ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCIV) — *Story posted March 1, 2023* Beach goers at the Isle of Palms will be happy to hear that the Isle of Palms County Park opens back up today, March1, after being closed for the past two months,.

The park has been closed since Jan. 1 for major renovations to the facilities like the boardwalk and beach access points, all in an effort to make the island more accessible to all.

According to Charleston County Parks and Recreation, some of the biggest changes to the park include railings near the boardwalk and around the park center, as well as completely re doing the ramp for beach access from the park.

Read More: Isle of Palms County Park temporarily closing for renovations

These changes were made so that all facilities are up to American Disabilities Act standard.

The plan to improve the accessibility of the park has been in the works for over a year now and officials say they are excited for people to see the revamped facilities.

“We have been planning this work specifically here at Isle of palms for over a year and getting everything ready so that we could be closed for a very short time and get all the work done that we wanted to make happen. So that we could open back up and have all of our [facilities] be able to meet all of those ADA standards and be ready to welcome the public back in,” Park Manager Cynthia Wilson said.

While the county park officially opens back up today, portions such as the main beach/boardwalk access point will still be closed as they finish up renovations. Beach goers will be directed to the new ramp access.

Read More: New beach boardwalk ramp completed at Isle of Palms County Park

Some of the minor improvements county officials say they will continue to work on at the park include installing even more handrails by the boardwalk and replacing the current shower system.

This park has not been the only one to get an improvement in Charleston County recently.

These changes have been by the help of state officials who, like Charleston County, have been making a commitment to accessibility and quite literally put their money where their mouth is to help places across the lowcountry.

In total the state department of parks and recreation gave just under half a million dollars to Lowcountry parks for improvements.

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In Charleston, Fort Pemberton received $261,000 for public access improvements- just around half of what the Isle of Palms County Park got to make their boardwalk more accessible.

In addition to these projects, the town of Edisto received $125,000 to resurface it's bike paths around public parks.

Charleston County officials say this commitment by the state helps city open their arms to people of all accessibilities.

“We're doing all of this work to make sure, yes, that we meet our ADA standards. But in doing that, what our hope is, is that we do become more inviting for the public to come in. We want folks with every type of ability to be able to access and enjoy our parks. That was the driving force behind the renovations that we have done,” Wilson said.

Officials said the federal land and water conservation fund, which has been the main funding to a lot of these projects, will support 13 recreation projects across South Carolina, as the state department of parks and recreation has announced $4.2 million in grants in total.

The City of Isle of Palms is holding the first of two public hearings to discuss limiting future development and protecting the golf courses in the Wild Dunes p

ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCSC) - The City of Isle of Palms is holding the first of two public hearings to discuss limiting future development and protecting the golf courses in the Wild Dunes planned development district on Tuesday.

The discussion stemmed from a 1975 agreement that would make it possible for there to be over 300 more rooms built in the Wild Dunes between hotels and condos.

According to Mayor Phillip Pounds, it all started back in February when a group of residents asked the council to take a look at the decades-old agreement to see if they could make some changes. Anthony Santiago says he was one of those residents.

“We thought we were developed already after The Sweetgrass Inn,” Santiago said. “We don’t even have parking for that. And then through the due diligence we discovered the capacity to expand this more than double.”

Santiago and others who are against future development in Wild Dunes say that more development would overwhelm public safety and public works resources, cause more drainage and sewage issues, and make traffic and parking on the island more of a nightmare.

“Every city municipality has the right to rezone as you develop,” Santiago said. “This is almost fifty years ago when we did this. Nobody thought we’d be as big as we are.”

The Isle of Palms City Council now has five ordinances up for discussion that would preserve public and private facilities and put a cap on density in the planned development district.

Beverly Miller is the executive director of the Barrier Island Preservation Alliance, a nonprofit formed to address challenges unique to the barrier islands. She said she wanted to show support for the ordinances through a petition. It now has over 750 signatures.

“When that was written, this island was erratically different, and it’s so different now that we need to amend those zoning ordinances so that we are up to today and the demands that are on the island today that were not here in 1975,” Miller said.

Pounds said the Wild Dunes agreement was one of the first of its type in the country.

“Unusual maybe, but as areas get built out there’s certainly an opportunity for cities to revisit the zoning and the density and the future development,” Pounds said.

Pounds said the city has received many phone calls and emails from concerned residents worried how much the island could take. He says there’s confusion about the slow process, but he says with the public hearing, that will stop development even though they aren’t completely through the process.

“When you’re on an island where you have such little landmass to develop anything, the ability to put 300 plus units in Wild Dunes today, I don’t even know where they would put them because there’s not that kind of landmass,” Pounds said. “But some of the concern was, could they do something on the golf courses, could they do something on the tennis courts. That’s some of the ordinance that we’re looking at during this process is protecting those areas.”

Tuesday’s public hearing will take place at Isle of Palms city hall at 5 p.m. Another public hearing will take place Nov. 1 at 5 p.m. at the city’s recreation center. The city’s planning commission will take a look at the ordinances and give feedback to city council. Then, it will be up to city council to schedule a second reading which would solidify the ordinances.

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Ever since the Isle of Palms incorporated in the 1950s, voters have elected eight at-large council members and a mayor. In the coming month, these city voters will decide if that’s two council members too many.

We don’t think it is. More specifically, we don’t see any big advantage that shrinking City Council would provide to residents, and we see a few disadvantages.

