What happens when a coastal town becomes the fastest-growing municipality east of the Mississippi? Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie joins us to reveal how this thriving community balances explosive growth with quality of life—and why he's fighting to keep it a "town" despite its booming economy.
The conversation demystifies Mount Pleasant's unique government structure, where contrary to what many newcomers believe, the mayor doesn't have unilateral power to direct town operations or solve individual problems with a simple phone call. Mayor Haynie shares candid insights about the rewards and limitations of serving in a council form of government where collaboration is essential.
Beyond governance technicalities, we explore Mount Pleasant's remarkable achievements—from receiving statewide recognition for conservation leadership to achieving a stunning 40% reduction in opioid-related deaths through innovative community partnerships. The mayor unpacks how attainable housing has transformed from a nice social agenda item into a strategic economic imperative for a community where median home prices exceed $880,000.
Business owners will appreciate the mayor's announcements about OPAL, the town's new one-stop digital permitting system, and his perspective on the "placemaking dividend" that makes Mount Pleasant attractive to entrepreneurs despite growth limitations. We also delve into peculiar local quirks like "donut holes"—areas surrounded by Mount Pleasant that aren't officially part of the town—and why despite $3 billion in annual retail sales, the mayor laments having "twenty Starbucks and only one Waffle House."
Whether you're a long-time resident or considering joining this vibrant community, this conversation offers valuable insight into how thoughtful leadership navigates the complex challenges of preserving small-town character amid tremendous growth and change. As Mayor Haynie ultimately reveals, the most important qualification for leading isn't expertise in taxation or zoning—it's loving the people you serve.
Follow the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce for more insights into this thriving business community!
Presenting Sponsor: Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
Studio Sponsor: Charleston Media Solutions
Production Sponsor: RMBO.co
Design Sponsor: DK Design
Committee:
Kathleen Herrmann | Host | MPCC Immediate Past President | Mount Pleasant Towne Centre
Mike Compton | Co-host | Marketing Chair | RMBO.co
Rebecca Imholz | Co-host | MPCC Executive Director
Amanda Bunting Comen | Co-host | Social ABCs
Ben Nesvold | Co-host | In-coming President | Edward Jones
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
inspiring wannabe mayor.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Hey, I don't want to give anybody any ideas Talk me
out of it.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I'm talking 10 years down the road.
Is there going to be doing thisin 10 years?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
No, Hi and welcome to the Building a Business podcast
powered by the Mount PleasantChamber of Commerce.
We are here recording in theCharleston Radio Group studios,
who are huge supporters of thechamber.
Thank you to everyone here forrecording us today.
I am your immediate pastpresident of the Mount Pleasant
Chamber of Commerce and I amalso the marketing director at
(00:33):
Mount Pleasant Town Center, andone of my favorite co-hosts is
here with me today.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Oh hey, favorite, I know favorite, that's nice of
you to say.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
He didn't know See he was really taken by surprise,
but it is true.
Please welcome Mike Compton.
Mike is the president of RoombaAdvertising and is the current
marketing chair for the MountPleasant Chamber of Commerce.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
You just keep asking me back for another year of
marketing.
It's so much fun though.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
You know why?
Because you just keep doingeverything so well.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
We just don't let you go oh my gosh, I am not paying
you a dime, not a dime, not adime.
Thank you very much.
You're very sweet Today.
Oh, we need to update yourscript because the Charleston
Radio Group is now called theCharleston Media Solutions.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, now we know.
Well, the sign outside saysCharleston Radio Group.
We've got some branding work todo as a marketing head.
Good to know different.
So branding work to do, yes, asa marketing head, as a
marketing head yourself, uh,yeah, it takes time.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yes, it takes uh-huh, uh-huh.
Today we have a uh a guest, arecurring guest.
We like to have this guest on alot because he's such a good
conversation and he does so muchfor our community.
Mayor will haney, welcome tothe show thanks, mike, good to
be here.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yes, you know, I'm having flashbacks 20 something
years ago, okay, up NorthCarolina, where Hurricane Helene
did its damage, I had a morningtalk radio show and I'm used to
that, mike going live at 6 amwhich means you started your
show prep at 4 am and boy, itwas a long stretch, till 10 am.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
You're a marketing head too, you own a public
relations company, don't you?
Yeah, nice.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I got away from marketing and more into
strategic communications after Ibecame mayor, but that's
another topic for another day.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Whatever You're asking me about mayor.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I want to hear about you.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
It's technically a part-time job and it's part-time
pay, but it is a full-time job.
What do you mean?
So Kathy was telling me this inthe green room earlier it's
part-time.
That's mind-boggling to meright now.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Help me out.
There are three kinds ofgovernment allowed in the state
of South Carolina.
One is what's called in slang,strong mayor or mayor council,
where the mayor runs the town.
Everybody reports to the mayor.
That's Charleston NorthCharleston, goose Creek and
(02:53):
maybe Folly Beach, I think FollyBeach.
So there's no rhyme or reasonas to who has which form of
government.
But like Mayor Riley and MayorSummey, they ran the town and
everybody reported to them.
We have the middle form, whichis called the council form of
government, so the council andthe mayor.
I'm just one voting member ofcouncil.
Now, yes, I have to sign thebonds and I have to sign the
(03:16):
ordinances and I have to givethe state of the town address,
but I don't set the budget, Idon't hire and fire staff and I
can't direct staff.
So when Mr Compton calls andsays, hey, my trash didn't get
picked up, this morning, I wouldnever Well there's nothing
wrong with that, and thatdoesn't happen in Mount Pleasant
often, by the way, it did lastweek.
(03:36):
Right there you go During thesnow.
I, as an elected official andcouncil members, we don't call
the head of that department andsay go pick up the Compton's
trash.
We get in touch with their boss, the town administrator, who is
a trained professional and avery good one, Eric DeMora, and
he has to direct his staff to dothat.
(03:58):
If you're in Charleston orNorth Charleston, I'm ratting on
my friends, this is education.
You can call them and they cansay hey, this is the mayor, Go
get the Compton's trash.
It's a different form ofgovernment and we have to abide
by the law.
And the reason I'm bringingthat up is lots of people have
moved here recently.
Yes, and they're from placeswhere, if the mayor wants your
(04:23):
trash picked up, the mayor getson the phone and says go pick up
their trash.
They are not used to our form ofgovernment.
And you know why don't youchange this traffic intersection
?
Why don't you do it?
Because the mayor does not havethat authority.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
But they still bother you in the supermarket.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
I wouldn't say bother .
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Talk to you.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
When you're the mayor in Mount Pleasant, you are
always working.
There's no place to hiderestaurants and stuff and and
I'm not saying that people are aproblem at all but I I bet you,
if I asked today, at whatevertime it is that we're, that we
are filming this, what is yourstate legislature voting on
today?
What are they voting on incongress or the united states
(05:01):
senate today?
I bet you don't know.
Everybody knows what we'revoting on when we do things and
if you're out in town, they wantto talk about it and it's their
right to talk about it.
Now there are times when I haveto say here's my card.
Call me at the office, becauseI'm on my way to an obligation
or something, and that's not abother, but that is a reality,
I'm sure it is.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Well, you're a public figure, people gonna.
They don't know that.
This is the different.
This is how we run the showhere exactly um.
They don't know that you don't,you can't just make a phone
call right which is which isinteresting to me, because I I
am from the north as well.
Right, I'm a come ya.
No, okay, I know you are aswell, I know kathy is, but you
had I wasn't born here.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you were born here, but you, my, my
great grandparents are here,but I was born in the upstate
after they moved up there.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
That's close enough for me now, exactly, I'm not
from here.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Exactly Well, you can know more about that in our
last episode that we had withyou last year, Mayor.
But where you said to peoplelike myself I'm from Detroit,
but I lived in Tampa for 18years.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
I moved up, so I'm like half way up.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Where are?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
you seeing a lot of people moving from.
You know we kind of track thatstuff and everything.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I don't need that.
I don't need real data.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Just like.
Where do you think?
Well, what I see is the most inmigration to these areas is
actually Georgia, North Carolina.
Now everybody says Ohio, newYork and all that New.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
York, new york, new jersey.
But that's not right.
That's not necessarily that'swhat I was looking for the most,
it's not so we're getting a badrap again.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Oh, I know I know your personalities are just so
big.
It's enough for two senses oftwo people.
That's right, I'm kidding, I'monly kidding.
Oh my gosh.
Um, what so cool, cool, cool?
I'm kidding, I'm only kidding.
Oh my gosh, so cool, cool, cool.
Kathy, what do you got so?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
we launched the podcast last year with our
episode with the mayor.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Correct Right and about the same date today
Around-ish right, so we'rereally excited to have you back.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Thank you and I know this is a really horrible
general question, but in honestyI mean, let's talk about what's
changed in a year.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
There you go, wow, and.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I know we don't have to go over everything, because
obviously the town is growingand there's so many different
things going on, but if you hadto pick one or two things that
have really changed, obviouslyin a positive way, is what we
want to focus on in the lastyear.
Top of mind, no stats, no data.
Two things.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Two things we have been recognized in the last year
for some of our most importantthings that we do as a town for
the betterment of the town nowand in the future.
One is we received a statewideaward for excellence in
conservation leadership, and byconservation I mean not only
(07:42):
taking care of green space andtaking care of natural resources
, but planning for resilience,which is, you know, conservation
and resilience go hand in hand.
If you don't believe me, lookat California, right where the
wildfires were.
A little management and alittle thinking about resilience
.
So we got a statewide award forthat.
We got a statewide award fromthe Municipal Association of
(08:05):
South Carolina because we werethe only municipality in the
state to have a reduction inopioid-related deaths and
overdoses.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
And that reduction was 40%.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
That's huge 40%.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
And that's because we have a partnership with Wake Up
Carolina, which Nancy Shipmanstarted.
She's a homegrown MountPleasant person, lost a son to
an opioid overdose years ago andturned ashes into beauty, and
so we have a partnership there.
Because if you have somebody inyour family struggling with
(08:40):
addiction, do you want to callthe police or do you want to
call a nonprofit that comesalongside and says, let us help
you?
Let us help you, of course, ordo you want to call a nonprofit
that comes alongside and says,let us help you, let us help you
, of course, and as Carl Ritchie, who's now a sheriff, said and
he started this partnership wehave we cannot arrest our way.
This is Carl Ritchie's words wecannot arrest our way out of an
addiction crisis.
(09:01):
It takes more to cure addiction.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Well, just arresting people and throwing them in jail
is not going to have any effecton the problem.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
No, and so we got those.
Wake Up, wake Up Carolina, wakeUp Carolina.
Yes, and they are homegrownMount Pleasant.
So I could go into all thosedetails.
