Carolina Park Nears Agreement with Town

Mount Pleasant is nearing an agreement with developers who want to add roughly 2,000 more homes to the town over the next two decades.

Carolina Park’s development has been in talks since the 1990s, but finally this week, it appears a second developer may be closer to actually making a go of the 1,600-acre mixed-use development near the Wando River, the East Cooper Airport and U.S. Highway 17.

Monday, during a called meeting to hash out the development agreement with the town and Carolina Park’s developers, Mayor Billy Swails indicated the city is within 30 days of coming to an agreement on the project.

“I think we’re close. I’d like to see this agreement go back to the planning commission and then come to us again,” Swails told town workers and the developers. “We can vote on it next month, if not sooner.”

Previous developers had hashed through much of the development plan with Charleston County in the mid-2000s, but like so many other real estate developments, the plans fell apart when the real estate market tanked.

Now, the town is debating whether new developers should pay more so-called impact fees, since its latest plan adds 280 multi-family homes that could be apartments or townhomes. Also, Town Administrator Eric DeMaura said the developer should pay for road widening near a proposed commercial space in the development.

Already, the developer said they’ve given $11 million in land and cash payments to the city and county, and they still plan another $3 million in cash payments over the next six years.

Future meetings with the town and hearings with the planning commission are supposed to iron out those issues, as well as a handful of other smaller questions such as buffer zones and building heights.

In all, Carolina Park will include 2,000 dwellings to the 1,600-acre development. In addition to that, it will contain 3 million square feet of industrial space and 1.2 million in commercial or retail space. The developers believe 10,000 people could live and work in the development when complete.