MTP Town Council votes to amend controversial annexation ordinance

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD) – The Mount Pleasant Town Council unanimously passed an amendment at Tuesday’s meeting that allows Charleston County residents to utilize the town’s wastewater services without requiring them to be annexed into the town.

Making changes to an ordinance that has created controversy for years.

“We used a lot of legal advice to finally craft an amendment to our ordinance that if you have an existing single-family home as of June 14th,” Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie said, “and you have a septic tank in the ground and sewer service is already available, then you can tap on without annexing.”

Haynie says this amendment will protect the town, while also providing wastewater service for many neighborhoods in the area.

“What the town wanted was to protect the town,” Haynie said, “so that we don’t have rampant development in parts of Mount Pleasant that we don’t have governance of. People are shocked when they find out that places on Coleman Boulevard are not in the Town of Mount Pleasant.”

Settlement communities will be one of the primary beneficiaries of this amendment. It’s something John Wright, president of the African American Settlement Community Historic Commission, says they’ve been fighting for, for a long time.

“I think by amending it,” Wright said, “I think all those things now come full circle. You know, we get better environment, we get quality of life, we get health. You know, we get all those things now that that amendment has taken place because it puts us on one playing field.”

Haynie believes this amendment is a major step forward for all of Mount Pleasant.

“We’re going to protect the character,” Haynie said, “primarily of the settlement communities, and we’re going to protect the environment, which affects all of Mount Pleasant, whether you’re in the town or not. So, it’s a double win.”

And many residents agree.

“It’s something we’ve been trying to get for years,” Snowden resident Thomas Jenkins said, “the wastewater. And try to do away with the septic tanks and stuff like that. To get it, and not to be annexed into Mount Pleasant, that’s just a relief right there.”

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