The other thing and this is alittle wonky but it is huge is
that every 10 years by law wehave to have a new comprehensive
plan and that is how MountPleasant will be used, both
(09:31):
developed, undeveloped greenspace and redeveloped properties
, how those can be used in thefuture to make our community
good you know.
And that's what and that has tobe translated into zoning.
That is a use that is sort oflike a big picture and zoning is
this parcel has A B zoning orresidential or mixed use or
(09:53):
whatever.
So I know it's down to thewonky stuff.
You have to hire an outside lawfirm.
It took us two years and wejust passed that new zoning,
nice.
So now we have on the map youknow what your zoning is, what
can go here.
Have on the map, you know whatyour zoning is, what can go here
.
And we also in the past yearincluded for mixed use a
(10:15):
requirement for attainablehousing.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
I was going to say yes, you heard about that.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
There's a minimum, or mandatory minimum I should say
exactly of attainable housingcorrect and and this is why in
my 10 years, I got elected tocouncil in 2015 and mayor in
2017.
In my 10 years, I have seen theattainable housing thing going
from a being perceived as a verynice social agenda to a
(10:42):
strategic economic goal of boththe town and the region.
And I sit on on the regional,all the regional economic things
.
Because if you can't afford tolive in this town and y'all,
y'all have lots of employees attown center and all that as we
do at the town, and the uhmedian house price is over 880
(11:03):
000, where's your workforcegoing to come from?
Right, and the old term wasworkforce housing and people
thought, oh no, there goes theneighborhood right?
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Well, I think they still think that about
attainable housing too, andthat's what concerns and scares
me.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Attainable housing.
It's for the everyday person.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
It's for my kids who wanted, if they wanted to live
here, and police and firemen andschool teachers and nurses
Everyone we need to make thistown the awesome town that it is
to live in.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
they can't afford to live here, right, you know.
So that is what attainablehousing is everybody it is.
You know, we need it to survive.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
It is not the projects like you see coming in
on the interstate and othermunicipalities.
It is built to the samestandards, the same quality and
I'm glad that during my term asmayor so far that we've had one
new attainable housing.
That was sort of like thebreakthrough done and now we
have permitted another hundredunits and we're working on.
(12:01):
Greenville is the model inSouth Carolina and Greenville
didn't go out and just build it.
Now they do put money fromtheir budget in it.
But what Greenville did is whenthe developments came in, they
said, okay, you would do thisand you can't do it.
It's called inclusionary zoning.
You can't say we'll give youthe zoning, you have to have a
planned development.
Okay, so you've got some mixeduse and you've got some
(12:24):
residential, but we want 20% or25% attainableable in there and
it has revitalized downtowngreenville.
So you know, I think we'vestarted a little water over the
dam and I'm in the last year ofmy second term and and I want to
make sure we keep this progressgoing.
Because how old do you have tobe, even if you're a doctor or
(12:46):
lawyer, if you're graduatingfrom high school now in Mount
Pleasant, how old do you thinkyou're going to be before you
can afford the median home pricein this town.
You're probably going to bewell into your forties and
that's sad, you know.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
we're losing amazing talent because they literally
cannot afford to live here andthey don't want to do the drive
or whatever it might be.
So they're taking their talentsand they're moving out of state
or moving back home or movingsomewhere new Right, and I find
it's a shame.
It is Well you're working on itthough.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
We're working on it.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
We're getting there.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Well, we don't have areas like Charleston and North
Charleston have, and I won'tcall any of this easy, but
they've got places where theycan put a few hundred units and
it's not overcrowding schools orroads or anything.
We don't have that in MountPleasant, right, and we also
know if we pooled our moneyregionally, which could make
sense, we know that the dirt isso expensive in Mount Pleasant
(13:41):
that the regional buy.
They're not going to buy theland in Mount Pleasant and build
it.
So our way and our vision inthe comp plan in this zoning is
there are shopping centers,retail places that have they're
at the end of their useful life,they're going to be redeveloped
and we would like to see mixeduse where you have retail on the
bottom, a moderate amount ofresidential on top, and that's
(14:04):
where that requirement kicks in.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I like that I think everybody can be happy with that
.
I like that too, Mr Mayor.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
That's downtown Charleston.
I'm not talking about the bighigh stuff.
I'm talking about a story ortwo.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
That's all I'm asking for.
That's all I'm asking for.
It's all I'm asking for.
It's what I think we're missinghere in this beautiful town,
city, but we'll talk about thatlater.
Um is is something over twostories, that's right.
Can we?
Can we?
I understand why we keep thingslow here in the holy city,
right, but are we over there?
Do we have to over here too?
In mount pleasant side do wehave the height restriction?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
we do, and and we redid those a couple of years
ago and I think we got a goodmodel.
We have up to 80 feet in someplaces, like where East Cooper
Hospital is, because it'salready 80 feet.
You wouldn't notice it there,but if you tried to put 80 feet
at town center, you're going toget a lot of resident pushback
and so on.
Our height maps most of it is50.
(14:57):
Some of it is 55.
Most of it on the street isonly 35.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
What does that equate to story-wise Mayor, Help me
out with the math here Twostories, like right on a
corridor.
Copy that.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
So that we don't have the concrete canyon.
You know, you're driving down,you go where's the sun.
I love the height restrictions.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
That's one of the things I love about this town is
the height restrictions and nodigital billboards, but that's a
whole thing Right, that's awhole thing and what we were
Speaker 2 (15:21):
able to get, for the tall ones is on the street.
You're one level and then it'scalled the wedding cake design
and then you go back and youmight have two and then three,
four, five here.
So I can tell you, there's onevery famous tract of land in
Mount Pleasant.
It's been vacant for years andyears and it's getting ready to
be built on.
What you see on the street willbe one height and then there'll
(15:42):
be another story and thetallest portion they're allowed,
which is up to 65 feet, is sofar in.
It will not feel like a 65 foot, five or six story building.
Sure, that's the way awell-designed municipality does
it, and it passed, and that'swhat we did.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
See that.
Yeah, thank you.
Good way of thinking there.
You you mentioned somethingabout, um uh, things that are
being expensive in the town ofmount pleasant, and correct me
if I'm wrong, but can you ownchickens?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
did you see my post on facebook?
Apparently there is a law, uh,that goes way back in Mount
Pleasant you are allowed fivelaying hens in your yard, but no
roosters, because they crow anddisturb the neighbors.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Okay hens only.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
But good luck with your HOA and I will double check
and make sure that theinterpretation I got of that law
is still valid.
Yeah, yeah, sure that uh theinterpretation I I got of that
law is still yeah, yeah, but um,now that eggs are you've heard
187, a dozen or whatever as wespeak, because of the bird flu
and stuff.
Yeah, um, don't we all wish wehad five laying hens?
(16:52):
I would do it if I could do it.
I checked with my hoa this weekand they said no, we can't
allow you to have my hoa neitheras well.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Um well, I certainly didn't check with mine, but I'm
gonna have to assume they'd sayno to we can't allow you to have
it.
Am I OHOing either as well?
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Well, I certainly didn't check with mine, but I'm
going to have to assume they'dsay no too.
Dunes West yes.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Probably not.
They don't allow golf cartsthere, they don't allow chickens
.
Maybe, Anyways, thought thatwas a fun question, certainly is
.
Was it real when I heard I heara lot of things right, I hear a
lot of things right that youlimited the amount of new
permits being able to build inthe mountain?
Oh yeah, we did that years ago.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I love that and we did it.
What we did, we didn't just saywe don't like people who are
moving here, we don't likegrowth whatever.
We looked at our police callsfor service, our fire calls for
service.
We looked at our schoolpopulations and everything and
we took the data and backed intowhat we thought was a
sustainable growth rate, and sowe effectively cut the growth
(17:46):
rate in half.
Much less we did not like thedistinction of being the wild
west of the east.
We were the fastest growingmunicipality east of the
Mississippi River and I kind ofgot elected mayor on the.
We will slow growth down, andthat is called.
The building permit allocationsystem is still in effect and so
(18:06):
it limits the number ofmultifamily that can be built a
year and the number of newconstruction.
Now it does not apply if youhave a house and you want to
tear it down there was a housethere and there's one house
there when you're done.
But this is for new residencesin town so yeah because you
can't just you.
You know somebody's got toprovide police, fire, manage
(18:28):
traffic and build new schoolsand you can't just let every
developer come in and say we'redoing 500 homes here I feel like
that's what happened, though,in like 2003, 2005.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
I mean, you know what I mean.
Yes, that's when myneighborhood was built and
there's hundreds of people backthere, yes, houses and whatnot
families.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Well then, also, you know, they built an open Lucy
Beckham because there was toomany students at Wando.
And then Lucy Beckham's alreadyfull, she's full yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
So we have two high schools in this town and they're
both phenomenon of that.
Was they planned right for thegrowth and the end migration?
What they?
Speaker 1 (19:05):
did not expect was the family, because Lucy Beckham
is such a good school, you knowthanks to Anna Dassing's
leadership, we're blessed withgreat school leadership in this
town.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Well, ccdsd is amazing to work with.
They're incredible, charlesCoker at.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Wando is fantastic, and so what they did not count
on was a number of families thattook their kids out of private
schools and out of magnetschools to go to Beckham, and
that's why it reached capacity.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
I wouldn't have counted on that.
Nobody did.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
They nailed the number of new move into town.
But they realized man, peopleare leaving the magnet schools
and going to beckham.
But aren't we blessed to have?
Speaker 3 (19:42):
yes, that's why you have choices that's right, right
um, I see so many posts on um,I follow too many things on
facebook about charleston but,um, you know a couple posts
about you know I'm thinking ofmoving there, where's the best
place to go to school and blah,blah, blah and mount pleasant's
always.
Yeah, at the top of if you'regoing to go anywhere in the
Charleston area, mount Pleasanthas the best schools.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
I'm married to a school teacher.
She taught well.
She's not teaching now it'safter her career, but she taught
at Jenny Moore for almost adecade.
Oh, wow.
So I'm real partial to that.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
And let's don't leave out Oceanside.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
I just did groundbreaking out there
Oceanside.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
But the last thing in the news I heard that Oceanside
was gone, but now they're backon.
What was that all about?
Speaker 2 (20:21):
That was an administrative thing about their
charter.
They're a state charter school.
They're not a Charleston Countyschool.
They just won a statechampionship in football Amazing
.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
I think their float came in second at the Christmas
parade last year.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Were you you judge?
I sure was, I thought so.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Oh my gosh, it was so much fun.
I had such a great time.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Kathy, what else you got?
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Well, I'm going to talk about business for a little
bit, because one of the thingsthat obviously the Mount
Pleasant Chamber of Commercesupports our local businesses is
do you have any kind of insightor direction or ease of
starting a new business in MountPleasant?
