify by saying aye. Aye. All right. And that carries three to zero. Moves us to item number five, award of a contract for the construction of the Ferry Street and Pitt Street Inlet conversion. Ms. Harness.

Yes. The Bids and Purchases Committee previously approved the establishment of agreements with contractors to perform various types of stormwater repair and rehabilitation services on an on-call basis. This project will convert the existing great inlet to a curb inlet to improve drainage performance and reduce the likelihood of debris related blockages. The project was initiated in response to recurring flooding of the intersection caused by debris clogging the existing inlet. Additional project goals include repaving the intersection to facilitate stormwater flow to the new inlet and installing a crosswalk at a high pedestrian traffic crossing to improve safety and accessibility.

Move to approve. We have a motion and a second. Oh.

That's okay. I'm not quite done. Yeah, keep going. The time required for this project is approximately 90 days. Staff have determined that this project will require the services of IPW Construction Group, LLC. Therefore, staff recommend contracting with IPW in the amount of $185,529.84 to provide the inlet conversion.

All right. We have a motion and a second. So this item is on the table. Any questions or comments from committee members?

This appears to be primarily stormwater, correct? Correct. Well, it's a great area to do it in. Well, not a great area. It's an area that has a lot of problems. And many people walk it and use it every day. And it does at some times completely flood. We've had people up waist deep trying to clear that, which is quite an interruption. So that's a good use of the funds.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Tinkey. Ms. Crosby, anything? All right. Let's go ahead and call for the vote on this. All those in favor of awarding the contract, signify by saying aye. Aye. And that carries 3-0. On to item number six, award of a contract for the Queens Court stormwater pipe replacement. Ms. Harness.

Yes, the bids and purchases committee previously approved the establishment of agreements with contractors to perform various types of stormwater repair and rehab services on an on call basis. This project includes removing approximately 230 linear feet of existing eight inch concrete stormwater pipe and replacing it with 24 inch HP storm pipe to improve drainage. This project was initiated in response to reports of non-structural flooding and confirmed pipe damage due to root intrusion. The time required for this project is approximately 90 days. Staff have determined that this project will require the services of IPW Construction Group, LLC. Therefore, staff recommend contracting with IPW in the amount of $190,140.68 to remove and replace the stormwater pipe.

Alright, let's get this on the table. Is there a motion?

Second.

Alright, we have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments from committee members? OK, let's go ahead and call for the vote. All those in favor of awarding this contract signify by saying aye. Aye. And that carries three to zero. And one more agenda item with drainage improvements, which is a definite theme this morning. Award of a change order for the design and permitting services for the Dobre and Alhambra Basins drainage improvements.

Yes, the town previously contracted with Thomason Hutton to provide survey and wetland delineation for the Alhambra, Dobre, and Saltgrass Point Basins drainage improvements project. Since the initial contract, Thomason Hutton has provided general consulting, survey phase, wetland delineation, and SUE evaluations for these basins. Staff have now determined that full design and permitting are needed for the Alhambra and Dobre basins. This design will include an additional topographic survey, development of existing conditions, hydrologic and hydraulic models, preliminary design, geotechnical evaluation, final design, and construction plans, as well as utility coordination and permitting services for all required federal, state, and local agencies. The time required for this project is approximately 440 days. Staff therefore request approval to award a change order to Thomason Hutton in the amount of $373,900 to complete full design and permitting for the Alhambra and Daubray drainage basins.

Great. And let's get this on the table. Is there a motion?

Move to approve.

Second. All right. We have it on the table. Any questions or comments from committee members?

Just would ask Mr. Mitchell a question on this. Mister Mitchell is this the same. Project that we have the funding for that was all that we hopefully are getting back or is this a different one for the Edwards based on this is a different base and it's it's okay.

We're still waiting. This one has a different source to it.

So with the questions from the neighbors, the response to them as we're starting this is we're improving your drainage in your area. They won't see it right now because it's just the survey, but this is improving your drainage in your areas.

Without question, this will be a capacity upgrade, and it will significantly help that whole area through there. And we're not just going to upgrade the line that you're seeing. We're actually going to do some improvements that are going to be offline from this to bring water to the system.

And if this goes through, when will this work start?

Well, right now, we've got a grant deadline of September 2027 for permitting. We will be requesting what we currently are requesting an extension to the grant right now. So it's probably going to be 2028 by the time construction starts.

Very good. Thank you.

Any additional questions or comments? All right, let's go ahead and vote on this one. All in favor of awarding this change order for the design and permitting services signify by saying aye. Aye. And that carries three to zero. And with that, we are adjourned.

And welcome to the Finance Committee meeting this morning. My name is Howard Chapman and I'll be chairing the meeting. I've done the call to order. The next item on the agenda is approval of minutes from the April 6, 2026 meeting.

Mr. Chair, move to approve.

Second. Motion made and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none, call for the question. All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Ayes have it. Next item is public comments. Anyone here for public comments, please give us your name, address. We have two and a half minutes. Seeing none, we'll move on to item number four, which is consideration of lease renewal for the Visitor Center and Sweetgrass Pavilion. Ms. Harness.

Good morning. So the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, or CVB, has operated both the Mount Pleasant Visitor Center and the Sweetgrass Cultural Arts Pavilion for the past 17 years. The 15-year original lease and two-year extension recently expired last month. A lease renewal would continue this successful partnership as CVB does a good job of operating these facilities at Memorial Waterfront Park. The current financial terms for both facilities would continue as is and are listed here. And therefore, staff recommends approving a five-year lease extension through 2031 with the five-year renewal option at the end of that term. Since this agreement requires a new ordinance be approved, we are looking for a recommendation from committee back to town council on this lease renewal.

Thank you. Any other questions from Ms. Harnes?

We have a motion. I move to recommend the council approval of the five-year lease extension.

Second. Motion made and seconded to move forward with the five-year lease extension. Any discussions on the motion?

I would just say, Mr. Chapman, we did the Explore Charleston lunch a week and a half together and got a great report, of course, from them and how much they do for our kind of community at large and in Mount Pleasant in particular with the visitor center here. I think they do a great job and I'm excited to recommend this to council for that purpose.

Great. Any other discussion? I'd like to point out that during the ATACS meeting that we had earlier this year, we discussed with the CVB how they could help some of our groups that were requesting funds for things just like the CVB does, which is provide information to the public about what's going on, number one. But number two, they can also help with distributing materials for various groups that are in the town. So this is a great thing for us and it's kind of an extension of what the city of Charleston did in 1991 when they started a very significant visitor center with the city of Charleston and it's worked out very well. So I'm glad we have this here in Mount Pleasant to project what's available here for not only for the groups that were with ATACS, but also visitors coming in. I mean, it's an easy stop to learn what's going on throughout the whole Charleston community. So I'm very happy that we're extending this. Any other discussion? Hearing none, we move for a call for approval. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. There is no further business for finance committee. And next item is to adjourn.

All right.

Five minutes.

Five minutes.

Good job.

Let me call to order the special town council meeting for this Monday, July 6. I want to thank everybody with the town for all of your staff, Mr. DeMora, for all they did over the holiday weekend. had that serious accident. I see we have our fire chief and police chief here and kudos to everybody for the job they did on that end. To our traffic folks, there's Brad. I'm sure that was not a fun day, but I'm glad that everything went as well as it possibly could. Item number two is public comments. If there's anyone here with a public comment, would you please come forward, give your name and address, and you have two and a half minutes. Anyone for public comments?

members of council. My name is Robert volts. I would still want Wall Street in there for happy 32 years. I'm here representing the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League this morning, asking you to encourage the support and support the so called road to compromise regarding planned improvements to Highway 41. This project represents more than nine years of careful planning, extensive community input, and thorough environmental review. While impacting a park is never ideal, the compromise alternative achieves a balance between nature and community while also protecting historic communities and providing necessary infrastructure for reducing congestion, enhancing safety, and providing much-needed bicycle and pedestrian improvements. Ordinarily, Mr. Mayor, we would not be here promoting building a road to violate a county park that provides much-needed green space in our community. But then again, neither would we be advocating widening the country highway through the front yards of families who have been here for generations before the road came. Nor would I encourage us to overlook the pleas of our neighbors, to not disquiet the streets in their neighborhoods with traffic that has followed all of us here. But here we are. This project has undergone extensive environmental review since 2017, examining water quality, endangered species, floodplains, wetlands, historic and cultural resources, and more. This is not a project designed without environmental considerations. This is a project that is a result of environmental considerations. Contrary to some assertions, the data is clear. The parkway will provide necessary relief from congestion on both Highway 41 and Bessemer Road. In fact, these improvements are dependent on construction of Laurel Hill Parkway for the project to function. As traffic models show, the 434 lane structure on 41 requires the parkway to handle divergent traffic. Without it, the county cannot implement those changes because they would be rendered pointless. With the addition of the county's contribution, the state has allocated $60 million to this integrated project. If Baltimore Parkway is abandoned, we risk losing the entire allocation and force Mount Pleasant residents to deal with traffic with no relief in sight. Friends, the road to compromise is not a perfect solution and its prescriptions leave many of us wanting something more or something else. But there is value in the collaborative process that brought us here, and we believe it is the best solution available to us today. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else here for public comment? All right. Public comment is closed. Item number three, administration of oath of office to newly reappointed judges, Judge Kelly Young and Judge Jackson Clear. If you all come forward, I will do the honors.

I do solemnly swear that I am duly qualified according to the Constitution of this state to exercise And that I will, to the best of my ability, discharge those duties and will preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of this state and of the United States. I pledge to uphold the integrity and independence I pledge in the discharge of my views to treat all persons who enter the courtroom with civility, fairness, and respect. I pledge to listen courteously Rule after careful and considerate deliberation. I pledge to seek justice and justice alone. Y'all do a great job for us, and we get, and when we meet as the police, judicial, and legal community center meets, we get compliments. We hear them from citizens, from law enforcement, and from town staff. How great our municipal board is, and I want to thank y'all for your support. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. That concludes item number three. Item four is executive session to receive legal advice related to Charleston County Highway 41 improvements. Do I have a motion to go into executive session for that reason?

So moved, Mr. Mayor. Second.

