Plum Island and Harbor View Circle
Town Administrator Hal Mason and I met with several citizens from Harbor View Circle last Friday and with representatives of the Charleston Water System on Tuesday.
The Charleston Water System operates the regional sewage treatment plant on Plum Island. Wastewater from the James Island Public Service District is sent to this plant along with wastewater from the City of Charleston and many of the smaller municipalities in the southern part of the county.
The CWS is seeking to purchase all of the homes on Harbor View Circle over the next twenty years. Some of the citizens were concerned that CWS would use eminent domain to force them to sell CWS has no intention of using eminent domain.
The Town has no ordinance prohibiting residents of the Town of James Island from selling their homes to whomever they choose. I believes that any such ordinance would be an unjustified violation of individual property rights. CWS has every right to purchase from willing sellers.
However, the Town's Zoning Ordinance limits the use of these properties. Harbor View Circle is zoned RSL. CSW's options are very limited, though they can rent the properties out to people who want live on Harbor View Circle. CSW's representatives said they planned to do this, hoping to recoup some of the monies spent to purchase them. They have also offered to buy homes from the current residents and let them stay and rent from CWS.
In approximately twenty years, CWS would like to move their administrative offices from Plum Island to Harbor View Circle. This would require a rezoning. CWS would have to explain their plans to the Town of James Island Planning Commission. The Planning Commission's recommendation would go forward to James Island Town Council, which would hold a public hearing. Only if James Island Town Council voted for the zoning change, would CWS be able to move offices to Harbor View Circle.
In my view, to protect the remaining homeowners, Office Residential would be the most appropriate rezoning request. Office Residential requires that offices be placed in existing residential structures and that new structures have an external appearance of a residence.
CWS also explained that they would like to move their repair shops to Harbor View Circle. I explained to the representatives of CWS that repair shops would require an Industrial zoning district, which would be much more difficult to obtain. I explained that the industrial zoning necessary to move waste water onto Harbor View Circle would not be forthcoming. The representatives of CWS assured me that running pipes to Harbor View Circle would be cost prohibitive and that their goal was to open up space on Plum Island for expansion of sewage treatment by shifting offices and the repair shop.
I asked about the cost of moving the operation away from Plum Island. A study from 5 years ago estimated a cost of $600 million, which is about $8,000 per customer. I asked about preparations for Hurricanes and the representatives described their improvements to harden the facility since Hugo. Finally, I asked about smell, and if that will be a more serious problem as more sewage runs through the plant. The representatives of CWS insisted that they continue to work to reduce bad smells.
