Ophthalmologist near Huger, SC

Cainhoy and Huger residents who have seen how I-526 has changed their communities are issuing a stark warning if the freeway is extended across Johns and James islands: If you build it, you’ll get rampant development, a traffic deluge and life-changing “culture shock.”

“We have just absolutely been overwhelmed with traffic and wrecks. We now have a 24-hour vape shop” that attracts students after school, said MaeRe Chandler Skinner, a longtime resident of Cainhoy in lower Berkeley County. “It has been a culture shock!”

The quaint Wando River enclave settled in the early 1720s has become nearly encircled by development since the highway called the Mark Clark Expressway opened three decades ago. The community has “more development than you can shake a stick at,” Skinner said. “There is not going to be a tree standing on Clements Ferry Road by the time [developers] get through.”

Decades from now, James and Johns islanders might voice a similar lament if an 8.5-mile southern loop to the interstate is built at a cost of $2.3 billion to connect it with the James Island Connector and the Charleston peninsula.

The S.C. General Assembly’s Joint Bond Review Committee on Dec. 5 approved $75 million in preliminary funding to the S.C. Transportation Infrastructure Bank for the first phase of the highway’s extension.

The new funding will be combined with $75 million pledged by the Charleston County Council toward the project. The decision puts taxpayers on the hook for $150 million for a road destined to alter the landscape and way of life for two Charleston County sea islands.

On Johns Island, some residents are resigned that not much can be done to stop the highway, said Cheryl Glover, lay leader of Johns Island Parish United Methodist Church on Bohicket Road. “It is hard to get folks to realize what is going to happen, if they don’t see it already happening.”

The prospect of the Mark Clark Expressway’s southern loop has laid dormant for decades but now with additional funding, Cainhoy resident Sammy Sanders warns: “Don’t do it! Don’t let it happen!”

For the sake of Johns and James islands, “I had hoped that issue wasn’t going to come back up,” he said. “When you increase the number of people, you increase the difficulties.”

Glover said development on Johns Island has already caused traffic delays, and the extended expressway might be a regrettable solution to traffic congestion.

Sanders admits, however, that having more people in the area has brought some advantages to lower Berkeley County. Cainhoy’s marina now has dry stack storage for boats, he said. “We wouldn’t have a dry stack, if we didn’t have the houses.”

A housing boom in the Huger community brought better internet connections, said community advocate Vernelle Dickerson. Nevertheless, the growth in Huger also has meant more traffic, a smelly sewage pumping station in one development along S.C. 41 near the Huger post office and an erosion of the tranquil country lifestyle, she said.

“These people [come here] from the North and West say they want county living, then they want all the amenities of city living” which fuels more commercial development, she explained.

Before and after the Mark Clark Expressway connected North Charleston with Daniel Island, community leaders attended dozens of meetings with state officials and developers.

Skinner urged residents of James and Johns islands to “come up with a game plan, attend every meeting … and say your objections.”

Dickerson said to blunt some of the downside of development communities should demand what they want.

Fred Lincoln lives in the Jack Primus community near Cainhoy on land his great-grandfather purchased after emancipation. Lincoln said before the extension comes, property owners should decide how they can take advantage of the commercial and residential growth that could follow the highway.

When land speculators offer to buy property, Lincoln advises “don’t take the fast dollar. Those people who sold property [in the Cainhoy area] if they had to rethink it, I don’t think they’d do it.”

Landowners on James and Johns islands near the path of the coming highway, Lincoln explained, should rezone their land for commercial use and consider leasing their property instead of selling it to preserve the land for the next generation.

City Paper special projects editor Herb Frazier is the author of Behind God’s Back: Gullah Memories, Cainhoy, Wando, Huger, Daniel Island, St. Thomas Island, South Carolina.

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The Richland County Council voted Tuesday to unanimously approve financial incentives for a $100 million housing development at the former SCANA bus storage site on Huger Street.

Huger Flats, previously identified by the county as Project Wichita, will take up nearly 6 acres at 1409 Huger St. across from The Nine student apartment complex, at the gateway to downtown Columbia’s Vista.

The apartment development plans to include sidewalks, a pocket park and a 643-space parking garage, according to county documents.

During the council’s first vote on incentives for the project in March, it was proposed as an $90 million investment. The updated $100 million plan makes the development one of the most expensive housing developments in the city.

The nearby CanalSide development remains the highest with over $100 million invested into apartments at the old South Carolina Penitentiary site.

The new Huger Flats location is one of the most prominent and valuable undeveloped properties in downtown. It has been empty since 2008 when SCANA tore down the old bus barn.

The land was first developed in 1902 as an SCE&G manufactured gas plant, which left coal tar as a byproduct. The apartment development plan currently estimates that required environmental remediation of the area will cost over $1 million. Other large costs include building the parking facility and modernizing and burying electric lines.

Huger Flats also plans to relocate and modernize stormwater and sewer mains, add green spaces and improve the roadway.

There is an estimated total of $22 million of public infrastructure improvements related to the development.

The project is to be developed by Atlanta-based Stratus Property Group, according to county documents. Jeff Koon, a representative from Stratus Property Group said the company is working with stakeholders in the area and is looking forward to proceeding with the project.

“It’s good to see some reinvention of the area on the way,” Koon said. “We’re looking forward to that being kind of a connecting piece between existing properties.”

As a part of the approval, the company agreed to rent apartments at a rate affordable to residents earning between 80% and 120% of the Columbia area median income.