Any discussion? All right. Before we do that, we have posted that post-executive session, no votes will be taken on executive session items. This is so that our lawyer can give legal advice to everybody at once, but we have to do that in a called meeting with the published agenda. So all in favor of executive session for the reasons given, please say aye. Aye. All right. Motion carries. Where are we going today? Courtroom? Upstairs. As always, no action was taken, no votes were cast, and in keeping with our posted agenda, no votes will be taken on executive session items. It was strictly to have a legal advice and discussion with our attorney. So that moves us to item number six, which is to adjourn the special town council meeting. We stand adjourned.

Good morning. I'm calling the Public Services Committee meeting to order Monday, July 6th, 2026. And before I start this, I'd like to thank the police, public services, and the fire department for a wonderful job over the July 4th, 250th anniversary for keeping us safe for dealing with the challenges and the accidents we had and making it a wonderful weekend for us. With that, could I have approval of the minutes?

Move to approve. Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Motion passes. Any public comments, please? Seeing none, public comments are closed. Employee years of service.

Yes, sir. I have one that it's Dawn Roscoe. She's been with us for five years. She's not available to come to the committee today. So we'll recognize her in-house, but she's a grounds and events foreman and does a phenomenal job for us.

Well, if you'd like to bring her back, that'd be fine, too. We'd be delighted to do it.

Yes, sir.

And now, Mr. Weiss, would you like to take us through the presentation overview of completed public services operations center and administrative building information?

Yes, sir. As you know, we recently completed phase one through three of the Public Services Operations Center out at Six Mile. And what I'm going to do today is kind of give you some background information and then show you kind of what we had before and where we're at now. And you'll see it's night and day, you know. So we started the process of master planning the public services facilities in August of 2018, and we looked at both the Six Mile facility and the Lieben Road facility. The guidance was to design a facility that would last us for 50 years. So we had to look at our current requirements and try to project out future requirements. In saying that, you know, when the master plan was complete and we went to start building, we focused on the six-mile facility because it really is a strategic location for the town being centrally located, and it really allows us to actually provide the services we do in a timely manner. The importance of completing the first three phases there was it allowed us to consolidate the public services department in one location, which we really haven't been able to do in years. When we build it, we plan for future growth. So we've got space to grow into. And, you know, as I said, we broke it into three phases because the challenge for the build, because the challenge was to keep everything operational and functional at the same time while we undertook a big build at the complex. The intent was to make the three phases somewhat concurrent in construction, but we did have a delay on the operations building, but it all worked out in the end. So phase one was the transfer yard, which we completed in July of 2024, and it takes our bulk items and our vegetation items and allows us to collect them weekly and drop them in one spot to be hauled by bigger trucks to the landfill. And we also built a vector pad for dumping the vector truck, which cleans a lot of the stormwater pipes and that at the same location. Second phase was the fleet maintenance building, which again was completed in 2024. And we have four heavy duty bays and six light duty bays, as well as offices and part storage for for the fleet maintenance folks. And the beauty of this building is it's got the ability to expand. We can build another heavy bay and two more light bays as the town grows in the future. And then phase three was the Public Services Operations Center proper, the admin building. And we just completed it in June of 2026. We're still working through a few punch list items, but all in all it's complete. It's a 19,818 square foot facility that really gives us all of our office spaces. There's a training room similar to what's here at Town Hall for the police department, which can double as a backup EOC. If needed, there's an industrial kitchen that would give us the ability to feed the people working storms and such, as well as some small laundry facility for employees during storms, employee fitness centers, conference rooms, and the such. The total cost for the three phases of the project was $39,729,000. And then you can see it's broken down by phases. The transfer yard was a little over $5 million. The fleet maintenance building was $13,769,000. And then the admin building was $20,655,000. Some before and after pictures. This is our backer pit and our transfer yard prior to the new building being built. And this is really what the area looks like now. It's night and day. These videos are way too high speed for me, so I've got smart people that make that happen. Phase two was the fleet maintenance building, and this is what it used to look like. It was across the street from its current location. And this is what we've got now. The office spaces that we had prior to the admin building being built, we were spread across some trailers and some smaller buildings. We crammed a lot of people into some small spaces. The picture on the left shows what the break room and the training room used to look like. The employee gym was in one of the little buildings out there. This is what we have now. The break room is on the left, the training room is in the middle, and one of the conference rooms is on the right. This is what the office space looks like. Here's pictures of the kitchen and the laundry room. Employee fitness center. There's the indoor fitness center and there'll be a small outdoor fitness center as well that employees can get off the truck and try to knock something out quick before getting in their car and going home, not having to change into gym clothes and just being able to stay in their uniform. And this is what the complex looks like now in the end, or where we're at. This video kind of does a decent job of showing all of it. The top left side of the video, you can see where the transfer yard is and fleet maintenance, looking at the admin building coming from the employee parking. And then it shows what the future phases we have, which we just are in the process of finishing the updated master plan for that side there where you're seeing in the video now. We had to remaster plan it because we had to move some drainage around during construction of the project. And future phases will have a... a new fuel island for the town and then a warehouse space for our different divisions to hold material and equipment as well as a sign shed and then open material storage so we're currently in the process of finishing that updated master plan for future cip consideration that concludes the update on the public services operations center if you have any questions

Just like to make a couple quick comments. I'd like to thank previous councils for their leadership. I'd like to thank Mr. Weiss and your team, Mr. Moore for your leadership and getting this through. It's truly a world-class situation. You saw the floor of the facility. You can eat off of it. Having been there, they have tremendous pride in what they do and uh having lived through hurricane hugo and knowing what our population was then and what our population is today this is really important that we are able to have a space evacu to evacuate and work through the storm that's so well done so congratulations to each of you and i look forward to seeing the future phases of it i'm sure we're going to post all this on our website so people can be proud of what they have I also want to thank Mr. Weiss for working with the neighborhood community and Mr. DeMoore on noise. They've continued to realize that even though they don't fall under the ordinance, they're going to be a good neighbor. And so there have been some trees planted, some things done to provide buffering for that, and some operational things done as well. So you all have done an excellent job with that. So I want to thank you, but turn it over to comments from either of y'all thank you so much it just looks like a great facility to be proud of yes ma'am everybody's very excited it's uh it's nice now we've got to learn to you know keep it nice when do you anticipate phase three as you go through the design and approval process

Lisa, we've got the master plan. We've got the first draft of that with a cost estimate associated with it. We caught a few errors that we're working with the engineering firm on to now review it. So with that, we'll present it as a CIP project in the next fiscal year and see if it meets the threshold for funding. And then we'll move forward with the detailed design of the facility and then construction if it's approved.

Thank you. Okay, item number six, overview of FY2026 quarterly project updates and upcoming project schedule.

Yes, sir. As we talked about previously, we're going to try to do a quarterly update of our CIP and CMP projects in order to keep everybody informed. First slide here is the CIP projects we have that are assigned to public services. We just talked about the operations center phases one through three. And phase four. And the beauty of one thing I guess I neglected to mention, looking at the future phases, as we remaster plan that side, we've tried to make it in the air, design it in a way that we could break it into phases again, if that helps with funding the project. but we're in the we're reviewing the final uh draft and like i said we'll get a cost estimate and uh a design or a plan out of that and then we've got the pitt street bridge project which at the council retreat uh council voted for us to kind of consolidate it into one big project and trying to spread it out in phases so what we've done uh in fourth quarter we did some exploratory digging out there and didn't really find anything of significance other than that the The soil is very fine, and that's what's creating a lot of the sinkholes as it runs out through the seawall. So that and what we've done is developed a scope, and we're looking to start contract that out to one of our on-call engineering firms that will then go into the detailed design, start the detailed design process in the first quarter here of the new year. Next item here is pipelining in the fourth quarter we completed $588,000 worth of pipelining in the fourth quarter in neighborhoods like hidden lakes. working to go was is next to creek side that was a private neighborhood that annexed into the town. And hub call on the enclave. And here are the pipelining projects that we're looking at doing here in the first quarter. There's a TBD on the Paddy Lane one because we've got to do some more research to see what else needs to be done there. And then here's the rest of the planned lining projects. Right now, there's $318,000 worth of projects on the books that we've got locked on, plus whatever the adjustment is for the paddy lane. For pipe replacement, fourth quarter, we really just had one relatively large pipe replacement in the enclave. It cost us almost $359,000. And that goes to some of the complexity of the pipelining. Originally, that was going to be a lining project, but as they started the project, it was in way worse shape than we could evaluate and ended up having to replace the pipe. There's two that are on the books for first quarter. On this slide, Queens Court was approved at bids and purchases today. And then we're looking at Parker's Pipe on Parker's Landing in Rivertown. And that's a pretty complex project we've had to have designed. And then here are two other projects. First quarter, the Ferry Street and Pitt Street was approved at BMP this morning. And then we're looking at doing one on Anna Knapp, but we don't have a price for that yet. As far as structure repairs go, these are stormwater structures. We completed 128,000 in fourth quarter, and we have 414,000 planned for first quarter around town. For ditch maintenance and rehabilitation, we completed about $208,000 worth of work in the fourth quarter. as of right now we don't have anything scheduled for first quarter because we're getting ready to rebid this contract and we're going to add some some new capabilities hopefully that will enhance our ability to do repairs such as hydro excavating ditches which would allow us hopefully to get get in there with a contractor to do to excavate the ditches via using water instead of having to get equipment back there. Will work in some situations, not others, but it's not a cheap, cheap way to to fix ditches. But it's currently not a capability we have on call. The Edwards Park Pump Station B&P several months ago approved the purchase of new pumps. We're waiting. Those should be in here shortly. They're waiting on a couple smaller pieces to arrive so those can be installed before the thick of hurricane season. So this project is $456,000. And then really this leaves us one last thing to revitalize the pump station, and that'll be a new generator that will start taking on. And then Looking at the best way to do that because it needs to be elevated. You know, we want to keep it, you know, have it where people don't see it and everything. So that'll be the next project and should be the final phase of revitalizing the pump station down there. For bridges and docks, we've completed inspections. We're mandated to inspect a certain percentage of our bridges and stuff every year. And so the inspections were completed last quarter, and now the repairs will take place this quarter. A lot of those will be done in-house, and if we don't have the ability to do it, we'll then contract it out. We are in the process of completing the David Simmons boardwalk and then we're also in the process of developing the scope and finding one of our on calls to look at replacing all the boardwalks and everything at Shem Creek. It's getting to be that time. That'll be part of the maintenance program. Sidewalk repairs in fourth quarter, we completed about $134,000 worth of repairs. In first quarter, we have $377,000 allocated for repairs we're trying to make in different neighborhoods around town. for what we call the town-wide fund, which is the specific facilities maintenance of town facilities. The fourth quarter of last year, we had one of our on-call firms study. There's a sewer pipe issue at the town hall gym here, which the pipe will need to be replaced. So we completed the assessment and kind of the design there. We're working on having the Darby building reviewed and looked at because we know there's extensive repairs that will need to be done there. We also replaced the patio at the old village library and then we put some new fencing up around the recycle point at the Whipple Road tennis facility. There was a lot of cardboard that people just dump and debris that was getting in the ditch there. So we tried to do something to make sure that wouldn't happen anymore. These are projects planned for first quarter, like we talked about, the sewer pipe, the Darby building. We're also looking at replacing the roof at the Park West pool. The Alhambra Hall and the Edwards Park parking lots will be recurved and repaved, and then we're doing some work at Fire Station 3 on the fire alarm panel. for landscaping and right-of-way maintenance. Highway 17 is the big project. We presented that to committee a while ago. We had some permit hurdles. We had to get over working it with SCDOT and coordinating the night with the contractor and the night work. plants had to be ordered and grown, so we're making progress on that and hoping to start that here first quarter. We also replaced the landscaping at the Veterans Circle and the flagpole there, as well as some work at the Children's Circle, and then we completed the town-wide mulch and pine straw. installation and again we'll be working on highway 17 as well as the median on whipple road up there by long point and then we'll be doing some tree pruning in that back on south morgan's point for field renovations. We are working on installing new lights around the batting cages at the Jones Center. We're also looking at replacing the old lights around Sloan Park. And then we're working with CCSD on the Moultrie field, which per the MOU, you know, the town's responsible for maintaining in conjunction with CCSD. So we're utilizing CCSD contractors because they had theirs lined up, and then we're going to pay for it. But that allowed us, as our fiscal year was transitioning, to keep moving forward with the work so it could be done prior to school going into sessions. For the asset replacement program, for street sign replacements, we completed Area 15, which is basically the west side of Highway 41. We're working on Area 14 now, and once 14's done, most of the town will have been completed. There's a couple little donut holes in areas that... that we haven't hit, you know, in the Park West Carolina Park area, just, you know, little areas that, you know, are newer signs in general, say for Carolina Park, but they didn't meet the retroreflectivity standards. So we'll have that done. So we're almost done with the street sign replacements around town, other than the old village, which, you know, we basically didn't do because of the obelisk and things like that. Other projects that we just are about wrapped up with the town hall generator and the town hall gym generator. This was a $1.3 million project to take the old generator from here that only powered part of the building. and to put a new generator in here that would power the whole building in the event of a storm and power outage, and we moved the old one to the gym. So now we've got a gym that's got the ability to keep power in the event of a power outage in case if it were needed for some sort of shelter or for billeting of personnel or whatever. And then we worked with MPW to complete an update on the sanitary sewer pump station there where basically the town MPW identified the equipment, the town paid for it, and MPW did the work, which then gets that up to speed, and MPW will take that over with a maintenance agreement here now that it's up to standard. That pretty much concludes my presentation, unless if there's questions.

