Home Inspection in Seabrook Island, SC

Everyone who cares about southern Johns Island should be pleased that a controversial annexation was pulled from the Seabrook Island Town Council’s agenda last week in the face of mounting opposition over what the annexation would help create — a new boat dock, private clubhouse, boathouse, pool house and 10 rental cottages — and the likelihood that it would add more traffic and pollution to the rural side of Charleston County’s urban growth boundary.

But those same folks, particularly leaders on Kiawah and Seabrook islands and Charleston County Council, should not get complacent. Instead, they need to work together on better planning to guide development in and around where those two sea islands meet up with southern Johns Island.

It’s unclear when, or if, the developer’s annexation request might resurface. Even if it doesn’t, there undoubtedly will be other development plans that will expose the tensions between those living on rural Johns Island and those living beyond the gates at Kiawah and Seabrook. This moment offers an important reset, one that should begin with getting all these local governments to recommit to the vision of an urban growth boundary — a line past which suburban development would not be supported through zoning, infrastructure or other local policies.

Such a recommitment wouldn’t bind future councils any more than their respective comprehensive plans do, but it would send a unified message about their mutual commitment to respect the natural beauty and environmental sensitivity of the area.

It’s clear that development pressures at Kiawah’s and Seabrook’s doorstep are increasing. A fresh series of new developments, including a senior living facility and an emergency medical facility, is cropping up. Elected officials, neighborhood leaders and county planners need to come up with a mutually agreed-upon zoning overlay for the area, one that would guide future development to ensure new uses and the size and scale of new buildings are appropriate. Such an overlay also would prevent developers from trying to play one jurisdiction against another to get the permits they seek, a tactic sometimes used in other parts of the tri-county area.

The mutual interests of everyone became clear during this recent annexation controversy, as the mayor of Kiawah Island took the unusual step of sending a letter to Seabrook’s mayor and council urging them to reject the annexation and respect the urban growth boundary, which Mayor John Labriola noted “serves as a guide to direct appropriate urban and suburban development while preserving and cherishing the rural charm of the Sea Islands that we all hold dear.”

Given what we’ve seen this summer, the existing urban growth boundary line may not continue to be enough on its own, and we believe a joint planning effort could help pin down the following: to what extent commercial development in the greater Freshfields area should be allowed to inch its way north on Betsy Kerrison; whether the towns should annex any more of Johns Island; whether any upzoning in the area might be appropriate; and how new building would affect the net traffic and drainage needs around Kiawah and Seabrook. While residents live only on Kiawah or Seabrook or in the unincorporated area, they have a stake in the answers to all those questions. This area deserves a new zoning overlay and conservation goals that offer a shared vision of how the southern part of Johns Island will — and will not — change.

Regional planning needs to take place on a large scale — such as our greater metro area from Seabrook to Awendaw to Summerville and Moncks Corner — but it’s also necessary on a smaller scale, especially in those places such as southern Johns Island where multiple local governmental jurisdictions meet.

Decades ago, the city of Charleston and Charleston County came up with the urban growth boundary across Johns Island and other areas where the suburbs ended to ensure their zoning and other policies worked together to protect rural areas that residents wanted to remain rural. Kiawah and Seabrook were once seen as too distant to bring into the conversation about that line. That’s not the case any more.

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SEABROOK ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - The potential for a new yacht club and several docks on Seabrook Island is concerning Sea Islanders and environmental advocates.

Town of Seabrook leaders discussed those plans Wednesday, which would include the annexation of a portion of Charleston County into Seabrook island.

The town’s planning commission voted 4-1 to recommend moving forward with the annexation to the town council.

The nearly 18-acre site, called the “Andell Tract,” sits between Bohicket Marina and Betsy Kerrison Parkway on Johns Island.

the plan includes a private Yacht Club and amenities such as a boat house, pool house and detached hotel containing 10 two-story cottages, according to town documents.

It also has public spaces including a boardwalk, pathways and a community crabbing dock.

Dana Beach, the founder of the Coastal Conservation League, said his two main concerns about the proposal are the environmental impacts on the water, and the crossing of Charleston County’s Urban Growth Boundary.

