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The Villages starts new development phase
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
The Villages in St. John’s Woods, located off Maybank Highway on Johns Island, last month started its third phase of residential development with 40 home lots available.
The lots, which form The Villages’ “Lakeside” neighborhood, range in size from just under a quarter of an acre to a little more than a third of an acre. Prices range from $120,000 to $155,000, depending on location.
Prospective buyers can reserve lots until the final plat is approved in August or September, when the lots will be for sale. Buyers will have two years to build a home, said John Westendorff, sales director for The Villages in St. John’s Woods.
A number of the Lakeside lots border a pond and wetlands. As with The Villages’ “Parkside” and “Woodside” neighborhoods, the two previous development phases, which are already built out and contain a total of 148 homes, Lakeside will feature sidewalks, a cul-de-sac and plenty of trees.
The Lakeside lots are about 28% larger than the Parkside and Woodside lots. Lakeside homes will be a minimum of 2,000 square feet. Home prices likely will start in the $500,000s, Westendorff said.
West Ashley-based landscape architect firm HLA Inc. designed the landscaping for The Villages.
Homebuilders have not yet been selected for Lakeside. However, The Villages would like “to bring back our preferred homebuilders” that have been associated with the development from the beginning. Those homebuilders include Wildwood Contractors Inc., Chuck Bennett Contracting Inc., The Altman Group and Lone Oak Development, Westendorff said.
Homes in The Villages have a Lowcountry cottage or bungalow look. All have porches.
The Villages in St. John’s Woods includes wooded wetlands, a six-acre park, a community clubhouse, walking trails and tree-shaded streets. Developer Edward Pearlstine, who purchased the tract in 1996 and began developing The Villages in 2001, set out to maintain the rural quality of Johns Island, Westendorff said.
Preserving Johns Island’s rural flavor is in keeping with Charleston County’s Comprehensive Plan. The plan calls for maintaining the island’s farmland, forests, tidal marshes, wetlands and scenic roads, with development relegated mainly to the Maybank Highway corridor and River and Main roads.
The goal of preserving the island’s character led to a controversy that erupted in 2003 between the St. John’s Water Co. and the Coastal Conservation League.
St. John’s Water wanted to install an 11-mile, 30-inch water line that would run from James Island, across the Stono River and onto Johns Island, extending from the Johns Island Executive Airport on River Road to the Seabrook Island border.
The Coastal Conservation League insisted that a 24-inch water line would do, arguing that a 30-inch water line was too big and would spawn too much growth on Johns Island and ruin the island’s rural quality.
The controversy had threatened further development of The Villages, which had completed its first two phases.
Dennis Quick is senior staff writer at the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.
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