Summerville council kills development

SUMMERVILLE — A 780-unit development almost got a stay of execution on a technicality Wednesday, to the obvious horror of the standing-room-only crowd who turned out to oppose it.

Council finally killed the plan for Pine Trace in an emotionally charged and often confusing meeting that gave Mayor Berlin Myers a workout pounding the gavel and kept the town attorney busy keeping everybody on track.

At the same meeting, an effort to renew the town's moratorium on new residential developments failed after the mayor was called on to cast the tie-breaking vote.

During public comments, residents who live near Pine Trace, which was planned off Miles Jamison Road, said they objected to the extra traffic and impact on schools. Developer Gordon Geer asked council to give him more time to try to overcome objections.

When the request to annex the land and approve the development agreement came up for action, nobody made a motion one way or another before Myers moved on to the next item. That meant the request failed but could be brought up in another meeting, Town Attorney Mark Stokes said. If council had voted against the motion, the developer would have had to wait a year and then start over, he said.

The majority of the audience was obviously not pleased with what happened, many grumbling loud enough to cause Myers to pound the gavel for quiet. Later in the meeting, Councilman Bob Jackson asked if he could amend the agenda to bring up Pine Trace again. Stokes said he could with a unanimous vote. All the councilmen backed his request.

This time Jackson made a motion to deny it. He said the issue was not Pine Trace in particular but that the town had too many houses on the books already, so it wouldn't do any good to make the developer "jump through more hoops" amending the plan.

Councilman Bob Flowers stirred up the audience again when he tried to amend the motion to send the project back to a committee for more study.

"Oh come on!" an audience member yelled, causing Myers to come down on the gavel again.

Ricky Waring backed Flowers' amendment, but Howard Bridgman, Aaron Brown and Mike Dawson joined Jackson to kill it. Then came the vote on the motion to deny Pine Trace. Flowers abstained; all the other councilmen backed Jackson's motion to kill it.

The audience erupted in cheers, and some stood up and started yelling, causing Myers to start pounding the gavel again.

Council split on the vote to renew the moratorium. Bridgman, Jackson and Dawson argued that the town needed to quit approving new developments until a better plan was in plan to control growth. Flowers, Waring and Brown voted against it.

Town Administrator Dennis Pieper asked Myers to break the tie. After several seconds of hesitation, Myers voted no.

Reach Dave Munday at 745-5862 or dmunday@post andcourier.com.