Well, I tell you what, I got tired just listening to it. Yes, sir. But I want to thank Howard Chapman, our previous chair, for his leadership with this group. I want to thank, again, as I mentioned before, the town council leadership that we run a town that's fiscally secure, has a good reserve, but is able to do an amazing amount of work all over town. And I think it's helpful to see this because when people see this, they know that They're being taken care of. They're being listened to. I also want to thank you for your communication because communicating ahead of time allows people when these processes happen in their neighborhoods to realize, wow, this is something that's really going to help me. It may interrupt me a little bit with my traffic and all that, but the end result is much better. I also want to thank you for being proactive. So for example, the Shem Creek Boardwalk and whatnot, there's a few little areas there, but you're way ahead of it, trying to move ahead to make sure that there's safety issues taken care of and whatnot. So I want to thank you for that. And I also want to just, on the eve of the 250, I want to recognize Pitt Street Bridge. You know, in July of 1776, the Pitt Street Bridge was made up of boats. They were lashed together. And they had barrels of whiskey. They were lashed with that because they couldn't get enough boats. And then they put planks over that. And that was an opportunity for the Patriots to get to Sullivan's Island or Fort Moultrie. It wasn't called Fort Moultrie then. and to evacuate Fort Moultrie if they wanted to. So that bridge has been used since prior to the revolution. And it's been used in a variety of ways. It also was Gadsden's bridge. And one of the things that's so nice about Gadsden's bridge, and you think about Don't Tread on Me, Gadsden's message and his curled serpent, by the way, Anne Gadsden Shimer was at our July 4th ceremony holding that flag that her ancestor had fought and passed away because of it, was that 13 rattles on that snake. Was to say that the 13 rattles were the 13 colonies and we had to work together. And rattlesnakes are defensive. they respond to being attacked. They don't attack on their own. But the fact that we had to work together and be strong was an important message for us then, and it's an important message for us now. So the fact that we'll be looking at that bridge and talking about the bridge and how it's been used since pre-revolutionary time is great. But let me turn it over to my fellow.

for that brief history on the bridge. I didn't know any of that. But just a quick question. How can people, projects that they see, want to fix their roads or pipelines

Basically, as issues are pointed out or we notice them, then we go out and investigate as soon as it's called in. And then like say for pipe repair, there's a lot of pipes that need, there's probably I think 29 miles maybe of metal pipe, if I'm not mistaken. And I've got a better number for you. that I can give you. All that will need to be lined at some point, but we have to kind of rack and stack the priorities. What's a safety concern? What's the condition of the pipe? Do we think it can last a little bit longer? And then we work that with the budget. You know, as the, our challenge is anytime somebody reports there's a sinkhole, you know, and it's in my yard, well, we'll go out and secure the area. But if it's not a true safety issue, it may not, it's going to be that resident's top priority. And I appreciate that. But from a town perspective, it may not be the top priority. So, yeah. So that's where, you know, so as soon as we get it, we'll investigate it. It goes on our list of work. The engineers have kind of some criteria that they look at to see how, you know, where it stacks on the process. And then we go and we tackle them and, you know, we eventually get to all of them. But some of them do take some time.

Councilwoman Crosby, one of the reasons of this type of presentation is if you're not on the list, you need to get on the list, and this will allow you to know that you're perhaps not on the list. So help you. Although there's a lot of small things to get taken care of.

Well, I mean, people aren't shy about reporting issues. I mean, we get issues reported every day, and half of the Part of the job is going out and investigating it initially to then determine the scope of the issue. And then we have to figure out how to tackle it. If it's something we can fix in-house, it's generally a pretty easy fix. Although there may be a wait on that as well, but it might not be as long. If it's something that has to be contracted out, it will... depend on you know is there truly some engineering that needs to be done that we have to design a system like parker's landing the one that's getting ready to go this quarter that's been in the works for quite some time but there's some significant engineering and design associated with that as well as permits And permitting is another issue that can cause some delays. But like I said, generally people aren't shy about reporting things. We can't fix it if we don't know it's broke. So we do appreciate that. But then it's racking and stacking them to make sure we get the, you know, figure out what's the most important or the biggest safety issue or whatever.

One final comment. We have an excellent communications department. A lot of these projects, as people have been listening or watching our streets or small areas, to the extent that going into it, we can alert them, whether it's door hangs or mailers or signs, to let them know it's coming with QR codes and whatnot. That really helps because then they can be really behind the project and realize it's a mini interruption for a greater good. So I want to thank you all for your wonderful work. Thank you for an excellent report. And if there's no other things, we are adjourned.

call to order our planning committee meeting for monday july 6th good morning good morning next item is approval of minutes from the june 1st meeting if you have a motion so move second uh all in favor aye motion passes next item is public comment if we have anyone to address the committee we just need to name and address and you have two and a half minutes

good morning my name is richard habersham from the philips community and i would like to speak on down the moratorium that charleston county just does some past to extend and i really hope that my pleasant do the same thing um you know we were working on our overlay district for a while and working with with the county The county did 10 miles. And it's short of staff. They didn't have one person working on it. And it took them a long time to do that. So now, Phillip and Hammond, we're doing our overlay district. We're trying to do it together so we can speed the process up. But since we don't have a staff and we don't have the expertise like the county have, we just had to wait on them so we can... you know, get started. So we hope that Mount Pleasant, you know, extend the moratorium too so we can get our work done. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Hacker Burr. I'm the head of school at Trident Academy. Just speaking on the issue of the rezoning that's on the table, I just wanted to give some context around Trident Academy and what we do. The school has been around for 55 years. I don't know how many people in this room are connected to someone they love who has a learning disability, but that is what we do at Trident Academy. We've served students for the last 55 plus years. We've served over 2000 families from the Charleston area. And quite honestly, what we do is we change lives. A lot of times students who are unidentified and struggle with some of the things that we work with, go through life thinking that they're stupid or they're lazy. We have a group of students at Triton Academy who are brilliant in many ways. These are minds of the future. Jobs of the future are going to be looking for divergent learners. And the school is small and mighty. We've been around, as I said, for a very long time, done great work over that time. And really what we are trying to do is after a deep strategic planning process, one of many, we are just trying to set the school up for the next hundred years to continue to serve this community. Running the demographic data in Charleston, if anybody wants to do that and look at the percentage of students who struggle with learning differences, it's in the 10,000 plus. So we are needed and we're just here trying to make sure that we can set our school up for success in the future and to keep serving this community for the next 100 years. Thank you. Thank you.

Good morning.

