October 8th, 2020

Summerville Town Council
200 S. Main Street
Summerville, SC 29483

Dear Members of Summerville Town Council:
On behalf of the residents of South Pointe, South Pointe Estates, Summer Wood, Branch Creek and all the other affected Citizen of Summerville, we are petitioning the Summerville Town Council to stop the proposed development of the 228 Unit South Pointe Apartment complex at Highway 78 and South Pointe Boulevard. You as the elected members of our town will be asked to approve the annexation and rezoning of this development in order for those developmental plans to be completed. We strongly oppose these plans, and we urge you as our elected representatives, to keep our concerns in mind when it comes time for you to review and vote on this situation.
Growth: The rapid growth in the Town of Summerville is outpacing the infrastructure improvements that are needed to support such growth. Just in the past few months Summerville has approved the building of multiple apartment complexes with over 500 individual units. With so much growth going on all around the town, we must ask ourselves, are we growing too fast? We need to make sure the growth is carefully thought out and plan to maintain the character and appeal of Summerville. Becoming an urban city with huge apartments complexes and buildings all over the place is not what Summerville is about or what gives it the charm that so many people are drawn to.
Traffic: The application submitted shows the intent to build a 228-unit apartment complex, with those units being anywhere from 1 to 3 bedroom apartments. This indicates over 300 people and vehicles will be utilizing the parking area. It is shown these parking lots will only be accessed on South Pointe Boulevard. The traffic problem of that single entry to Highway 78 will be greatly increased even with the planned turning lane on the highway. The intersection was not engineered to accommodate such a massive increase in vehicle traffic. This will only compound the difficulty of entering and exiting South Pointe Boulevard off Highway 78. This will also impact the anyone that travels through the area on Highway 78. With the already heavy traffic congestion felt by travelers every day, the addition of 300+ vehicles entering and exiting South Pointe Blvd will cause more congestion and motor vehicle accidents. Highway 78 is not scheduled to be widened for more than 20 years according to current plans. Dan Ryan is working on a turn lane for the entrance of South Pointe, and Hwy 78 is scheduled to be resurfaced in 10 years. We have already dropped the ball on keeping up with the current traffic needs of this area, we don’t need to make it worse by adding a multi-family 8 building apartment complex in the heart of that area. With current everyday traffic congestion, adding more and more people living in the town is only going to compound daily commuters’ frustrations. We need to focus on fixing the current traffic and congestion issues before we allow the problems to get worse.
Scale: The scale of this plan clashes and disrupts the aesthetics, the way of life and the style of neighborhood that we all call home now. If allowed to proceed, the current design calls for a 21st Century tenement housing development (lots of people crammed into tiny apartments) that will be blocking an established neighborhood. That neighborhood is made up of large single-family homes with front porches that were built in the 1980s in South Pointe and new large estates that are being built today in South Pointe Estates. Another concern is that the current plans would force us to drive right through the middle of a massive 7 building (that are three stories tall) apartment complex, with these buildings and parking lots on both sides of the Boulevard.
Safety: This project also brings up major safety concerns that will be caused by the increases of pedestrian traffic due to the complex being split across the Boulevard, increased automobile traffic, and the inevitable use of the residential streets of our neighborhoods. Apartment complex units of this size and style always sees an increase in crime. Just look at the police records of “Waters at Magnolia Bay” a few hundred yards down the street. Charleston County has been dealing with multiple major crimes at that complex. Three examples of major crimes are: 1. A person was found shot to death inside of a burning car at that complex on Aug 27th. 2. A man died from a gunshot wound at that complex on March 24th. 3. Charleston County investigated a shooting that took place at that complex on Aug 4th, 2019. We do not want these types of crimes taking place in front of our homes, where we raise our children. The increased traffic will also affect the response time of our first responders. Hwy 78 being 2 lanes if often blocked from both directions due to accidents. First responders will have a harder time getting through the increased traffic.

Impact: The construction of apartments will create issues from the day construction begins. Interruptions in our existing utilities as accidents always seem to take place during construction. Will Summerville have to hire more personnel due to an increase in calls which is sure to come given existing problems we have seen at Waters at Magnolia Bay. You will see vehicles being broken into more often. Vehicle break-ins have already been taking place in the back parts of South Pointe and that will most likely increase since Finucan Road provides easy access to many of the homes either on foot or vehicle.
Property Values: The current market homes that have sold over the past 12 months in the 29483 area (between 2000 and 3000 sqft) have sold for an average price of $311,730(MLS records). The neighborhood of South Pointe Estates is selling detached single-family homes at a starting price of $300,000. They are just finishing phase 2 of new home construction and have not even begun building homes in phase 3 (the largest phase). Just announcing this type of project will be devastating to that community which is less than 3 years old. Home buyers are not going to drive through the middle of a 7-building apartment complex just to get to the neighborhood. The brand new over quarter million-dollar home sales would become nonexistent. This would further damage the value to our homes. The result of this project would be severely damaging to the home values for the current homeowners.
We are signing this petition and asking you as our elected representatives to stop this project from ever becoming a reality. We ask that you allow us to keep our homes safe and protect our way of life. We love the neighborhood in the pines. Please don’t let it become the neighborhood behind an apartment complex.

Sincerely,
Concerned citizens within the Town of Summerville