Carriage Tours In John’s Island, SC

A new island café and bar on Johns Island is now open daily serving those who need a quick morning caffeine kick or an evening snack on the patio.

The Heyday is a new eatery born from a love of the sea island lifestyle, embodying quintessential Lowcountry culture, said owner James Groetzinger.

Open seven days a week, The Heyday offers a brunch and supper menu centered on farm-to-table produce, fresh seafood and local purveyors. The counter-serve restaurant will have a full bar with cocktails on tap, along with a wraparound porch and fire pit.

“The design and feel of the space is that of a classic Charleston café with modern coastal touches, an ode to the historic farmlands of Johns Island with a fresh perspective,” said Groetzinger, owner of Island Provisions, a daytime café with locations on Johns Island and in downtown Charleston.

Menu highlights include the asparagus and goat cheese frittata for brunch and the grits and creamed collards with crispy flounder for supper.

“We got our she crab recipe from an old cookbook from some church ladies on Wadmalaw,” Groetzinger said, and guests can’t go wrong with the baked clams and spring salad specials.

The new restaurant, which Groetzinger designed and constructed, opened Jan. 24 in the 16-acre Hayes Park mixed-use development, joining Somm Wine Bar, High Steaks Butcher Shop and others.

“Hayes Park has several new businesses that are locally owned, as well as 56 townhomes for sale,” he said. “So we have actual homeowners on-property. It is meant to be a little village.”

Traffic relief in sight for Highway 17 and Main Road, pedestrian bridge on hold (WCIV)

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CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCIV) — Limehouse Bridge on Johns Island will soon have bike and pedestrian access.

Charleston County Council approved a multi-million-dollar project Tuesday night to widen the existing bridge and build a nearly three-mile multi-use path.

A proposed standalone bike and pedestrian bridge was removed from the project last year because the county didn’t have the resources to maintain it long term, according to Herbert Nimz, engineering manager with Charleston County.

The nearly 10-foot-wide path for walkers and bikers won’t just get them from Johns Island to West Ashley. Officials said it will easily take people as far as downtown Charleston.

“It will also connect to the existing Glenn McConnell multi-use path, it'll connect to the West Ashley Greenway and ultimately take folks all the way to the planned connections to the Maryville Bikeway and then the Ashley River bicycle and pedestrian bridge,” said Katie Zimmerman, executive director of Charleston Moves.

READ MORE | "Chas. County to vote on alternative bike and pedestrian options for Main Road project."

After six months of brainstorming options, Charleston County engineers say they’re using Wonders Way on the Ravenel Bridge as inspiration.

The path will have eight-foot-tall barriers alongside traffic and the edge of the bridge, and officials say the number of travel lanes for cars will stay the same.

“It was never our intent to reduce vehicular traffic on the bridge. It was only to also accommodate cyclists and pedestrians,” Nimz said.

Funding for the widening of the bridge is coming from the county’s transportation sales tax.

READ MORE | "Traffic relief in sight for Highway 17 and Main Road, pedestrian bridge on hold."

Nimz said the project’s price tag is a fraction of the original cost.

“This option we're looking at is anywhere from $8 to $10 million,” he shared. “The standalone bridge itself was going to cost $40 million.”

Zimmerman said the county and South Carolina Department of Transportation’s move from a stand-alone bridge to the lane widening makes her hopeful about other stalled projects across the area.

“We've been having conversations for a long time around the North Bridge. We're still working with the county and the cities and the state a little bit on that,” she explained.

A construction timeline for Limehouse Bridge is still unknown, but Nimz said crews can likely be seen in the area as soon as this week.

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He said they hope to complete the project in four years.

JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - A plan to highlight the beloved 400-year-old Angel Oak Tree and its surrounding land on Johns Island is being brought to city officials for approval to move forward.

The Lowcountry Land Trust has been working on its initiative called the Angel Oak Preserve to unite the nine-acre City of Charleston property, where the Angel Oak Tree sits, with the surrounding 35 acres that the land trust owns.

The goal is to create a community gathering space where visitors can learn more about the significance of the Angel Oak Tree and the history of the site, all while preserving the land that was once threatened by development.

The land trust is proposing the addition of a welcome center on the property it owns, which would be placed at a safe distance away from the Angel Oak to protect the tree’s root system.

Liollio Architecture Principal Jay White says that their goal is to build as little as possible, as the importance of this initiative lies in preserving the Angel Oak Tree.