He said if The Town of Seabrook annexes this portion of Charleston County into their town for development, it could set a precedent for other local municipalities to do the same.

“The town may say ‘this is only a 20-acre parcel that in itself isn’t a big deal,” Beach said. “That’s what Charleston could say if it wanted to coming down from the north, that’s what Kiawah could say as it comes in from the East, even Folly Beach could say that.”

Robby Maynor, the Communities and Transportation Program Director for Coastal Conservation League echoed Beach’s point while addressing the planning commission at Wednesday’s meeting.

“There is an ongoing effort for collaboration between the municipalities on the sea islands to reaffirm that growth boundary to help strike a balance between development and preservation, this annexation would be a step in the wrong direction,” Maynor said.

The majority of the 544 written comments and 10 in person comments were against the development, although some community members spoke in its’ favor.

“I believe a Yacht Club is an amenity that fits perfectly within our diverse group of people,” Seabrook resident, Jackie Helline, said.

Mike Shuler, the Owner and Managing Partner for Bohicket Marina Investors, said he respectfully disagrees with the fear that this annexation may set a precedent for other municipalities to cross Charleston County’s Urban Growth boundary.

“What we are annexing is part of Seabrook’s comprehensive plan. Whether it crosses an Urban Growth Boundary, in my opinion, isn’t relevant here,” Shuler said. “Not to mention, further expansion beyond the property we are contemplating here is not possible because of conservation easements that are in place.”

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

With their Shorebird Stewardship program, Audubon South Carolina protects Red Knots, American Oystercatchers, and other birds that find respite on their shores.

Published June 01, 2023

Maybe it’s seeing the first rays of sunlight peeking over the horizon while Sanderlings and Willets scamper on the sand sneaking bites to eat, or hearing the calls of Laughing Gulls overhead as Black Skimmers bark in the background—or the fact that I haven’t visited a beach in years—but sunrise at the beach is a magical experience.

This morning, I’m in Charleston, South Carolina exploring Seabrook Island’s coast with my Audubon colleagues. We’re searching for migrating Red Knots, a shorebird that stops over parts of the Atlantic Coast along its 9,000-mile journey to nest in the Arctic. (You can discover its full migration journey with the Bird Migration Explorer.)

Seabrook Island and its neighbor Kiawah Island are two key beaches that the species relies on for survival. Early May is horseshoe crab spawning season, which means the wet sand along islands nearby is filled with their eggs, and outside of spawning, Seabrook Island is rich with donax clams. Horseshoe crab eggs and donax clams are what sustain the knots as they prepare to fly the remainder of their journey to their breeding grounds.

"We get about 40% of the Red Knot Atlantic Coast population—that’s [over] 17,000 birds—that stop on Seabrook and Kiawah Islands in the springtime,” says Allyssa Zebrowski, Audubon South Carolina’s coastal stewardship coordinator.

Like Red Knots, endangered Piping Plovers use South Carolina beaches to rest and feed through the winter before making their way up north to breed. State-threatened Wilson’s Plovers raise their young here—so do state-threatened Least Terns—and 1/3 of the American Oystercatcher’s population find respite on these shores in the winter.

Human disturbance is one of the greatest threats these birds face along the nearly 3,000 miles of South Carolina’s tidal shorelines, whether that’s people walking through resting flocks or unleashed dogs getting too close to nesting birds. That’s why in 2016 Audubon South Carolina launched its Shorebird Stewardship program to conserve these five vulnerable focal species and other coastal birds by educating people about them.

“What started as a seasonal program led into a year-round need for stewardship,” says Nolan Schillerstrom, Audubon South Carolina’s coastal program associate. “We realized…that it really needed a year-round effort, not only to focus on the non-breeding birds but to continue the momentum from year to year.”

Now, depending on the year, Audubon South Carolina sends volunteers called Shorebird Stewards to 10 to 13 different coastal sites to prevent human disturbance. The stewards undergo training each year to learn more about coastal birds and their behaviors. They also are trained on how to talk to beachgoers to get them to care about the birds. Plus, they help post signs alerting people to birds nesting or resting nearby.