My name is JC Taylor. I'm here to speak on behalf of Triton as well. I'm a former parent. Now I'm the chair of the board. The hacker reference and strategic plan, several years ago, we began revising a plan for the next five years to make sure that we could do a couple of things. We are attempting to buy our school back. We lost it during the recession, but also create financial stability for the school so we can continue to serve the community. One way we serve them too is by being able to increase the scholarships and get more people into the school. um we've spent a lot of money over the last couple of years we own a piece of land adjacent to the school trying to understand what our options were available to monetize that land as part of that strategic plan we understood what our buy right entitlements were we went as far to meet with eric and the mayor a little while back we had a interesting conversation about the possibility of it being a passive part for the community We, in our opinion, kind of gave them the opportunity, what was essentially a first right of refusal, if they were interested in preserving that land. I don't think the timing was right for Mount Pleasant, which is fine. And so we've continued down the path of trying to understand what our options are. Two weeks ago, we read in the Moultrie News that the property is going to be rezoned. i would just ask that the council think really carefully about that this isn't really just about trident but it would have a really significant impact on our plans for the school for the future like forever right the rezoning of that land i think would decrease the property by millions of dollars And I don't think that was ever the intent. And I think it would be really, I think you need to be thoughtful because it's not just Trident, it's all the churches that are on that list and all of the other schools too. And I understand the motivation and what I think I understand what the thought is, right? We don't want any more houses around here. We don't want any more people in Mount Pleasant, but I think it's really important that you think about the monetary implications that are going to take place to the people that are impacted and the schools, right? Like, we're not a developer, right? We're not building a shopping center. We are a school for children with learning disabilities, right? And I think it's a really sad thought that we don't want more houses. We could have the financial impact that it would on Trident. Trident is really in good shape now and has had great years the last several years, but this would really set us up for, like Hacker said, the next 50 years. That's all I've got. Thank you guys.

Good morning. My name is Barrett Brewer. I'm a board member at Trident Academy. I want to echo what my colleagues have said about the school and its history of excellence and its importance to the community here. I'm a local attorney in town. And the thing that struck me when we learned about this potential rezoning issue after we met with the mayor and Mr. DeMora was not just the effect that they'll have in our school, but the effect that this kind of ordinance will have on your resident nonprofits, schools, and churches from raising money from major donors, right? This school was gifted this land with the generosity of the Dettins family years and years and years ago. They did it for the purpose of our being able to use this property to fund the school the way we needed to. One thing that that When I thought about this potential zoning ordinance and what potentially town council and planning committee sees as a benefit of it, you're trying to restrict the use of an existing school itself, right? Or an existing church building. And in our case, what you have to understand is we are operating in a school building that we do not own. We had to sell it coming out of the recession because they lost everything. And all we've retained is the land next to it. So for us to be able to have the resources to even buy the existing school building back so we can stay in your town, this town, our town, we have to be able to create fundraising opportunities. And if this zoning ordinance passes, donors will forever reconsider gifting property and gifting assets to these schools and churches for fear that the town will effectively take it. so that it can't be used for the purposes they gave it for. And in our society, that can't be what the purpose of this ordinance to be. So we would again ask you to think carefully. We will be here again and we'll talk to you again. We really appreciate your time today.

Good day. My name is Myra Snipes Richardson. My address is 2755 Earl Johnson Lane. I'm grateful to be here today to have a conversation about the moratorium for the Gullah Geechee settlement communities. I'm thankful to Mr. Tinky for asking a question and actually he's been the first to ask the question about the timeline it takes for us to go through these steps to secure and protect our areas. There's been narrative put out that we're dragging our feet. We are volunteering our time, thousands of hours, among the different community members, not just in Hamlin Beach, but across Phillips, Ten Mile. We have created a community alliance that we inform each other what we're doing, how we're doing it, to take the steps to take the difficulty out of making these projects happen in a timely fashion. Just for instance, our ACA. ACA was just an area character appraisal. It was just adopted by Charleston County on the 25th of June. This project started in 2023 when the Gallaudet corridor put this project together with a grant. 2024 is when they secured a consultant, which was Weston and Sampson, to actually oversee this project. We met with them. We met with the community. It took us until 2026 to get everything done because we had to go out and get signatures from our community. We had to explain the project to them. We had to let them review the project before we could bring it back to Charleston County. So it took us from 2023 up until 2026 to complete an ACA, and that was with professionals. When we did our historic district, we wanted to do the two together, and we started that in 2024. We met with the 10 Mile community, Ms. Pearl Askew. We met with Mr. Habershab. They explained what they did for their project to make it easier for us to move forward. And we are continually to do that with each one of the communities in the Mount Pleasant area. So we're asking for the time to work together to establish and get these things in place. And truly, like I said, I like to thank Mr. Tankey because he's a very first person, Towson County or in Mount Pleasant, to ask for a timeline so you understand that we're not dragging our feet. We're volunteering our time. We're putting efforts together and we're not professional. So thank you again for considering to extend the moratorium for these communities.

Anyone else?

No? Okay.

Seeing none, we will move on. Next item is employee years of service.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Rao? You want to come up here? I almost didn't recognize her. She's dressed up. Thank you. So I'm honored today to recognize Valerie Pantillo today for five years of dedicated service to the town. Val started her career with the town as a business license specialist and served in that capacity until October of last year when she made the move over to the planning department. But that was a part of our planning family long before she officially made the move. So it was a very easy transition. Val came into a challenging situation where one of our land codes inspectors had just resigned and unbeknownst to us, as she was being trained, the other land codes inspector would resign just a few weeks later. So she really was thrown into the job and had to learn quickly and somewhat independently. Through it all, Val has assumed the role with grace and a positive attitude. She is always kind, helpful, and compassionate when interacting with our residents. As you can imagine, this is difficult because being a land codes inspector typically means you're dealing with the public in a situation that is not positive always it's typically there's been a complaint and so the the type of interaction she has with folks is not always going to be positive but she keeps a great attitude she handles it with uh the utmost professionalism Val is truly an advocate for the department and for the town and we are very fortunate to have her representing us so please join me in welcoming Val and and recognizing Val for five years of service so

Thank you so much. We appreciate her. All right. Next item review of planning commission recommendations from the June 17th meeting. Do we have Mr. Stone? Thank you.

Thank you, madam chair. This is a request to annex All right. Annex and zone 0.73 acre parcel that has dual frontage on Highway 17 and Old Georgetown Road. As you can see here, water and sewer is available, and that is part of the driving factor behind this request. The other factor is the zoning and the versatility that it allows for. So the annexation request, the request to be base zoned office professional one, and to be added into the sweetgrass basket overlay, those are all requests from the applicant. They perfectly align with the comprehensive plan. And for that reason, the planning commission gave it a recommendation of approval.

Okay. Do we have any motion?

Make a motion to approve.

Second.

Okay. I'm sorry, is that for annexation and zoning? Yes. Thank you. All right. Yes, Mr. Tinkley.

My understanding, too, is in the Sweetgrass area, the intent there is a mixed use, so if they had a residential, that would be second floor, first floor would be commercial, is that correct? Not just stand-alone residential.

Correct, and that's the way this overlay is set up, and I've actually shown an exhibit here. that would have Highway 17 commercial frontage and CC single family residential fronting on Old Georgetown. So it's respecting both of the character of each of those streets. So it is something that the Sweetgrass Basket intended for and one thing to note within the county's version of the sweetgrass basket area it's a little bit vague but bank and medical office could be allowed for the town's version of the sweetgrass basket it's just general office and you're limited to 3,000 square feet thank you any other comments?

All right. All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Motion passes then. Okay. Next item is Gregory Ferry Towns. PD amendment.

So from the outset, I want to be clear about the scope and terminology, because we have had a handful of PD amendments this year, and typically we shift into a thought of what is the density, height, layout of the master plan. This is not that. This is a discussion of area median income as it pertains to this PD, and this is essentially a text amendment. So the area median income for this metro statistical area is $117,000. And that forms a baseline to then inform bands of affordability that would be applied to that. So if this AMI is 100% of the area median income, Affordable housing would be anything. And these are all HUD standardized numbers that anything 80% or less would be considered affordable housing. 80 to 120 would be workforce housing. And there's this third category that's come about that allows for municipalities, housing authorities to become creative with how they show those bans and how they target the need. And that's actually this request is to kind of operate in that third category. But what's important to realize is the comp plan validates all three of these options. It doesn't say that there is a single option that we can just blanket approve to solve the housing issue. Affordable housing requires some tailor and customization to it. And so the comp plan definitely wants us to think about, yes, across town, it addressed the comp plan that. a community issue is affordable housing. But the way the comp plan allows us to reframe that question is specifically, locally, what is the need here for affordable housing? What type of affordable housing is needed right here? And this development is essentially at the corner of Highway 17 and Highway 41. Within a two to three mile radius, you have 10 schools, three medical facilities, and three fire stations. So that equates to teachers, nurses, municipal employees. And that was very much considered in 2019 when town council approved this development for 36 units. Teachers, nurses, firefighters currently live in this development. However, it was exclusively limited to 80% AMI. And that is unique because it's the only development, affordable housing development that I'm aware of in the town that utilizes that strictly 80% AMI. We have a couple in the 80 to 120 range, and then we have the towns at Carolina Park, they utilize the 80 to 150 range. And that's actually the motivating factor behind this request. They saw the utilization of that 80 to 150 at the towns at Carolina Park and is now leading us to this current text amendment that we have for 80, well, zero to 150 is how they've worded it. So it still captures everything from zero to 80 as they currently sit, but it's looking to add up to 150%. And you could read this text amendment at just the plain reading of the text and develop some assumptions about why. But until you, I guess, ask what is the problem they're solving for, you really get to that second level, which was done really well at Planning Commission. But the applicant shared a couple of scenarios, which I'll share with you. one being two Charleston County School District teachers in a four-person household, so meaning two teachers, maybe they have two kids, that would put them in 110% AMI, making 135,000. The issue for this, if they applied to be a part of this development, is that the band limits them, threshold is 80% AMI. So they would be priced out just based on what they're making. They would not be able to apply for this attainable housing. The second scenario that came up was, okay, let's say that someone does meet the 80% AMI and they meet all threshold requirements. This would be a single nurse with a household income of 70,000. The issue that came up was that's great that you qualify for that, but would you be able to be approved for a mortgage for a $360,000 home? And it really, and all mortgages are structured differently, but it was some of the debt to income ratio, the down payment you're willing to offer, it was very slim that you would be able to comfortably be able to apply for this mortgage and that a bank would approve you. So those were kind of the two scenarios that were brought about at Planning Commission. So ultimately what they're trying to do, instead of operating within this zero to 80% range, they're looking to expand to 150. And right now there's a a very small segment of people that would be able to thread the needle and find a home within this development. This would open and increase and expand the pool of people that would be able to live here. So Planning Commission did give it a recommendation of approval, and I'm glad to discuss that conversation that they had to get to that conclusion. I believe we have residents and the applicant is here from Gregory Ferry and could also talk about why the HOA voted to put this amendment for you.

