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AWENDAW, S.C. (WCSC) — Less than two weeks after being sworn in, Awendaw Mayor Chris Crolley wants to extend the town’s building moratorium to slow down development and instead prioritize the environment.

Crolley, who is also the founder of Coastal Expeditions, has a mission to preserve the rural character of Awendaw and protect the natural ecosystem. Awendaw is a small rural town home to several ecologically sensitive habitats, including the Francis Marion National Forest and Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge.

“Maintaining the rural character is a very high priority,” Chris Crolley, Awendaw mayor, says.

The initiative to extend the moratorium comes after several battles the town has faced over development proposals that heavily rely on septic tanks. Experts and advocates say a large number of septic tanks on a small piece of land would harm the environment, the coast and the residents of Awendaw.

“The return on the investment for a developer has to do with numbers of houses right, so the more you can fit on to the available land, the better in some scenarios and that doesn’t fit the rural character for our town where we’re not set up with the infrastructure,” Crolley says.

He says Awendaw must take the time to first catch up and assess its public services that would be essential with additional development.

“A building moratorium, it stops the planned developments and neighborhoods and gives a town a minute to catch up is how I look at this current building moratorium,” Crolley says. “This is a great council, and they really do care about the rural character of Awendaw and protecting the people that live here from overdevelopment.”

Last year in September, various environmental groups filed a against an Awendaw home development that is proposed to build 208 homes on 182 acres of a portion of land called the White Tract. Just a few months later, Awendaw residents again showed to another major development called the Seewee Landing project that would build 65 homes on 48.9 acres of land right off the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge.

At the same time, the South Carolina Environmental Law Project and Friends of Coastal South Carolina are currently the stormwater permit for the proposed White Tract development through a lawsuit. After a lower court allowed the project to move forward with construction despite recognizing there could be environmental harm, the environmental groups want to ensure it doesn’t move forward.

The Coastal Conservation League supported the town of Awendaw with its comprehensive plan and has long been stewards of protecting the environment in the area.

“Awendaw is definitely a big focus area for the league,” Torrey Sanders, communities and transportation project manager at the Coastal Conservation League, says. “Awendaw is a really special coastal community... protecting Awendaw is essential in the protection and preservation of Cape Romain.”

Sanders says the way the town has protected itself from various proposed developments is by intentionally not having sewer lines to extend into the town, which prevents massive developments from being built. However, many developers have asked for special permits to use septic tanks, which have been a major concern for environmental advocates.

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” Sanders says. “That’s why we’re so concerned with some of these developments that are proposed because having septic at that scale, especially in close proximity to Cape Romain, is really concerning for environmental health and human health.”

She says the Coastal Conservation League always supports friends of the environment, including Crolley and the building moratorium.

“He has been protecting that region and it’s really been his life’s work,” Sanders says. “And him winning this election is evidence of other people really tapping into that spirit and that ethos and wanting to see more of a focus on that in Awendaw.”

The building moratorium will last as long as necessary to put in the proper protections, rules and regulations that will make for smart development that prioritizes the environment. Crolley says it could take up to two years.

“Awendaw is the most superlative small town in the southeast,” he says. “The building moratorium is not put in place to inhibit growth, it’s put in place to inhibit the wrong kind of growth.”