Sports Bar in West Ashley, SC

When Charleston annexed Long Savannah in 2007, the massive planned subdivision came with promises of developer-funded roads.

That was meant to alleviate concerns about the congestion that would come with the city’s biggest expansion since Daniel Island.

Nearly two decades later, the 4,500-home development is finally on the way — but without the “h” in “Savanna,” as The Post and Courier’s Teri Errico Griffis notes.

And without any new roads.

As Griffis recently reported, there are nearly 6,000 new housing units planned for the outer rim of Charleston’s largest suburb. Which is scary.

That's because there are no accompanying plans for new highways or parkways to handle all the new traffic that will follow. Studies suggest that many houses will add thousands of car trips to existing roads every day.

Locals are rightly concerned.

In the past few years, West Ashley has grown three times as fast as the national average, as anyone who drives around the area knows. Look at the numbers.

The S.C. Department of Transportation’s average daily traffic count for Savannah Highway between Interstate 526 and Savage Road rose by 5,000 cars — to nearly 57,000 — between 2021 and 2023.

At the same time, Glenn McConnell Parkway and S.C. Highway 61 are up 4,000 cars each.

More than 20% of West Ashley roads are over-capacity already, and all this new building isn't going to help. In fact, it’s about to bring the bustling suburb to a standstill.

There’s little DOT can do here — Savannah Highway and 61 can’t be widened, and Glenn McConnell recently got a decent upgrade. Plans call for intersection improvements throughout the area, and barriers to prohibit left-hand turns to keep traffic flowing.

Some local officials have encouraged more mass transit, and suggested more people walk or ride bikes. But Savannah Highway is dangerous enough for people in cars — a disturbing number of people often don't even brake for its numerous red lights.

All this uncertainty and overcrowding adds to the consternation of residents. They are griping pretty loudly, which is understandable.

But they also rejected plans to extend 526 onto Johns Island, which would have gotten an estimated 15,000 cars off West Ashley roads every day. Don’t expect to see those plans resurface again anytime soon.

So what’s a growing Charleston suburb to do?

Lacking any better alternatives, many folks simply blame local officials for allowing all this development without the accompanying infrastructure. Sometimes that’s even appropriate.

South Carolina is a state that foolishly doesn’t require necessary infrastructure to be in place before development like, say, Georgia.

But many of these plans — including Long Savanna, which accounts for 75% of the new homes planned for West Ashley — were approved years ago, back when the region was hungry for an expanded tax base … and long before serious gridlock was an issue.

There's one solution, which Charleston County Councilman and West Ashley native Brantley Moody explains quite well.

“Eighty-four percent of our residents leave West Ashley at 7:30 every morning and come back at 5 p.m. The longer they have to commute, it keeps exacerbating our traffic problems,” he says. “I’m an infill guy. I believe we need to build where there’s already infrastructure, where people have grocery stores, shops and restaurants nearby, even within walking distance.”

The site of the former Ryan’s restaurant and Food Lion on St. Andrew’s Boulevard (Highway 61) is the sort of redevelopment Moody is talking about.

Developers want to convert that property, just a couple of miles from downtown on a well-established thoroughfare, into a mixed-use development.

You know, like the Sumar Street plan, which the city of Charleston is shepherding along off Sam Rittenberg Boulevard. Which is an infinitely better idea than continuing to throw up new houses toward Jacksonboro.

“Somebody redevelop the Chuck E. Cheese, somebody build at Citadel Mall,” Moody says. “This is where our new development belongs.”

Not, he says, along Church Creek — where more homes only increase flooding … which in turn requires expensive fixes that take money away from other infrastructure.

The county is helping the St. Andrews Fire Department build a new station near the creek, which redevelops a property that otherwise might've been filled with dozens of new single-family homes.

That’s smart. The city and county need to do more to discourage development in such areas, mostly by encouraging it in places in serious need of suburban renewal.

All it takes is a private developer with a lot of capital and a little vision … and it really doesn’t even take much of that. West Ashley has already proved it's a popular choice for new residents.

But if its traffic woes continue, that won’t always be the case.

The city of Charleston's long-established West Ashley suburb continues to be a draw for buyers and renters seeking a slice of Lowcountry living.

From 2020 to 2025, city officials estimate the area's population grew 6 percent to almost 72,000 — and that's only counting the incorporated sections. The boom is more than double the 2.8 percent population increase nationwide during the same time period.

