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Berkeley County getting ready for growth surge
By Scott Miller
Staff Writer
Population growth has not caught Berkeley County by surprise.
Some area communities are struggling to handle growth. Dorchester County, for example, placed a six-month moratorium on new development as it tries to tame the overcrowding in schools and congestion on the roads.
But Berkeley County, along with its rural qualities, appears ready to welcome its newest residents. Three major residential communities are in the works as Google Inc., DuPont and other employers set up shop or expand.
“The biggest factor that we’re concerned about is the transportation systems, the highways being able to handle the additional traffic,” said Dennis Harmon, Goose Creek city administrator.
That could be handled by a 1-cent local sales tax, which Berkeley County Council is considering.
The homes and utilities, meanwhile, appear set to go.
“It’s not an issue at all. Obviously the city is expanding with Carnes Crossroads. We have a very wide range of housing, from affordable to very expensive, quite frankly,” Harmon said.
“I’ve been with the city for almost 30 years. This is probably a peak that we’re seeing now.”
The city is one of the benefactors of Google’s location in Berkeley County. The company offers financial incentives for the 200 employees at the data center to live in Goose Creek or Moncks Corner, said company spokesman Matt Dunne.
“We do that at each of our data centers to encourage our employees to connect to the immediate local communities as well as to cut down on the number of cars on the roadways,” Dunne said, declining to disclose the value of the incentive.
“We feel that when we come into a new community, that we want to be a part of that community. We will have a footprint of some kind, whether it’s employees’ children in schools or employees on the roads. We feel it’s important to engage with the community in a positive way.”
Many of those employees will be transplants from other Google locations, bringing a need for more homes.
“Charleston is a popular place for internal locations as it turns out,” Dunne said.
DuPont adds more jobs In addition to the 200 Google jobs, DuPont is building a new Kevlar plant that will employ around 100 people, among other economic development in and around Berkeley County.
“I think a lot of people are looking at the distribution centers. That’s going to bring a lot of jobs,” said Matt Sloan, president of Daniel Island Co.
The company is developing Carnes Crossroads, a mixed-use subdivision in Goose Creek that when done will have at least 5,000 homes, Sloan said. Residential construction should begin at the end of the year. Sloan expects several hundred homes to be built each year, depending on the real estate market.
In addition, the development will have more than 3 million square feet of commercial space.
“It will be a major employment center,” Sloan said.
Starmax Entertainment Group of Mount Pleasant also recently announced plans to build an entertainment complex to include up to 12 stadium-style movie theaters, 24 bowling lanes, two arcades, a food court and a sports bar in the Carnes Crossroads area.
A developer of large-scale family entertainment venues, Starmax will locate the complex in Cobblestone Village, an 80-acre mixed-use project being developed by Catalyst Development Co. on U.S. Highway 176.
“That’s where the growth pattern is. Between our project and what Carnes is doing, there is a tremendous amount of growth at that corner at (U.S. highways) 176 and 17A,” said Catalyst Development partner Katie Homrich.
That will create the need for more homes.
Carnes is just one of several major developments under way in Berkeley County. Cane Bay and The Parks at Berkeley, both in unincorporated portions of the county, will include around 10,000 and 13,000 homes respectively.
Cane Bay also will have a high school.
“Looking at the growth in Berkeley County, it presents more opportunities than challenges,” said Trish Freshwater, spokeswoman for SCE&G. “We can provide more natural gas to customers who might not have had it or to new subdivisions. We actually already have the infrastructure in place.”
The utility conducted load studies years ago to predict population growth and built lines and infrastructure accordingly.
At Cane Bay, “we’re ready to handle the first home buyer and the last customers to buy a home 20 years from now,” Freshwater said.
“Berkeley County is definitely coming along,” Homrich said. “The high school is the driver, though. It looks like a mini-university.”
Scott Miller is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at smiller@scbiznews.com.
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