The idea of reducing council’s size has been batted around quietly for several years, Mayor Phillip Pounds tells us, partly because the city does seem to have a rather large council for its size, about 4,400 residents. Only about 4% of South Carolina municipalities have more than seven council seats, and most of them are much larger. For instance, Charleston, North Charleston and Mount Pleasant have 12, 10 and 8 council seats, respectively.

The debate has remained fairly quiet, even as the council added it to the Nov. 8 ballot, and with less than three weeks remaining before early voting starts, no one has offered a compelling reason to vote “yes.” The conservative approach to any referendum question is to maintain the status quo unless there’s a compelling reason to make a change.

The primary upside of shrinking the Isle of Palms council apparently is saving a little time for council members and staff. Not to knock efforts to improve efficiency, but that strikes us as pretty thin gruel. It’s true that voters still would have six council members representing them (all seats are at-large), but who’s to say that the seventh or eighth council member wouldn’t be the one who listens to particular voters’ concerns most closely — and does the best job representing them?

Because of the way the reduction is planned, if voters approve it in the referendum, the City Council would be a mess for two years. The slim-down would be phased in with voters electing just three rather than four seats in the 2023 city election and then doing the same thing in the 2025 election. That would leave the council with an even number of votes (including the mayor’s) for two years. That might make a big difference, delaying important action on an important issue. Or not. But why take the risk?

This issue seems to be important mainly inside City Hall. While Mayor Pounds tells us he supports the idea, he acknowledges that the average Isle of Palms resident seems to have little skin in this game: “I can’t imagine they would notice a blip if we have five council members or seven or nine.”

If City Council members believe the current city governance is inefficient, then perhaps they should come up with changes that don’t affect the voters’ ability to elect council members. And if council members believe the job requires too much work — about 10 hours of work a week, on average — for too little pay (council members make $1,500 a year, but do qualify for health insurance benefits), perhaps they should either reexamine their work schedule or step aside for someone else to serve.

The council’s relative size might make the job of its members more time-consuming, but that also might work to ensure that their consensus, once they arrive at one, will better stand the test of time.

The city is grappling with big decisions, from the future of its marina to possible adjustments in its short-term rental rules to the logistical headaches involved in managing summertime crowds. We’re unconvinced City Council would make better decisions with fewer council members.

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The Isle of Palms (IOP) City Council has chosen a new traffic pattern for the IOP Connector.

Council members want two lanes heading into Mount Pleasant and one lane onto the Island. However, Councilman Blair Hahn believes adding more lanes means adding more traffic and that adds chaos.

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"I think it’s a mistake," Hahn said. "I think what we need to do is look at the safety of everybody that comes on the island and uses the bridge."

Hahn is also worried about the access first responders may lose in case of an emergency, noting first responders need as much room on the roadway as possible.

The Isle of Palms City Council has chosen a new traffic pattern for the IOP Connector. (WCIV)

"To me, those are the people who put their lives at risk on a daily basis," he said. "We should listen to them and what concept they think is the best for the bridge. Whether you call it a median or emergency lane, it is a buffer that allows first responders to operate on the bridge without putting themselves at risk."

Local advocate Katie Zimmerman of Charleston Moves says if it isn't broken, it doesn't need to be fixed. She feels the IOP Connector already allows necessary space for all types of travelers and is hopeful the connector lane design won't change.

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"Given what the options are, and the situation is, we think the current existing configuration of IOP connector is the best option," she said. "It meets all the needs and it's the safest option for people who are biking, walking, and running given the amount of space out there. This was not a road diet, this was not a change for drivers, it was an improvement for people walking biking, and running.

IOP Mayor Phillip Pounds says once they meet with the City of Mount Pleasant, they can move forward on a final decision for bikers and pedestrians.

ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCBD) – Isle of Palms City Council heard from residents about Friday’s beach shooting and also discussed potential changes coming to the Isle of Palms (IOP) Connector.

The special meeting was scheduled prior to last Friday’s shooting that left five people wounded. Some neighbors attended to share their thoughts on the shooting.

“Awesome shoutout to our first responders who got in last Friday’s continuous,” Isle of Palms resident Al Klaus said, “contentious world of reality that we live in.”

For neighbors like Terry McGowan, who experienced the shooting first-hand while walking with his wife on the beach.

“This incident has left us both traumatized,” McGowan said.

He is asking for action to be taken to prevent something similar from happening in the future.

“We believe it’s imperative for council to address the root causes of these flash mobs and improve city services,” McGowan said.

After public comments, council began discussing results of a survey distributed by the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) regarding possible lane configuration changes for the IOP Connector.

“The report that’s in our packet summarizes about 3300 survey responses after scrubbing through duplicates,” Isle of Palms Mayor Phillip Pounds said.

Of those 3300 responses, 48 percent were IOP residents. Their top two concerns are traffic congestion and the safety of bicyclists and pedestrians.

“Participants priority ranking item on the bridge primarily focused on reducing traffic congestion and improving safety,” Pounds said.

From the five potential changes SCDOT proposed last December, Concept Five was the most popular choice.

“Concept Five,” Pounds said, “which you may remember adds a lane capacity on the bridge by adding a second lane toward Mount Pleasant, received the highest rating with 50 percent of the respondents rating it four stars or higher.”

And many councilmembers appear to be in favor of that option as well.

“With the alternatives that have been proposed by DOT,” Isle of Palms Councilwoman Jan Anderson said, “there’s one that provides additional capacity on the road that will help relieve traffic congestion, and that’s option five.”

Mayor Pounds says any changes made to the IOP Connector will likely come after the summer.