CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – Two new subdivisions could be coming to opposite ends of the Cainhoy Peninsula, with developers presenting preliminary plans to the City of Charleston.
Thomas Island and Tuxbury farms are separate neighborhoods with similar plans for detached and attached family homes on currently undeveloped lots in the Berkeley County part of the city.
The Thomas Island subdivision would sit at the end of Clements Ferry Road near Interstate 526 and proposes 42 lots on about 18 acres of land. The Tuxbury Farms development would sit off of S.C. Highway 41 and build 83 lots on about 15 acres of land.
Anna Kimelblatt is the Communities and Transportation Program Director of the Coastal Conservation League.
“Cainhoy right now is sort of one of the last undeveloped frontiers in the city of Charleston and Berkeley County,” Kimelblatt says.
She says the area is seeing extreme development pressure. Perhaps the most well-known and largest planned unit development is Point Hope.
The already approved project will build on about 9,000 to 12,000 planned units.
“So this is wholly separate from that. So I think a lot of times we think about the Cainhoy peninsula, and we’re thinking about that project, right? But there’s all this other growth and development that’s also occurring along Clements Ferry and 41 on the peninsula, which is going to exacerbate a lot of these flooding and traffic impacts that we’re already feeling in the city of Charleston,” Kimelblatt says.
She says the way the area operates now, the natural element of the peninsula is crucial to handling rain and flooding. That natural flood mitigation will change when major developments are introduced, and despite best efforts, manmade runoff does not work the same way.
“Mainly, it has a lot of wetlands that are providing natural flood mitigation for that community out there. So, you know, all of the naturally functioning floodplain on Cainhoy holds and stores all of that flood water and slowly releases it back into the natural environment, right, so that it’s not flooding roads, flooding homes, flooding yards, that kind of thing. And that’s sort of one of the main environmental services that Cainhoy provides in its current state,” Kimelblatt says.
She speaks to the potential traffic impacts of Tuxbeury Farms specifically, since it is off of Highway 41, which is expecting upgrades that are years in the making and likely years from being completed.
“Highway 41 is congested. It’s inundated when it rains and during a high tide, and we’ve not yet seen those improvements for Highway 41 come to pass. We struggle with the idea of putting another dense subdivision on 41 while we still do not have the necessary infrastructure upgrades to that road,” Kimelblatt says.
The Thomas Isand and Tuxbury Farms projects are in the early stages of the Technical Review Committee at City Hall. Kimelblatt and the Coastal Conservation team say they will be watching to participate in any future public comment if the project progresses.
“An assessment of available infrastructure, available road infrastructure, drainage infrastructure, emergency services, schools, all of that, think that would contribute to a more holistic planning process for these areas that are experiencing such intense growth pressures. You know, given that we have 18,000 units already approved for the Cainhoy Peninsula, it makes sense to take that into consideration when we’re thinking about these other projects,” Kimelblatt says.