Officials favor public uses in Pine Trace

SUMMERVILLE — Imagine a woody parkland with schools and a vocational-technical school right in the heart of the crowded Oakbrook suburbs. Right in the middle of the controversial Pine Trace development.

Pine Trace is the proposed 900-plus-home subdivision that has caused divisions among residents and Town Council members about whether the town's growth was outstripping the roads and schools needed to serve it. Developers of the 330-acre tract now face a July deadline to close on the $7.6 million purchase from the state.

The developers already have extended that deadline four times, according to the S.C. Treasurer's office.

The land was part of the state-owned Coastal Rehabilitation Center on Miles Jamison Road. It is the last large tract of undeveloped land in the sub- division-rich Oakbrook community.

Dorchester School District 2 and Dorchester County officials, working with Sen. Mike Rose, R-Summerville, and other members of the local legislative delegation, have approached the developers and the state about renegotiating the deal to get more public use of the land as a condition of the state granting a new extension.

At the very least, District 2 would like to get ownership of 25 acres that were promised for an elementary school. Ideally, the district would like to get more — land for a middle school and high school, if not a technical school. The district originally bid on 50 acres when the state put the land up for sale, but the bid was awarded for the larger, intact parcel.

County leaders have their own ideas. Jamie Feltner, County Council chairman, would like to carve a park out of the tract. Ideally, he would like to see a private-public partnership develop a larger piece of the land or all of it for a mix of uses, such as schools, career schools, parks and recreation and

a private-public partnership develop a larger piece of the land or all of it for a mix of uses, such as schools, career schools, parks and recreation and retail and office space.

He likens it to the new 87-acre county property in St. George, where sports fields and walking trails, a joint fire and EMS station and office space are planned, wrapping around a courthouse that is under construction.

"It's a good opportunity to do something similar on the lower end. The state owns it. There's the possibility of getting it for a decent price," Feltner said.

The deadline for the state to decide whether to take back the land is July 15. Local leaders would like the state Budget and Control Board to put off that decision until the end of August to give them time to negotiate a new plan with the developer.

The developer, caught in the economic dive that ground home building to a virtual halt, is willing to talk.

"We're open minded to the community needs," said Ryan Rosett, managing partner of IDEA Real Estate Group. IDEA still is firmly interested in developing the land, he said, and considers it an "absolute need" to develop under a master plan rather than piecemeal.

A fevered round of talks among the parties over the weekend led to a presentation by Rose to the District 2 school board Tuesday afternoon. Rose said that the first priority is to get District 2 the land to build the elementary school it needs to stem overcrowding, and that the district has the money in hand to build.

"In my view, for all of this property, all of it, first right of refusal (to buy) should have been given to local governments," Rose said. "The developer has received four extensions already. The contract is up July 15. We've done this backwards to begin with, and I don't want the developer to get another extension. I don't think it's fair to District 2 to hold up its schools."

But the prospect of a larger campus is on his mind, too.

"You could have a Garrett Academy-type facility there that students from Dorchester, Berkeley and Charleston counties could use. It's right there where the three counties converge," he said.

Garrett Academy of Technology is the North Charleston magnet school that emphasizes career and technology-based programs.

As for the renegotiation, "If (the developer) is willing to do it, it's in the best interests of the state and the county and the school district, it's a win-win," said S.C. Treasurer Converse Chellis, who sits on the Budget and Control Board. "I don't see why we wouldn't do it."

Reach Bo Petersen at 937-5744 or bpetersen@postandcourier.com.