HUGER, S.C. (WCSC) - With just over a hundred homes expected to be built in Huger, some residents worry the lack of proper infrastructure will just be one of the factors that will cost the area its small, hometown feel.

Berkeley County says these homes are coming along Cainhoy Road near Cainhoy Elementary School. Construction has already been approved for the Royal Cokeland development, which will be 49 homes, and the county is still in the stages of approval for the French Quarter Preserve, which will be 57 homes.

“It’s a rural community and we would like to see it stay that way,” lifelong Huger resident Richard Coen said.

Another Huger native, Vincent Holback, and Coen say they have watched Cainhoy Road become a hazard over the years. Cainhoy Road had over 200 collisions from 2011 to 2020, according to the State Department of Public Safety.

The agency has not yet responded to a request for more up-to-date accident information.

“We see growth coming that we aren’t able to sustain because of the infrastructure not being developed along with the growth,” Holback said.

Holback says the lack of proper infrastructure in this area to keep up with the homes is the top concern. He says he sees constant traffic coming from the Nucor Steel production company and Cainhoy Elementary during rush hour.

“There are senior citizens here that drove up and down this road all their lives,” Holback said. “And some of them are afraid to leave home after 3 o’clock in the evening because of the traffic and the speed of the traffic.”

Although the county says these subdivisions will have at least 20% of their area dedicated to wetlands, conservation is also at the forefront of concern.

Coen says the growth does not need to take over.

“It’s going to destroy an area that’s so sensitive and is such an incredible asset for Berkeley County,” Coen said.

Although there’s no stopping what’s already under construction, the two say they just want the county to look out for the ones who already live here.

“I have nothing against growth as long as you bring the growth and do the infrastructure along with the growth,” Holback said.

Coen praises Berkeley County for prioritizing greenspace as part of their 1% sales tax.

“They’re very receptive to all of the efforts regarding the private lands, conservation easements, property rights,” Coen said. “But the property rights are the people who live here.”

Berkeley County public information officer, Jenna-ley Jamison, provided this statement in response to the concerns:

The County routinely works with the state to help improve various roadways, intersections and other transportation infrastructure around the County. The County passed a moratorium on development earlier this year. Also, the 2022 One Cent Sales Tax Referendum that was passed in November 2022 has a Greenbelt Preservation component which addresses setting aside property, easements, natural resources, agricultural, landscaping and protecting scenic corridors while improving road infrastructure.

In addition, with Cainhoy Road being state-maintained, the South Carolina Department of Transportation is responsible for the infrastructure. They have not provided a statement.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Cainhoy and Huger residents who have seen how I-526 has changed their communities are issuing a stark warning if the freeway is extended across Johns and James islands: If you build it, you’ll get rampant development, a traffic deluge and life-changing “culture shock.”

“We have just absolutely been overwhelmed with traffic and wrecks. We now have a 24-hour vape shop” that attracts students after school, said MaeRe Chandler Skinner, a longtime resident of Cainhoy in lower Berkeley County. “It has been a culture shock!”

The quaint Wando River enclave settled in the early 1720s has become nearly encircled by development since the highway called the Mark Clark Expressway opened three decades ago. The community has “more development than you can shake a stick at,” Skinner said. “There is not going to be a tree standing on Clements Ferry Road by the time [developers] get through.”

Decades from now, James and Johns islanders might voice a similar lament if an 8.5-mile southern loop to the interstate is built at a cost of $2.3 billion to connect it with the James Island Connector and the Charleston peninsula.

The S.C. General Assembly’s Joint Bond Review Committee on Dec. 5 approved $75 million in preliminary funding to the S.C. Transportation Infrastructure Bank for the first phase of the highway’s extension.

The new funding will be combined with $75 million pledged by the Charleston County Council toward the project. The decision puts taxpayers on the hook for $150 million for a road destined to alter the landscape and way of life for two Charleston County sea islands.

On Johns Island, some residents are resigned that not much can be done to stop the highway, said Cheryl Glover, lay leader of Johns Island Parish United Methodist Church on Bohicket Road. “It is hard to get folks to realize what is going to happen, if they don’t see it already happening.”

The prospect of the Mark Clark Expressway’s southern loop has laid dormant for decades but now with additional funding, Cainhoy resident Sammy Sanders warns: “Don’t do it! Don’t let it happen!”

For the sake of Johns and James islands, “I had hoped that issue wasn’t going to come back up,” he said. “When you increase the number of people, you increase the difficulties.”

