Collins: 'Summerville Open for Business'

The Charleston Trident Home Builders Association brought together an all-star panel of local mayors to discuss growth from a government perspective, including Summerville Mayor Bill Collins.

Setting aside the universal message that they’re all welcoming new development, each of the mayors seemed to focus on a different aspect of growth. 

Collins stressed that he wants to see new offices and jobs.

“My message to you today: Summerville is open for business,” he said. “Come see us. We’d love to help you be successful in our community.”

Collins tried to pull the focus of Summerville’s impact fees and put it on upcoming success stories. He pointed to plans for a Class A business park near Interstate 26 and a possible residential and retail development on the Ashley River.

“I’m interested in bringing jobs to Summerville,” he said. 

For Mount Pleasant Mayor Billy Swails the message was: Pardon our mess. The town is in the middle of road widening on U.S. 17 that’s tearing up the road from one end of town to the other.

“If you’ve been to Mt. Pleasant, you’d think it should be called Orange Cone County,” he said. 

But Swails stressed the point that there’s more than road cones going up in Mount Pleasant. The city is developing parks and encouraging developers like the Beach Co. with its proposed project on Coleman Boulevard, an unusually sleepy part of town. “If you go out there at 7 o’clock at night, there is nothing happening on Coleman Boulevard,” Swails said.

Hanahan Mayor Minnie Blackwell was preaching to the choir with praise for the home building industry that has been the little city’s cash cow. “We’ve prospered because of the economy you have brought to us,” she said. 

And that’s not stopping anytime soon with more than 1,000 new units eyed by developers for 100 acres in Tanner Plantation, as well as municipal projects like a new recreation facility, amphitheater and ball field upgrades.

Blackwell said the municipality is motivated by its shifting demographic.

“Hanahan once was a population of older people,” she said. “Now, we’re seeing young people come in.”

North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey had his own golden goose to talk up: Boeing. The aerospace giant recently started production at it’s new Dreamliner facility. Summey noted that the rising tide in North Charleston should lift all boats in the Lowcountry.

“The key component is that none of us are an island all on our own. We all have to work together for what benefits the entire area,” Summey said before alluding to disputes the city has had with Summerville over annexation, among other regional squabbles. “When we disagree, we make headlines. But we agree 90 percent of the time.”