Mount Pleasant deliberates design rules change

MOUNT PLEASANT —

This town has long taken pride in being one of South Carolina's first municipalities to review architectural designs for new buildings along its most visible streets.

Its Commercial Development Design Review Board has pored over plans for hundreds of shops and offices over the past two decades to help this rapidly developing town hang on to some semblance of its historical roots as a rural village.

It has encouraged designs favoring pedestrians over cars. It has broken up whopping shopping centers into more attractive bites. And it has asked for forested strips and a sort of informal vernacular design that today gives East Cooper a look of its own.

That's why many are puzzled about why it's now considering scrapping all that and starting over.

Town officials insist they aren't out to stop reviewing architectural designs, only to make changes that will give property owners, developers and architects more clarity about what's expected from them.

It's just good business, they say.

But architects and others who have been paying attention to the board's work say they have reason for concern.

The town's draft of an ordinance changing the process not only would reduce the board's role, but as architect

Sam Herin pointed out in a letter to the town, it also would set some new rules that some might find shocking.

No classical architecture, for instance. Never mind that one of the town's most beloved buildings, the Darby Building in the Old Village, is classical.

Also, no more stucco on buildings, only bricks or cementitious siding.

And cupolas and arcades also would be no-nos. Or would they? The draft seems to say one thing in words and yet another thing with pictures.

These sorts of concerns ultimately helped convince the town's Planning Commission to delay approval last week until it gets more public input.

Architect Stephen Russell, who has chaired the board, was among those urging delay and more study.

He notes that town leaders can appoint design board members, but they can't influence their decisions. "If you make it a staff-level review, the potential for that increases. And I think that's unfortunate."

"I don't want to say this is all politically motivated, but personally, I think that's a big part of it," Russell said.

Town Administrator Mac Burdette says the board's decisions can be appealed only to Circuit Court, and some have complained about that — and about the time it's taken for some projects to get the OK.

"Time is money, and some of the actions have dragged on for six months or more," Burdette said. "We need to do what we can to be more business friendly in this town, though no one has ever suggested by becoming more business friendly we lower our standards."

Burdette says that the public could care less about 90 percent of the projects that the board reviews.

Still, I wonder if that's because they really don't care or whether they simply trust the board to make sure it turns out right.

In 1970, Mount Pleasant had about 6,000 residents. Today, it has almost 10 times that many. So this town, that has become the state's fourth largest municipality, is clearly not a village anymore.

But many still want it to look that way. Importantly, everyone seems to agree on the goal as stated in the otherwise much-criticized draft ordinance: "maintain the traditional small village feel of Mount Pleasant as it continues to grow."

It's a tricky thing. And revamping zoning and design review boards has a lot in common with architecture itself: It's all in the details.

Robert Behre may be reached at 937-5771 or by fax at 937-5579. His e-mail address is rbehre@postandcourier.com, and his mailing address is 134 Columbus St. Charleston S.C. 29403.