North Charleston annexing into Berkeley County

[Spartan]

Charleston needs to go ahead and map out which cities will get what land like Charlotte-Mecklenburg has done. Berkeley and Dorchester will have to do the same I suppose.

[Infinite1]

for the record...I agree with most posters here...i was merely posing the devils advocate question about proximity. N. Charleston is already the largest city in the region (by area). The limits extend quite a ways and incorporate hundreds (if not thousands) of undeveloped acres between Ashley Phospate and Ladson Roads. I think that they have adequate room for growth within their current boundaries.

In terms of infill, there are already plans in place to make Montague a "grand avenue" and to streetscape and revitalize lower Rivers and Dorchester Roads...so they are moving in that direction. But in order to bring in a slightly more affluent tax base, the quick bang for the buck is to go after the fast growing areas in lower Dorchester County (read Watson Hill) and Berkeley Counties.

And Charleston Native...I think you hit the nail on the head in terms of Summey's vision. I think he sees NC as a "sister" city as minimum and at worst a viable option for the dominant city.... I really don't think the latter is realistic. They may be able to keep pace in terms of population, but they will never wield the influence of Charleston.

Finally, the negative perception of NC is exacerbated by episodes such as these, but I think the reputation is owed to the fact that a large part of NC, particularly the southern end, are very depressed areas. The thought of NC rarely evokes anything positive. Like I mentioned earlier, even areas such as Wescott, which houses the NC Municipal golf course, shun the label NC....seems like they can't win for losing...LOL

phew...that was pretty long...

[Spartan]

Good points. One advantage that N Chas has is that it has probably the most central access to the entire metro. Its a great place dor product distribution, and possibly offices, which I assume it has quite a few of based on the number of large hotels out there.

[vicupstate]

Goose Creek and North Chas. after same parcels in game of "chess"

Very interesting turn of events. From what I know of the laws around annexation, parcels can be deleted from the annexation pettion. However, I wonder if deleting the CPW property from the petition brings the percentage of owners and value (both required to be 75%) too low. I thought the Church had NOT signed the petition. If so, it seems that would leave only the developer of the 5 acre parcel on the petition.

If G.C. does prevail, then N.C. will basically get the CPW land (mostly undevelopeable?) and the golf course only.

I'm sure some lawyers are going to get a nice payday from all this.

[vicupstate]

Since this topic is about Goose Creek, Hanahan and surroundings areas, I thought I would post some census figures from 1960 that I read at my parents house.

Mount Pleasant 5,116 (around 60,000 today)

Summerville 3,633 (around 35,000 today)

North Charleston was unincorporated but the 'census district' is listed as 24,000

Hanahan 7,000 exactly

Goose Creek had a mere 830 residents (it's over 30,000 today!)

[vicupstate]

It looks like North Charleston will get only one annexation into Berkeley County. The second annexation is now dead and the annexation election scheduled for Dec. 12 will halt any further annexations, if it is successful.

Property owner pulls out of annexation petition to N. Chas.

[Spartan]

I guess that is one advantage to our weird annexation system... the property owners can back out if they want to.

[Charleston native]

Thankfully, the owner saw the problem he would have caused by annexing into the north city. Did you read Summey's comments? I think the guy is almost as nutty as Mary Clark, the self-acclaimed "mayor-in-exile" of the defunct pseudo-town of James Island. He practically wants to sue everybody because other cities "took land" from his city. Every comment he makes further cements my theory that he wants the north city to be the dominant city in the region.

[vicupstate]

Successful annexation election in Goose Creek prevents further annexation by North Chas.

It's official. The city limits of Goose Creek and Hanahan now join to effectively prevent North Charleston from further annexation into Berkeley County. Goose Creek is also seeking to overturn the only anneaxtion North Charleston has made.

The article headline says G.C. added 200 residents, but if nearly 150 people voted, it must be closer to 400 since not everyone votes and not everyone (children) is eligible to vote.

[MikesLogic]

Goose Creek City annexes more than 2500 acres

Map courtesy of City of Goose Creek

This is a map noting the proposed Oaks Annexation, which is 238 parcels of land, in yellow. The annexation is expected to be finalized this month.

"In 2006, we will focus on closing the enclaves or doughnut holes in the city," she said.

When there are little pockets of areas not in the city mixed in with areas in the unincorporated sections of the county, it makes it difficult for the police, firefighters and sanitation department to deliver services, Fletcher explained.

Charleston has some aggressive suburban cities when it comes to annexation.