In exchange for the company’s $100 million investment, it will get a 50% property tax break for 15 years.

There have been other attempts to redevelop the site in the past, including a 2016 pitch to build a supermarket and apartments, but none have been unsuccessful. The site sits beside another notable vacant property, the former Kline Iron and Steel Co. property at the corner of Huger and Gervais streets, where multiple development proposals also have faltered over the years.

This story was originally published July 19, 2023, 10:28 AM.

HUGER S.C. (WCSC) - People that live in the Huger-Wando community are voicing their concerns to city leaders about everything from transportation to affordable housing.

Almost 200 people came to a community meeting at Cainhoy Elementary on Thursday. They say they feel overlooked when it comes to decisions regarding their area.

Carl Anderson, S.C. House of Representatives District 103, says he is new to representing the Huger-Wando area and wants their requests to be fulfilled.

“Berkeley County has several pots of money that we just hope would be shared across Berkeley County with every area of Berkeley County, but this area, as they said to me, they feel like they have been overlooked,” Anderson said. “So, I feel like this area needs a little bit more attention than the other areas.”

At the meeting, representatives from Berkeley County, the state’s health department and department of transportation, just to name a few, answered questions from the public.

“The funds that have come in from the federal government during this pandemic and what is going to be done with it,” Anderson said. “And we heard that only a fraction of those funds were spent. So, they want to be included in the funds that the county has so that things can get done in this area.”

Another issue brought up was the repaving of certain roads, the cost of affordable housing and overall severity of sewage and drainage problems.

One community member, Cynthia Lawrence, says she wished that the agencies could have gone into more detail with their answers.

“Well, I think the public is still a little leery about the answers that they received tonight from the agencies that were here,” Lawrence said. “We needed to go a little deeper and it just wasn’t enough time.”

Although the community members say they wish they had more time, other county and school representatives say they can answer more in-depth questions when contacted directly.

The hope is to have another meeting sometime in October, but no date has been set as of now. The organizer’s plans include inviting Berkeley County Water and Sewer so they can solve more of the sewage issues.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Charlotte-based Nucor Corp. is expanding again. The steel company will invest $425 million and add 50 full-time jobs at its South Carolina manufacturing facility.

The news comes less than a month after Nucor said it would invest $200 million over five years on a modernization project at the same sheet and beam Berkeley County mill.

Nucor’s latest expansion will add a galvanizing line to expand the manufacturing of corrosion-resistant products at the 1455 Old Hagan Ave. in Huger plant, according to a news release from S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster’s office Tuesday. Huger is near the South Carolina coast, about 30 miles north of Charleston.

It will be Nucor’s eighth wholly-owned galvanizing line, according to a company news release Tuesday. Nucor is one of the largest manufacturers of steel and steel products in North America.

The new South Carolina flat-rolled galvanizing line will have an annual capacity of about 500,000 tons and be able to produce galvanized steel up to 72 inches wide, Nucor said. The project is expected to be completed by mid-2025.

“Anytime a longtime existing industry commits to an expansion, that’s positive proof that a lot of people are doing things right,” Berkeley County Supervisor Johnny Cribb said in a statement.

The Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved a $400,000 grant to Berkeley County to help with site preparation costs, according to McMaster’s office.

Nucor also received job development credits from South Carolina and the state’s utility provider, Santee Cooper, provided a grant to Berkeley County to help cover the costs of facility upgrades related to the expansion, according to a company news release. Nucor and Berkeley County also entered into a fee-in-lieu of tax agreement.

Nucor Steel Berkeley has 975 employees, according to the company.

Nucor’s Board of Directors also approved a galvanizing line to be constructed in the western U.S. with details to be announced later, according to the company.

Nucor Steel Berkeley is among a growing list of expansion moves by Nucor over the past year.

▪ Last month, Nucor said it will build an air separation unit to supply industrial gases to the steelmaking sheet and beam mill at the same Berkeley mill. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.

▪ In early August, Nucor said it is adding a $100 million melt shop to its Kingman, Arizona, bar mill. It will create 140 full-time jobs with an average salary of $85,000. The project is expected to take two years.

▪ In June, Nucor completed its $3 billion acquisition of C.H.I. Overhead Doors from KKR & Co. Inc. C.H.I. manufactures overhead door products for homes and businesses, as well as rolling steel and rubber doors for commercial and industrial customers.

Also in June, Nucor agreed to acquire Summit Utility Structures and a related company, Sovereign Steel Manufacturing, producers of metal poles and other steel structures for utility infrastructure and highway signage.

▪ In April, Nucor shared a $350 million expansion plan to add 180 jobs at its third rebar micro mill in Lexington, N.C.

The same month, Nucor said it is investing $15 million in NuScale Power, a developer of small modular reactor nuclear plants.

Nucor also acquired steel racking manufacturer Elite Storage Solutions for $75 million with locations in Monroe, Georgia; and Chandler, Arizona.

▪ In January, Nucor said it will build a $2.7 billion sheet mill in Mason County, West Virginia, with capacity to produce 3 million tons of steel each year.

▪ Last fall, Nucor said it would add a blast and prime line at its $1.7 billion steel plate mill under construction in Brandenburg, Kentucky, and create 400 jobs. The project is expected to open later this year.

▪ In August 2021, Nucor acquired two insulated metal panel brands from Cary-based Cornerstone Building Brands for $1 billion, the Observer reported. The deal added 830 employees from seven Cornerstone manufacturing sites, three offices and a product center.

This story was originally published September 28, 2022, 10:48 AM.