“When you drive up into the parking lot, you’ll be parking amongst the forestry landscape and if you come through the welcome center, which is really very modest, it’s about the size of a modest house and it provides restrooms, and offices for the staff, a gift shop of course and a gathering space for interpretive exhibits,” White says.

The project is estimated to cost $12 million. The land trust is about halfway to its goal and plans to continue to receive support through public and private donations.

“The Angel Oak is such a powerful symbol, so we envision this project as hopefully an ambassador site where other local communities can learn from it and replicate it, so it really stands as that deep connection between people and conservation and the community and the efforts to protect this tree. Also speak to the resilience of the communities who have lived for so long in relationship to this land,” Angel Oak Preserve Director at the Lowcountry Land Trust, Samantha Siegel, says.

Currently, there is a gift shop located on the nine-acre property that the city owns. The proposed plan includes tearing that down and moving it into the new welcome center, as it is located on top of the roots of the Angel Oak Tree.

Visitors also currently use Angel Oak Road to drive down and park to see the tree, but White says they plan to move parking further away and have guests approach the tree on foot, ensuring the preservation and well-being of the tree.

White says they plan to add walking trails for visitors to follow as they exit the welcome center, which will take them through the forested area before reaching the Angel Oak Tree.

White says once visitors reach the tree they plan to have an elevated wooden boardwalk surrounding it that will keep people off the tree to protect it.

He says that they will also highlight ecological footprints that archaeologists have found near the tree that were once the location of slave cabins. Plans also include a nature play area for children as well as outdoor classrooms where guests who come for tours can learn more about the tree and the site.

“It’s just going to be a really special, sacred place. It already is, but it’s going to be even more special, and we will really be able to honor the tree the way it should be. I think it’s a perfect example of a place where the culture and the ecology work together to create this magic,” Siegel says.

The public will still be able to access the Angel Oak Tree for free. There may be times when visitor traffic is busy and they might do a time slot system, but it would still remain free to guests.

White says once they get final approval they expect it will take about a year to build the welcome center and its features.

The City of Charleston’s Design Review Board will meet on Monday to vote on conceptual approval of the welcome center. If approved, it will have to move forward for preliminary and final approval.

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Charleston County is set to begin construction on a project that will alleviate traffic for West Ashley and Johns Island residents, officials told residents at the first quarterly update meeting for the road improvements March 13.

The project encompasses a number of improvements to help with traffic including construction of flyovers at the intersection of Main Road and U.S. Highway 17, an interchange at Main Road and Highway 17 for drivers who want to avoid the intersection, a bridge over CSX Railroad, a roundabout at the intersection of Main, Chisholm and River roads, and a widening of Main Road from River and Chisholm roads to the interchange ramps.

The improvements were originally part of a bigger project for Main Road, from Bees Ferry Road to Betsy Kerrison Parkway. The project was then split into three segments, with this segment first estimated to cost $130 million in 2020.

This now $354 million project — the largest infrastructure project in Charleston County history — is funded by the 2016 half-cent transportation sales tax.

Herb Nimz, county project manager, said during the county's quarterly project meeting on March 13 that they're still in the permitting process, but have worked on securing right-of-way acquisition. They're also currently doing test piles, or assessing the strength and stability of the columns that will support the interchange and flyovers. Plans are in the works to relocate utilities, like Charleston Water System and Dominion Energy, before construction starts in May, he said.

Most of the road work on Main Road and Highway 17 will take place at night, but residents should still expect some backup during construction, Nimz said.

"It's going to get worse before it gets better," Nimz said.

Residents in West Ashley and on Johns Island who live around the roads slated for changes have mixed feelings.

Jacob Andrew, a Johns Island resident, said he's excited about how the road project will help with traffic.

"It’s going to work," he said. "They could get it 50 percent right, and it would be better than the way it is now."

However, he worries about how traffic volume will only continue to increase around where he lives off Main Road as more people continue to move to the Lowcountry.

Census data shows the population of Johns Island's specifically surged from roughly 15,100 people in 2010 to almost 22,900 in 2021. More than 25,000 people are estimated to live on the island today.

The county will most likely be back to the drawing board in 10 years to come up with another solution, Andrew said.

Andrew is also unhappy the county cut plans for a bike and pedestrian bridge adjacent to the Limehouse Bridge that was previously included in the project. Nimz said he's met with the state Department of Transportation and is working to add at least a sidewalk to the bridge.

West Ashley resident Jamie Jacobs is looking forward to the changes, but worries congestion may remain as Main Road and Highway 17 are highly trafficked roads for people coming from West Ashley, Ravenel and Johns Island.

