Roofer in Awendaw, SC

There's something unbelievably magical about Christmas in South Carolina. As the holidays rapidly approach, there is an amazing Charleston Christmas event planned for late November and early December that you won't want to miss. Shop for unique items hand-crafted in Germany, enjoy a cool crisp evening at this German Christmas market in Charleston, and if you feel inclined, pop into the Biergarten for a brew or two.

It all takes place at a magical place in Awendaw, South Carolina, just 18 miles north of downtown Charleston.

It's known as RiverOaks and is a beautiful venue that brides love to book for weddings.

But the Weinacktsmarkt each year turns it into something else entirely.

Do some serious shopping. Have some fun. Enjoy the music and the joy of the season at RiverOaks.

Vendors will be on hand selling a variety of hand-made German gift items. You're sure to find many things you'll love here.

There's always a great menu available at the Biergarten, too, featuring food, desserts, and drinks.

For the latest dates and times, be sure to check out the official Christkindlmarkt Charleston website.

For even more travel inspiration, take a look of this sneak peek of Christmas in Charleston:

What are your thoughts on this festive Charleston Christmas event? You can go ahead and book your tickets now!

While you're in South Carolina, be sure to visit some of the best light festivals you'll ever see! What are your favorite holiday events in Charleston? Where do you like to buy your Christmas gifts in the city? Let us know in the comments.

And, if you're looking for the perfect home base while exploring all that the city has to offer, be sure to check out these unique vacation rentals in Charleston, SC.

|Updated: May. 27, 2024 at 6:44 AM EDT

AWENDAW, S.C. (WCSC) - The Charleston community is scoring big with a new, three-field, state-of-the-art soccer facility making its way to an area off of North US-17 in Awendaw.

The South Carolina Surf Soccer Club in partnership with a local family has broken ground on the new recreational facility catered to the youth soccer community. Phase one of the project will cover 12 acres of land and include over five acres of artificial turf. The facility will be located right off of Guerins Bridge Road. This land is being acquired from the McCaskill family who have owned the land since the 1970s.

There will be two FIFA-regulated, full-size 11v11 fields and one 9v9 field. There will also be a dedicated goalkeeper training area, a covered pavilion and a permanent restroom area. The two 11v11 fields will also be marked for 7v7 and 9v9 games for flexibility.

This project has been in discussion for about three years now. Officials with the South Carolina Surf Soccer Club said that with the growth the Charleston community has seen, they believe there was a high demand for a facility like this and are excited to see the benefit it brings to the youth community.

“The experience that they have... we want to provide the best experience we can both on and off the field so this was one that we can provide on the field and hopefully we can work together as a community and really provide that for everybody just in Charleston,” Tam Mcgowan, the Director of Coaching and Player Development for SC Surf, said.

SC Surf currently serves over 900 local families and is dedicated to making soccer accessible to players from all different backgrounds. Mcgowan said that they hope to utilize the space as much as possible. They plan to have a variety of fields for different skill levels and ages.

“Being able to bring all of the clubs in the community, all the clubs in the country here and show them that what we’re trying to do is something professional. We’re trying to give the best product we can for families, for the players, for our staff, and for the club in general,” Mcgowan said. “We hope to utilize it as much as possible, hope to get as many teams here and show them what we’re trying to do here as a club and provide the best experience we can for the kids.”

Phase two of this project is currently getting approvals but will include an additional full-sized grass field and parking lot. Approvals for this second phase are anticipated this summer.

The foundation also hopes to conserve a significant portion of the remaining land as green space and is currently seeking a local partner to make the best use of the 104 acres of land in the area. Officials with the South Carolina Surf Soccer Club plan to complete phase one of this project in just seven months, with hopes to open on Labor Day.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

A more than 200-plus home development in Awendaw is still in play more than two years after its initial planning. (WCIV)

AWENDAW, S.C. (WCIV) — A more than 200-plus home development in Awendaw is still in play more than two years after its initial planning.

South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control is taking comments on permitting requests by the developer through the end of the week. But it's the location of the planned project that has conservationists concerned.

"Cape Romaine's a really special place," says Andrew Wanderly, the executive director of Charleston Waterkeeper.

How special? Over 50 percent of the Cape Romaine Wildlife Refuge in Awendaw is classified as a Class I National Wilderness Area, which makes the proposal to put more than 200 homes nearby concerning.

"The Lowcountry is under intense development pressure," Wanderly says. "It's at a time when the climate is changing. What we're seeing are permits and applications to develop land, put in septic tanks, and build dense suburban-style neighborhoods, all on the doorstep of Cape Romaine."

READ MORE: "Awendaw implements limited-scope moratorium to manage rapid city growth."

Since Awendaw has no sewer system, there is the worry that a development dependent on septic tanks for waste disposal could wreck the pristine habitat.

"When they're packed into such high-density clusters, they can cause pollution and groundwater in nearby surface water," Wanderly says. "That means that oyster beds become unsafe for harvesting. It means it can become unsafe for swimming or other recreational activity."

Also, a concern is dealing with potential stormwater and flooding issues related to the infrastructure.

"That rainwater and flood water that used to soak in and slowly filter out into nearby surface water and groundwater now runs off dirty and polluted," says Wanderly. "It picks up dog waste, wildlife waste. It can pick up pesticides, herbicides and hydrocarbons from cars. It can pick up effluvia from septic tanks that aren't working properly, and all that drains away into the nearest creek or river, and wreaks havoc on habitat and water quality."

Environmentalists say it's about keeping an ecological balance.

"Growth has to be done, and it has to be done correctly, in a way that respects that natural relationship between land and water," says Wanderly.