On average, South Carolina has gained about 360,579 residents a year from April 2020 through July 2024, or about 90,000 a year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

But the West Ashley rush isn't slowing down. An estimated 6,000 housing units are in the works, with many of them expected to come online within the next year. And all are within a 5-mile drive, led by the long-delayed Long Savanna development.

The projects come in addition to existing major multifamily developments along the same corridor, like the 1,400-home Grand Oaks Plantation, built in the late 1990s; Hunt Club, built in the early 2000s with about 500 residences; and the 1,800-home Carolina Bay development off Glenn McConnell Parkway.

There's also the recently wrapped Grand Bees and the 394 apartments at Aventon Bees Ferry.

Heading down Bees Ferry, along Glenn McConnell Parkway and right on Henry Tecklenburg Drive, here's where the bulk of new single-family, townhomes and apartments will be built.

Bellerose at Bees Ferry: 155

The Bellerose at Bees Ferry apartments are are almost wrapped at 3029 Stonecrest Drive, at the corner of Bees Ferry Road.

Plans for the new Storia neighborhood call for 155 three-bedroom townhomes, pool, on-site dog par, open-air pavilion and walking paths.

Multiple fire departments were spotted on the scene of a reported structure fire in West Ashley Tuesday. (WCIV)

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — No injuries were reported in a Tuesday afternoon structure fire in the West Ashley area of Charleston, the city's fire department reported.

Reports of a structure fire were first reported at 1 p.m. at 1800 William Kennertly Drive, fire officials said. Emergency personnel arrived in less than five minutes from the time of dispatch and reported light smoke visible near the roof of a two-story apartment building.

Fire officials from several agencies then worked to escort residents and their pets from the building, as crews determined the blaze was located within the attic.

The fire continued to progress and burned through the roof, prompting a second alarm and sending additional units to the scene. Firefighters worked to gain control of the bulk of the fire in approximately 30 minutes and then continued to extinguish hot spots and ventilate smoke from the building. The second alarm units were released once the fire was under control, officials said.

READ MORE | "Controlled burn spreads out of control, consumes five acres and two vehicles."

Members of the Fire Marshal’s Office responded to review the incident. Residents reported hearing a smoke alarm active somewhere in the apartment complex since this morning. Investigators determined the active alarm was from a vacant apartment on the second floor and that the fire originated in or above the vacant unit, at a utility closet containing the hot water heater, and may have smoldered for an extended period.

At this time, the likely cause of the fire is related to a failure of the electrical service to the hot water heater, fire officials said.

Fourteen of the 16 apartment units in the building were rented at the time of the incident, officials said. Two units and the attic sustained fire damage, several units sustained smoke and water damage.

All the units have been vacated until assessments and repairs can be made, displacing 19 residents, officials said.

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.

WEST ASHLEY — The Charleston County Sheriff's Office has released new details about a March 3 incident when a toddler was found alone in a vacant lot near a busy intersection during rush hour.

According to the incident report provided March 5, deputies responded just after 5 p.m. on March 3 after being called by a woman who spotted the child while driving to work.

The Good Samaritan stopped to take care of the toddler until emergency workers arrived. She told law enforcement the child was walking — without shoes — through the vacant lot at the corner of Old Parsonage and Ashley River roads.

The lot is across Old Parsonage Road from Wolf Track Bar & Grill and less than 600 feet from Church Creek.

The report said the child is a little girl believed to be about a year old. She was only wearing a long-sleeve shirt and a soiled diaper.

The child had some minor cuts and scratches from walking around, the report said, but no other visible injuries.

Emergency medical personnel took her to MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital. Hospital staff informed deputies that the child tested positive for fentanyl.

A Charleston County Department of Social Services worker took the child into her custody, according to the sheriff's incident report.

The child’s mother, Taylor Gallagher, arrived at the scene after the child had been taken to the hospital, according to a March 4 news release from the sheriff's office.

Both she and her boyfriend, Elio Acanfora Jr., were found to have been complicit in the lack of supervision of Gallagher's daughter. They were both arrested and charged with unlawful conduct toward a child.

Gallagher had a bond hearing on March 4 and received a $100,000 surety bond. Acanfora received a surety bond of $50,000. Both were still detained at Al Cannon Detention Center as of publication.