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Legal wrangling tangles up Watson Hill project
By Rachel Pleasant
Staff Writer
The story of Watson Hill, the mammoth residential development planned for 6,600 acres off Ashley River Road, took yet another legal turn earlier this month when the city of North Charleston filed a lawsuit against the town of Summerville.
The lawsuit, filed in Dorchester County, centers around a property called the Barry Tract in Mateeba Gardens.
North Charleston annexed the Barry Tract when it annexed Watson Hill, but Summerville had already annexed the Barry Tract.
North Charleston needs the tract in order to make the Watson Hill land contiguous to its boundaries, as required by law.
The lawsuit contends Summerville’s annexation of that property is illegitimate for a number of reasons, including:
• North Charleston was already in the process of annexing the Barry property when Summerville announced its intentions. North Charleston took its first official act regarding the annexation on
April 27. Summerville received its annexation petition on April 28.
• Summerville ran an advertisement in The Post and Courier announcing a public hearing regarding the annexation on April 28. The paper comes off the press at 5 a.m., but Summerville did not receive the annexation petition until 8:42 that morning.
• Summerville gave 29 days notice of the public hearing rather than the legally required 30 days. The lawsuit further alleges that Summerville provided an inadequate description of the properties to be annexed and an accompanying map was inaccurate, showing some properties not included in the petition.
The lawsuit was filed July 5. As for when the matter will be heard by a judge, North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey says he is unsure.
“The court docket is so full, we don’t know when it will be heard,” he says.
No matter the timeline, Summey says he is confident in his city’s legal maneuvers.
“We believe we were right. The final determination is up to the courts, but we believe there were errors made in the method followed by Summerville,” he says. “We’re challenging those. We believe we followed the rules, and we believe we’ll be successful, but nothing is guaranteed.”
Should the lawsuit fail, Summey says his legal team will regroup and look at other possible options.
North Charleston’s lawsuit is the latest in a string of legal fights involving Watson Hill.
Summerville previously asked a judge to stop North Charleston’s efforts at annexation, but that request was denied.
Another ongoing legal matter involves the owners of the Barry Tract, The Barry Family LP, and the owner of Watson Hill, S.C. Property Holdings.
The Barry Family had agreed to sell the tract to the developers but attempted to get out of the contract on April 25 after learning Watson Hill was pursuing annexation with North Charleston and could possibly develop 4,500 homes.
Developers filed suit against the Barrys. That matter is still to be resolved.
Summey says despite the Barrys’ obvious objections to the potential size of Watson Hill, he is unfazed.
“One of the things I have learned in so many years I’ve been involved in government is to not take things personally,” Summey says. “I have to allow the city of North Charleston the ability to grow. That’s something that’s very important to all communities.”
Summerville Mayor Berlin Myers could not be reached for comment for this article.
Rachel Pleasant is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at rpleasant@crbj.com.
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