It could be a little bitdifficult, so we'd love to hear
(21:11):
from you about the best way togo about it.
I never want to use the wordshortcuts, but you know by the
permitting process and thingsbecause we want to support our
businesses getting open.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Yes, two things.
One, we have a great economicdevelopment director who did
this podcast.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Where is he from?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Matt Brady.
We stole him from Goose.
Creek, where my good friendGreg Habib is the mayor and he's
still mad at me.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Sorry, I'm sorry.
I love Goose Creek and I loveyour mayor, he is one of my best
friends.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
I talked to him the other day but for one, Matt is
there to help.
Now it is not his job to issuepermits and all that kind of
stuff, Correct, but he can sayand we have a kit for new people
to do that we also have, andthis is a big part of my state
of the town address that's allvideo.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
By the way, it's only five minutes, it's only five
minutes.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
The new one.
We'll have our OPAL.
That's an acronym for somethingonline permitting assistance.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Oh, is that new?
Yeah, it's new.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Okay, I was going to say I don't think it is a
one-stop digital shop to helpyou with all your permits and
all of those type things.
That is exactly what we need.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
That's amazing, so everyone keep an eye on that Way
to go, Matt Brady.
O-p-a-l.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
So when you're looking to start your new
business, everything will beavailable for you in one spot on
the Mount Pleasant website.
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Right Permitting and all of that.
The other thing, too, is theattitude that you have about
business.
How many ribbon cuttings doesthe town do with the chamber?
We do a lot and we won't talkabout the one-take-will aspect.
I'm under pressure to get it inone take.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Right off the cuff, yeah, but you do a fantastic job
Almost.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Almost Thank you.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
And Rebecca's got it nailed.
She doesn't screw anything upanymore.
Good, she never did.
No, she's rebecca imholtz, ourdirector of the chamber, does
all these ribbon cuttings and Imean she's got that down, it is
I will say this.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
I've seen others and been other places.
Ours is a well-oiled machinethe town and the chamber.
It's seamless, it's fun, butthose are important.
You can say ribbon cuttings aresymbolic, but they show we we
are glad you're here and wesupport you and we put it out.
We have 70,000 followers onFacebook and the chambers got it
.
But you know we do that.
(23:29):
The other thing we did is we gotthe.
We had this one region roadmapcommission and I was on it and
it was business leaders andgovernment leaders commission
and and I was on it and it wasbusiness leaders and government
leaders.
You know through through thechamber, the charleston metro
chamber and and um and the uhcharleston regional development
alliance and mount pleasant hasa seat at that table as well and
(23:51):
I was on that and and wecharted the sort of future for
economic development for thewhole region because it's better
to do it as a region.
Oh yeah, and the leadtechnology agent in that is the
Charleston Harbor EntrepreneurCenter Not Charleston, but
Harbor Entrepreneur Center andthey landed in Mount Pleasant
(24:12):
and it's a public-privatepartnership.
The town put money in it andnow there are like 109
businesses related to that.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
That's wild.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
They are full, but people are moving in and moving
out all the time as they growand everything, and people can
say, well, what's the return ofinvestment on that to the town?
Well, what's the return ofinvestment on an art center or a
playground or a?
Speaker 3 (24:34):
senior center Happiness, success, vibrant
community.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
It's a vibrant community and it shows the
community.
We care about this and we careabout startups and and mount
pleasant is not going to get theboeings and the volvos.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
We know we're there's no space for them.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
There's no space, we're gonna get these kind of
startups and everything, and Ithink it's very important that
the harbor entrepreneur centeris in mount pleasant and is the
lead agent for the whole regionfor technology development they
just started too, didn't?
Speaker 1 (25:02):
yeah, yeah, how long ago, a couple years, I think.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
They've been there less than two years.
Yeah, I was gonna say thatbecause we were looking.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
We were looking at the possibility of having our
offices there at one time,before we had our current
offices, and so that was allaround the same time yeah, yeah,
they're doing amazing thingsover there um grady grady, yeah,
yeah and, uh, patrick bryant.
Yeah right, we talked topatrick, we did, we did, we did
he was a guest on the episode,he was able to speak with us too
(25:29):
so then that kind of makes mymarketing head go a little bit
crazy.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
But so are we marketing to other regions by
chance.
Are we doing any kind of?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
outreach to where and how we are doing it and keep in
mind for our region it is ateam approach between Charleston
County Economic Development andthe Charleston Regional
Development Alliance, who gotthe Boeings and the Mercedes and
the Volvos here and 50,000 jobsin 20 something years.
(26:00):
Um, we cannot compete with uhCRDA traveling the world doing
trade shows in London, paris,munich, you know.
I was curious in Asia we can'tcompete with that, nor nor
should we.
But we can market ourselvessomewhat regionally, but we we
don't want to step over eachother, so we're putting our best
(26:21):
foot forward.
Um, we make sure that we doeverything we can and position
ourselves and we buy ads and dothat type of thing too.
Um, but we are not trying toout-compete the county and the
region for that.
For the other reason is we havea very narrowly defined.
I mean, let's just say you'rein retail.
I don't want to say retail iseasy in Mount Pleasant, but we
(26:43):
aren't hurting because of ourdemographics.
I mean there's $3 billion inretail sales in Mount Pleasant a
year.
$3 billion.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
As long as most of that comes to me, I'm good.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
And you're a half percent of that.
You know I mean you've seennationally in restaurants.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
They love our demographics, they love our low
crime, they love everything thatwe have in Mount Pleasant, so
we're not just out there going.
Oh, we need, you know, I thinkwe need more than one Waffle
House.
That is one of the biggestfailures of my time in elected
office.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
I'm sorry, we have 20 Starbucks and one.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Waffle House we need five, you know, and that type
thing and we lost Cracker Barrel.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Speaking of yeah we lost Cracker Barrel.
How does that work?
Years ago.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
So but yeah, we do that, and the other thing is we
have the Mount Pleasant Made.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Yes, you know, that's our brand.
Yes, what's?
Speaker 2 (27:36):
that all about we, we , we market and and produce that
we, mount pleasant, are a, andwe may be different than
charleston and north charleston,but we are mount pleasant, we
have a vibrant economy, we havevibrant businesses that are
growing, expanding and and theother thing, when you're a mount
pleasant, what you want to dois when they grow here, you want
(27:56):
to keep them here, andsometimes we lose people, not
because they don't like MountPleasant anymore, but because
they need a different type ofspace or they need more space or
something like that.
So one of the things that MattBrady does is keeps his eye on
inventory, on land and thingslike that, so that we can keep
it going.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yes, yes, that's important for sure.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
So, mayor, what other ?
We talked about affordablehousing, of course, and all that
and the moratorium onapartments and things like that.
So what other in 2025, kind ofdo you have any other like pet
projects or any kind of focus orany kind of projects or
initiatives that you find to bejust top of mind for the town.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
We are working on something, and it's legal and
contractual, which will be amajor green space thing for us.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
Okay that's wonderful .
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Here's the thing about green space and let me tie
this into business, since thisis really a business-oriented
thing.
I am a big believer in whatthey call the placemaking
dividend.
Is that the age of peoplelooking for smokestacks and
business parks and three-phasepower and pavement are kind of
over.
What people are looking for isgood education, low crime, high
(29:11):
quality of life and theaesthetics of life that you have
a place.
And that placemaking dividendmeans people come through and
I've had how many businesses dowe know of?
People say I came here with myfamily and I thought why don't
we move here?
Why don't we move our businesshere and move our family here?
I'm a big believer in that.
And instead of looking fordeals and for looking for
(29:35):
discounts or incentives aHarvard business study, business
School study shows they arelooking for values, and those
values are taking care of people, taking care of business and
taking care of the environment.
And the thing about green spacein the environment is you can't
look down the road and say whydon't we put this money aside,
(29:56):
and when that track comes up forsale or when this happens, it
doesn't work that way.
Wouldn it be nice if it did,wouldn't it?
Yeah, is.
You know you're sitting thereand and you're planning on green
space and people love it's oneof the highest rated things we
get when we do surveys.
People want us to buy andprotect green space.
It's part of what makes likeyou, you agree with that.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Good, thank you.
Thank you well.
So the green space I live down41 and we're talking about going
through some green space to asone option for the road systems.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
That's exactly right against that I.
I went to the state permittinghearing and said you know, don't
permit this, we don't need aroad through that park no,
that's so.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
We're talking about park west.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
We do need to fix 41 and we do need to fix the
intersection.
It's a safety issue, but Idon't think they need to permit
that road.
Do the rest and leave that roadout of the park.
So, if everything works out,you're going to see a really big
all work out.
(30:59):
We now have one mil of your taxbill is set aside where that
money can only go towardspurchasing and maintaining green
space, and I think the publicreally really likes that.
And yes, that is a businessincentive thing too that I've
always said.
You know, the best-sellingpitch we have to any business is
we are a town that is, onpurpose, taking care of our
(31:22):
people, our businesses and ourenvironment, and that's what
we're trying to do and you'redoing it.
And you know, when I was acouncil member and we passed the
no, it was after I was mayor wepassed the single-use plastic
bag I hate to say ban, but wechanged that.
Nobody went out of business.
No, we didn't have these bigcorporations coming down saying
(31:43):
y'all don't like us, we'repulling out of here.
They said, okay, we get it,yeah, exactly and they bought
into it.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah you brought up the fact that you were council.
How, so?
What was your track then tobecome mayor, and and what's
your future track looking like?
Speaker 3 (31:56):
be very careful.
Mike's listening to this.
I could not imagine being mayor, being elected mayor without or
no?
Speaker 2 (32:07):
I couldn't imagine serving a day as mayor without
having been on council first yougot to see how it works, what
the issues are and all that andknow and know how it works.
I'm not saying it can't be done, but I personally am so glad I
had those years.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
How many years were your council?
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Two years, and so I ran in the middle of my the
first the term that I waselected to, because I just felt
like we weren't going to get thechange that that I felt
passionate about withoutsomebody of that mindset being
mayor, whether it was me orsomebody else.
Um, I have no politicalambitions other than being the
mayor of Mount Pleasant.
(32:43):
I love being the mayor.
It's what I am, it's it's it's.
It's what I'm wired for.
Um, I don't want to be.
I like being a leader of a townwhere you have your own
Christmas parade where you haveyour own blessing of the fleet
you know where you have all yourown sweet grass basket festival
and all of these things.
I don't want to be one member ofa body of you know a hundred or
(33:05):
hundreds of people, and allthat because I like having a
town.
That is, that is our town, thatis my town, and and so that's
just the way I'm wired.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Nice yeah, and we're nonpartisan.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
For those who don't know, people will come that have
moved here.
