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RAVENEL, S.C. (WCSC) - Ravenel Town Hall saw a packed house Wednesday evening as residents shared their thoughts on a rezoning request.

Around a dozen people took advantage of the meeting to tell council members why they’re against the rezoning of 99 acres of land on Drayton Street. Each resident had five minutes to have their voice heard.

“Everybody is trying to say please stop developing us,” Matthew Collins said. “If you want to come here and buy an existing home and renovate it, fantastic, but let’s just stop the development here. We don’t need to be Mount Pleasant or Summerville, we need to be Ravenel.”

Olivia McCarty said the council appeared to be receptive to what each resident had to say.

“They live here, and they see what’s happening all around us and you can see how quickly things can get out of hand,” McCarty said. “So, I think a lot of people spoke to that you may think this is just one property but it’s going to open up the floodgates.”

The property owners, the Tumbleston Trust, told the council last week the neighborhood would have no more than 120 homes, and Wednesday night they said it now won’t be more than 100 homes.

One Ravenel resident, who has a background in civil engineering, Ron Sprovero, said the land itself cannot handle the development and that the owners have not done their due diligence with site plans.

“You cannot put septic systems in that area because of the soils and the high water and the fact that the rain runoff runs into the wetlands it has to be attacked and treated a certain way and I don’t think consideration has been given to that,” Sprovero said.

Susan Hendricks, with the Tumbleston family, provided the following statement:

As a lifelong resident of Ravenel, I want the best for my community and so does my family. We have listened to our neighbors’ feedback and have made proactive changes to the neighborhood plans. We have reduced the number of homes from 150 to 100. We have also added more than 50 acres of recreational greenspace and 100-foot natural buffers around the community to help preserve Ravenel’s charm. The Pasture at FarrField neighborhood is designed by locals with locals in mind.”

In January, Ravenel Mayor Stephen Tumbleston recused himself from the matter because of family ties.

Councilmembers will vote on the first reading of this rezone request at their monthly meeting next Tuesday.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

RAVENEL, S.C. (WCSC) - A rezoning request that’s putting the town of Ravenel at odds with its citizens is back on the agenda.

The town council will hold a workshop March 14 to hear from Tumbleston Trust about plans for a subdivision pending a rezoning by the council.

Ravenel Town Council on Jan. 30, 2024, was set to consider an ordinance to rezone the property owned by Tumbleston Trust that would allow the construction of more than 100 homes in a subdivision on Drayton Street. That motion was tabled after hearing from residents opposed to the change for over an hour.

The workshop will allow public comment but only through writing. Those comments must be submitted to the town administrator by 3 p.m. Monday.

A previous workshop, scheduled for Feb. 15, was canceled by Mayor Pro Tem Buckey Waters after receiving word that the owners would provide additional information to the public about the development plans.

Waters says the town received the updated information from Tumbleston Trust and they have requested the rezoning request be placed on the March 26 town council agenda.

A public comment session will be held at 6 p.m. on March 20 between the workshop and the council meeting. Waters says all council members will attend the session.

Registration to speak during public comment must be submitted to the town administrator by 3 p.m. March 18.

Residents feel that those asking for this rezoning are getting special treatment because the property is owned by the Tumbleston Trust and the family of Ravenel Mayor Stephen Tumbleston.

When the family came to the council with their plans for the land on Jan. 30, they didn’t have an actual site plan or a traffic study to show, and that’s why the council tabled the vote, saying they didn’t have enough information.

Residents say they don’t have an issue with residential development with the way the land is zoned now but fear the change will be the first step to making the rural town the next West Ashley or Johns Island.

Tumbleston recused himself from the matter.

The 96 acres on Drayton Street are currently zoned as agricultural residential. The Ravenel Municipal Code states that Agricultural Residential zoning is primarily used for agriculturally-used properties and single-family homes situated on large parcels of land on or near farming areas.

The requested change would reclassify the land as residential 3.

The Residential 3 zoning designates medium-density residential development “in quiet, livable neighborhoods and to encourage the formation and continuation of a stable, residential environment for medium-density single-family and two-family dwellings situated on lots having an area of 12,500 square feet or more,” it states.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

RAVENEL, S.C. (WCSC) - It’s back to the drawing board for the owners of a large piece of land in the Town of Ravenel.

A rezoning request for the town was withdrawn Tuesday afternoon hours before the council was set to vote on the controversial matter.

Residents have mixed emotions on the latest development, as many feel that the withdrawal is a win because their voices are being heard, but they say that this fight is far from over.

“I am cautiously optimistic, but again it makes me feel like we are left with more questions than we are with answers,” Stephanie Russell said.

If the council were to vote yes, the rezoning would have meant a subdivision, “the Pasture at FarrField,” with at least 100 homes on Drayton Street in the rural town, something residents were strongly against.

“This isn’t over by any stretch of the imagination, and the citizens here who have been vocal and present in making our feelings known aren’t going away either so they just need to come up with something that is reasonable,” Roy Smith said

Smith said he does applaud the property owners for listening to the community and pulling the plug for now.