Do you have a question or statement? I have lots, but I figured we'd wait on a motion. I'm okay. Does anybody have a motion? Because I was going to ask a question before.

We're given the six to one, I think it was the six to one vote. The six to one vote with the chair and the vice chair and having conversations with them and going through the scenarios that you so well put forward. Also recognizing that this is the AMI. It's not the price of the units. So there's no speculative opportunity here, which was the other side of it. There isn't. it's not a speculation that a developer could come in and flip them this is really trying to address a pool of non-buyers that the board members were experiencing of having their houses on the market for over a year and recognizing that some of these in their current situation, because they are two household earners, they wouldn't be able to buy their house today. So with that, I'd like to at least put it on the table for discussion, the motion to adopt the zero to 150 AMI for Gregory Ferry. Do we have a second?

For discussion, I'll second it.

Did you have a question?

I did. So what is the current percentage increase allowed for the sale price? I know that's a HUD requirement or formula, but what is the max increase that someone can sell their home for, basically?

It's capped at 3%. And then there's also another element to that equation. When they have capital improvements, and I'll say this, approved capital improvements, you can't go and redo a bathroom just on your own. You have to have that approved. And OriginSC, which is a nonprofit, maintains and regulates all of this. They would limit your resale to 3% and any qualified capital improvements that you make would then be allowed to contribute to that resale value.

Okay. Reason I ask is one of the things I think that was brought up in commission and in my conversations with some of the board members as well is that, you know, the idea or to them what they see as a goal of, you know, selling their home for more than they bought it for in order to then be able to, you know, put money down on a second home when they're ready to do that. I understand that would be the individual's goal. That's not, in my opinion, the town's goal for this development is to help the, first buyers or subsequent buyers get a higher profit on their sale. So that's why I have some concern of going all the way up to 150. To reiterate some of the scenarios you shared, you know, going from 117.5 as an income, for a family of four to potentially 150, which is 176 to 50. I do think that we get away from our intent of this being our only truly affordable housing development with the zero to 80% AMI. I understand and I'm persuaded, I think, by the qualifications for a mortgage are different now than they were. And so that is the gap there is people that want to buy and meet the AMI of under 80 percent but can't because they can't get a mortgage. That is compelling to me. But again, we have these other developments for those situations that are up to 150%. So I have a hard time approving up to 150% AMI for this because I do think it gets away from the intent of having truly affordable housing in our community.

I agree with Ms. Whitaker, and I'm just curious. Increasing it doesn't knock out anyone.

That's correct. Everyone that moved into this development met the threshold requirements at that point. Whether it be a cost of living increase or just a raise, new position, that does not then eliminate them and they have to vacate the premises. That is not the case.

I just knocked out potential buyers.

Oh, potential buyers. This would expand the pool of buyers that would be eligible to apply.

Yeah, I agree.

I think, I mean, to me, this does shift. It does increase the pool of potential buyers, but it shifts the target demographic from lower income to middle income.

And also, those people don't have to be on a mortgage.

Could you address that about, there's four people, go back to the slide of the four people, that could be two adults and two children I get, that are they required for the purposes of getting the ability to buy, the one that showed the four? Let's see.

Right here.

Yeah, four. Are they required to state the income from both parties or just one party?

It'd be both parties.

So both parties have to show their income. Okay.

Thank you. Can we go back to the slide that shows the 120% classified as you had like tiers and it said workforce housing? Right here, yeah, that one.

Sorry, the, this one?

Yeah. Yes. Perfect. It shows the 80 to 120%. There was, maybe it wasn't this one. It classified up to 120% as workforce, where you had workforce attainable, you had affordable workforce. Yeah, right here, top right. Yeah, there we go. So the ranges of affordability, is this what's defined by the county?

So HUD definitely recognizes the affordable housing and workforce housing. This attainably, this third category is so new and it's becoming, it's very amorphous. And I know of some municipalities using it for certain purposes, but HUD definitely recognizes the first two categories. This third one is still in its infancy stages.

Yeah, I feel like what we're lacking in Mount Pleasant is affordable housing and workforce housing. So that's the problem we're trying to solve. So I don't feel comfortable going outside of those, either one of those categories. And I agree, you know, this is one of the few places that we even have to be affordable housing and the other thing about considering mortgages i mean those parameters that are fluid they change you know we've had interest rates at one percent two percent you know so it's it's hard for me to change this based on the current rules for mortgages um and i feel like the more we broaden the audience the less opportunity we're giving to the people on the lower end because you know people at the top end are the ones that are going to get in there and take those opportunities away so the current motion is not something i'd be in favor of

I'd be willing to withdraw with the caveat that the price, there's different factors. There's a mortgage, there's the price of the units, and there's AMI. The price of the unit is capped. So yes, there'd be more people could buy it, but right now they're not buying it. So we need to have some increase. And so I'd be happy to withdraw at the will of the council persons as a different motion.

Or make an amendment.

Make a motion to increase it to 120.

I'm sorry. Ms. Crosby, I think you seconded the original. I withdraw. Thank you. And make a new one.

And make a new motion to increase it to the 120. A second.

A second, ma'am.

Are you going to second?

No, I'll second. I just wanted to have a question as to, I'll second. The question is, does this have any detrimental effect you feel on the Gregory Ferry and the people there, other than broadening the pool of buyers? This does increase the pool of buyers. but I guess the only difference would be that 30%, right?

Yeah, I think the 80 to 120 is typically what you see. Carolina Park was a little unusual, in my opinion, going to 150. And we were just discussing this is different than what they're requesting, and maybe our legal counsel needs to weigh in. But my thought is that because what the motion uh the motion that has been made would be a more conservative um a more restrictive uh amendment than the 150 that perhaps it would not need to be re-advertised or anything um i i think we would be okay moving forward with the change okay okay okay all right okay yeah all right we have any other okay

All in favor of the motion we're recommending this to Council this amendment to up to 80, 120%. All in favor?

Aye.

And opposed? No. No. Okay. So 2-2. So no recommendation. But it'll move forward for discussion at Council. Right.

Okay.

Thank you. Next item is 1465 Stuart Ingers Boulevard.

Request to annex and zone.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a .34 acre parcel located on Stuart Ingalls next to Wando Crossing. It is surrounded by AB, AB2, and they're requesting annexation and AB1 zoning, area-wide business district 1, which would be consistent with the surrounding zoning and the future land use of the comp plan designation for townscale commercial. So AB would be appropriate for this, and Planning Commission did recommend approval. Okay.

What size is the lot? It says, what size is the parcel?

Do we know? Let's see here. 0.34 acre lot.

So with AB1, they could add, they couldn't add any residential because the lots aren't big enough to do?

I mean, like a mixed use? It's currently a two-story it looks like it was constructed as a two-story residential home okay and the county has it zoned commercially and it's being used actively to i'd say there are probably three to four businesses in there at least and so the entirety of it the 4 682 square feet is commercial right now above the above the ground floor second story could be residential But right now, I don't think that's the intent. I think the main thing was Mount Pleasant Water Works encouraged them to get onto water and sewer. They're currently operating on septic right now. So that was the push to apply for annexation.

Okay. Do we have a second? Okay. Any further discussion? Okay. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. That motion passes. Next item is discussion recommendation to extend the resolution providing for temporary moratorium on the acceptance and processing of major subdivision applications in Charleston County Historic Districts. very encouraged by the process that's been going on. Yes.

Yeah. And just I just have a few things here on the slide that we did. The town did adopt it. Council adopted this resolution July 10th of last year. It does parallel what the county adopted last year. They are they just had first reading to extend it. Their first vote their first reading did exclude 10 mile out of it just because 10 mile does have the adopted zoning overlay and they still have to have two more readings on it but it is for the town it is set to terminate later this month and as was mentioned in the public comment hamlin beach community did just get their aca adopted and this the status of the others phillips community um there's no aca but they are on the national register and as you heard they're working towards this and then the 10 mile we have the zoning but not the aca yet so that's kind of the status of our our three communities that we've been talking about but yes mr tank people

I sat in on the last two county council meetings. I was encouraged that they wanted to extend the moratorium because it's a difficult situation. As expressed by the audience, it's mostly volunteer. In the case of Hamlin, they got a grant from Clemson. God bless, it happened. But Ten Mile didn't. Ten Mile, however, put in an ACA two years ago and the county then asked them to put that aside for a second to get the historic overlay and the ordinance. The vote was very close in county council and the exclusion of Ten Mile. And I believe they had some misinformation that in a new vote, in second or third reading, it will change because there was some misunderstanding about where Ten Mile was in the process. But there was also some interest in, I hate to call it this, but spot zoning. And so, but I think there was one person missing. Councilman Honeycutt was missing at that vote. So I think my understanding is next Tuesday for the County Council, they'll bring this back up with the But to include back back and include 10 mile I can't say what will happen But I think they will so my thought would be that we need to parallel this if we have our meeting next week that we would parallel parallel it and extend the two years as they are recommending to do and include 10 mile I would just I just say extend it because I we don't have to include or not include if we just extend it the other thing that came up at county council was a good one the moratorium doesn't have to go two years if if these things are completed prior to that then they can be they can people can come on and we can change it based on those communities but this just gives them the time to do it because it is a having been part of this is very time consuming so okay i would recommend that we move to extend

including 10 months well just moved to include just moved to extend the board term period we have a second we have a second second okay any other discussion all right all in favor aye okay motion passes all right review uh and discussion of the town noise ordinance as it relates to construction hours um We've had some complaints about some early morning weekend construction, and I was really curious about what surrounding communities are doing. I think our ordinance is just any day of the week. It's the same, whether it's the weekend or not. Is that correct?