Either Democrat or Republican.
I am neither.
I am nonpartisan and in thelast election I endorsed people
of both parties who were thebest, who had Mount Pleasant's
best interest in that part,regardless of their party
Nonpartisan.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
I like that, yep.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
So town council.
Mike, Did you write that down?
Speaker 1 (33:39):
I've already met a couple guys there.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
We know a couple of them.
We know a couple of them, sure,through the chamber, very
supportive of the chamber.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Wrapping things up a little bit.
I love how we're even becomingmore intertwined with the
chamber and the town.
One example is we're doing allthe ribbon cuttings.
Now Rebecca is officiallytaking that over.
That's right.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
One example is we're doing all the ribbon cuttings.
Now Rebecca is officiallytaking that over.
That's a lot right there and ofcourse, matt Brady is back as
official town liaison back onour executive board of directors
.
It's great to have him there.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
It's great that the chamber has a physical
headquarters.
Now, that is huge, do you thinkthat was?
Speaker 1 (34:14):
something that we needed a lot.
Do you think that was thebutton that was pushed?
That makes it legit?
Is that what it was?
Speaker 3 (34:19):
like a lot.
You think that was the buttonthat was pushed.
Well, I mean, is that what itwas?
I'm not the only one who hassaid this.
I'm not going to call it anynames, but when I first moved
here, the first thing I I didn'tknow anybody.
So the first thing I wanted todo business-wise was to join the
chamber right, and at the timeit was the mount pleasant
business association, wasn'teven the chamber, wasn't even
the chamber.
And so I'm looking around, I'mtrying to find it.
I can't find.
It took me like three days tofind it and I call and I think
(34:43):
it was Tamara who answered.
But anyway, I almost shouldn'thave called her out.
But anyway, we miss you, tamara.
But I say, can I stop by?
I'd like to stop by and getsome information on and they go
well, we don't have offices.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Her cute southern accent super nice.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
How does a chamber not have a space?
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Brick and mortar.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Or even a space in a space, like at the welcome
center, whatever it might'vebeen Right.
So, to answer your question,yes, I think that it's just.
It's just one of many stepsthat we've taken over the last
level those up.
I mean to be we.
We call ourselves a realchamber.
Now, like we are, we are biggirl chambered, big boy chamber
with our own offices.
A great new board of directorsstaff full-time staff and just
(35:30):
be doing all these great things.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
And for a town that does $3 billion a year in retail
sales, by golly we ought tohave a real chamber and we have
one, thanks to the leadership.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
A town that does $3 billion.
You like to say that we are?
Speaker 2 (35:42):
a town.
It's a mentality.
I know we meet thequalifications of a city, but we
will always be and considerourselves a town.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Do you think anyone will ever change that Mayor?
Speaker 2 (35:51):
No.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Okay good, because I don't want to change it.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
I don't think anybody will ever change it, unless you
have to, unless you have tochange it.
Is there a way?
No, you don't have to.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Is there like?
Speaker 1 (36:00):
No, there is no law of what you're called Is the tax
bracket doesn't get any better.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
No, and there's no thing that says when you pass
this, you know the census saysyou have this many people.
There is nothing that says that.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
No kidding, oh, I'm so happy about that.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
That made me really nervous.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
I'm like if we continue to get people, they're
just going to automatically.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
I mean just the to grow, there's no doubt about
that, but the fact that there'sno legal button that has to be
pushed for the population.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
I absolutely love it.
It's so funny, I absolutelylove it.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
And then we're also working together on the business
resource side of things too,the Mount.
Pleasant Made resourcesstarting a business, and then
you said you were starting anapp.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
There's that app, Opal.
It's a permitting thing that'sa great thing to go to.
It's a one-stop click of abutton thing to help you with
all permitting and applicationsand everything.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Again back to the chamber for a second.
We would have new businessesjoin, and then they would say,
well, how do I do this?
We'd be like, oh, go to thetown.
But now, since we're, doing somany things together, though
we're sharing your informationon our website.
You're sharing our informationon your website, so I mean, it's
just everywhere.
It's just so easy, and we don'thave to send people you know,
(37:16):
just go.
We don't have to say we don'tknow anymore.
We can say exactly where peoplecan get information, and that
just shows what a greatpartnership it is.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Because we used to get tourism questions, oh, all
the time.
Here's a tourist question foryou IOP and Sullivan's Island
are they under your?
Is it Mount?
Speaker 2 (37:37):
Pleasant, or those are different cities, right.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Municipalities, Municipalities different towns.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
They have mayors and councils.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
yes, Yep, interesting .
Okay, what about the annualisland?
No municipalities, differenttowns.
They have mayors and councils.
Yes, yep, interesting okay, allright.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
What about the island ?
No, that's um, that'scharleston, that's berkeley
county, right, that's a weirdone too, though.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Yeah, but we won't go into the different zones and
stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Well, north charleston is in three different
counties.
It's in dorchester, charlestonand berkeley.
Can you imagine?
No, that's you got differentcouncil elections when there are
referendums on the ballot.
You know, on berkeley county'sgot a referendum, why wouldn't
on mine?
Because you're in dorchester,it's, it's crazy.
Well, here's, here's one forpeople that move here from other
places, some of the.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
There are big areas right in the middle of mount
pleasant that are not in thetown they're called donut holes
I don't want to bring that upwhen you come into 526 and you
get to where Johnny Dot 17 Northgoes under.
That is not in the town ofMount Pleasant.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
And a few years ago when you were on Coleman
Boulevard, which for decades hasbeen the de facto main street
of Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
We don't really have one.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
There's a big area right there where Broadway
Street is.
It comes out where Kickin'Chicken and where Coleman Public
House and all that is a littleshopping center.
That was not in the town ofMount Pleasant.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
I don't get it.
Maybe I do get it, though.
Hold on.
In Tampa there's an offsetcalled Ybor City and within Ybor
City there's a plot of Cubanland.
Could this land be?
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Cuban?
No, but the principle is thereand I've told people at the
state level because we aretrying to get a bill passed that
if you are completelysurrounded by a municipality
because, see, everybody thinksmunicipalities can say we're
annexing you, we can't in South,you have to apply and want to
(39:27):
be annexeded.
There is no like hostileannexation like that.
So interesting.
So, um, imagine if you weredriving up i-26 and all of a
sudden there was another state.
You're now entering georgia anda mile later you're now
entering south and I wouldn'tstand for that?
no, but we have to deal withthat as as a city.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
But what about, like, what about trash services and
things?
Yeah, yeah water all of that.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
Well water is a whole different issue, but trash, no.
We don't pick up trash outsidethe county.
We have an agreement If there'sa fire, our fire truck isn't
going to pull up watch a homeburn down and go.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
Oh dang, what bad luck there in the county.
But what about the donut?
Speaker 2 (40:01):
holes.
Not going to do that.
Yeah, all of that, it's thesame thing.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
It's so wild.
So where does their garbage go?
Don't ask, if you don't want toknow.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
I'm curious.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
However, the county does it, which I think they
contract for a private entity.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Oh, that's so, and that's also the same with Boone
Hall too, right?
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Yeah, boone Hall is not a town.
In Mount Pleasant fire station.
They are not in Mount Pleasant.
Yeah, so our fire trucks coulddrive past another fire station.
You know they answer the calland they drive past the
Allendale-McClellanville firestation and go by and put out a
fire and there's a fire stationright there.
Now there is mutual aid andstuff, but just the irony that's
, that's what donut holes resultin.
Wow, it's not efficient andit's not great and what's the
(40:53):
fix?
Speaker 1 (40:53):
what's the solution?
Speaker 2 (40:54):
um, as long as we have annexation laws the way we
have them in south carolina,there's not going to be a fix or
a solution.
Now we work around it throughagreements, like I I said for
first responders and all thatstuff, and we try as much as we
can for the county's comp planand zoning to match ours.
So that right, I mean, what ifsomebody had bought that land?
(41:16):
What if somebody had boughtBoone Hall?
No, I won't.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
I won't.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Somebody will say don't go there.
What if?
Speaker 2 (41:22):
somebody had bought the old shopping center on
Coleman and decided what if thecounty zoning there allowed them
to put a junkyard or a placewhere they stack up tires to be
burned or recycled, or somethingthat would ruin Mount
Pleasant's business in that area?
But now that did not happen andhopefully it won't.
But, with the wrong leadershipand wrong zoning and all,
(41:43):
something like that could happen.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Is there like a mayor of these donut holes?
Is there like their ownleadership?
It's our county council.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
County council yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Who represent both.
You know, the people in themunicipality and not Every time
I talk to him, I learnedsomething new and I've been, oh,
it's almost nine years now.
I've.
I've known you and I justaren't we fortunate, so I don't
want to leave anybody hanging.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
No boone hall is under a conservation.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Yes, yes, which mount pleasant helped happen.
We took our green belt moneyfrom the county and applied it
to that, even though it's not inthe town, because if it had
gotten, developed.
Speaker 3 (42:17):
Oh well, it's really funny.
You say that because weinterviewed jim west a whole
last year gm he's a great andI'm not gonna.
I'm gonna paraphrase him becauseI'm not gonna remember exactly
what he said he goes, but he's.
We were talking about trafficand things like that.
He said he goes.
You know, people complain aboutwhen I have an event that
there's traffic, yeah, and hegoes.
And all I can say to them iscould you imagine if this was
sold and you built houses andcondos and concert halls and
(42:39):
whatever it might be?
You want to talk about traffic?
Speaker 2 (42:42):
every day, of every day and they only do that about
30 days.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
Exactly Tops, tops Right, and it's not that bad
either.
You know where it is.
You go in the left lane to goright by.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
You live by a farm this is the best part of living
here I love.
Every time I drive by there Istill I say to myself how lucky
I am to live in in a place likethis, never going anywhere else,
lucky to have you, mayor.
Thank you very much for yourtime.
Is there anything else you wantto touch on?
Did we, did we miss?
Speaker 2 (43:12):
anything?
Um well, no, we didn't, wedidn't miss anything I hope we
didn't take too much time.
Um, I never say no when scoutgroups want to come and uh and
meet the mayor and and tour townhall, and so I had had them
there.
The other day there were nineof them.
So I said, hey, this is perfect.
Y'all sit up there like counciland the mayor and make a motion
(43:32):
and vote in second.
And one made a motion and theother said, well, I disagree
with that.
Okay.
And so they learned tocompromise and I said that's
government, that's how it works.
And so at the end I said whatquestions do y'all have?
And they asked a couple ofquestions, this and that.
But one of them said what's themost important thing about
(43:55):
being mayor and I say this withall my heart because I learned
it from a mentor of mine it'snot being good on taxation, it's
not being good on zoning orbusiness, it's being good at
loving the people that live inthis town, because if you don't
love the people that you serve,whatever you're in, you're not
going to be good at it.