Susan Hendricks, a Tumbleston Trust family member, said in a statement, “The public conversations over the past two weeks have identified a number of planning changes which can be made to enhance the Pasture at FarrField and help address housing needs in the area. Our family and legal team need more time to evaluate the requests and how they might be incorporated into our plan. Our family wants this done right, therefore we have withdrawn our current request. We know the Pasture at FarrField will provide a wonderful opportunity for growing local families to be able to enjoy desirable housing options and stay in Ravenel rather than having to leave town to find a place to live.”

“We just want them to build with the zoning that they currently have, and nobody would stand in their way of doing one home per one acre,” Olivia McCarty said. “We want to live with the environment and not destroy everything that makes this town beautiful.”

Mayor Pro Tem Buckey Waters confirmed Tuesday evening that if the owners are to request the rezone in the future, they will have to start the process over completely, starting by going to the planning and zoning commission. Waters also confirmed the owners can resubmit the rezoning request at any time.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

RAVENEL, S.C. (WCSC) - Passionate Ravenel neighbors filled Tuesday evening’s town council meeting to urge councilmembers to vote on a zoning change.

The switch would allow for over 100 houses to be developed in a subdivision on Drayton Street, and residents have countless concerns.

After over an hour of residents voicing their opinions on why they don’t want the zoning change and a few tense outbursts, the council voted to table the vote until their next meeting.

The decision was made after council members saw and heard a presentation from the property owners, and said they need time to digest and become more educated on what the plans are before they can vote. They also decided to have a workshop in the coming weeks to discuss it further.

“I’m excited that they tabled it for now and that they are willing to entertain concerns and make an educated vote,” resident Juliett Collins said. “That’s the best we could have hoped for tonight.”

Resident Roy Smith said while tabling is better than approving the rezoning, he feels the workshop will be unproductive.

“What information are you going to find between now and then?” Roy questioned. “You’ll be no more educated then than you are now because there is no site plan, there is no traffic study, you don’t know what infrastructure you need or what storm drains are going to be there.”

Mayor Stephen Tumbleston recused himself from this matter, as the property owners of the 96 acres of land up for discussion are family to him, but some residents remain concerned.

“We’re fighting an uphill battle anyway and when you throw in big money and political influence those are two hard things to ever stop,” Smith said.

Several residents wore t-shirts Tuesday evening that read “oppose the rezone, our town depends on it.”

“Where we live, we have one home per acre, there’s lots of room to roam and we have great neighbor,” Collins said. “That’s why we chose Ravenel and that’s why think it’s attractive to so many people.”

Tumbleston did not respond to a request for comment, and Mayor Pro Tem Buckey Waters said he did not want to speak on the matter at this time.

The council workshop is scheduled for Feb. 15 at 6 p.m. The public is allowed to attend, but only to listen.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

RAVENEL, S.C. (WCSC) - The town of Ravenel will now charge a fee to those who submit Freedom of Information Act requests.

The council approved the resolution Tuesday night and while it’s standard to do so, some residents believe there are ulterior motives. The change comes after residents told the town they were going to file FOIA requests for information regarding the rezoning on Drayton Street, a project residents want the council to vote against.

The resolution states that $30 per hour of staff time plus .25 cents per page of written documents will be charged for FOIA requests. At Tuesday’s meeting, the town attorney said he came up with the $30 by averaging the lowest hourly rate of the employee that would perform the request and also said that this cost is lower than most municipalities that he’s aware of.

When you do a quick internet search of a few nearby municipalities like the Town of Meggott, the Town of Mount Pleasant and the City of Charleston, Ravenel’s price point is higher for both hourly and documents.

Mayor Stephen Tumbleston, who has family ties to the land residents don’t want to see rezoned, brought this resolution forward. Residents believe the timing of this action is a vindictive way to shut them down against fighting against the rezone.

“I am speaking for the entire town saying this isn’t going to stop, and until it ends one way or another, we’re going to continue to fight,” Micah McCarty said.

McCarty said some residents fear retaliation if they share their frustrations.

“The silent majority wants to get rid of this {rezone proposal} but you’re going against the top dog of the town, the mayor, and the mayor has been in the town a long time and knows a lot of people,” McCarty said.

Roy Smith has lived in the town for years and said he is consistently shut down when he tries to ask the mayor or the council a question during public comments.

“We are the constituents, we put you in there, but you don’t answer questions,” Smith said. “Isn’t that nice to be playing around in the sandbox? Well in a couple of more years, some others will be in that sandbox, and you’ll be out.”

Smith said he is fed up with the treatment he has received from town officials.

“It’s not fair,” Smith said. “This council and this mayor give absolutely no credit or accountability to what the constituents want.”

McCarty and Smith said this roadblock will not stop them and others from continuing to push back against the rezone of the 96 acres of land on Drayton Street.

“The town did not have a prior rate schedule for FOIA fees,” Town Administrator Mike Hemmer said in response to why the FOIA change was necessary.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.