Opinion - The Post and Courier
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The people of James Island voted in 1969 against annexation to the city and against incorporation. The people of James Island wanted to remain a rural sea island, as they had been since the beginning of the early settlers in the late 1600s.
In 1973, the city of Charleston annexed the Country Club on James Island. In 1975, again the questions were on the ballot and we voted "no" to both. In the same election, Joseph P. Riley Jr. (who served in the House of Representatives from 1968 to 1974) was elected mayor.
Almost immediately, special legislation began to appear -- the first in less than six months -- changing the statute which stated that a city could not annex more than the equal of one-fourth of its total land mass and adding the words, "except islands." This legislation was never debated in either the House or Senate and was on the governor's desk in 33 days. The bill had passed from the House Judiciary Committee to the Senate Judiciary Committee straight to the governor. The statute continued to be changed to allow the annexation of marshes and going down rivers, roads and even drainage pipes. The law was changed also that if a proposed incorporation was within five miles of a city, they had to ask the city to annex them and be refused before they could incorporate. This was repealed in the Senate last month and is now in the House. Only in the case of a 15,000 population would this not apply. The city annexed the marshes and divided the island into three pieces.
A group of James Islanders decided to seek to incorporate and (to keep the city officials from finding out) held a clandestine planning meeting in the county park. They had no money to pay the incorporation fee, so they raffled a $100 bill at $1 a chance.
After the referendum in favor of incorporation, the town was immediately sued and the court ruled that the town incorporated the city's marshes illegally. Are marshes not held in trust for the people of the state?
After four years of appeals, the town was placed into receivership and everything dispersed to any public entity wishing to share in the spoils. The $3 million slated to be applied to reduce property taxes for the people of James Island was seized and divided among all municipalities in the county, the city of Charleston getting the largest share. The receiver brought the media, a sheriff's deputy and a crowbar to padlock the Town Hall doors. (How can this happen in America? We have seen it in other parts of the world under dictatorships but not in America). The city sent out a letter to each citizen of the confiscated town and invited them to annex. Anyone was annexed who signed the letter, regardless of contiguity as required by state law. Now the map of James Island looks like it is bullet-ridden.
Sen. Glenn McConnell filed legislation (S 226) to allow municipalities to share marshes. The bill took three years to pass due to the lobbying efforts of the Municipal Association and North Charleston House members. When the governor signed the legislation into law in May 2000, we began a two-year incorporation effort with everything double and triple checked, knowing that we would be sued.
We voted on May 21, 2002, for incorporation, received our charter on May 28 and on June 11, the city of Charleston annexed a 1,000-acre farm, in which has slated for development the most historic battlefield in this area, dating from the Revolution and the Civil War battles where the 54th Massachusetts fought, as depicted in the movie "Glory."
Almost 60 days after the mayor and council were elected (the mayor and council were elected June 18 and sworn in on June 20), we were sued by the city of Charleston. The issue this time is that we incorporated under special legislation.
We are operating as a town hoping for a favorable ruling, and if the Supreme Court rules against us, we will attempt a third incorporation. We are the only town ever to lose its charter in the 227-year history of the United States of America. The town charter is the foundation of our way of government. If the foundation is removed, can the structure stand?
Is it right in America for a city to thwart the efforts for self-determination of a neighboring people for its own monetary gain? The city of Charleston claims 40 percent of the land mass, which includes the county park and the remaining 500 acres of the wildlife sanctuary. Their one-third of the population comprises almost all of the multi-family dwellings. This has created horrendous traffic problems, yet the city keeps on building condos and apartments.
There has been no plan for development of James Island by the city of Charleston, just annex, annex, annex -- shopping centers that are then left empty as the anchor store moved on to another part of the island. In the city portion of James Island, we have had two Harris Teeters, two Bi-Los and two Kmarts, which are both empty. Multi-family housing is allowed on James Island that would never be allowed on the peninsula of Charleston. When 400 acres of the wildlife sanctuary were zoned for a developer, it was allowed by a restrictive covenant of 1,270 units. They built them out with 90 acres left over. Now they propose 160 units and a park on the 90 acres but first have to break the restrictive covenant. The parks that the city has built on James Island are not all completed. There are no lights on the ball fields, a great hardship on the parents who have to take their children to Johns Island for games. Currently, 276 apartments are being built behind Wal-Mart, 262 by the cinema, and 85 three-stories high are planned on four acres across from Sol Legare Road. Where does this end? How can we continue to use the roads which are already over their capacity? In 2000, a traffic study gave Folly Road an "F" rating; now they want another study done.
The city's argument is that duplication of services will occur with the town. In truth, the people of James Island have paid taxes to the Public Service District for 42 years for sanitation, fire and street signs.
The PSD owns the sewer lines on James Island. The PSD sued the city for eroding its tax base. Since 1996, the city cannot provide fire protection to anything annexed after 1996 or sanitation since 2000 for a period of 40 years, according to a court ruling. Last year, the court ruled that the city turn over millions of dollars worth of sewer lines to the PSD. These were lines installed in subdivisions that had been annexed as acreage to the city and tied into PSD lines.
The city of Charleston for its own gain has schemed to annex the people of James Island against their will and has destroyed our way of life.
The city of Charleston is surrounded by Sea Islands and used the cotton, indigo and rice crops to become the wealthiest city on the East Coast before the Civil War. As its closest neighbor, James Island contributed much to this wealth. The cotton select men of James Island sold their crops before the seed was planted to French and Belgian lace makers, the finest in the world. Many James Islanders had townhouses below Broad Street in Charleston. The close proximity of James Island to the city was used to our mutual advantage during the first three centuries and now this close proximity has been used for the town of James Island's downfall to make James Island the "annexation corridor and bedroom community of the city of Charleston" (quoting Mayor Riley in court proceedings in December 2002).
Last week, 46 Americans died in Iraq. Many times our president has spoken of "giving self-determination to the people of Iraq." The people of James Island are still waiting ...
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