News 4 reached out to the developer of this project, PulteGroup, Inc. They sent this statement:

“At PulteGroup, we are committed to ensuring that our development aligns with the natural environment and the local community. We have made the decision to down-zone our property near the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge from 400 to approximately 200 lots, aiming to create a low-density community with spacious 1/3 to 1/2-acre lots. We are currently finalizing local and state permits.”

CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCIV) — Charleston's population is growing at a rate three times faster than the United States's average, according to data from the Charleston Regional Development Alliance.

As a result, towns like Awendaw are attempting to take control of rapid growth in the area by implementing a limited-scope moratorium to understand the direction of growth town planners want to take.

“The moratorium is an opportunity for the community to assess the impacts of past development and put future development on a pause button,” said Mark Brodeur, the town planner for Awendaw.

A limited-scope moratorium means that two development types will be placed on pause. The first is a subdivision plan proposing more than five plots of land. The second is a restriction on any future zone change requests.

Read more: "Awendaw residents fear housing boom could threaten town's rural charm."

Brodeur believes the decision won't drastically affect the area.

"Anybody wanting to build or develop can, as long as they're not asking for a zone change," Brodeur said, "and as long as they're not asking for a subdivision over five parcels."

The moratorium won't stop individuals from obtaining business licenses and securing tree removal permits. It also won't stop people from building single-family houses, nor will it stop commercial development, Brodeur explained.

It is also not a permanent move.

Read more: "Awendaw mayor responds to concerns of overdevelopment."

“The moratorium is also a limited-term moratorium," Brodeur said. "There is a beginning and an end. The moratorium scope or length is for one year or until the town adopts a new comprehensive plan and associated zoning ordinance revisions before that one year."

He also mentioned that other towns have done the same, including Mount Pleasant.

“Any new residential development on multifamily, which is defined in our ordinance, three or more families living independently,” said Michele Reed, the director of Mount Pleasant's Planning Department.

And it’s a move that’s proven to be successful.

Between 2015 and 2018, the annual growth rate was near 3.5% in Mount Pleasant. With the moratorium in place, from 2019 to 2022, the average annual growth rate dropped down to 1.7%.

AWENDAW — Just stop all the rapid home construction and let us catch our breath.

That’s the message this small coastal town is delivering to developers with a temporary ban on most new subdivisions.

In the fastest-growing state in the nation, Awendaw is among an increasing number of local governments adopting moratoriums that halt some types of development for a short time or for many years.

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The justification for such moratoriums is typically to create time to update local development rules, usually to make them more strict once the moratorium is lifted. That’s the case in Awendaw.

The rural village of about 1,400 residents in Charleston County sits just above Mount Pleasant, and the towns share a municipal border. Mount Pleasant became South Carolina’s fourth-largest municipality after decades of suburban development and has about 94,000 residents.

Mount Pleasant residents eventually got fed up with rapid growth, more traffic and crowded schools. The town now has limits on annual building permits, high development impact fees and a moratorium on multi-family construction that has been in place for seven years.

Awendaw Councilman Kent Prause had a front-row seat for much of Mount Pleasant’s love/hate relationship with growth because he was the town’s zoning administrator. Prause has been leading the push for Awendaw’s moratorium on zoning changes and subdivisions.

“Volume builders and tract home builders are coming in,” he said. “They pretty much built out Mount Pleasant and now they are coming here .”

“The people didn’t like it and that’s why the moratorium is in place,” said Prause. “They don’t want it to be Mount Pleasant.”

Boom & Balance

The Awendaw moratorium hasn’t been finalized, but it took effect in January under what’s known as the pending-ordinance doctrine. That means the rules took hold as soon as Awendaw’s council gave initial approval to the measure, although a final vote at a meeting scheduled for March 7 is still needed.

The ordinance states that “Town Council finds that the increase in the number and size of large-scale residential developments in the Town pose a risk to public health, safety, welfare, and quality of life in Awendaw...” for many reasons.

The moratorium wouldn’t halt developments that have already been approved. What it would do is:

Of course, moratoriums can also be extended, as Mount Pleasant has done multiple times with its ban on new multi-family housing.

And Awendaw’s moratorium rules could change before they get final approval. The town’s Planning Commission recommended a 10-parcel cutoff for new subdivisions, instead of five, and allowing zoning changes on parcels of less than 10 acres.

At a Town Council hearing Feb. 22, no one spoke in favor of the Planning Commission’s recommendations. Several residents urged the council to approve the moratorium without changes.

“We’ve already approved so many homes in this town,” said Susan Cox. “We need to stop it, and figure out what is going on.”

Developers paid limited attention to Awendaw for a long time because the town lacks a sewer system. New developments need to use septic systems, which require state permits and are more likely to fail in places where the water table is high.

But the Charleston area’s population growth and Mount Pleasant’s limits on development and lack of available land have increasingly pushed development up the coast.

In 2022, Awendaw approved a 204-home subdivision on 148 acres near Seewee and Bulls Island roads over objections that its more than 200 septic systems could fail and send raw sewage into the waters near Cape Romain Wildlife Refuge.

Awendaw can’t ban septic systems because there’s no other option for treating household sewage, but in 2023 the town made it more difficult to build dense subdivisions where each house has a septic system. Awendaw adopted rules for minimum lot sizes, distance from wetlands and other regulations.

“It seems the less stringent rules are letting developers come in and have their way with the town,” Planning Commission member James Gardner told council members at the time.

News

The pending development moratorium is the latest result of a change in attitudes and leadership in Awendaw. In the earlier 2000s the town aggressively sought to grow its boundaries through annexations — prompting court challenges — and approved some large subdivisions.

“Managed growth is the key to Awendaw’s future,” reads the first sentence of a large, framed copy of the town’s vision statement, on the wall where Town Council meets.

Reach David Slade at 843-937-5552. Follow him on Twitter @DSladeNews.