“It’s all about getting out there, watching out for the birds, and telling other people to [be mindful of] the birds,” says Zebrowski.

The Shorebird Stewardship program works with a variety of partners to reduce human disturbance, including Seabrook Island Birders, which runs the volunteer program at their beach site.

We’re joined by a couple of the birders today on our walk to find the Red Knots. Many of the beachgoers they encounter are their neighbors and visitors to the private island, so they have their own way of telling people to look out for the birds.

“I like to tell people a story about the birds to make them feel sympathetic towards them,” says Lesley Gore, one of the program coordinators. “I’ll tell them how many miles the Red Knots are going to fly and that it’s very important for them to gain their weight [undisturbed].”

It’s clear that stewardship plays a vital role in protecting beach birds across the country. A recent study led by Audubon’s science team found that four vulnerable coastal bird species’ populations grew 2 to 34 times faster at stewardship sites rather than birds in only protected areas.

Audubon South Carolina is already seeing positive results from the program. “We do see the improved nesting success of the American Oystercatcher, the Wilson’s Plover, and the Least Tern [at sites we help manage],” says Zebrowski. That nesting success is combined with the program’s growing number of volunteers and increased notoriety each year.

And it’s a good thing too, because shorebirds as a whole are at risk in North America. In fact, the continent’s shorebirds have declined by 70% since the 1970s.

“That’s the stat that we always think of when we’re on the ground,” says Schillerstrom. “We want to tern that around and give these birds a fighting chance here on the beach.”

After passing breeding American Oystercatcher pairs, diving Brown Pelicans, and soaring Osprey, we finally reach an inlet that gives us a view of the Red Knots, though they’re on Kiawah Island today. We watch them huddle en masse on the shoreline, preening and calling.

To be able to capture photos and footage, from a safe distance, we visit Kiawah Island the next day and make another trek in hopes of catching the knots at the right time. At first, we find them across the inlet on Seabrook Island, but suddenly, when the tide rises to the perfect height, the birds flock to the sky, flying back and forth over the water uniformly as they murmurate, creating mesmerizing patterns with their striking orange bellies and mottled gray backs.

They land on our side of the inlet, on Kiawah, and begin running along the shoreline, giving us the perfect opportunity to capture their essence. I watch their activity in awe, knowing that in just a few weeks, they will be making the last leg of their journey up north to breed. It reminds me of why we must all do our part to protect them so that they can exist for future generations.

I’m also reminded of a conversation we had with a shorebird steward volunteer, Nancy Chomel, who we met the day before at Seabrook Island. When asked what makes her passionate about protecting coastal birds, she replies, “In saving the birds, we save ourselves.”

Isn’t that what it’s all about?

To learn more about Audubon South Carolina’s coastal conservation efforts, including how to become a volunteer Shorebird Steward, visit their website.

SEABROOK ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Seabrook Island neighbors are petitioning their leaders to cap the number of short-term rentals, stating there is overcrowding due to what they called over-tourism, but the mayor said the town has no plans to do so.

Seabrook Island homeowner Ted Flerlage says over 700 of his neighbors want to cap the number of short-term rentals on the island.

“What we’re trying to do is cap, not end the process of short-term rentals, cap at roughly the present numbers, evaluate what happens after that,” Flerlage said, “and then, determine whether or not we should lower the number of short-term rentals.”

As of June 19, there are 484 of these properties on the island, which residents said has led to overcrowding on the island’s streets and amenities.

Mayor John Gregg said for this year, data gathered over the past few months suggest otherwise.

“We’re not going to be looking at imposing limitations on the number of short-term rental units,” Gregg said.

Coastal Getaways owner Nancy Buck said more people are starting to call the island home, and good rentals are full for around 40% of the year.

She says all of her clients are property owners who rent to help offset the costs of the amenities, taxes and insurance.

“We’ve also gone from 35% permanent residents to 60% residents in the last two years,” Buck said. “Twenty-five percent of the properties have turned over since 2019.”

Buck also adds the majority of the amenities are mostly used by members and not rental guests.

