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James Island Reincorporation


Spartan

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Great news. I have been wondering when the SC Supreme Court would be making a ruling. I will be curious to see how many former town residents petition to join the city in the coming weeks. I'm sure there will be a 4th incorporation attempt coming down the line.

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It sounds as though James Island may go for round 4, though it would be a much smaller incorporation (12,000-15,000) this time. I hope people on the island start fleeing to Charleston asap so they don't have to be a part of that mess.

To that end, one of the main reasons they were denied incorporation is that if a place within 5 miles of another municipality wants to incorporate, they must first try to join that town or city. To my knowledge James Island has never tried to do that.

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/jun/22/james-islanders-aim-fight-again-leaders-vow-appeal/

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incorporation is that if a place within 5 miles of another municipality wants to incorporate, they must first try to join that town or city

For proposed towns of 5,000 or more, this is not required. It USE to be 15,000 population to waive that requirement.

The incorporation was invalidated because all of the areas in the town were not continguous.

I think the Riverland Terrace area must be excluded from the next attempt, because of that. That part was found not to be continguous.

The sentiment seems much more divided this time (over whether to incorporate). After each prior invalidation, there has been a wave of annexations to Charleston, hopefully, there will be even more this time.

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Charleston seeks James Island annexations

I would expect even more annexations than after the prior incorporation-invalidations. The city should also seek to be strategic about it by land-locking off as many areas as possible.

If I were Riley, I would put all hands on deck to that end. It's time to end this nonsense once and for all.

Edited by vicupstate
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If I were Riley, I might consider starting a petition to bring all the unincorporated area of James Island into the city. There's a better chance of success than ever before plus it would throw the pro-town incorporation folks a curve ball. Otherwise, the city needs to go after strategic annexations to try to split the unincorporated areas into smaller areas. The city doesn't have time to waste and I hope that Riley already a game plan in place in anticipation of winning the recent legal challenge.

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  • 5 weeks later...

As reported in the P&C today, James Island has lost it's appeal to the state Supreme Court and the town is officially dissolved. The mud slinging is already well underway.

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/jul/23/high-court-rejects-james-islands-appeal/

Charlestonians must be so tired of the City vs. Town of James Island, an ongoing war that has lasted longer than the American Civil War. During my college years there, I stayed for a little while on James Island in the city limits portion of Charleston. Loved coming over the bridge (no JI connector then) in the morning and seeing the sunrise over the peninsula and how very beautiful city of Charleston looked nestled between two rivers with all those tall steeples erect in the sunlight. I don't remember anything outstanding about JI save there were a lot of trees, dirt roads and huge estates in Riverland Terrace/Golf course area; and, the island was a short drive to downtown and Folly Beach...

Edited by Zahc
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  • 2 weeks later...

Map of James Island 4th attempt

This website has info. on the reincorporation effort:

Website for 4th incorporation

Including this map of the recently invalidated town.

Map of James Island

The size of the proposed Town is approximately 2/3 the population of the current Town–about 12,000 people. This is about the size of the City of Beaufort. In the local area, we will be between Hanahan (18,000) and Moncks Corner (7,000.) Folly Beach, with 2,600, is much smaller.

The boundaries of the proposed Town are outlined in green. The “yellow” areas are in the City of Charleston. The grey properties within the green outline make up the proposed Town.

Charleston Circuit Court Judge Young has appointed Corine Altenhein, Charleston County’s Finance Director, to serve as receiver for the Town of James Island.
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The links are fixed.

I don't understand how this incorporation attempt is any better than the last one. Sure it's smaller, but how does this make any sense from a services standpoint? Reminder: City's are supposed to provide urban-related services, which previous Towns of James Island did not do.

IMO, if the whole island annexed into Charleston, it would be easier to organize as one voice, and get treatment sort of like a James Island "borough." Why anyone would want to live in that half-assed attempt a town is beyond me.

If you look at the map of the latest attempt, it looks like most of the land is so scattered that Charleston would be the more logical choice.

map1.jpg

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Thanks!

This is so ridulous that is borders on being insane. I think the "townies" are getting desparate to form some type of town. I believe the townies' intention is to carve out an area they feel will pass the legal muster; successfuly incorporate; then try to annex the sections of JI that was previously part of the town. I wonder how the former town residents from the last version of the town feel about being left out of the incorporation this 4th time around(?). Which should in itself cause less support and enthusiam for incorporating. And the townies are being a bit presumptuous that they will be able to annex all or most of the areas from the previous town limits that are not being included in the initial new incorporated area. I think at the end of the day the townies will end up on the loosing end.

It will be interesting to know who many properties the city will annex at the next City Council meeting on Aug 16.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The pro James Island incorporation group has 39% of the needed signatures and about 20% of the money required to hold the required elections.

Meanwhile the City of Charleston will give 2nd reading to 40 annexations totaling about 24 acres. An undisclosed number of properties will also receive first reading for annexation at the same meeting scheduled for August 23.

Edited by vicupstate
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  • 2 weeks later...

^Charleston annexed those properties, which seem to have cut into the Town's potential annexation area. I think the Charleston will annex everything they can until the Town is not geographically feasible. Every time the City annexes, the Town will have to redraw the petition boundary, which will ultimately impact the number of people who are eligible to sign it.

P&C Article

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^ Time is on the townies' side, not the City's. It probably won't take too much longer before the townie's have the required 1,500 signatures and raise $20,000 for the referendum. I would think that by now most of the residents that are eligible to join the City have done so by now.

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I expect the city will have about 3 months to get more annexations. The petitions will need to be collected, verified and sent to Columbia for certification. Then the Governor will have something like 30-90 days to set the election date. I think the city can annex up to that point, if I recall correctly.

Previously the city has annexed a couple of hundred properties between incorporations. Ideally the city will either annex or 'quarantine' about 2000 residents from the incorporation. Doing so would jeopardize the Town's ability to have the required 7000 population required.

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^ The minimum population to incorporate is 5000, not 7000, unless the law was recently changed which I could believe if arse-backwards.

But I don't think the townies would move forward with the incorporation effort if the proposed town would have a projected population less than 10,000.

I don't think the Governor sets the election date. I believe the SC Sec of State does, who also certifies the petition to incorporate.

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Looking at the info on the reincorporation website, the population requirement is 7,000 because the new town is within 5 miles of an existing city/town.

You are right about the SofS part, the time line for the election is no less than 20 days but no more than 90 after certification.

The new town will have about 12,000 residents MINUS any annexations/quarantined residents by Charleston.

http://www.masc.sc/SiteCollectionDocuments/Annexation-Incorporation/Incorp_Handbook.pdf

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On 9/12 the city will hold another Open House for James Island residents to discuss the benefits of annexation.

On 9/13 the city council will vote on final reading for 11 annexations on James Island, of which 9 are in the re-incorporation area. These would add just over 6 acres and 2.5 million in taxable property to the city.

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  • 5 months later...

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2012/feb/29/its-round-4-for-james-is/

James Island proceeds toward re-incorporation for a 4th time. An election is likely in April or May. The new town would be 2/3 the size of the prior one.

Charleston has processed over 140 annexations totaling just over 100 acres, since the town was dissolved last August. Most of these have been single family homes, but also some vacant tracts. A few more will likely occur before the incorporation vote.

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It sounds as though Charleston may or may not contest the 4th incorporation of James Island. The only thing is that the town is much smaller this time. I know it is possible for a merger of Charleston and James Island to occur in the future, but that probably wouldn't happen for years, if ever. On the other hand, it would at least put most of the island inb the city finally after decades of piecemeal annexations.

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2012/mar/09/charleston-warns-james-is-residents/

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