The Issue

The Ten Mile community, a historic African American settlement community founded nearly two centuries ago, is located in Charleston County between Highway 17 and Copahee Sound, with highly unusual Seafood Road running along the saltmarsh with a stunning wide-open view. The Ten Mile community’s historic value cannot be overstated, and its cultural significance led to its designation as a Historic District in 2022.

Inside the boundaries of the Ten Mile Community Historic District, a developer planned 3 subdivisions for a total of 42 houses, including 21 elevated homes on less than 6 acres of “high-ground” (raised with fill dirt by several feet compared to the surrounding parcels), on a cul-de-sac, one-street subdivision with vehicular access from Seafood Road, which reliably floods at high tide.

Despite the vital opposition of hundreds of community members and several conservation and preservation allies, including the Charleston County Historic Preservation Commission, the building of these subdivisions -almost completed by the end of 2024- have struck a major blow to the integrity of the Historic District. Unless stopped, this kind of gentrification will soon change Ten Mile forever.
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In 2018, Charleston County adopted a Historic Preservation Ordinance specifically designed to protect historic African-American settlement communities like Ten Mile by ensuring that future developments are compatible with the unique historic and cultural resources of the specific district. Prior to last year’s bitterly fought over amendments, the ordinance required that new subdivisions, among others, must be as certified as historically appropriate if proposed within a Historic District.

Learn more about the Historic Preservation Ordinance and SCELP's work to uphold and improve it here.

Yet, final plats of all 3 projects were approved while the applications for the certificates were still pending before the Historic Preservation Commission, which ultimately denied them unanimously on July 19, 2023. The developer sued the County, who quickly folded and settled the lawsuit by re-instating the certificates by fiat.

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Why It Matters

The community’s roots in resilience are most visible in its settlement pattern, which showcases houses with large lots that leave plenty of room for growing food. The minimal lot coverage throughout the community also made way for an abundance of greenery and private open space with very few impervious surfaces.

Like other settlement communities in the area, the Ten Mile community was settled after the Civil War by formerly enslaved African-Americans and was a self-sufficient community made possible by the skills of its residents who were hunters, farmers, carpenters, seamstresses, cooks, midwives and entrepreneurs. African-American Homeownership is a cornerstone and a point of pride for the Ten Mile Community:

“Many of the former (and current) residents of the Ten Mile Community also served in the United States Military. Ten Mile residents defended the U.S. in World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan. Ironically, even though many veterans experienced discrimination in the military and in the United States, they returned to the Ten Mile Community to experience many aspects of the “American Dream,” specifically the goal of home ownership. Both historically and today, many of the African Americans in the Ten Mile Community are homeowners. This is significant when only 40.6% of African Americans own their home in the United States, while greater than 66% of the African Americans in the Ten Mile Community are homeowners. A significant percentage of the property in the Ten Mile Community is Heirs Property.”
- from Ten Mile's Area Character Appraisal

The subdivisions, in particular the one on Seafood Road, do not add anything to the Ten Mile community’s historic and cultural value, they only detract from the community’s quality of life and sense of pride in its past and future. Development of the affected parcels further accelerates the well-established gentrification trend East of the Cooper.
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Additional Threats/Environmental Protection

In addition to the destruction of the integrity of the historical district, these subdivisions have serious environmental impacts, worsening flooding and stormwater runoff into the Sound. Seafood Road, the only access road for the largest of the proposed subdivisions, is already regularly inundated and unpassable at high tide and is in a particularly bad state of repair. In addition to the public safety and water quality issues stemming from such a development, allowing these subdivisions to be built is the opposite of any reasonable attempt to cope with sea level rise and/or to promote the resilience of our coastal communities.
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The Initial Legal Actions

After advocating for the denial of the certificates of historic appropriateness for all three projects since the beginning of 2023, we challenged the final plat approval for the Seafood Road subdivision in April of that year on two grounds:

1. the preliminary plat was approved well over 2 years ago and had therefore lapsed, and;

2. the final plat approval was granted by the Director of Zoning and Planning despite the fact that no certificate of historic appropriateness had been previously issued.

Our appeal was heard in June by the Planning Commission who proceeded to incorrectly rely on the Permit Extension Resolution (passed by Governor McMaster to deal with the disruption caused by the pandemic while our appeal was already pending) to reject our appeal without also considering the historic appropriateness requirement.

On behalf of the Ten Mile Neighborhood Association, we appealed the Charleston County Planning Commission’s decision that upheld the final plat approval for the proposed subdivision at the edge of Copahee Sound.

In July of 2023, we also challenged the final plat approvals of the other two subdivisions as we contend that they too violate express provisions of the Zoning and Land Development Regulations and the Historic Preservation Ordinance, including the provision which requires obtaining a certificate of historic appropriateness prior to final plat approval. Alas, the Planning Commission once again upheld staff’s decisions.

The Copahee Sound appeal was heard by Judge McFaddin who, after several months ruled in favor of the developer at the end of April 2024, asking their attorneys to draft the dismissal order, which took four more months to be filed. More than half of the subdivision was by then built. We have filed a motion for reconsideration in October to seek clarification of certain aspects of the order, but the battle for the three subdivisions is lost. Yet, the community fights on and there is much more to protect.

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Saving the Ordinance 

The message sent by the Historic Preservation Commission’s denial of the first three subdivisions was not lost on the developers, who quickly orchestrated a major deregulatory assault on the Ordinance, with the unfortunate and determined support of the County’s legal team. Both conservation and preservation advocates were alarmed by the amendments initially proposed in August 2023 because they would have stripped the Commission of much of its authority, erasing most of the benefits of a historic district designation.

Thanks to the continued advocacy of a broad coalition, the communities were consulted at length and a more palatable, if imperfect, set of amendments were finally passed in May 2024. Moreover, a majority of Charleston County Council’s voted for a 10-year moratorium on major subdivisions in historic districts.

Although it was reduced to 2-years, with expiration in May 2026, the moratorium was an important win for communities who need to catch up with the new requirements in the revised ordinance and consolidate their cultural resource defenses.

The Current Legal Actions

Charleston County Council allowed the Historic PreservationCommission to retain the ability to review whether proposed new subdivisions in historic districts meet the Cultural Resources protection goals of theComprehensive Plan.

Unfortunately, during the summer, the Planning Commission approved two small subdivisions (which are not covered by the moratorium) within Ten Mile despite the Historic Preservation Commission's unanimous recommendation to deny them because of inconsistencies with multiple strategies in the Cultural Resources Element of Comprehensive Plan. On behalf of the community, we have promptly challenged these decisions in Court, with hearings expected early in 2025, and will continue advocating for Charleston County's accountability on cultural and natural resources protection.

On November 20, SCELP and Ten Mile’s combined advocacy led to the denial of the required certification to build three lots created by one of the June subdivisions we have challenged. While the appeal of the subdivisions moves along in the Circuit Court, it is encouraging to witness the Commission emerging as an increasingly determined champion of cultural resources in the County.

“We are proud to stand with the Ten Mile Community to try to protect its historic character," said Ben Cunningham, Senior Managing Attorney, "We have and will continue to defend against the potential erosion of environmental and cultural protections for all historic communities in our area.”