Pressure Washing in Mt Pleasant, SC

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Lowcountry voters are urged to come to the polls prepared as Tuesday marks Election Day for the anticipated 2024 Presidential Election.

The South Carolina Election Commission saw record numbers during the early voting period. Over 1.47 million early voters turned out ahead of Election Day.

Voters who plan to cast their ballots Tuesday are urged to arrive at the polls prepared. The state Election Commission states campaign material is not allowed within 500 feet of the entrance to the polling place. That includes clothing, pamphlets, posters and small objects like pins or buttons.

The Charleston County Board of Voter Registration and Elections Executive Director Isaac Cramer says the unacceptable materials are for current candidates. Cramer says poll workers will remove any campaign material within the 500-foot zone.

“If you’re wearing a shirt, they’ll be like, ‘wear it inside out,’ you’ll probably go to the bathroom or back to your car…If you’re wearing a hat, we’ll probably ask you to go back to your vehicle or put that piece of literature away,” Cramer says, “We know people are passing out pamphlets, we know that you might bring a pamphlet with you but we just ask that, that will be put in your purse, put in your pocket or brought back to your vehicle.”

Cramer urges voters to preview their sample ballot before heading to the ballot box. He says looking at the sample ballot online helps with speeding up the voting process.

“The ballot will contain president, Congress, you got local elections as well as the constitutional amendment, local county questions and those will just be longer for voters to review,” Cramer says.

Election officials recommend voters to be voter-ready by knowing any poll location changes. Voters can find their location online on the state election commission website.

Charleston County voters will see permanent location changes starting Election Day. Officials say residents received change via notification cards. County board officials say the changes to better serve voters with fewer lines, quicker voter experience and more disability access.

The affected areas are:

Berkeley County voters will also see changes. Voters in Hanahan 3, 5 and Yeamans Club will vote at Hanahan High School auditorium. Hanahan 4 voters will vote in the high school gym.

County officials say voters affected by the change received notification ahead of this year’s voting period.

Polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Voters need a valid photo identification to enter the polls. Election officials say voters are eligible to vote as long as they are in line by 7 p.m.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC)- The final site review for a food, entertainment, and public gathering space was approved by Mount Pleasant’s commercial design review board on Wednesday night.

The space is called Gather Mount Pleasant and will be located on Midtown Avenue right across from MUSC Midtown in Mount Pleasant and off of HungryNeck Boulevard.

The co-developer of Gather Mount Pleasant, Mack Cross, said that this project will cost $14 million. He said he wants it to serve as a place for friends and families to come and enjoy time together.

“Spend time, you know, ideally away from screens and have conversation, meet neighbors here, host out of town visitors,” Cross said. “A place that Preston, our other partner and co-developer, are really kind of planning for families like ours and a place where we would like to meet our community and spend time.”

Cross said Gather Mount Pleasant will have a similar atmosphere to the Gather location in Greenville, South Carolina but it will be bigger. Along with a variety of food and beverage options and live music like Gather Greenville, the Mount Pleasant location will have additional features like retail, office and salon space.

However, the site Gather Mount Pleasant will sit on has a residential community right next to it called Midtown Townes and Cross said they have had to modify their designs because of some residents’ concerns.

“We reduced the scale of the project. Originally we had a hotel component, but we have since gotten rid of that. The economy changed through the process, so that was a factor as well, you know, so just navigating all those different factors and really wanting to be thoughtful about the design and making sure that it’s a great fit for this site and this community,” Cross said.

One of the concerns previously expressed was noise, however, Cross said they have addressed this with the setup of the project and wouldn’t be having live music played late at night.

“So the scale of the building and where the stage is located within the project the buildings will provide some natural sound screening for that stage, but yes, we are sensitive that this is a residential area,” Cross said.

Many residents of the townhomes spoke during the public comment session of the meeting. One of their main concerns was about an entrance and exit point for commercial vehicles located on Fortier Drive which many of the residents said this road is essentially a driveway for them. They said with that road already being narrow and having commercial vehicles come through they worried about what congestion it could bring.

Mac Deford, a local politician, is one of those residents. He said that he thinks his community would be overall supportive of this project if they addressed this issue and found an alternative access point for commercial vehicles that doesn’t include Fortier Drive.

“I think as long as they are not using our private road, what is an alleyway, clogging it up with commercial traffic which you know would create a lot of safety concerns and hazards, I think they would have the overwhelming support of our community,” Deford said.

During the meeting, officials assured residents they examined various places to put this access point but that this was the best spot.

Cross said he believes the project they have designed now is the best concept they could be bringing to the area. Now that the commercial design review board has approved, Cross said the next steps would be for them to finish their construction drawings and then submit those to the Town of Mount Pleasant for building permit approval.

He said they hope to break ground in early spring or summer with construction expected to be completed in the middle of 2026.

“It is a place for many occasions, spontaneous occasions. It’s really hard to go out with a big family or multiple families and find a place to eat that’s welcoming and you know not too expensive and you know where you’re not disrupting people,” Cross said. “I can think of numerous occasions of times where you know we will end up here and hopefully others will too.”

