The town of Ravenel's current zoning rules allow for one house per acre, but property owners are requesting a change. (WCIV)

RAVENEL, S.C. (WCIV) — The town of Ravenel's current zoning rules allow for one house per acre, but property owners are requesting a change.

The Tumbleston Trust is requesting the zoning be changed to one house per 0.23 acres to make room for more development in the area. The proposed development, called the Pasture at FarrField, intends to bring 120 new homes to the 99 acres along Drayton Street, then reserve 50 acres for green space.

Read more: Ravenel residents express concerns over proposed zoning change ahead of Tuesday's meeting

However, those living in the area have concerns. There is an online petition with over 400 signatures from Ravenel residents who want the current zoning ordinance to remain in place and are against any change.

The Town Council will hold a workshop on the matter on Thursday. Public comment will not be permitted during the workshop.

Residents will be allowed to speak on the matter at the Town Council meeting on March 20. Registration must be completed by March 18 at 3 p.m.

Olivia McCarthy, who has been living along Drayton Street for the past two years, says one of the reasons she moved to Ravenel is the current atmosphere of the town and she doesn't that to go away.

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The town of Ravenel's current zoning rules allow for one house per acre, but property owners are requesting a change. (WCIV)

"Developers are allowed to build in a density of one home per acre," McCarthy said. "We want the town to keep the current zoning they have and the community. Town laws and restrictions are in place to protect us. This movement would be welcoming and open arms about developers building at the density the town has currently provisioned them to do."

Tumbleston Trust has expressed plans to integrate the proposed development into the existing rural landscape of the town, but people living near the property say they are concerned about traffic impacts in the area and wetlands not being protected. They also feel they will lose the character of the town.

"Our comprehensive plan and the identity of our community in Ravenel is an agricultural-based community," continued McCarty. "That's why we love it. We love living with nature, having space to breathe, and for our children to be able to run around. We want preserve that character of our community."

"All of the adjacent property owners to this proposed development are on well water," she continued. "There's a huge public safety concern that the infrastructure could not support 120 plus septic tanks."

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Susan Hendricks of the Tumbleston family wants to reassure the community that the character will remain the same if the rezoning is approved.

"The Pasture at FarrField neighborhood is designed by locals with locals in mind," Hendricks said in a statement. "Local professional planning experts and engineers will go into detail about the abundance of recreational greenspace, natural neighborhood buffers, a modern septic system, and the comprehensive traffic study, which shows the neighborhood will not negatively impact the traffic flow."

"Next week, the public will have an opportunity to comment fully with a specially-held public comment session," she continued in her statement. My family and I want this to be a transparent, informative process for our community. We have deep roots in Ravenel and we all see how our region is growing. We are proposing thoughtful growth, which I believe maintains the charm of our community."

Ravenel Mayor Stephen Tumbleston, a member of the Tumbleston family, has recused himself from the matter. Mayor Pro Tem Buckey Waters will participate.

RAVENEL, S.C. (WCSC) - Ravenel residents say they are fed up with the town after the council postponed a workshop that was scheduled for next week.

Up for discussion were the plans property owners recently presented to council members about what would happen to a large piece of land on Drayton Street if a rezoning request is granted.

Residents feel that those asking for this rezoning are getting special treatment because the property is owned by the Tumbleston Trust and the family to 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 and scheduled the workshop for Feb. 15 to dig into it further.

On Wednesday, they postponed the workshop at the request of the property owners, who say they will now work to provide the traffic study, site plan, entrance locations, buffers and protected areas.

Residents say council should have denied the rezoning request and told the owners to try again at the appropriate date when they could provide more information.

“It’s wrong,” resident Olivia McCarty said. “It’s clearly a two-tier justice system, no one else would have gotten this type of treatment. You submitted an application that has insufficient information, the town council saw that it was nothing and should have denied it on the spot”

They say they feel like this process is giving free rein to the property owners, while the community has had to follow the rules.

“We were limited to five minutes to speak {at town council}, but the owners got up and took as much time as they wanted which was well over 13 minutes. I asked ‘Sir, are they limited to five minutes?’ and I was shouted down, ‘You’re out of order, you’re out of order,” resident Roy Smith said.

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.

“Next thing they are gonna do is put apartments out here and we’re gonna be pushed further back into the sticks until everything is city, and there’s no room to breathe, there’s no horses and I don’t want to live like that,” resident Corbin Haydel said.

It is unknown if or when the workshop will be rescheduled.

Mayor Tumbleston recused himself from this matter and Mayor Pro Tem Buckey Waters says he will speak when he feels it’s appropriate to do so. Councilmembers LaJuanda Brown, Jim Rodgers Jr. and Terry Wilkinson have not responded to a request for comment.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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