Ultimately, she said if the flyovers and interchange allow for commuters to no longer wait at the red light at the intersection of Main Road and Highway 17 for an hour, residents will be much happier.

Officials expect the project to be complete late September 2028.

JOHNS ISLAND—The 120-foot Navy vessel that locals call a blight on the landscape has remained stuck in the marshy waters of Wadmalaw Island for nearly four years since it first crossed into state waters. Agencies working to remove the ship say it will likely remain there as talks with the owner to secure the vessel's title continue.

Despite a now yearslong effort from two state environmental agencies and the U.S. Coast Guard, and cries from residents and leaders from the small coastal towns nearby, officials say their hands are essentially tied when it comes to getting the steel-hulled ship out of the water.

Derelict but not abandoned

Captain Dennetta Dawson, a law enforcement officer with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, said DNR has had several conversations with the owner, Sam Kodaimati, to gain the title to the ship.

The vessel, renamed HAZAR once the owner purchased it at auction in 2021, is several hundred feet from an active boat launch, lurching in the bank of Bohicket Creek. However, it's technically not abandoned, according to the state's definition.

This July will mark four years since the ship got stuck in S.C. waters. A Coast Guard order prohibits Kodaimati from moving it somewhere else, though it's unlikely the 1980s-era vessel is in good working condition.

HAZAR needed over $2 million in repairs, including two engine overhauls, and mechanical and electrical work, when Kodaimati bought the vessel in March 2021.

Derelict seems a better word to fit the ship’s description. It's rusted, damaged and until recently, had evidence of oily water aboard, posing a serious risk to the surrounding water quality and ecosystem.

For a ship to be officially declared abandoned by SCDNR, the last known owner must not return to it or acknowledge any communication from the agency for 45 days. Then, the state can take possession of the abandoned property and start raising money to pay for its removal.

"When we have a boat that we deem or think is derelict or abandoned, we are able to tag it. Within that time, we are sending information out to the owner, trying to find the owner and within that 45 days, that owner has to lay claim or has to say that it's not a derelict boat," Dawson said.

But because SCDNR knows who owns the ship, and regularly interacts with him, the ship can't be considered abandoned. Dawson said these conversations have not been productive.

"Mr. Kodaimati has not relinquished the title to the boat yet," Dawson said. "Until we get title to that, or until it is really an abandoned boat, there's not much that we can do about it."

Removing the ship would prove expensive.

Dawson said Kodaimati has indicated that he doesn't have the money to salvage the ship. She added that even if the agency did take ownership of the vessel, they wouldn't have much money to remove it either.

There is no state funding available to assist SCDNR or the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services to pay for retrieving abandoned and derelict vessels. A bill recently introduced by the state Senate, the Waterways Protection Act, seeks to change that by requiring all South Carolina boat owners to pay a small tax to help fund derelict vessel removals.

In the meantime, the agency will partner with volunteer groups like Wounded Nature to pull the backlog of abandoned boats from Lowcountry waters.

Wounded Nature is funded solely through donations, partnering with salvage companies to complete the work at little to no cost. The nonprofit recently towed and demolished two sailboats left behind in the Stono and Ashley Rivers.

The retrieval and demolition would have cost around $12,000 without the donated time and manpower.

Rudy Socha, CEO of Wounded Nature, said in HAZAR's case, it could cost tens of thousands of dollars to tow, remove and salvage the hulking ship—and more if it falls further into disrepair.

"If it deteriorates much more, it's going to be a half-million-dollar job to get rid of that boat," Socha said.

Pollutants no longer on board

Last year, nearby residents raised alarm over the ship, telling The Post and Courier that HAZAR was an "ecological disaster" waiting to happen.

Steve Redman of Seabrook Island said he's called on the Department of Natural Resources, the Coast Guard, Department of Environmental Services and even the governor's office to hasten the ship's removal.

"When I saw this thing, I know that a 110 feet to 125 feet steel boat, there's no way it's supposed to be implanted in any ecological important area," Redman said.

His fears were validated last September. The U.S. Coast Guard deployed its oil-spill mitigation response in the fall, after evidence of water intrusion and oil on board the boat was confirmed.

All told, crews removed 3,500 gallons of oil and oily water from the vessel, USCG Lt. Michael Allen said.

With the mitigation complete, SCDES spokesperson Laura Renwick said the agency is continuing to work with the Coast Guard and DNR on vessel removal options, though the question of how long that may take has yet to be answered.