So you got to love everybody inthis town, and you know we hear
talk about there's this side oftown which I won't refer to
(44:17):
that town.
We are all mount pleasant andwe've all got to love each other
, and that's the most importantthing I can say love it.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
Thanks, yeah well, thank you so much for your
service again, mayor.
We love having you.
Make sure you know every yearwe're going to have the mayor on
, every single year to kick offour year, we'll report.
Again.
Thank you so much.
The name of Charleston.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Media Solutions Charleston.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
Media Solutions.
I'm going to have to write thatdown.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
Charleston Media Solutions Studios.
Speaker 3 (44:43):
Very excited about that.
Yeah, they're so awesome to usletting us record here.
We hope you enjoyed today'spodcast, Mike.
Thank you so much.
Yeah, great having you here andthe mayor always, always love
to see you Always a pleasure,sir, y'all make it so easy.
Thank you so much for listeningMount Pleasant Until next time.
inspiring wannabe mayor.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Hey, I don't want to give anybody any ideas Talk me
out of it.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I'm talking 10 years down the road.
Is there going to be doing thisin 10 years?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
No, Hi and welcome to the Building a Business podcast
powered by the Mount PleasantChamber of Commerce.
We are here recording in theCharleston Radio Group studios,
who are huge supporters of thechamber.
Thank you to everyone here forrecording us today.
I am your immediate pastpresident of the Mount Pleasant
Chamber of Commerce and I amalso the marketing director at
(00:33):
Mount Pleasant Town Center, andone of my favorite co-hosts is
here with me today.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Oh hey, favorite, I know favorite, that's nice of
you to say.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
He didn't know See he was really taken by surprise,
but it is true.
Please welcome Mike Compton.
Mike is the president of RoombaAdvertising and is the current
marketing chair for the MountPleasant Chamber of Commerce.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
You just keep asking me back for another year of
marketing.
It's so much fun though.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
You know why?
Because you just keep doingeverything so well.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
We just don't let you go oh my gosh, I am not paying
you a dime, not a dime, not adime.
Thank you very much.
You're very sweet Today.
Oh, we need to update yourscript because the Charleston
Radio Group is now called theCharleston Media Solutions.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, now we know.
Well, the sign outside saysCharleston Radio Group.
We've got some branding work todo as a marketing head.
Good to know different.
So branding work to do, yes, asa marketing head, as a
marketing head yourself, uh,yeah, it takes time.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yes, it takes uh-huh, uh-huh.
Today we have a uh a guest, arecurring guest.
We like to have this guest on alot because he's such a good
conversation and he does so muchfor our community.
Mayor will haney, welcome tothe show thanks, mike, good to
be here.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Yes, you know, I'm having flashbacks 20 something
years ago, okay, up NorthCarolina, where Hurricane Helene
did its damage, I had a morningtalk radio show and I'm used to
that, mike going live at 6 amwhich means you started your
show prep at 4 am and boy, itwas a long stretch, till 10 am.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
You're a marketing head too, you own a public
relations company, don't you?
Yeah, nice.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I got away from marketing and more into
strategic communications after Ibecame mayor, but that's
another topic for another day.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Whatever You're asking me about mayor.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I want to hear about you.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
It's technically a part-time job and it's part-time
pay, but it is a full-time job.
What do you mean?
So Kathy was telling me this inthe green room earlier it's
part-time.
That's mind-boggling to meright now.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Help me out.
There are three kinds ofgovernment allowed in the state
of South Carolina.
One is what's called in slang,strong mayor or mayor council,
where the mayor runs the town.
Everybody reports to the mayor.
That's Charleston NorthCharleston, goose Creek and
(02:53):
maybe Folly Beach, I think FollyBeach.
So there's no rhyme or reasonas to who has which form of
government.
But like Mayor Riley and MayorSummey, they ran the town and
everybody reported to them.
We have the middle form, whichis called the council form of
government, so the council andthe mayor.
I'm just one voting member ofcouncil.
Now, yes, I have to sign thebonds and I have to sign the
(03:16):
ordinances and I have to givethe state of the town address,
but I don't set the budget, Idon't hire and fire staff and I
can't direct staff.
So when Mr Compton calls andsays, hey, my trash didn't get
picked up, this morning, I wouldnever Well there's nothing
wrong with that, and thatdoesn't happen in Mount Pleasant
often, by the way, it did lastweek.
(03:36):
Right there you go During thesnow.
I, as an elected official andcouncil members, we don't call
the head of that department andsay go pick up the Compton's
trash.
We get in touch with their boss, the town administrator, who is
a trained professional and avery good one, Eric DeMora, and
he has to direct his staff to dothat.
(03:58):
If you're in Charleston orNorth Charleston, I'm ratting on
my friends, this is education.
You can call them and they cansay hey, this is the mayor, Go
get the Compton's trash.
It's a different form ofgovernment and we have to abide
by the law.
And the reason I'm bringingthat up is lots of people have
moved here recently.
Yes, and they're from placeswhere, if the mayor wants your
(04:23):
trash picked up, the mayor getson the phone and says go pick up
their trash.
They are not used to our form ofgovernment.
And you know why don't youchange this traffic intersection
?
Why don't you do it?
Because the mayor does not havethat authority.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
But they still bother you in the supermarket.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
I wouldn't say bother .
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Talk to you.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
When you're the mayor in Mount Pleasant, you are
always working.
There's no place to hiderestaurants and stuff and and
I'm not saying that people are aproblem at all but I I bet you,
if I asked today, at whatevertime it is that we're, that we
are filming this, what is yourstate legislature voting on
today?
What are they voting on incongress or the united states
(05:01):
senate today?
I bet you don't know.
Everybody knows what we'revoting on when we do things and
if you're out in town, they wantto talk about it and it's their
right to talk about it.
Now there are times when I haveto say here's my card.
Call me at the office, becauseI'm on my way to an obligation
or something, and that's not abother, but that is a reality,
I'm sure it is.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Well, you're a public figure, people gonna.
They don't know that.
This is the different.
This is how we run the showhere exactly um.
They don't know that you don't,you can't just make a phone
call right which is which isinteresting to me, because I I
am from the north as well.
Right, I'm a come ya.
No, okay, I know you are aswell, I know kathy is, but you
had I wasn't born here.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you were born here, but you, my, my
great grandparents are here,but I was born in the upstate
after they moved up there.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
That's close enough for me now, exactly, I'm not
from here.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Exactly Well, you can know more about that in our
last episode that we had withyou last year, Mayor.
But where you said to peoplelike myself I'm from Detroit,
but I lived in Tampa for 18years.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
I moved up, so I'm like half way up.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Where are?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
you seeing a lot of people moving from.
You know we kind of track thatstuff and everything.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I don't need that.
I don't need real data.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Just like.
Where do you think?
Well, what I see is the most inmigration to these areas is
actually Georgia, North Carolina.
Now everybody says Ohio, newYork and all that New.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
York, new york, new jersey.
But that's not right.
That's not necessarily that'swhat I was looking for the most,
it's not so we're getting a badrap again.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Oh, I know I know your personalities are just so
big.
It's enough for two senses oftwo people.
That's right, I'm kidding, I'monly kidding.
Oh my gosh.
Um, what so cool, cool, cool?
I'm kidding, I'm only kidding.
Oh my gosh, so cool, cool, cool.
Kathy, what do you got so?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
we launched the podcast last year with our
episode with the mayor.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Correct Right and about the same date today
Around-ish right, so we'rereally excited to have you back.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Thank you and I know this is a really horrible
general question, but in honestyI mean, let's talk about what's
changed in a year.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
There you go, wow, and.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I know we don't have to go over everything, because
obviously the town is growingand there's so many different
things going on, but if you hadto pick one or two things that
have really changed, obviouslyin a positive way, is what we
want to focus on in the lastyear.
Top of mind, no stats, no data.
Two things.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Two things we have been recognized in the last year
for some of our most importantthings that we do as a town for
the betterment of the town nowand in the future.
One is we received a statewideaward for excellence in
conservation leadership, and byconservation I mean not only
(07:42):
taking care of green space andtaking care of natural resources
, but planning for resilience,which is, you know, conservation
and resilience go hand in hand.
If you don't believe me, lookat California, right where the
wildfires were.
A little management and alittle thinking about resilience
.
So we got a statewide award forthat.
We got a statewide award fromthe Municipal Association of
(08:05):
South Carolina because we werethe only municipality in the
state to have a reduction inopioid-related deaths and
overdoses.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
And that reduction was 40%.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
That's huge 40%.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
And that's because we have a partnership with Wake Up
Carolina, which Nancy Shipmanstarted.
She's a homegrown MountPleasant person, lost a son to
an opioid overdose years ago andturned ashes into beauty, and
so we have a partnership there.
Because if you have somebody inyour family struggling with
(08:40):
addiction, do you want to callthe police or do you want to
call a nonprofit that comesalongside and says, let us help
you?
Let us help you, of course, ordo you want to call a nonprofit
that comes alongside and says,let us help you, let us help you
, of course, and as Carl Ritchie, who's now a sheriff, said and
he started this partnership wehave we cannot arrest our way.
This is Carl Ritchie's words wecannot arrest our way out of an
addiction crisis.
(09:01):
It takes more to cure addiction.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Well, just arresting people and throwing them in jail
is not going to have any effecton the problem.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
No, and so we got those.
Wake Up, wake Up Carolina, wakeUp Carolina.
Yes, and they are homegrownMount Pleasant.
So I could go into all thosedetails.
The other thing and this is alittle wonky but it is huge is
that every 10 years by law wehave to have a new comprehensive
plan and that is how MountPleasant will be used, both
(09:31):
developed, undeveloped greenspace and redeveloped properties
, how those can be used in thefuture to make our community
good you know.
And that's what and that has tobe translated into zoning.
That is a use that is sort oflike a big picture and zoning is
this parcel has A B zoning orresidential or mixed use or
(09:53):
whatever.
So I know it's down to thewonky stuff.
You have to hire an outside lawfirm.
It took us two years and wejust passed that new zoning,
nice.
So now we have on the map youknow what your zoning is, what
can go here.
Have on the map, you know whatyour zoning is, what can go here
.
And we also in the past yearincluded for mixed use a
(10:15):
requirement for attainablehousing.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
I was going to say yes, you heard about that.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
There's a minimum, or mandatory minimum I should say
exactly of attainable housingcorrect and and this is why in
my 10 years, I got elected tocouncil in 2015 and mayor in
2017.
In my 10 years, I have seen theattainable housing thing going
from a being perceived as a verynice social agenda to a
(10:42):
strategic economic goal of boththe town and the region.