Glover said development on Johns Island has already caused traffic delays, and the extended expressway might be a regrettable solution to traffic congestion.

Sanders admits, however, that having more people in the area has brought some advantages to lower Berkeley County. Cainhoy’s marina now has dry stack storage for boats, he said. “We wouldn’t have a dry stack, if we didn’t have the houses.”

A housing boom in the Huger community brought better internet connections, said community advocate Vernelle Dickerson. Nevertheless, the growth in Huger also has meant more traffic, a smelly sewage pumping station in one development along S.C. 41 near the Huger post office and an erosion of the tranquil country lifestyle, she said.

“These people [come here] from the North and West say they want county living, then they want all the amenities of city living” which fuels more commercial development, she explained.

Before and after the Mark Clark Expressway connected North Charleston with Daniel Island, community leaders attended dozens of meetings with state officials and developers.

Skinner urged residents of James and Johns islands to “come up with a game plan, attend every meeting … and say your objections.”

Dickerson said to blunt some of the downside of development communities should demand what they want.

Fred Lincoln lives in the Jack Primus community near Cainhoy on land his great-grandfather purchased after emancipation. Lincoln said before the extension comes, property owners should decide how they can take advantage of the commercial and residential growth that could follow the highway.

When land speculators offer to buy property, Lincoln advises “don’t take the fast dollar. Those people who sold property [in the Cainhoy area] if they had to rethink it, I don’t think they’d do it.”

Landowners on James and Johns islands near the path of the coming highway, Lincoln explained, should rezone their land for commercial use and consider leasing their property instead of selling it to preserve the land for the next generation.

City Paper special projects editor Herb Frazier is the author of Behind God’s Back: Gullah Memories, Cainhoy, Wando, Huger, Daniel Island, St. Thomas Island, South Carolina.

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HUGER, S.C. (WCSC) - After not seeing progress for nearly 20 years, one Berkeley County resident in the Huger community is speaking up on the progress of the Cainhoy Road project.

Ronald Taylor has lived on Cainhoy Road his entire life and echoes his life and appreciation for his home. Standing tall for decades, the Stewart Chapel United Methodist Church holds strong and sturdy near the road. You can hear children playing on the playground miles away from Taylor’s home at Cainhoy Elementary School.

Driving the road daily, Taylor says the roads are too narrow, potholes are consistent, and the heavy traffic makes the road increasingly dangerous, especially at night. Taylor says the heavy amount of increased traffic is the biggest concern in the area. With new subdivisions arriving and the commercial business on Clements Ferry Road expanding, if the project isn’t completed, he fears it could turn into a dangerous situation for drivers.

“It looks like they’re taking their time. This was a project that needed to be done a long time ago,” Taylor says, “The roads are too narrow, they’ve got a lot of potholes and heavy traffic.”

Taylor says he’d like Cainhoy Road to resemble the work being done on Clements Ferry Road in terms of the road widening and the center median. Half the road is currently repaved, but Taylor says they still have about six miles left.

“I just feel they need to finish the job,” Taylor says. “Take care of the people in this community because we also live here, we pay gas taxes, property taxes just like everybody else so we need to get our share, in a timely manner.”

Officials from the South Carolina Department of Transportation gave a statement saying,

“The four miles of Cainhoy Road beginning at the intersection of SC 51and heading south will undergo a full depth patching, shoulder widening and resurfacing. The full-depth patching has already begun. The widening and resurfacing are still in the scheduling phase. The next four miles of Cainhoy, headed south toward Nucor, are in the scheduling phase to be paved. The estimated completion for this project is Winter of 2024.”

If you have a problem with a road in your area, submit it to Live 5 and let us know What’s Driving You Crazy.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

The Richland County Council voted Tuesday to unanimously approve financial incentives for a $100 million housing development at the former SCANA bus storage site on Huger Street.

Huger Flats, previously identified by the county as Project Wichita, will take up nearly 6 acres at 1409 Huger St. across from The Nine student apartment complex, at the gateway to downtown Columbia’s Vista.

The apartment development plans to include sidewalks, a pocket park and a 643-space parking garage, according to county documents.

During the council’s first vote on incentives for the project in March, it was proposed as an $90 million investment. The updated $100 million plan makes the development one of the most expensive housing developments in the city.

The nearby CanalSide development remains the highest with over $100 million invested into apartments at the old South Carolina Penitentiary site.