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Updated: Oct. 2, 2024 at 5:03 PM PDT

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - If you’ve been out on Shem Creek, you may have noticed some noise and the appearance of tall scaffoldings and metal scraps.

These are the building blocks for a dock and shrimp processing building repair project on Haddrell Street. This is the home base of Tarvin Seafood, a shrimping company that has provided the domestic delicacy to Lowcountry businesses since 2011.

“They take a lot of pride in the product and they make our product look better,” owner Cindy Tarvin says. “They’re rebuilding the back half of this building and the dock surrounding it. When it’s completed, it’ll be a really nice space.”

The town of Mount Pleasant purchased the property after noticing the dock was deteriorating and causing safety hazards.

Leaders described the metal building as rusted, the dock wood uprooted and unevenly spaced. The building and dock are estimated to be around 60 years old.

“It was important we didn’t close them down to rebuild the dock,” Deputy Director of Engineering and Development Services Kevin Mitchell says. “It’ll help with the seafood processing itself and preserve the historical character of what the creek was all about.”

The phased project is estimated to be around $4 million. It started in the spring of 2024 with the repair of a nearby ramp and dock, and now it is in the second phase. Leaders say this is the most complicated as it involves the cementing and full rebuild of both dock wood and the metal building itself.

It would extend the building out to the water, several feet away from where it currently sits.

The group says their goal is to return the dock and processing center to its former glory, so the finished product will aim to look exactly as the original setup.

“It is going to benefit whoever’s here. whether it’s us or a future owner. It’s the last space on the creek large enough to anchor a fishing fleet,” Tarvin says. “That’s the important part. Not that it’s helping Tarvin Seafood, but it’s helping the creek.”

The project is expected to be finished within the next four to six months.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

With Travel + Leisure and Conde Nast Traveler naming Charleston the No. 1 vacation destination in the world year after year, developing Patriots Point demanded a clearly defined master plan, according to Ian Duncan, development director of the Bennett Hospitality Group. Having updated sketches of the vision for the project continuously over the last 10 years, Duncan said the plans for a blend of commercial and residential properties that have been in place since 2011 have since evolved into an upscale, world class mixed-use 6.2-acre development called Seafair Village, located within the 30.32-acre Patriots Annex development.

Additionally, Jake Carter, planner for the Town of Mount Pleasant, shared that the site as it exists today consists of the current entrance drive to the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum, parking lot area and existing underground utilities adjacent to the critical line against the Cooper River. According to Duncan, the Bennett Hospitality Group is collaborating with the USS Yorktown to ensure that the first phase will not interfere with operations at Patriots Point.

“As the Yorktown brings thousands of visitors each year, we have been working closely together to make sure we are good neighbors,” Duncan said.

Working hand in hand with high-profile and seasoned Atlanta-based Rabun Architects, Duncan said that Phase One of the long-term project includes a top-of-the-line resort boasting a three-story hotel with 105 rooms, as well as an adjacent 12 cottages, each of which are outfitted with a kitchenette, living room and covered porch. Amenities will include a pool, bar, spa, fitness facility and conference center. Further, outdoor areas incorporating gazebos, tiki huts, fire pits, open areas with views of the harbor, marinas and the Battery along with parks and an interactive fountain resembling the pineapple at downtown Charleston’s Waterfront Park will lend a family dynamic to the property.

Additionally, high-end boutiques and restaurants will give Seafair Village a vibe like that of Kiawah’s Freshfields Village, Wild Dunes or Nexton. And as Duncan said, due to its convenient location, Seafair is geared to become the heart of Mount Pleasant where residents and visitors can bike or drive. With convenient perimeter parking, a vacation or day trip to Seafair will offer something for everyone, whether hiking a waterside trail connecting to Hog Island, kayaking, playing a round at the Patriots Point Links course, relaxing during a massage, taking a harbor cruise or spending the day shopping while lingering to enjoy dinner.

“It’s so exciting to see the plans coming to fruition,” Duncan said. He added that this fall, before ground can be broken for construction of the hotel and cottages, a land disturbing activity, work on the first phase of the Seafair Village development will require the enormous endeavor of verifying existing conditions, including but not limited to topographic, tree, storm drainage facilities and all exact vertical and horizontal locations of all existing utilities. Duncan estimated that this intricate work, along with building the hotel and cottages, will take approximately 12-18 months to complete Phase One to the Bennett Hospitality Group’s high standards, with the grand opening slated for some time in 2026.

The next steps, according to Duncan, will include Bennett Hospitality finalizing landscaping, as well as interior packages with Atlanta-based Design Continuum, Inc.’s lead designer Karen Jenkins, who is in the preliminary phases of conceptualizing the coastal contemporary look that will pull neutral colors from the outdoors to mirror surrounding nature. As Duncan said, this streamlined and timeless style fits beautifully with Mount Pleasant’s vernacular.

Future phases include developing hundreds of thousands of additional square feet allocated for upwards of 500 hotel rooms, a conference facility, boutique second-story office spaces, residential components, as well as a sports and entertainment venue.

“This project is already attracting national attention,” Duncan said, adding that market demand will ultimately determine final plans for other long-term phases of Seafair Village. “I’ll still be drawing for several months,” Duncan said with a chuckle. “In fact, I’ll never stop drawing.”

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