This should get interesting.
Mount Pleasant inched another step closer toward seizing business properties on the east side of Shem Creek Friday, although Town Council members insisted to a large crowd of residents that they were doing nothing of the sort.
Led by recently-elected council members aligned with the Save Shem Creek group, Town Council voted to have town staff investigate what it would cost to have appraisals performed on a number of business properties that are not for sale, and to have design plans created for a park on the land where those businesses now stand.
At a previous meeting, a majority of council members directed town staff to research the ownership and taxable values of those same properties. Formal appraisals would be seen as the first step in taking the properties through eminent domain, an attorney for the town said.
On Friday, Councilman Joe Bustos originally proposed having formal appraisals conducted and a park designed for those properties — with specific elements, such as a shrimp boat statue, a gift shop and rest rooms — but later took a step back and called only for a “purposeful, thorough investigation” of what those things would cost.
“I’m really surprised as many people came here thinking this would be a condemnation action,” Bustos said, before a standing-room-only crowd of more than 100 at Town Hall.
Many in the audience addressed the Town Council before the vote, with most expressing opposition to the idea of the town taking any properties from unwilling owners. The Charleston Trident Association of Realtors also expressed opposition.
“As a resident and a business owner, I’m shocked,” said Gray Taylor, an attorney. “This council does not seem to have any interest in the business community, or frankly, in anything north of Chuck Dawley Boulevard.”
The unspoken target of the recent council action appears to be a controversial office building and parking lot under construction at Coleman Boulevard and Mill Street, which Save Shem Creek is currently
