Mayor Swails on Mount Pleasant

JUNE 5, 2012  — Mount Pleasant Mayor Billy Swails reported today to Rotarians that his town was working together to get things done.

Mayor since 2009, Swails said town council has adopted 296 ordinances since his election. Among some highlights, the town:

* Adopted the Palmetto tree as the city’s official tree.
* Adjusted an ordinance to allow horse figurines to be in front of P.F. Chang’s restaurant. “It was against the ordinance to have them out there.”
* Changed an ordinance to allow win drive-through lanes as the Chick-Fil-A in a shopping center off Highway 17.
* Updated an ordinance to allow food trucks to operate in Mount Pleasant.
* Revised an ordinance to allow “big box” stores to locate on less than 50 acres.

But the last change had consequences, Swails said. Despite the fact that Mount Pleasant attracted Costco, Home Depot and Dick’s Sporting Goods to build across from Town Centre on less than 50 acres of land, the town discovered through an apartment developer that there was a second ordinance with a 50-acre big-box store requirement that officials did not properly amend to lower the acreage requirement for development.

As a result, council became ensnared in a controversy about repealing restrictions to allow the stores to be built as a retail development. Last month, members narrowly voted to repeal the restrictions, but the fate of the development is unclear. Swails lamented the process saying that the stores would bring 700 jobs, compared to just two jobs if the land becomes home to an apartment complex.

Swails also told members that a new roundabout on Highway 17 would function well, despite grumbling from naysayers. Work on Johnnie Dodds Boulevard is expected to be finished by the end of the year, with more highway work on Highway 17 North to be done in the spring of 2013.

Toward the end of his talk, Swails joked about Facebook and Twitter: “Any mayor in the world would want both of those things gone,” later adding that he hadn’t checked his Facebook account since 2009.

Swails also told Rotarians that there were “a lot of exciting things” soon to happen at Patriots Point, but it was premature to discuss them.

Submitted by Andy Brack, Keyway Committee