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The Ponds expands mixed-use concept in Summerville
By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer
Picture a new development with homes big and small, a neighborhood school, recreational facilities, shops and restaurants, acres of live oaks and natural areas full of walking trails.
No, this isn’t Daniel Island. The Ponds will be Summerville’s smaller version of a similar concept, and it will create a completely new community off U.S. Highway 17-A, about 15 miles from the Colleton County line.
“It’s going to be what we call a blended community, with single-family detached homes, townhomes and multi-family homes mixed together, very much like it is on Daniel Island,” said John Morgan, general manager of the project being developed by Greenwood Development Corp.
Headquartered in Greenwood, S.C., the
company was founded in 1978 and also developed Beresford Hall, Coosaw Creek and Hilton Head Island’s Shelter Cove.
Phase One of The Ponds is under way and will include 213 single-family and townhouse home sites, land for a new Summerville YMCA, an amphitheater overlooking a 20-acre lake, an 11-acre playing field, the first of four community swimming pools, parks and the beginnings of a 10-mile nature trail network.
Eventually the community will have an elementary school, churches, civic buildings, a fire station and an emergency service facility. The master-planned community received plat approval from Dorchester County in June and will have 1,950 residential units plus 50,000 square feet of commercial space at completion.
Greenwood Development purchased The Ponds, the site of a former plantation and hunting lodge, for $20.6 million. The company is restoring the plantation’s mid-19th century farmhouse with guidance from the S.C. Department of Archives and History. The house will be used for social and cultural events in the community and will be the home of a private conservancy overseeing the development’s conservation district.
More than half of the development’s 2,000 acres has been set aside for a conservation district that will include public hiking trials. In the middle of the conservation district is Schultz Lake, which forms the headwaters of the Ashley River. The developed part of the property, about 900 acres, is on a high plateau overlooking the river.
Morgan said there are more than 500 people on a waiting list for home sites and the company intends to do some pre-sale marketing in early 2007. On-site sales should begin in October 2007.
Single-family home prices are expected to range from the $300,000s to the $700,000s. Townhouses will generally range from $250,000 to $350,000 and condominiums should sell for between $200,000 and $400,000.
The Ponds sits in the state’s most rapidly growing county, where citizens are disturbed about the increase in traffic and other issues related to growth.
“I think it’s very environmentally sensitive to where its location is,” said Harold LeaMond, Dorchester County’s planning director. “Some people were very concerned about the impact of traffic, but I think if you look at it overall, the impact will be minimal.”
LeaMond said road improvements in the area, including the widening of Dorchester Road and the extension of the Berlin G. Myers Parkway, will allow better access to The Ponds, with the parkway allowing motorists to bypass downtown Summerville.
“Our biggest issue right now is sewer capacity,” LeaMond said.
Dorchester County Council recently authorized bonds to fund some expansion and upgrade of the county’s current water and sewer system. The county is also preparing to revise its comprehensive plan.
“We’ll set a goal for what we want the community to look like and figure out a method to achieve the goal,” LeaMond said.
Megan Desrosiers, program director for the Coastal Conservation League, spoke in support of The Ponds at a Dorchester County Council meeting.
“They are doing a lot more than residential,” Desrosiers said. “They’re putting in commercial and multi-use properties and different kinds of housing. That’s the proper pattern for the way you want growth to occur in a community, so everyone does not have to go out on the roadways to get where they need to go.”
Desrosiers is not greatly concerned that the addition of a school at The Ponds will attract urban sprawl.
“When people talk about schools generating additional growth, it’s usually not an elementary school; it’s usually a high school,” Desrosiers said. “People worry about high schools not just because of the older students, but because of the traffic they generate.”
Quince Cody, president and CEO of the Greater Summerville/Dorchester County Chamber of Commerce, said area taxpayers are saving because The Ponds is donating land to the school district and the fire department, in addition to providing other public amenities, businesses and services.
“The concept is that, within your community, you can literally occupy your time very close by,” Cody said. “Studies show that this type of planned development can actually manage traffic a little bit better because it keeps everyone on one campus.”
Greenwood Development expects the retail element of The Ponds’ village area to break ground in two or three years once there is a critical mass of residents. Morgan envisions food and beverage services, specialty shops and professional services as being possible tenants.
“To see our dreams and our imagination start taking physical shape is always one of the most exciting phases in the life of any new community,” Morgan said. “The key is to get off to the right start, because little things done the right way now will pay off significantly once potential buyers begin arriving.”
Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at kdayton@charlestonbusiness.com.
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