Don’t call it a comeback; Island Park Place has been here for months. The Health and Wellness Village, which would presumably be located next door to Kiawah Island Town headquarters on Betsy Kerrison Parkway, is back up for approval by Charleston County Council’s Planning Commission.
It was only about a year ago when the Island Park Place Health and Wellness Village was first up for Charleston County Council’s Planning Commission approval, which ultimately led to a unanimous disapproval among the commission members.
At that time, they recommended that Charleston County Council also disapprove the project. In February of this year, Charleston County Council voted it down, but it wasn’t unanimous. They were split 4 to 3.
At the November 5 Town Council meeting, Kiawah Island’s Mayor Bradley Belt announced that Charleston County Council’s Planning Commission will have a second chance to approve or disapprove the Health and Wellness Village. He encouraged Kiawah Island constituents to “pay attention” to what is going on with this project.
He also expressed his frustration that although he tried to have dialogue with the developers of the Health and Wellness Village, they did not seem interested in communicating with Kiawah Island leaders or residents.
“I hosted a meeting with the developer and other Johns Island stakeholders subsequent to the Charleston County Planning Commission’s decision,” Belt explained. “I wanted to see if there could be some Andell West-like process that we could engage in and that the community could coalesce. They could have scaled down appropriately to the site and met the needs of the community, but unfortunately, at that time, there were modest concessions coming out of the meeting. They had no intention of engaging in a process with the community. They went forward with those modest concessions and sought a vote from the council.”
For residents against the Health and Wellness Village, their main issue is the size. The plan calls for 18 dwelling units and retail spaces. There would be a minimum of seven acres of open space, a maximum of 159,846 square feet of building area and a maximum of 55,000 square feet of utility sewage service area.
Belt said, “What I find extraordinarily disconcerting is that the plan submitted before the planning commission is exactly the same plan that the council disapproved back in February. The new MUSC facility is a little over 12,000 square feet. I think of a supposed health and wellness village with 10 MUSCs just up the road. It is 14,000 square feet of restaurants. For comparison purposes, I think 48 Wine Bar is 2,000 to 3000 square feet, so that is four to five restaurants, apartments, etc. It is a large mixed-use development.”
For residents in the Johns Island area that are for the Health and Wellness Village, they want to see more services in the area tol afford them the luxury of not having to drive to West Ashley, James Island or downtown Charleston for those same services.
The developers actually reduced the scale of the original plan from 18 buildings to 15 buildings and decreased the square footage by 20% in late 2023. They also tried to preserve as many grand trees as possible.
It is worth noting that Trident Hospital is coming to Maybank Highway soon, and the MUSC Medical Center is currently underway near Freshfields Village. Roper St. Francis also plans to open medical offices in Freshfields Village.
The Town of Kiawah Island conducted a survey among their residents about the development back in December of 2023. The data points from the survey were as follows:
- A total of 881 Kiawah Island full-time property owners and part-time property owners responded to the survey.
- Almost 80% of respondents said they do not favor the proposed Health and Wellness Village development, in addition to the MUSC and Trident facilities coming to the area.
- More than 80% did not feel the size of the project was appropriate for the area.
- More than 70% did not feel the development would provide the community with access to adequate medical care.
- Survey results suggest that respondents are concerned about the potential impact of traffic, as well as noise and light pollution from the development.
- Regarding impact on the community’s quality of life, about 21% felt it would have a positive impact, 75% noted a negative impact, and 3% saw no impact.
- Overall, 77% of respondents indicated that they opposed the rezoning proposal and 22% were in favor.
The Health and Wellness Village went back up before Charleston County’s Planning Commission on November 18.
