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James Island Reincorporation


Spartan

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Personally, I've become burntout over this James Island vs. City fight. I grew up on James Island so I've been watching this fight go on since the early 70's. Maybe it's just time to let pro-town folks go do their own thing. Somewhere down the road the town folk will probably regret their decision. Not sure it will ever come to the point of dissolving the town or wanting to merge with the City though.

I do hope the City can annex as many properties as possible up until the April 24 election.

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  • 1 month later...

As expected, James Island voted to re-incorporate by an overwhelming majority. It remains to be seen if Charleston will contest this latest town.

In the interim, Charleston was able to complete over 240 annexations on the island (including about 170 within the proposed new town). Charleston can continue to annex in the 1/3 of the island that was not incorporated yesterday.

This version of the town is 1/3 smaller than before, so the other cities and towns in Charleston County will have less revenue drained away by JI.

This map shows the new town, with the most recent annexations by Charleston (within the new town) shown in maroon/red.

The areas in yellow, green and maroon are inside Charleston, the other areas within the black lines are in the new town.

http://www.freejamesisland.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/finalmapkeyapr17crop.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

I hate that this quasi-town will exist, but at least it is much smaller this time. The battle lines will be re-established though, when JI seeks to annex the still unincorporated parts of the island. I think that will require state law to be changed yet again, so that may be down the road a bit. Plus each annexation will require the usual 75% agreement from those seeking to be annexed.

Hopefully, at some point in the future, the entire town will merge with Charleston. No doubt that would be many years from now.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Mayor Riley has announced that the City will not be challenging Town Ver 4.0:

http://www.postandco...of-james-island

Let's see how things are going for the town 7-10 years down the road from now.

Charleston has basically rendered this place impotent. They can have their ridiculous little town with their corrupt mayor and fester in 'sticking it to the big city.' Meanwhile, Charleston will continue to annex the remainder of the island and provide superior services. I still think that what's left of the town will not function well due to it's 'gerrymandered' geography.

At least McConnell is no longer in an official position of power to essentially change the laws for his constituents.

Hear, hear

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  • 3 years later...

When James Island was pushing for incorporation, they campaigned that residents would not pay property taxes to the town, only their existing taxes to the PSD.  They would also get a Local Option Sales Tax refund as a town.  Well, now, about two years since the final incorporation went thru, the Town has implemented a 20 mill tax levy.  The town is also planning to build a Town Hall with the new money. The Town has pushed for changes in the annexation laws to make it easier for them to annex the unincorporated parts of the island. I haven't heard much about that at all, so it must have gotten bogged down in the legislature.  

Hopefully, the fact that the town now has property taxes will encourage more annexation of the unincorporated areas into Charleston.  

  

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Hopefully, the fact that the town now has property taxes will encourage more annexation of the unincorporated areas into Charleston.  

  

But there just isn't much left for James Island to annex, especially considering the whole concept of the city incorporation was due to all the remaining residents who didn't want to be in Charleston.  I do notice a few scattered areas towards Folly Beach but other than that James Island is surrounded by Charleston.

 

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But there just isn't much left for James Island to annex, especially considering the whole concept of the city incorporation was due to all the remaining residents who didn't want to be in Charleston.  I do notice a few scattered areas towards Folly Beach but other than that James Island is surrounded by Charleston.

 

There are a ton of doughnut holes and even large contiguous areas that are still in neither the City of Charleston nor the Town of James Island.  They are mostly on the north side of the Island but are scattered all the way down to Folly Beach.  I seem to remember about 6,000 people live in such areas.  

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Ha! How does that tax rate compare to Charleston?

The only legislation regarding annexation that I'm aware of is related to 'donut holes' - specifically allowing cities to annex those areas if they are served by  so-called Special Purpose Districts. I'm not sure how James Island (the island, not the municipality) gets it's services, but if it's via a SPD then it could potentially be a game changer.. but it would be for Charleston too.

http://www.scstatehouse.gov/query.php?search=DOC&searchtext=annexation&category=LEGISLATION&session=121&conid=8025316&result_pos=&keyval=1214203&numrows=10

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Ha! How does that tax rate compare to Charleston?

The only legislation regarding annexation that I'm aware of is related to 'donut holes' - specifically allowing cities to annex those areas if they are served by  so-called Special Purpose Districts. I'm not sure how James Island (the island, not the municipality) gets it's services, but if it's via a SPD then it could potentially be a game changer.. but it would be for Charleston too.

http://www.scstatehouse.gov/query.php?search=DOC&searchtext=annexation&category=LEGISLATION&session=121&conid=8025316&result_pos=&keyval=1214203&numrows=10

The town' tax rate added to the SPD's would almost exactly equal Charleston's. The Charleston LOST rebate maybe he larger than James Island's though. There may be differences in Water Rates and Fire Protection insurance as well.  If so, I would expect those to favor Charleston over James Island.  ALL of the Island is in the SPD, unless it is in Charleston's City Limits. Since that legislation is pro-Annexation, I am sure it will not pass. It is good to know there is no legislation pending that would support James Island being able to annex more easily though.    

 

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  • 1 year later...

In an interesting continuation of this issue, it looks like the City and James Island are going to collborate on a cohesive set of zoning regulations for the island.

 

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/charleston-has-just-months-to-begin-untangling-a-decades-old/article_da236362-35b9-11e7-8519-a36005d08b14.html

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

James Island development moratorium

The city moratorium applies to developers seeking to build more than four residential units per acre, or a commercial structure larger than 1,500 square feet in the non-residential areas of James Island.

 

The city has about 52 percent of the island's 36,271 residents, according to the latest U.S. Census data. The town has 32 percent of islanders, while about 16 percent of James Island residents live in the unincorporated area.

Some 17 square miles of the island are in the city, followed by 5.4 square miles in the county and 4.8 square miles in the town, according to the Census information.

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  • 1 year later...

So  residents in unincorporated JAmes Island will pay  64.4 mills with no LOST tax credit, while Charleston residents on the island pay 83.6 with a credit.  I would imagine the credit covers the difference and more.

Residents of the town would pay  84.4 mills versus 83.6 for city of Charleston residents.  Each would receive a credit but for different amounts.  Plus JI residents outside the city would be guaranteed additional increases in 2019, 2020 and 2022.  

All of that is assuming it gets the final reading.

Hopefully this will lead to more annexations from unincorporated JI into Charleston. That would in turn result in more financial pressures on the PSD, which would likely lead to still more tax increases  for the PSD. 

 

 

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Hahaha, so much for keeping those taxes low! This is why PSD's (special purpose districts) should not exist. It's too complicated. The Town should have to provide its own fire service, and residents shouldn't have to vote for two different elected bodies to figure this stuff out.

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  • 2 weeks later...

That is an excellent article. All of those years of effort just to not be in the city limits of Charleston. Maybe they should look more closely at who they're voting into the PSD. Side note, you NEED working fire trucks and garbage service. It's not optional. It costs money to provide those services, and that's what their taxes are for. South Carolina has gifted its residents and endlessly complex governmental system. Thanks to that complexity, people have no idea how their local government actually works.

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James Island PSD approves 13% property tax hike.   Many town residents are not happy they will have to pay more for services rendered by the PSD. 

https://www.postandcourier.com/news/james-island-property-taxes-to-rise-percent-despite-push-back/article_62ac7f6e-78d2-11e8-b5c0-6fc931b8820b.html

Hard to believe there's still 6K residents on James Island that live in unincorporated areas. 

 

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  • 1 year later...

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