James Island Just Might Be On to Something

Brian Hicks

Not so long ago, a fairly high-ranking Charleston County official told Joe Qualey that James Island needed to start acting like a "real town."

This was right about the time, the local lawyer and town councilman recalls, that the county decided to stop providing certain services for "free" to municipalities with more than 5,000 residents.

That little remark stuck with Qualey, and it raises a good question: What's a town supposed to act like?

If you want to get technical, a town or city is a separate entity in a county formed largely to provide its residents a higher level of service than the county offers: a larger police department, more fire stations, garbage trucks, sadistic parking enforcement officers, etc.

In some places across the country, when a city is born, county officials immediately forget its residents are their constituents too — until it's time to send out the tax bills.

Cat in the tree? Call the city fire department.

Tree in your driveway? Call your local public works department.

Tree in your house? Call FEMA and, while you're waiting, find someplace new to live.

That's not nearly the problem here that it is in most places. But there is a lot of duplication of services — many folks pay twice for basically the same thing — because the big cities like to run everything themselves.

File/Staff The Post and Courier

The town of James Island

has a sign and everything.

Mount Pleasant even gives out a free, extraneous "e" to every store and subdivision (see Towne Centre). It's all about local control.

For a town of 20,000, James Island doesn't act much like many of the other 15 cities and towns in Charleston County. It's got fewer than a dozen employees (including council members and the mayor) and doesn't levy a property tax. Town Hall is in a modest shopping plaza.

Residents get trash pick-up and fire service from the public service district; for police protection they rely on the same sheriff's deputies that they did before they incorporated. They don't have much to do with most government things.

Make no mistake, James Island is all about local control, too, but it doesn't want to reinvent the wheel and get into the business of government. It is more concerned with one-third of an acre.

In most places in Charleston County, developers can build houses on a quarter-acre or even less land. Since they've been a town, James Island folks have not allowed houses on any lot smaller than one-third of an acre. That basically means you have three houses per acre on James Island, where you can have four or five in many other places.

They have done this to lower density on the island (although, to look at Folly Road, that ship has sailed). But Qualey says this will keep it from getting worse.

Right now, James Island is fighting for its right to be a town in a lawsuit. Twice before, the town has been dissolved after losing similar suits. It could happen again, any day now — that's what happens when you let the state Legislature interpret constitutional law.

Even if the town is dissolved, however, its legacy could change the Lowcountry. The island's laser-focused raison d'etre could start a trend.

Johns Island right now looks like James Island once did. What's to stop folks there from forming their own town just so they can manage growth on the island?

James Island has shown that a little town doesn't have to be all things to all people. But Qualey says he's just trying to improve quality of life and cut down on traffic on the island.

In fact, he's not even trying to change James Island. He's trying to keep it the way it is.

James Island Just Might Be On To Something