And I sit on on the regional,all the regional economic things
.
Because if you can't afford tolive in this town and y'all,
y'all have lots of employees attown center and all that as we
do at the town, and the uhmedian house price is over 880
(11:03):
000, where's your workforcegoing to come from?
Right, and the old term wasworkforce housing and people
thought, oh no, there goes theneighborhood right?
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Well, I think they still think that about
attainable housing too, andthat's what concerns and scares
me.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Attainable housing.
It's for the everyday person.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
It's for my kids who wanted, if they wanted to live
here, and police and firemen andschool teachers and nurses
Everyone we need to make thistown the awesome town that it is
to live in.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
they can't afford to live here, right, you know.
So that is what attainablehousing is everybody it is.
You know, we need it to survive.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
It is not the projects like you see coming in
on the interstate and othermunicipalities.
It is built to the samestandards, the same quality and
I'm glad that during my term asmayor so far that we've had one
new attainable housing.
That was sort of like thebreakthrough done and now we
have permitted another hundredunits and we're working on.
(12:01):
Greenville is the model inSouth Carolina and Greenville
didn't go out and just build it.
Now they do put money fromtheir budget in it.
But what Greenville did is whenthe developments came in, they
said, okay, you would do thisand you can't do it.
It's called inclusionary zoning.
You can't say we'll give youthe zoning, you have to have a
planned development.
Okay, so you've got some mixeduse and you've got some
(12:24):
residential, but we want 20% or25% attainableable in there and
it has revitalized downtowngreenville.
So you know, I think we'vestarted a little water over the
dam and I'm in the last year ofmy second term and and I want to
make sure we keep this progressgoing.
Because how old do you have tobe, even if you're a doctor or
(12:46):
lawyer, if you're graduatingfrom high school now in Mount
Pleasant, how old do you thinkyou're going to be before you
can afford the median home pricein this town.
You're probably going to bewell into your forties and
that's sad, you know.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
we're losing amazing talent because they literally
cannot afford to live here andthey don't want to do the drive
or whatever it might be.
So they're taking their talentsand they're moving out of state
or moving back home or movingsomewhere new Right, and I find
it's a shame.
It is Well you're working on itthough.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
We're working on it.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
We're getting there.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Well, we don't have areas like Charleston and North
Charleston have, and I won'tcall any of this easy, but
they've got places where theycan put a few hundred units and
it's not overcrowding schools orroads or anything.
We don't have that in MountPleasant, right, and we also
know if we pooled our moneyregionally, which could make
sense, we know that the dirt isso expensive in Mount Pleasant
(13:41):
that the regional buy.
They're not going to buy theland in Mount Pleasant and build
it.
So our way and our vision inthe comp plan in this zoning is
there are shopping centers,retail places that have they're
at the end of their useful life,they're going to be redeveloped
and we would like to see mixeduse where you have retail on the
bottom, a moderate amount ofresidential on top, and that's
(14:04):
where that requirement kicks in.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I like that I think everybody can be happy with that
.
I like that too, Mr Mayor.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
That's downtown Charleston.
I'm not talking about the bighigh stuff.
I'm talking about a story ortwo.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
That's all I'm asking for.
That's all I'm asking for.
It's all I'm asking for.
It's what I think we're missinghere in this beautiful town,
city, but we'll talk about thatlater.
Um is is something over twostories, that's right.
Can we?
Can we?
I understand why we keep thingslow here in the holy city,
right, but are we over there?
Do we have to over here too?
In mount pleasant side do wehave the height restriction?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
we do, and and we redid those a couple of years
ago and I think we got a goodmodel.
We have up to 80 feet in someplaces, like where East Cooper
Hospital is, because it'salready 80 feet.
You wouldn't notice it there,but if you tried to put 80 feet
at town center, you're going toget a lot of resident pushback
and so on.
Our height maps most of it is50.
(14:57):
Some of it is 55.
Most of it on the street isonly 35.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
What does that equate to story-wise Mayor, Help me
out with the math here Twostories, like right on a
corridor.
Copy that.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
So that we don't have the concrete canyon.
You know, you're driving down,you go where's the sun.
I love the height restrictions.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
That's one of the things I love about this town is
the height restrictions and nodigital billboards, but that's a
whole thing Right, that's awhole thing and what we were
Speaker 2 (15:21):
able to get, for the tall ones is on the street.
You're one level and then it'scalled the wedding cake design
and then you go back and youmight have two and then three,
four, five here.
So I can tell you, there's onevery famous tract of land in
Mount Pleasant.
It's been vacant for years andyears and it's getting ready to
be built on.
What you see on the street willbe one height and then there'll
(15:42):
be another story and thetallest portion they're allowed,
which is up to 65 feet, is sofar in.
It will not feel like a 65 foot, five or six story building.
Sure, that's the way awell-designed municipality does
it, and it passed, and that'swhat we did.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
See that.
Yeah, thank you.
Good way of thinking there.
You you mentioned somethingabout, um uh, things that are
being expensive in the town ofmount pleasant, and correct me
if I'm wrong, but can you ownchickens?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
did you see my post on facebook?
Apparently there is a law, uh,that goes way back in Mount
Pleasant you are allowed fivelaying hens in your yard, but no
roosters, because they crow anddisturb the neighbors.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Okay hens only.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
But good luck with your HOA and I will double check
and make sure that theinterpretation I got of that law
is still valid.
Yeah, yeah, sure that uh theinterpretation I I got of that
law is still yeah, yeah, but um,now that eggs are you've heard
187, a dozen or whatever as wespeak, because of the bird flu
and stuff.
Yeah, um, don't we all wish wehad five laying hens?
(16:52):
I would do it if I could do it.
I checked with my hoa this weekand they said no, we can't
allow you to have my hoa neitheras well.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Um well, I certainly didn't check with mine, but I'm
gonna have to assume they'd sayno to we can't allow you to have
it.
Am I OHOing either as well?
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Well, I certainly didn't check with mine, but I'm
going to have to assume they'dsay no too.
Dunes West yes.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Probably not.
They don't allow golf cartsthere, they don't allow chickens
.
Maybe, Anyways, thought thatwas a fun question, certainly is
.
Was it real when I heard I heara lot of things right, I hear a
lot of things right that youlimited the amount of new
permits being able to build inthe mountain?
Oh yeah, we did that years ago.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I love that and we did it.
What we did, we didn't just saywe don't like people who are
moving here, we don't likegrowth whatever.
We looked at our police callsfor service, our fire calls for
service.
We looked at our schoolpopulations and everything and
we took the data and backed intowhat we thought was a
sustainable growth rate, and sowe effectively cut the growth
(17:46):
rate in half.
Much less we did not like thedistinction of being the wild
west of the east.
We were the fastest growingmunicipality east of the
Mississippi River and I kind ofgot elected mayor on the.
We will slow growth down, andthat is called.
The building permit allocationsystem is still in effect and so
(18:06):
it limits the number ofmultifamily that can be built a
year and the number of newconstruction.
Now it does not apply if youhave a house and you want to
tear it down there was a housethere and there's one house
there when you're done.
But this is for new residencesin town so yeah because you
can't just you.
You know somebody's got toprovide police, fire, manage
(18:28):
traffic and build new schoolsand you can't just let every
developer come in and say we'redoing 500 homes here I feel like
that's what happened, though,in like 2003, 2005.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
I mean, you know what I mean.
Yes, that's when myneighborhood was built and
there's hundreds of people backthere, yes, houses and whatnot
families.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
Well then, also, you know, they built an open Lucy
Beckham because there was toomany students at Wando.
And then Lucy Beckham's alreadyfull, she's full yeah, right.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
So we have two high schools in this town and they're
both phenomenon of that.
Was they planned right for thegrowth and the end migration?
What they?
Speaker 1 (19:05):
did not expect was the family, because Lucy Beckham
is such a good school, you knowthanks to Anna Dassing's
leadership, we're blessed withgreat school leadership in this
town.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Well, ccdsd is amazing to work with.
They're incredible, charlesCoker at.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Wando is fantastic, and so what they did not count
on was a number of families thattook their kids out of private
schools and out of magnetschools to go to Beckham, and
that's why it reached capacity.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
I wouldn't have counted on that.
Nobody did.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
They nailed the number of new move into town.
But they realized man, peopleare leaving the magnet schools
and going to beckham.
But aren't we blessed to have?
Speaker 3 (19:42):
yes, that's why you have choices that's right, right
um, I see so many posts on um,I follow too many things on
facebook about charleston but,um, you know a couple posts
about you know I'm thinking ofmoving there, where's the best
place to go to school and blah,blah, blah and mount pleasant's
always.
Yeah, at the top of if you'regoing to go anywhere in the
Charleston area, mount Pleasanthas the best schools.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
I'm married to a school teacher.
She taught well.
She's not teaching now it'safter her career, but she taught
at Jenny Moore for almost adecade.
Oh, wow.
So I'm real partial to that.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
And let's don't leave out Oceanside.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
I just did groundbreaking out there
Oceanside.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
But the last thing in the news I heard that Oceanside
was gone, but now they're backon.
What was that all about?
Speaker 2 (20:21):
That was an administrative thing about their
charter.
They're a state charter school.
They're not a Charleston Countyschool.
They just won a statechampionship in football Amazing
.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
I think their float came in second at the Christmas
parade last year.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Were you you judge?
I sure was, I thought so.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Oh my gosh, it was so much fun.
I had such a great time.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Kathy, what else you got?
Speaker 3 (20:47):
Well, I'm going to talk about business for a little
bit, because one of the thingsthat obviously the Mount
Pleasant Chamber of Commercesupports our local businesses is
do you have any kind of insightor direction or ease of
starting a new business in MountPleasant?
It could be a little bitdifficult, so we'd love to hear
(21:11):
from you about the best way togo about it.
I never want to use the wordshortcuts, but you know by the
permitting process and thingsbecause we want to support our
businesses getting open.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Yes, two things.
One, we have a great economicdevelopment director who did
this podcast.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Where is he from?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Matt Brady.
We stole him from Goose.
Creek, where my good friendGreg Habib is the mayor and he's
still mad at me.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Sorry, I'm sorry.
I love Goose Creek and I loveyour mayor, he is one of my best
friends.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
I talked to him the other day but for one, Matt is
there to help.
Now it is not his job to issuepermits and all that kind of
stuff, Correct, but he can sayand we have a kit for new people
to do that we also have, andthis is a big part of my state
of the town address that's allvideo.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
By the way, it's only five minutes, it's only five
minutes.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
The new one.
We'll have our OPAL.
That's an acronym for somethingonline permitting assistance.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Oh, is that new?
Yeah, it's new.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Okay, I was going to say I don't think it is a
one-stop digital shop to helpyou with all your permits and
all of those type things.