That's correct. Actually, it was interesting to do a little research on this, and I've got Mr. Talby here, our building official, so this is his area of expertise. So I'm going to go through a couple slides where we did do a comparison, and it's quite interesting what some other municipalities are doing. But as you're familiar, the town's noise ordinance went through a great deal of... um scrutiny and what we have really the building noise is the same as our other and that it's it's nine to seven um nine pm to seven a.m uh noise is prohibited including building noise construction noise and then um it really kind of applies to all all days of the week as you can see so city of charleston um they actually and most of the municipalities were similar to ours in that if they're after our complaints they call their police department and it goes through that avenue but as far as the construction noise ordinance that's been adopted The city of Charleston is Monday through Friday 7 to 7, Saturday 9 to 7, and then they do not allow any loud noise, including construction noise, on city holidays and Sundays. City of North Charleston is more similar to ours in that, but they are actually a little less restrictive. Theirs are between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. um isle of palms uh was similar to the city of charleston monday through friday they have set hours saturday nine to four sundays prohibited and then holidays prohibited uh sullivan's island uh was somewhat similar uh in that sunday and holidays no um construction or noise is allowed and then charleston county was uh similar to ours and that it's prohibited 9 p.m to 7 a.m And so you can definitely see that there's, that several of our surrounding municipalities do have more strict when it comes to Sundays and holidays and how they address the noise ordinance. But that's all I have. If you all have specific questions, I know Mike can answer them and guide you through that.

Okay. I was just interested in taking a look at this because I have heard complaints about the lease weekends. And I guess potentially, I don't think they work often on holidays because often they take those off. But still, I guess it's a consideration. So I didn't know if the committee had any opinion when we reference other municipalities if they thought the weekends should be more restrictive than during the week at 7 a.m., you know, on Saturdays and Sundays. If you have any opinion at all.

I think it's always an interesting process to see what's happening in other areas. It's an iterative process. It wouldn't be a thing we would want to do a knee-jerk action on. However, I do think it's interesting to see the later hour, which is not much, but on Saturdays. The flip side of that for the construction workers during the summer, they say the heat. And so you have to look at both sides of the issue. And Sundays certainly is interesting. as a blessing if there was a rest on Sundays, but certainly we'd have to see what the unintended consequences are for businesses to understand that. I do think the holidays makes a lot of sense to have the holidays off because that's when you're gathering families and whatnot and to have that be an exclusion, but I wouldn't be ready to make an action on it yet as we gather more information from people.

Okay. yeah okay I think it's good that we're looking into it and maybe now that we've we've brought up the subject we can hear more from the community if they have any opinions because this is sort of the first time we've had this conversation okay all right thank you Let's see, next item is Executive Session, Legal Advice Related to Public Institutional PI1 Zoning. If we have a motion to go. We need to second the session. Second. Okay. Are we going to the courtroom? We have a second? Okay. Yes. All right. All in favor? Aye. And I'll also say committee may take action on any item including any subsection of any section listed in an executive session agenda or discuss an executive session during proper meeting. Okay. from our executive session. No votes were cast, but we might have a motion.

Yes. I have a motion, please. Okay. Move to recommend to council a text amendment to return to the comprehensive plan for density.

Second. Okay. And I'll just make a point.

Yes, please. Thank you. This, just want to make clear that this is an alternative or potential alternative to the idea of rezoning churches and schools to PI.

Okay. Any other? Okay. So this will take this to?

Council.

Council on Tuesday night for discussion and potential vote to send it on to commission. Okay. So all in favor? Aye.

Any opposed?

No. One nay. So the motion passes. Thank you. And the next item is to adjourn.

Let me call to order the Flood Resilience Committee for this Monday, July 6th. I hope everybody had a great holiday weekend, a special time, and especially since our region and Hadros Point was involved in Carolina Day, the original one, and all that was going on. So it was quite a time to be a resident of Mount Pleasant. Item two, approval of the minutes from the June 1, 2026 meeting.

Move for approval, Mr. Chairman. Second.

Any discussion? All right. All in favor? Aye. All right. The minutes are approved. Public comment. If you have a public comment, please come forward. Name and address. Two and a half minutes.

Hello, my name is Robert Adams. I live at 35 East Lake Road in Mount Pleasant. I strongly support making the Green Commission a permanent Town of Mount Pleasant Commission. Since its inception, and especially over the last two years, I believe it has provided significant, valuable input to the Town Council on a wide variety of green issues. So I hope that this committee will recommend to the town council that the Green Commission be made permanent. Unfortunately, I will not be here next week, so I'm making my comments today in person. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you. Next, please.

Good afternoon. My name is Olivia Flynn. I live at 1914 Kiln Court. I sit on the Townscreen Commission. I'm an environmental engineer, and I'm licensed in two states as a professional engineer. I run a national service group for my consulting firm, and I'm a mother of two who attend Chrysler King Stella Mars. I've lived in Dunes West for more than 20 years. I strongly support the Green Commission as being established as a standing committee on the town. One of the most compelling reasons is very simple. The commission provides the town with access to extraordinary team of volunteer subject matter experts, some of them sitting over here today, at no cost to the taxpayers. The commission includes professionals in environmental engineering, environmental consulting, sustainability, conservation and natural resources, marine conservation and environmental management, client resilience, health and human services, and we even have the former commander of the Charleston District of the Army Corps of Engineers. These individuals spend their professional careers addressing the very issues facing Mount Pleasant today. So the question I would ask you is, why would the town not want free consulting and strategic advice from experienced professionals who care very deeply about this community and are willing to volunteer their time, such as myself? Additionally, the commission has demonstrated results as presented in last month's presentation. I won't get into those again. And perhaps most importantly, a standing green commission aligns with the culture and the future direction of Mount Pleasant. Our residents consistently value clean waterways, healthy marshes, tree canopy, wildlife habitat, Flood resilience and thoughtful growth. These resources are not temporary priorities. They are foundational to the character and the quality of life that make Mount Pleasant special. Establishing green as a standing committee demonstrates that environmental stewardship and resilience are long-term commitments to this community. The commission has proven its value. We have attracted talented volunteers. We've produced meaningful results. And so I respectfully ask that you make the Green Commission and use use of the Green Commission as a permanent part of the town's advisory structure so it can continue to provide expertize, public engagement and thoughtful guidance for years to come.

Thank you for your consideration. Next, please.

Good afternoon. How are you all doing today? My name is Leah Colabello, and I'm a member of the Green Commission. When I think about the opportunity to serve on the Green Commission, I think about why the commission exists in the first place. And so I would encourage you to reflect upon the leadership that thought that A green commission was going to be a great idea for this town. I don't want to repeat what Olivia said, but having a standing commission, I believe, would empower you all to utilize us more. It's more part of the team, not just the group that, you know, it's temporary, we're testing it out, but we're here as a deep, thoughtful resource of experts for you all as you drive decision making here in the town with regards to its future so as you've reflected upon the past there was a reason this commission was established and i don't know all the intricate reasons for that this several years ago that happened but let's look now forward facing The Green Commission has provided a lot of great work over the past few years, but our work is actually just getting started. We're getting more comfortable in our roles as town leaders, and we're also identifying a lot of gaps in sustainability, conservation, and resilience leadership in the Lowcountry that this town has opportunity to fill. and be real leaders within the state of South Carolina around some of the most critical issues facing our time. We are all here if you have any questions about the efficacy of our work, but we're all very passionate about the opportunities that you have all provided us thus far, and I hope that you will provide us moving into the future. Thank you.

Anyone else for public comment? All right. Thank you all very much. We will close public comment. And item four is related to all the public comments we just heard. Continued review of the Green Commission 2025 report of accomplishments. And Chris, I know you're probably going to take it from here. And David is here because you started this. I don't know if you need to come up and finish or if you just want to be available for questions. Either and or both are good. Were you prepared to go ahead and start talking?

Absolutely.

Okay.

So I don't think I can add really much more than what Olivia and Wayne just said. That's a mic drop speech, in my opinion. And I fully support what they said and the contributions that this incredibly talented group of people that I'm privileged to be a part of uh uh are are doing with this town and also i'd like to to kind of underscore the fact that you know it took us six months to just catch up with all the existing regulations and how the town works and we're just now hitting our stride um uh so there's a there are a lot of things in the works right now that if we don't become a permanent commission end I mean, we've got a tree canopy restoration grant program that is coming in in August. We end in August. I don't know where that goes. And that's, you know, a bridge to probably what the Tree Task Force will be, you know, recommending as far as a very vibrant tree planting program. So I'm here to answer any questions. The town staff provided a really fantastic annual report for me to read off of last month. And so I'd love to hear any questions or concerns from this committee.

Do you all have any? Okay. Chris, did you have some prepared things too? I know staff always does a lot of work.

No, this is all we had. We just had the slide, same from last month.

Okay.

So that's all we had.

Can I also recognize Jim Westerhold? Yes, I saw Jim over there.

Thank you for your service.

All fantastic people and, you know, very busy people that, you know, have to carve out a lot of time in their lives to do this.