However, the homeowners want the town’s government to hear them out.

“I’d like him to reconsider,” Flerlage said. “I’d like him to look at the reality and listen to the people who are property owners here, the residents on the island. You know, 700 people is a big number.”

“Let’s wait and see how this year goes,” Buck said. “They instituted the short-term rental ordinance couple of years ago, or actually, last year, so let’s give it a full year to see how it goes.”

Both Buck and the homeowners said they want to work out their differences over the next several months to come up with a solution that works for everyone.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.

SEABROOK ISLAND — A neighborly dispute over a drainage pipe made it all the way to the S.C. Supreme Court last year, and justices recently decided the yearslong case will be resolved with just $1,000 in damages.

It’s not uncommon for neighbors in the flood-prone Lowcountry to clash over drainage issues, but few cases make it to the state’s highest court.

The seeds of the legal conflict were sown in 2002, when Paul Dennis McLaughlin and Susan Rode McLaughlin bought a lot on the island to build a home there, according to court documents. Their lot, like that of neighbors Richard Ralph and Eugenia Ralph, had a “no-build zone” with an underground, corroded drainage pipe.

A different drainage line on the golf course next door was installed that same year. The McLaughlins then spent the next six years talking to the island’s Property Owners Association about whether they could build on the section of their plot with the old pipe. They finally got permission to do so, and in 2008 told builders to remove their portion.

The Ralphs, however, protested that the corroded line was still helping to drain their yard of rainfall. When the McLaughlin’s section was removed, the Ralphs said flooding on their property got worse.

Ainsley Tillman, an attorney for the Ralphs, said the couple’s yard has ponding after it rains, and the standing water has drowned trees on the property.

That’s what led the couple to file their original suit, claiming trespass and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and asking for hundreds of thousands in damages. After a trial they were awarded just $1,000; despite winning, they appealed the amount of the court’s award.

An appeals court agreed there could be a new trial only over the amount of damages awarded. That’s the decision the state Supreme Court reversed on March 17 in a unanimous decision that reinstated the $1,000 payout and ended the case.

Tillman said her clients feel $1,000 is inadequate. Additionally, the legal fees the Ralphs spent so far “have not been insignificant,” Tillman said, but she declined to say exactly how big the bill was.

Judit Jimenez Sainz expected to see penguins as part of her research trip to Antarctica. But the scientist at Medical University of South Carolina had in mind the placid, ambient-noise version you see behind glass at zoos.

Jumping out of a rubber raft onto an icy shore brought a shock.

“I didn’t know that penguins could be so loud,” Sainz said with a laugh.

In their defense, it was mating season.

The focus of the November trip was really the dozens of women scientists who accompanied her, part of an international effort to not only raise awareness of climate challenges, but also to help create a network of women and researchers across the globe who can help overcome longstanding gender biases in their respective fields.

Women in STEMM

Women college students have far outnumbered men for at least a decade, and in 2022 made up 58 percent of all those enrolled, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

But in the STEMM fields — science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine — it is a different story: Women account for 35 percent of students enrolled in those fields across the globe, and less than one-third of researchers are women.

The majority of U.S. medical students are women beginning in the 2018-19 school year, but women account for less than one in five in terms of deans or department chairs, and make up only 25 percent of full professors.

It is a problem across the globe — women scientists are less likely to be included on international collaborations or to migrate to institutions in other countries or be visiting professors in other countries, said Dr. Cassidy R. Sugimoto, co-author of the book “Equity for Women in Science.”

They are also less likely to have their work cited if they publish, and the lack of international collaborations, which are often the most prestigious, means women have “a compound disadvantage: Their work is always cited less and they tend to collaborate less internationally, which then reduces their visibility again,” said Sugimoto, professor and Tom and Marie Patton chair of the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology. All of those factors — citations and publications especially — influence awards, grants, and ultimately career advancement in science and who attains leadership positions, she said.

Recognizing the need for more women leaders in these fields, the Australian-based Homeward Bound program started an initiative to help women develop skills and strategies to advance their careers and become more visible in their fields. It envisions a collaborative and diverse network of 10,000 across the globe by 2036 who can help influence decisions in a meaningful way.