That is exactly what we need.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
That's amazing, so everyone keep an eye on that Way
to go, Matt Brady.
O-p-a-l.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
So when you're looking to start your new
business, everything will beavailable for you in one spot on
the Mount Pleasant website.
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Right Permitting and all of that.
The other thing, too, is theattitude that you have about
business.
How many ribbon cuttings doesthe town do with the chamber?
We do a lot and we won't talkabout the one-take-will aspect.
I'm under pressure to get it inone take.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Right off the cuff, yeah, but you do a fantastic job
Almost.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Almost Thank you.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
And Rebecca's got it nailed.
She doesn't screw anything upanymore.
Good, she never did.
No, she's rebecca imholtz, ourdirector of the chamber, does
all these ribbon cuttings and Imean she's got that down, it is
I will say this.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
I've seen others and been other places.
Ours is a well-oiled machinethe town and the chamber.
It's seamless, it's fun, butthose are important.
You can say ribbon cuttings aresymbolic, but they show we we
are glad you're here and wesupport you and we put it out.
We have 70,000 followers onFacebook and the chambers got it
.
But you know we do that.
(23:29):
The other thing we did is we gotthe.
We had this one region roadmapcommission and I was on it and
it was business leaders andgovernment leaders commission
and and I was on it and it wasbusiness leaders and government
leaders.
You know through through thechamber, the charleston metro
chamber and and um and the uhcharleston regional development
alliance and mount pleasant hasa seat at that table as well and
(23:51):
I was on that and and wecharted the sort of future for
economic development for thewhole region because it's better
to do it as a region.
Oh yeah, and the leadtechnology agent in that is the
Charleston Harbor EntrepreneurCenter Not Charleston, but
Harbor Entrepreneur Center andthey landed in Mount Pleasant
(24:12):
and it's a public-privatepartnership.
The town put money in it andnow there are like 109
businesses related to that.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
That's wild.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
They are full, but people are moving in and moving
out all the time as they growand everything, and people can
say, well, what's the return ofinvestment on that to the town?
Well, what's the return ofinvestment on an art center or a
playground or a?
Speaker 3 (24:34):
senior center Happiness, success, vibrant
community.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
It's a vibrant community and it shows the
community.
We care about this and we careabout startups and and mount
pleasant is not going to get theboeings and the volvos.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
We know we're there's no space for them.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
There's no space, we're gonna get these kind of
startups and everything, and Ithink it's very important that
the harbor entrepreneur centeris in mount pleasant and is the
lead agent for the whole regionfor technology development they
just started too, didn't?
Speaker 1 (25:02):
yeah, yeah, how long ago, a couple years, I think.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
They've been there less than two years.
Yeah, I was gonna say thatbecause we were looking.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
We were looking at the possibility of having our
offices there at one time,before we had our current
offices, and so that was allaround the same time yeah, yeah,
they're doing amazing thingsover there um grady grady, yeah,
yeah and, uh, patrick bryant.
Yeah right, we talked topatrick, we did, we did, we did
he was a guest on the episode,he was able to speak with us too
(25:29):
so then that kind of makes mymarketing head go a little bit
crazy.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
But so are we marketing to other regions by
chance.
Are we doing any kind of?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
outreach to where and how we are doing it and keep in
mind for our region it is ateam approach between Charleston
County Economic Development andthe Charleston Regional
Development Alliance, who gotthe Boeings and the Mercedes and
the Volvos here and 50,000 jobsin 20 something years.
(26:00):
Um, we cannot compete with uhCRDA traveling the world doing
trade shows in London, paris,munich, you know.
I was curious in Asia we can'tcompete with that, nor nor
should we.
But we can market ourselvessomewhat regionally, but we we
don't want to step over eachother, so we're putting our best
(26:21):
foot forward.
Um, we make sure that we doeverything we can and position
ourselves and we buy ads and dothat type of thing too.
Um, but we are not trying toout-compete the county and the
region for that.
For the other reason is we havea very narrowly defined.
I mean, let's just say you'rein retail.
I don't want to say retail iseasy in Mount Pleasant, but we
(26:43):
aren't hurting because of ourdemographics.
I mean there's $3 billion inretail sales in Mount Pleasant a
year.
$3 billion.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
As long as most of that comes to me, I'm good.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
And you're a half percent of that.
You know I mean you've seennationally in restaurants.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
They love our demographics, they love our low
crime, they love everything thatwe have in Mount Pleasant, so
we're not just out there going.
Oh, we need, you know, I thinkwe need more than one Waffle
House.
That is one of the biggestfailures of my time in elected
office.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
I'm sorry, we have 20 Starbucks and one.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Waffle House we need five, you know, and that type
thing and we lost Cracker Barrel.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Speaking of yeah we lost Cracker Barrel.
How does that work?
Years ago.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
So but yeah, we do that, and the other thing is we
have the Mount Pleasant Made.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Yes, you know, that's our brand.
Yes, what's?
Speaker 2 (27:36):
that all about we, we , we market and and produce that
we, mount pleasant, are a, andwe may be different than
charleston and north charleston,but we are mount pleasant, we
have a vibrant economy, we havevibrant businesses that are
growing, expanding and and theother thing, when you're a mount
pleasant, what you want to dois when they grow here, you want
(27:56):
to keep them here, andsometimes we lose people, not
because they don't like MountPleasant anymore, but because
they need a different type ofspace or they need more space or
something like that.
So one of the things that MattBrady does is keeps his eye on
inventory, on land and thingslike that, so that we can keep
it going.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yes, yes, that's important for sure.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
So, mayor, what other ?
We talked about affordablehousing, of course, and all that
and the moratorium onapartments and things like that.
So what other in 2025, kind ofdo you have any other like pet
projects or any kind of focus orany kind of projects or
initiatives that you find to bejust top of mind for the town.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
We are working on something, and it's legal and
contractual, which will be amajor green space thing for us.
Speaker 3 (28:49):
Okay that's wonderful .
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Here's the thing about green space and let me tie
this into business, since thisis really a business-oriented
thing.
I am a big believer in whatthey call the placemaking
dividend.
Is that the age of peoplelooking for smokestacks and
business parks and three-phasepower and pavement are kind of
over.
What people are looking for isgood education, low crime, high
(29:11):
quality of life and theaesthetics of life that you have
a place.
And that placemaking dividendmeans people come through and
I've had how many businesses dowe know of?
People say I came here with myfamily and I thought why don't
we move here?
Why don't we move our businesshere and move our family here?
I'm a big believer in that.
And instead of looking fordeals and for looking for
(29:35):
discounts or incentives aHarvard business study, business
School study shows they arelooking for values, and those
values are taking care of people, taking care of business and
taking care of the environment.
And the thing about green spacein the environment is you can't
look down the road and say whydon't we put this money aside,
(29:56):
and when that track comes up forsale or when this happens, it
doesn't work that way.
Wouldn it be nice if it did,wouldn't it?
Yeah, is.
You know you're sitting thereand and you're planning on green
space and people love it's oneof the highest rated things we
get when we do surveys.
People want us to buy andprotect green space.
It's part of what makes likeyou, you agree with that.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
Good, thank you.
Thank you well.
So the green space I live down41 and we're talking about going
through some green space to asone option for the road systems.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
That's exactly right against that I.
I went to the state permittinghearing and said you know, don't
permit this, we don't need aroad through that park no,
that's so.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
We're talking about park west.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
We do need to fix 41 and we do need to fix the
intersection.
It's a safety issue, but Idon't think they need to permit
that road.
Do the rest and leave that roadout of the park.
So, if everything works out,you're going to see a really big
all work out.
(30:59):
We now have one mil of your taxbill is set aside where that
money can only go towardspurchasing and maintaining green
space, and I think the publicreally really likes that.
And yes, that is a businessincentive thing too that I've
always said.
You know, the best-sellingpitch we have to any business is
we are a town that is, onpurpose, taking care of our
(31:22):
people, our businesses and ourenvironment, and that's what
we're trying to do and you'redoing it.
And you know, when I was acouncil member and we passed the
no, it was after I was mayor wepassed the single-use plastic
bag I hate to say ban, but wechanged that.
Nobody went out of business.
No, we didn't have these bigcorporations coming down saying
(31:43):
y'all don't like us, we'repulling out of here.
They said, okay, we get it,yeah, exactly and they bought
into it.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yeah you brought up the fact that you were council.
How, so?
What was your track then tobecome mayor, and and what's
your future track looking like?
Speaker 3 (31:56):
be very careful.
Mike's listening to this.
I could not imagine being mayor, being elected mayor without or
no?
Speaker 2 (32:07):
I couldn't imagine serving a day as mayor without
having been on council first yougot to see how it works, what
the issues are and all that andknow and know how it works.
I'm not saying it can't be done, but I personally am so glad I
had those years.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
How many years were your council?
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Two years, and so I ran in the middle of my the
first the term that I waselected to, because I just felt
like we weren't going to get thechange that that I felt
passionate about withoutsomebody of that mindset being
mayor, whether it was me orsomebody else.
Um, I have no politicalambitions other than being the
mayor of Mount Pleasant.
(32:43):
I love being the mayor.
It's what I am, it's it's it's.
It's what I'm wired for.
Um, I don't want to be.
I like being a leader of a townwhere you have your own
Christmas parade where you haveyour own blessing of the fleet
you know where you have all yourown sweet grass basket festival
and all of these things.
I don't want to be one member ofa body of you know a hundred or
(33:05):
hundreds of people, and allthat because I like having a
town.
That is, that is our town, thatis my town, and and so that's
just the way I'm wired.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Nice yeah, and we're nonpartisan.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
For those who don't know, people will come that have
moved here.
Either Democrat or Republican.
I am neither.
I am nonpartisan and in thelast election I endorsed people
of both parties who were thebest, who had Mount Pleasant's
best interest in that part,regardless of their party
Nonpartisan.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
I like that, yep.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
So town council.
Mike, Did you write that down?
Speaker 1 (33:39):
I've already met a couple guys there.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
We know a couple of them.
We know a couple of them, sure,through the chamber, very
supportive of the chamber.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Wrapping things up a little bit.
I love how we're even becomingmore intertwined with the
chamber and the town.
One example is we're doing allthe ribbon cuttings.
Now Rebecca is officiallytaking that over.
That's right.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
One example is we're doing all the ribbon cuttings.
Now Rebecca is officiallytaking that over.
That's a lot right there and ofcourse, matt Brady is back as
official town liaison back onour executive board of directors
.
It's great to have him there.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
It's great that the chamber has a physical
headquarters.
Now, that is huge, do you thinkthat was?
Speaker 1 (34:14):
something that we needed a lot.
Do you think that was thebutton that was pushed?
That makes it legit?