Right. Just a couple of things I wanted to ask about, and I mean, I think you know how I feel about the Green Commission and my background in conservation, so I'm obviously a yes vote. I just wanted to point out, and is this report available online for people to see what all the commission has? I mean, can you find a link somewhere? You can through the agenda, but I don't think we have it linked to the Green Commission page at this time. Okay, okay. I don't want to get ahead of myself. I don't know what the protocols are for when something, I mean, do we have to receive this report and vote on it before staff can put, can anybody, they can just put it, this is their report. Okay. That would be great. So if you look at this, it has on there what the mission is. And it is to provide and recommend sustainable and resilient practices aimed at protecting and enhancing green spaces, environment, ecology, and natural resources. to Mount Pleasant Town Council for the benefit of our citizens. And I certainly think that y'all have done that. The first report, the first years were captured in the report. It was dated January 28th, 2025, and it was presented to this committee in February of last year. And some of the work plan for 2020, this is under 2025, was the tree canopy restoration project, guidance for development of residential environmental program to encourage use of low impact development techniques. engaging local schools in all those things like mount pleasant specific curricula and pollinator and tree planting programs outreach to hoas and this brings me to one just as i have worked with some neighborhood groups and things like that we're not gonna tell y'all what we think y'all ought to do. But in my experience, both just as an elected official, but also working personally with groups and being at some neighborhood things and all that, that seems to me like one way to be like a force multiplier for y'all and for us. So if y'all can, think about making that a real high priority. I think that's where the gains are to be made. That's where a lot of the ponds in the town are managed. I learned through y'all's reports, we have a thousand ponds in the town of Mount Pleasant, and that's huge. That's where we'll get some changes on more sustainable, landscaping and things like that and I know as a commissioner of Mount Pleasant Water Works I see what the irrigation meters have been doing the last month and people are paying a lot of money to to have to keep those lawns and plants going in this drought that we're having. I want to commend you on the work days and hand-on opportunities and David I have been to a good many of those not all of them but a good many of them I see you there a lot of them everybody really But I don't know. I don't want the members of the commission who are basically doing professional work for us for free, as Olivia mentioned, to get burned out. I'll go pick up trash and others and keep scheduling those. But I don't want any commission member to burn out on that stuff when it's your professional knowledge and all that. And I think everybody knows what I'm saying. I don't think I have to lecture anybody on that. but i would hate to lose a commission member because there are too many work days or two or too many outreach but look at the outreach one thousand one hundred and five residents engaged in outreach conversation 682 trees planted and gifted 300 native flower flower plugs gifted in six new pollinator gardens installed and we've got a long way to go to get to our goal of a thousand but that's that's a great start um one question i wanted to ask is and out of recognition for their time and their service, would having less than one meeting a month be a possibility? You know, every other month or quarterly or something like that, because all the, I think the rhythm and the activities and all are well established now, all the cleanup days, the pollinator gardens and that kind of stuff. I would hate to lose any members or not get good applications because it is a big commitment of one meeting every month. I don't know. I don't sit in on them. And I do that on purpose so that nobody feels like the people who vote to extend it or appoint the members are sitting there keeping score because I'm not. but um i i wouldn't be you know sad if i heard that they were meeting every other other month or maybe if if there's back-to-back ones needed but don't feel like that is something we expect to see y'all meeting every month it's not like the planning commission where we have to have those things you know those applications looked at And you got great staff doing the work. But I just think this is an excellent report. And I agree with what somebody who has worked with and for this town for decades said when y'all were in panel, this is the most highly qualified panel that has ever been put in place in the town of Mount Pleasant. And I'm proud to have played a small role in that and look forward to working with y'all for as many more years as I have left doing this. Anybody else?

Yeah. Before the next part, can I address the meeting issue? I'm not sure I can speak for myself that I feel like a monthly meeting is warranted. We always have plenty to talk about. And a lot of times, not enough time to talk about it. But, you know, I'd love to get some feedback from my fellow commission members here if you sense that it's too much.

Yeah, I'd be more in favor of every other monthly report.

Okay.

on fire and there's no time to lose so i do it every month olivia i think it's a decision that the green commission should discuss among our members yeah yeah yeah we do have the option we do we do have the option of having people join online

A lot of folks are traveling, so we're very flexible in that.

And we do have that ordinance that's board and commission-wise wide of what percentage of meetings you can miss and all that. That's correct. And if you have some leeway in that, maybe consider it. That's correct. Y'all just, like Olivia said, y'all just have the conversation come up with what works best. Yes.

I know with the Recreation Commission, we designated that they, would be required to meet quarterly when we last extended it um but then they always have the option to meet more often for themselves so that might be something we would consider that you know if we're going to have a commission that we would want them to meet required quarterly but um anything more would be on your own decision it's it's my sense that we get out of rhythm

if we would go less than that. And to use an example is we would combine November and December into one meeting and it always seemed like we came out of that kind of off pace a little bit. So I think there's merit to meeting monthly and there's plenty to talk about.

We could consider what I thought that's a good idea. Just putting quarterly is required, but let them decide how often they, they do meet. Yeah.

Okay. Sorry. I just wanted to. Sure.

Yes, sir. Mike. Well, I totally agree. We have a deep, diverse and incredibly qualified group. And it's core. The Green Commission is core to the town's culture and its history. And we'd be remiss not to have this as a standing committee because it helps us coordinate with all the different departments. But it also helps us with intergovernmental departments, Mount Pleasant Water Works. Very close relationship with that. Obviously, we have two members, town council members on that. but that has been very fruitful, the work there. It's also been very helpful to work with a lot of the environmental groups in town who've come and joined us in this endeavor. We've also had seen the Green Commission be thought of as a leader in the community, and not only the community in the Charleston area, but at large. And I think it starts at home. So we're just now starting to understand what best practices are and incorporate them. So for example, I think we should have all 17 of our stormwater ponds be living shorelines or vegetative buffers to the extent we can. So we lead by example. The HOA is the next outgrowth of that because with those 300, we can reach more people. Force multiplier was a great term there. So I think we're just getting started. And in addition to the areas we've talked about, the wetlands was a very important one for y'all to take a leadership role in. And with the Tree Task Force just now coming up with its recommendations, then you'll be there to help determine the best tree at the right place. As people ask for grants, you can refer to their research and find out where the best tree at the right place is. You can also be in a great place to determine the stories and acknowledge the work that people are doing on their own and acknowledge those trees for example we just had the 250th anniversary well there's a number of trees in the old village that are over 250 years old and they can speak volumes and were they able to speak and so when i went to carolina day what i was really struck by on the and the somber setting we had about the moultrie moultrie battlefield the sullivan's the battle of sullivan's island the people that were congregated under the oaks and those who were in the sun. And what was striking, and I took a picture of it, was that we had people dressed in their uniforms, gathered under an oak tree, just like they would have been 250 years ago. And so we have to realize this is an important part of our history, that we have to celebrate that and know that this is a place of joining, a place of community, et cetera. And the Green Task Force is perfectly suited to continue that work. All right.

I don't see legal. Did we vote last time? We did not vote last time to recommend that we establish. So I would be looking for a motion. David, thank you. You can sit down. A motion that we recommend a full council at our upcoming July meeting to, I'm not sure what the right words are, but to, how is it on the agenda? Well, this is continued view. Establish the Green Commission as a permanent commission for the town of Mount Pleasant.

I would move that we establish as a permanent commission of the council all right I'll second and I have an amendment okay all right we are in in discussion okay and I'd like to suggest that we require that the commission meet quarterly but allow them to determine a different schedule as long as they do meet quarterly okay and forward an annual report okay to council okay and that wording would be no less than quarterly i guess correct all right i accept that all right

All right. So did I get a second? Was that a second on his amendment? Yeah. Got a second. Any further discussion on the amendment? All right. All in favor? Aye. All right. And now we are back to the primary motion. Is there any discussion on that? All right. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All right. It's unanimous. Thank y'all. So that's our recommendation. We appreciate y'all being here. Would love for y'all to be back for our council meeting on the 14th, which I'm assuming this would be during the regular meeting that starts at six, not in the special meeting. Okay. Thank y'all very much. That concludes item four. Item five is to adjourn. So we will stand adjourned. Good work.

That was a close call.

Call to order the Transportation Committee meeting for this July 6th. Good to see everybody here. Item two is approval of minutes. Do we have a motion, please?

Move for approval, Mr. Chairman. Second.

Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. All right. Minutes are approved. Public comments. If you're here to make a public comment, please come forward and name an address in two minutes, please. Anyone for public comments? All right. Seeing none, we will move to item four, which is executive session for a personnel matter. Do we have a motion to go into executive session to address a personnel matter? So moved.

Second.

All right. Before we vote, we may take action on any item, including any subsection of any section listed on an executive session agenda or discussed in an executive session during a properly noticed meeting. All in favor of going to executive session for this personnel matter, please say aye.

Aye.

All right. Where were we? Motion carries. Where?

Courtroom B. All right.

We don't have to go all the way upstairs. Executive session, of course, there were no votes cast and no action was taken, and there does not need to be any follow-up after that. So let's move on to item six, update on ongoing projects. And I think we're going to have an emphasis today about e-bike enforcement, because I know that our police have been doing a lot not only on enforcement, but also on e-bike education out there. That's something we hear from the public and the media about all the time. And then also beach traffic. Here we are. I guess a little more than halfway through beach season or right at it. And I know there have been some challenges like there were the other day. So if you all take that. We're going to have the chief come up or whoever his designee is to speak a little bit about the enforcement.

And then we'll talk about some beach traffic.

Great.

Good afternoon, Mayor, committee members. Real quickly, I just want to talk about traffic enforcement broadly, and then I'll quickly talk about e-bikes specifically. So year to date, we've had 1,319 collisions in the town. Top cause is following too closely, feeling right away inattention or carelessness. Citations is about 7,000 this year so far. Top violations for that are speeding hands-free and violation of the people texting, which is distracted driving causes accidents. So, and careless operation disregarding traffic signals are the top locations. With just on the breach traffic, we've been coordinating with Isle of Palms and Solomons Island. We had a great success during the 250th celebration. No issues there, and we'll continue to do that. I'm sure Brad can talk about that a little bit more. E-bikes. E-bike collisions, we've had three, two of which were single vehicle. Fifteen citations related to e-bike activity. Not necessarily to the e-bike law, but in some instances, operating a motor vehicle, knowing allowing an uninsured child or operator on a vehicle, no registration. These are the offenses that we're using, the traffic offenses that we're using to charge parents who allow their kids to ride. So 46 e-bike warnings, two golf cart warnings. We've conducted multiple patrols in our high area activities. Got out with several large groups of kids and done education. Done two sweeps of middle schools, Park West and Moultrie where we've gone in and policed up some unlawful electric motorcycles and educated parents. So far this year, we've had nine failure to stop for blue lights, kids running from us on e-bikes. One was an adult on a stolen e-bike. He was arrested. So sometimes adults engage in e-bike violations as well. So any other questions?

Go ahead.

Chief, I think one of the big things that is and will help with the whole e-bike issue is parents understanding that they can be fined personally for allowing their children. Can you kind of give us an idea of what kind of information you're putting out to the public for the adults to understand that they have not only a responsibility, but they can be fined and arrested because they allow something to happen like their children.