The new Huger Flats location is one of the most prominent and valuable undeveloped properties in downtown. It has been empty since 2008 when SCANA tore down the old bus barn.

The land was first developed in 1902 as an SCE&G manufactured gas plant, which left coal tar as a byproduct. The apartment development plan currently estimates that required environmental remediation of the area will cost over $1 million. Other large costs include building the parking facility and modernizing and burying electric lines.

Huger Flats also plans to relocate and modernize stormwater and sewer mains, add green spaces and improve the roadway.

There is an estimated total of $22 million of public infrastructure improvements related to the development.

The project is to be developed by Atlanta-based Stratus Property Group, according to county documents. Jeff Koon, a representative from Stratus Property Group said the company is working with stakeholders in the area and is looking forward to proceeding with the project.

“It’s good to see some reinvention of the area on the way,” Koon said. “We’re looking forward to that being kind of a connecting piece between existing properties.”

As a part of the approval, the company agreed to rent apartments at a rate affordable to residents earning between 80% and 120% of the Columbia area median income.

In exchange for the company’s $100 million investment, it will get a 50% property tax break for 15 years.

There have been other attempts to redevelop the site in the past, including a 2016 pitch to build a supermarket and apartments, but none have been unsuccessful. The site sits beside another notable vacant property, the former Kline Iron and Steel Co. property at the corner of Huger and Gervais streets, where multiple development proposals also have faltered over the years.

This story was originally published July 19, 2023, 10:28 AM.

Huger is the hometown of Dr. Anthony Williams and Dr. Jessica Berry, both of whom were recently named to South Carolina State University’s Top 40 under 40 inaugural class.

The award was designed to honor alumni that have made strides to further their careers and impact their communities.

Growing up in Huger, Berry was a fluent native Gullah Geechee speaker. She attended Cainhoy Elementary and Middle School, the same school that Williams would attend only a few years later.

“Huger is extremely rural, people don’t really get to see a whole lot outside of that space there,” Berry said.

Berry went on to graduate from Hanahan High school and Williams at Timberland High School.

“At Timberland High School, I wasn’t the ideal student,” Williams said. “I didn’t have a 4.0 GPA, I didn’t have all A’s, I wasn’t in the honor classes. But my school counselor at the time, who is also an SC State graduate, Mr. Hilton, for some reason saw a lot in me. He saw way more in me then I saw in myself.”

Williams attended South Carolina State University, located in Orangeburg, in the fall after high school graduation. Four years later, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in child development.

Inspired by his own experiences with his school counselor back at Timberland High, Williams began working toward his master’s in school counseling.

“I had to be a school counselor because I wanted to pay it forward, Williams said. “I would not be here if it wasn’t for my own school counselor.”

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Two and a half years later, in 2017, Williams graduated once again from SC State University with an administration degree. For a final time in July 2020, Williams completed his doctoral degree at SC State and since has been serving as an assistant principal at Sumter High School.

Today, Williams uses his personal experience of growing up in Huger as a testimony to what students can become despite any current circumstances.

“Being from that community, I understand there’s a lot of difficult situations and that circumstances aren’t always ideal,” Williams said. “Sometimes when you’re in it, you can’t see out of it. When I was a school counselor I used to say, ‘your grades are your get-out. Continue to pour into your school work and you will get out. If you want to be a lawyer or a doctor or a dentist or a principal, it is possible.’ I could have been a principal with just my master’s degree but my doctoral degree is to show the kids that you can do it. It’s not that far fetched. Go get it,” Williams said.

After completing her undergraduate degree at Winthrop University, Berry began pursuing her master’s at SC State University. It was during this time that her passion for educating the next generation on cultural biases that exist and advocating for people who don’t speak mainstream English was first sparked.

After receiving her doctoral degree from Louisiana State University, Berry returned to the state to serve closer to home.

Today, Berry continues to partner with school districts promoting this advocacy and even writing a book titled “The little Gullah Geechee: A Guide for the Come Ya (2019),” in an ambition to educate others on the Gullah Geechee culture.

Since 2017, Berry has served as an assistant professor with SC State in the speech pathology department.

Growing up unsure if she would ever have the opportunity to obtain a degree as grandiose as her own, she now leads the same department where she was once a student.

“My hope is that there’s another little girl in my area who sees me get this award and serve the community and educate people about who we are as Gullah Geechee and decide that I am worth it,” Berry said.