Is that what it was?
Speaker 3 (34:19):
like a lot.
You think that was the buttonthat was pushed.
Well, I mean, is that what itwas?
I'm not the only one who hassaid this.
I'm not going to call it anynames, but when I first moved
here, the first thing I I didn'tknow anybody.
So the first thing I wanted todo business-wise was to join the
chamber right, and at the timeit was the mount pleasant
business association, wasn'teven the chamber, wasn't even
the chamber.
And so I'm looking around, I'mtrying to find it.
I can't find.
It took me like three days tofind it and I call and I think
(34:43):
it was Tamara who answered.
But anyway, I almost shouldn'thave called her out.
But anyway, we miss you, tamara.
But I say, can I stop by?
I'd like to stop by and getsome information on and they go
well, we don't have offices.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Her cute southern accent super nice.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
How does a chamber not have a space?
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Brick and mortar.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Or even a space in a space, like at the welcome
center, whatever it might'vebeen Right.
So, to answer your question,yes, I think that it's just.
It's just one of many stepsthat we've taken over the last
level those up.
I mean to be we.
We call ourselves a realchamber.
Now, like we are, we are biggirl chambered, big boy chamber
with our own offices.
A great new board of directorsstaff full-time staff and just
(35:30):
be doing all these great things.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
And for a town that does $3 billion a year in retail
sales, by golly we ought tohave a real chamber and we have
one, thanks to the leadership.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
A town that does $3 billion.
You like to say that we are?
Speaker 2 (35:42):
a town.
It's a mentality.
I know we meet thequalifications of a city, but we
will always be and considerourselves a town.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Do you think anyone will ever change that Mayor?
Speaker 2 (35:51):
No.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Okay good, because I don't want to change it.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
I don't think anybody will ever change it, unless you
have to, unless you have tochange it.
Is there a way?
No, you don't have to.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Is there like?
Speaker 1 (36:00):
No, there is no law of what you're called Is the tax
bracket doesn't get any better.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
No, and there's no thing that says when you pass
this, you know the census saysyou have this many people.
There is nothing that says that.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
No kidding, oh, I'm so happy about that.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
That made me really nervous.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
I'm like if we continue to get people, they're
just going to automatically.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
I mean just the to grow, there's no doubt about
that, but the fact that there'sno legal button that has to be
pushed for the population.
Speaker 3 (36:29):
I absolutely love it.
It's so funny, I absolutelylove it.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
And then we're also working together on the business
resource side of things too,the Mount.
Pleasant Made resourcesstarting a business, and then
you said you were starting anapp.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
There's that app, Opal.
It's a permitting thing that'sa great thing to go to.
It's a one-stop click of abutton thing to help you with
all permitting and applicationsand everything.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Again back to the chamber for a second.
We would have new businessesjoin, and then they would say,
well, how do I do this?
We'd be like, oh, go to thetown.
But now, since we're, doing somany things together, though
we're sharing your informationon our website.
You're sharing our informationon your website, so I mean, it's
just everywhere.
It's just so easy, and we don'thave to send people you know,
(37:16):
just go.
We don't have to say we don'tknow anymore.
We can say exactly where peoplecan get information, and that
just shows what a greatpartnership it is.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Because we used to get tourism questions, oh, all
the time.
Here's a tourist question foryou IOP and Sullivan's Island
are they under your?
Is it Mount?
Speaker 2 (37:37):
Pleasant, or those are different cities, right.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Municipalities, Municipalities different towns.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
They have mayors and councils.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
yes, Yep, interesting .
Okay, what about the annualisland?
No municipalities, differenttowns.
They have mayors and councils.
Yes, yep, interesting okay, allright.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
What about the island ?
No, that's um, that'scharleston, that's berkeley
county, right, that's a weirdone too, though.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Yeah, but we won't go into the different zones and
stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Well, north charleston is in three different
counties.
It's in dorchester, charlestonand berkeley.
Can you imagine?
No, that's you got differentcouncil elections when there are
referendums on the ballot.
You know, on berkeley county'sgot a referendum, why wouldn't
on mine?
Because you're in dorchester,it's, it's crazy.
Well, here's, here's one forpeople that move here from other
places, some of the.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
There are big areas right in the middle of mount
pleasant that are not in thetown they're called donut holes
I don't want to bring that upwhen you come into 526 and you
get to where Johnny Dot 17 Northgoes under.
That is not in the town ofMount Pleasant.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
And a few years ago when you were on Coleman
Boulevard, which for decades hasbeen the de facto main street
of Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
We don't really have one.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
There's a big area right there where Broadway
Street is.
It comes out where Kickin'Chicken and where Coleman Public
House and all that is a littleshopping center.
That was not in the town ofMount Pleasant.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
I don't get it.
Maybe I do get it, though.
Hold on.
In Tampa there's an offsetcalled Ybor City and within Ybor
City there's a plot of Cubanland.
Could this land be?
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Cuban?
No, but the principle is thereand I've told people at the
state level because we aretrying to get a bill passed that
if you are completelysurrounded by a municipality
because, see, everybody thinksmunicipalities can say we're
annexing you, we can't in South,you have to apply and want to
(39:27):
be annexeded.
There is no like hostileannexation like that.
So interesting.
So, um, imagine if you weredriving up i-26 and all of a
sudden there was another state.
You're now entering georgia anda mile later you're now
entering south and I wouldn'tstand for that?
no, but we have to deal withthat as as a city.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
But what about, like, what about trash services and
things?
Yeah, yeah water all of that.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
Well water is a whole different issue, but trash, no.
We don't pick up trash outsidethe county.
We have an agreement If there'sa fire, our fire truck isn't
going to pull up watch a homeburn down and go.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
Oh dang, what bad luck there in the county.
But what about the donut?
Speaker 2 (40:01):
holes.
Not going to do that.
Yeah, all of that, it's thesame thing.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
It's so wild.
So where does their garbage go?
Don't ask, if you don't want toknow.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
I'm curious.
Speaker 2 (40:09):
However, the county does it, which I think they
contract for a private entity.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Oh, that's so, and that's also the same with Boone
Hall too, right?
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Yeah, boone Hall is not a town.
In Mount Pleasant fire station.
They are not in Mount Pleasant.
Yeah, so our fire trucks coulddrive past another fire station.
You know they answer the calland they drive past the
Allendale-McClellanville firestation and go by and put out a
fire and there's a fire stationright there.
Now there is mutual aid andstuff, but just the irony that's
, that's what donut holes resultin.
Wow, it's not efficient andit's not great and what's the
(40:53):
fix?
Speaker 1 (40:53):
what's the solution?
Speaker 2 (40:54):
um, as long as we have annexation laws the way we
have them in south carolina,there's not going to be a fix or
a solution.
Now we work around it throughagreements, like I I said for
first responders and all thatstuff, and we try as much as we
can for the county's comp planand zoning to match ours.
So that right, I mean, what ifsomebody had bought that land?
(41:16):
What if somebody had boughtBoone Hall?
No, I won't.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
I won't.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Somebody will say don't go there.
What if?
Speaker 2 (41:22):
somebody had bought the old shopping center on
Coleman and decided what if thecounty zoning there allowed them
to put a junkyard or a placewhere they stack up tires to be
burned or recycled, or somethingthat would ruin Mount
Pleasant's business in that area?
But now that did not happen andhopefully it won't.
But, with the wrong leadershipand wrong zoning and all,
(41:43):
something like that could happen.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Is there like a mayor of these donut holes?
Is there like their ownleadership?
It's our county council.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
County council yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Who represent both.
You know, the people in themunicipality and not Every time
I talk to him, I learnedsomething new and I've been, oh,
it's almost nine years now.
I've.
I've known you and I justaren't we fortunate, so I don't
want to leave anybody hanging.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
No boone hall is under a conservation.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Yes, yes, which mount pleasant helped happen.
We took our green belt moneyfrom the county and applied it
to that, even though it's not inthe town, because if it had
gotten, developed.
Speaker 3 (42:17):
Oh well, it's really funny.
You say that because weinterviewed jim west a whole
last year gm he's a great andI'm not gonna.
I'm gonna paraphrase him becauseI'm not gonna remember exactly
what he said he goes, but he's.
We were talking about trafficand things like that.
He said he goes.
You know, people complain aboutwhen I have an event that
there's traffic, yeah, and hegoes.
And all I can say to them iscould you imagine if this was
sold and you built houses andcondos and concert halls and
(42:39):
whatever it might be?
You want to talk about traffic?
Speaker 2 (42:42):
every day, of every day and they only do that about
30 days.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
Exactly Tops, tops Right, and it's not that bad
either.
You know where it is.
You go in the left lane to goright by.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
You live by a farm this is the best part of living
here I love.
Every time I drive by there Istill I say to myself how lucky
I am to live in in a place likethis, never going anywhere else,
lucky to have you, mayor.
Thank you very much for yourtime.
Is there anything else you wantto touch on?
Did we, did we miss?
Speaker 2 (43:12):
anything?
Um well, no, we didn't, wedidn't miss anything I hope we
didn't take too much time.
Um, I never say no when scoutgroups want to come and uh and
meet the mayor and and tour townhall, and so I had had them
there.
The other day there were nineof them.
So I said, hey, this is perfect.
Y'all sit up there like counciland the mayor and make a motion
(43:32):
and vote in second.
And one made a motion and theother said, well, I disagree
with that.
Okay.
And so they learned tocompromise and I said that's
government, that's how it works.
And so at the end I said whatquestions do y'all have?
And they asked a couple ofquestions, this and that.
But one of them said what's themost important thing about
(43:55):
being mayor and I say this withall my heart because I learned
it from a mentor of mine it'snot being good on taxation, it's
not being good on zoning orbusiness, it's being good at
loving the people that live inthis town, because if you don't
love the people that you serve,whatever you're in, you're not
going to be good at it.
So you got to love everybody inthis town, and you know we hear
talk about there's this side oftown which I won't refer to
(44:17):
that town.
We are all mount pleasant andwe've all got to love each other
, and that's the most importantthing I can say love it.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
Thanks, yeah well, thank you so much for your
service again, mayor.
We love having you.
Make sure you know every yearwe're going to have the mayor on
, every single year to kick offour year, we'll report.
Again.
Thank you so much.
The name of Charleston.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Media Solutions Charleston.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
Media Solutions.
I'm going to have to write thatdown.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
Charleston Media Solutions Studios.
Speaker 3 (44:43):
Very excited about that.
Yeah, they're so awesome to usletting us record here.
We hope you enjoyed today'spodcast, Mike.
Thank you so much.
Yeah, great having you here andthe mayor always, always love
to see you Always a pleasure,sir, y'all make it so easy.
Thank you so much for listeningMount Pleasant Until next time.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.