We continue to put information such as that out on social media. We've had a meeting with Moultrie Middle School. As a way to educate parents further partnering that with them to do some inspections of bikes at the schools Developing that project hopefully to implement it. So when the kids come in for fact and fee days If they plan on riding a bike, here's all the regulations. You have to have your bike inspected so we're in the middle of working on that this summer as a way of educating parents and

And how many did you say you have already cited? I know in your report you said there were citations given.

Yeah. So, we've issued 15 citations. One juvenile was cited with three citations. The rest were issued to parents. So, the majority of those citations are actually going to the parents. Right.

That's who it should go to.

Not to the children.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

I want to thank you, too, for having your officers at the July 4th parade in the old village. It was quite helpful. Janet Nguyen and her husband were involved with that. But what was great is to have the fire engine, then all the bikes. And then the golf carts. So they were captive. And so they were there for a nice discussion and education. And what I heard and what I experienced seeing was you didn't have the illegal motorcycles in the parade like you did last year because people had gotten the message. But also by design, what you're talking about, focusing on the middle schools. It's a good way in focusing on events like this where you have so many people and so many bikes or motorcycles was helpful, but your officers did a great job, and we had a safe parade, so thank you.

Thank you.

So, is the school district still considering some measures when the school year starts up about either education or their own regulation? Not that they take over law enforcement. We know that, but.

No. The last meeting I was present at, Michael from the school district was there, the principal from Middle School. We sat down, had a good discussion about how

what that looks like and we're continuing that so great happy to give you an update after our next meeting that'd be super thank you and chief the i think ryan miles from the school district said they were prepared quite frankly to do um to licensing or to for those bikes if that's appropriate with with you all for their schools but that that would be up to you all and what you did but they were happy to do some stickers and whatnot

That's one of the discussions is the stickers, and are they individualized to each school, things like that? Is it a countywide thing? Those are what we're working through right now.

Thank you. All right. Thank you, Chief. Appreciate it.

Beach traffic. Mayor and committee members, as you know, for many years the town has had traffic signal regulations and operations specific to our beach traffic, which starts in late May and all the way through into nearly September. uh what we thought we would give you today is molly leman here our operations division chief is going to go over some of the recent things that have happened as far as our times and how staff prepares for this time of year let's get beyond that there you go

We do run a different signal coordination specifically for beach traffic on Saturdays and Sundays.

And that's from 9.30 a.m. to 6 p.m. And then recently, we did an analysis of all the beach traffic from the past couple months. And we did make some tweaks to that. And what we realized was that for people coming off of the islands. So we've made adjustments to that. And we've also developed an emergency timing plan where we can push traffic off of both IOP and Sullivan's as needed. um we have not needed to use it yet so that's good and below is a chart it's kind of a snapshot of june and what i've provided is the peak hours on saturday going to solomons and alabams and the peak hours coming off on saturdays and sundays and then the weekday traffic And although even on weekdays, the volume is still around 1,000 vehicles per hour, that's about the max on those peak hours on Saturday and Sunday. It gets well above 1,000 vehicles per hour. So that's just the snapshot of June. But we have made some tweaks, and we continue to adjust it and evaluate it.

So that's all about really the timing, obviously. generally a steady flow throughout those weekdays. But on that weekend, as we know, those thousand vehicles per hour rate is confined to a shorter period of time. That's why you get the higher volume. So it's always a challenge. And I was kind of surprised by these numbers, understanding that the weekend was that high. I didn't, you know, even with beach traffic, I didn't think it was that high. So it's... We're doing pretty well. And of course, our police can always override signals. And we have the ability to actually call, I think, our folks up in Kansas City at any time and say, hey, can you look at this real quick? And they can react within probably 30 minutes.

Okay. And do you find, as we're actually in the implementation of it, that those yearly meetings we do with all the partners, you know, Isle of Palm, Solomons Island, county, state, sheriff's office, you know, the big one that we have and the nice lunch, that that coordination is getting results that are worth the effort?

Always, just because the better we communicate about things, even if it's something small. Right. If somebody from the islands calls us and say, hey, we saw something. It just happened recently. It was with this, they were noticing the backup and we looked at some of the volume and timings and we realized, hey, there was an opportunity to increase the outflow green time. So that communication is the most important thing. And certainly every year, us getting together to talk about it beforehand is critical.

okay that was something i picked up on earlier so the about the it's the greens from was it Isle of Palms and Sullivan's or just Isle of Palms that you increased to get traffic moving better off it was mainly from Sullivan's that did not have enough green time okay okay interesting any other questions on that any feedback from Isle of Palms or Sullivan's Island they pretty much in sync with what you're saying

I haven't heard any complaints.

That's good. That's good.

Good answer. Yes.

Super. Thank you. Great. That's great. Well, do we have a copy? Was this given to us, this chart?

No, sir.

Can we get that? That would be very helpful if you would send that.

Mr. Tinker, what was your? No, I was just saying, y'all do such good reports. If y'all could. Sometimes you're doing an update on traffic projects and that type of thing. If you could do those updates and send them to us ahead of time, like on the Friday before or whatever, whenever it's appropriate, that would be good. We can go over it. And then that also would be posted so people can grab it off the agenda.

Yes, sir.

Super.

I love these. This is pretty fascinating. It really is. Anything else on that?

No, sir.

Well, thank you. And Molly, thank you for your report under less than ideal circumstances for you, but super job. Thank you so much. All right. Keep, keep going.

Billy swells is underway right now. We've started the two week period for the trapping of the yellow spotted turtles. Today, we have not dropped any. But if we do, we have a Stantec in conjunction with TNR to release those to a safe place. And then we have the tree walk scheduled for July 17.

Okay.

Wear snake boots. Yeah. If you're going to go.

Yeah. It'll be a little warm.

All right. Any others? Safe streets for all. We can cover all of these. Sure.

safe streets for almost all the projects are either conceptual design or further. One of the things I want to bring up that's not highlighted on this slide is we did have a transportation fair and we did have a pop-up event at the last farmer's market and we've already received over 115 public comments and almost all of them have been positive for all the projects. And considering we haven't really done a lot of public outreach,

So we're excited about these.

Awesome.

Unless you have any projects about these individual ones.

Any questions?

Did I skip one? There we go.

Park West is still under design and permitting. It's on schedule. Planned to be let for construction in the summer of 2027.

Any questions about that? That's a great project.

Just having that light up there has made a huge difference, too.

It has, and in fact, we just coordinated with Park West HOA on that signal timing. Mr. Corson made a comment last time he was here, and we looked at it, and he was dead spot on on what he was seeing, and we made some adjustments there, and I think it's been very favorable. Good.

516 Coleman, we're going to re-advertise that in July. So what we did is we tried to provide some additional clarification on the project scope and also separates out some of the bid items to hopefully get better bid prices and attract more bidders. So hopefully that next advertisement vote will get some lower bids and more bidders.

Okay. Yes. With the county, I didn't see the final vote from DRB, but with the county, I believe, approving the parking down at the creek, Shem Creek, is that correct? They're having additional trailer parking. Does that help alleviate some of the problems we've had, or is that just we're still behind the eight ball on it and we're just trying to catch up?

I can answer that. what they have planned was part of the greater solution so it's there are several components to it and that moving forward is one of them okay still in every need of more parking okay thank you and i just want to reiterate i know there's some discussion on council of of not making the trailer improvements and all this but

We can't have such short-term focus that we get away from what we originally did. That's why you see that the root pruning has already started. We ran that by the qualified members of the Green Commission and our own staff and everybody else. It will work. But that and what Mr. DeMora just said, is it was not either or, it was both. It's our parking, improved parking, and it's the county's. And I just don't want us to start something, we bought this, and then we lose our attention span and we go to something else. We got to stick with the capital improvements for the purpose for which they were gotten in the first place. So anyway, we'll just keep doing that. Thank you. That's my editorial for today.

We have a ton of mountains and white projects. Updates haven't changed since the last meeting. We've got a lot under construction, a lot under design, and a lot that we're starting design for. The biggest one is that we did apply for a build grant, and we're hoping to hear back from that, hopefully, this month or next month.

That's $10 million. Wow. We got one. This is the only one we have not won so far. And we've gone after it for four years. But that would enable us to finish all the design. Is that correct? Yeah. For Mount Pleasant Way. Right. If we get it.

But if you have any questions about the individual ones...

Okay. The recent one on Matthews Ferry that crossed from the fire station, it's been a nice improvement. Is there some under-planting, though, that's going to come in at that area? Because it's pretty barren right now. I suspect there must be some under-canopy planting, or if there is, can you tell us about it?

For the Skellingville Park area, that's complete with all those plantings.

Before that, the ones from the gauge. Yeah.

I would have to look at the design. I know that all of our Mount Blizzard-wide projects do include landscaping, but I'm not specific what's going on in that area. But I can get you that information.

That would be great.

Thank you. It does include that. I don't know the specifics, but I asked the same question. I saw the dead vines in the trees. I'm like, we're going to clean that up, right? And James is like, yes, that's going to happen. And it does include plantings along the trail. It does include plantings, okay. Yes, sir. But we can get you the specific information.

That would be great. Thank you.

Any more questions on Mount Pleasant Way projects? Nope. Okay. I think that's it. Bike and ped, you want to go through those?

For bike and ped, we really don't have a whole lot of changes here either because we do have a lot still under construction. We have a couple that are going out to bids and purchasing. That's the crosswalk and RFP is at Walkintown.

we've got our next round under design for sidewalks and some advisory bike and bed lanes the safe under design and permitting safety improvements on wilden royal corridor is that being included into the new transportation sales tax or is that something we're looking for independent of that as far as because i think a lot of it was repaving um what's the status if any on that

i think 80 of it is repaving so a lot most of that cost is in the asphalt um i i do know that we've had discussions about uh if that could happen whether we could pursue either a tst or a ctc project to get the rest of the funding i i will have to follow up with james on that one that's that's his project but unless you know anything else more than that it is on our list for request of ctc funding okay thank you tst did not avoid it

All right.

That's it. Is that it? Yes, sir. All right.

Are there any further questions or comments on the update? If not, that concludes Item 6. Item 7 is adjourned, so we stand adjourned. All right. Thank you.