This effort has also been combined with increasing awareness of climate change and its impacts.

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“I do believe it is a good idea to be in a program where the aim is to train as many women as possible to take care of the planet with the science we do,” said Sainz, who studies mechanisms of DNA repair in cells and mutations in cancer.

The idea is exciting to Sugimoto, who is not affiliated with the program.

“I think it starts to chip away at some of these systemic issues that we are seeing,” she said.

On the bottom of the world

The Antarctica expeditions combine both of those initiatives, as well as taking aim at historic slights. While the first recorded woman explorer went to Antarctica in 1935, women scientists were often excluded from trips there until the 1970s on the grounds that the environment was too harsh for them or that all-male conclaves would be more focused and productive.

Sainz, who is currently running her own lab at MUSC, was in a different place when she applied to the program in 2019. She was then a postdoctoral fellow in someone else’s lab at Yale University and wasn’t sure where her academic career would take her. Her trip was supposed to happen in 2020, then COVID-19 hit. It was postponed until November 2023, and in the interim, it grew to 88 women from 18 countries.

“It was a very nurturing environment, it was a very inspiring environment, because all of these women are aiming for leadership positions across the globe,” Sainz said.

The 19-day journey’s isolation added to that. With access to the internet limited and aboard a relatively small ship, the passengers had to put down their phones and close their laptops and talk to each other.

As they learned about each other’s science and research, it gave the participants a chance to consider leadership style and strategy through those conversations. It gave them the chance “to connect with other leaders in an environment where they are more willing and open to a conversation because there are not these distractions,” Sainz said.

The outside environment also brought home lessons. While it is one of the coldest places on Earth, it is also warming rapidly. That is not an abstract problem with all of the ice there holding immense amounts of water, Sainz said.

“So if Antarctica started melting, that would affect places like Charleston and South Carolina because the sea level would rise and many areas would be in danger of flooding,” she said.

That ice and the stark, otherworldly landscape also caught Sainz off guard. Everything she had seen in photos was white, and she expected a monochrome atmosphere. Instead, it was a whirl of hues.

“It has many colors, from whites to blues to grays,” she said. “Our eyes were not ready. It takes a few days to adapt to it.”

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Its sound is the wind, from a quiet lull to suddenly howling. At times it was so fierce they could not move around. And at one point they were socked in for a couple of days by a blizzard.

And it was cold. The program recommended wearing three layers; Sainz opted for five, and her hands and feet were still cold.

But there were other, lasting sensations. Sainz was out on the water in an inflatable boat when a whale breached the surface nearby, exhaling loudly.

“You could feel it in your body, kind of like a wave, kind of like a vibration,” she said. “It took me by surprise.”

Bringing lessons home

Back home, Sainz said she is still processing all of those sensations, all of those conversations and what they will mean to her work going forward.

She is studying the BRCA gene, which helps repair broken strands of DNA in cells. She likens it to old phone cords: If one gets cut, the repair mechanism can copy and replace it.

“We all have BRCA in our cells, and that’s a good thing — they keep our DNA in good shape,” Sainz said.

The mutations in those genes, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, are well-known for increasing the risk of breast and ovarian cancer in women. But just in the last year, those mutations are also suspected of increasing the risk of certain familial cancers and could be at work in cancers as varied as melanoma, prostate and pancreatic cancer.

“I’m zooming out to explore how mutations in these genes, DNA repair genes, might alter their function” in those other areas, Sainz said.

The lessons from the trip reinforced to her that she “wanted to have an inclusive and diverse group to try to tackle questions that are concerning to many populations in our society.”

As Sainz tackles tough scientific questions in an increasingly complex academic world, she now has connections to a growing collaborative of leaders and “other experts in this network that can help me to navigate that,” she said.

And that kind of program can have a broader effect as well, because diversifying science and science leaders means subjects and topics that weren’t studied before can be part of the conversation, Sugimoto said.

Women “taking a leadership in science is going to change the tapestry of science itself,” she said. “My argument is that will be more reflective of the full population of society as we diversify science.”

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