GOOD NEWS: Associations oppose new Sergeant Jasper plan

The Sergeant Jasper building, Charleston, S.C.

Eight neighborhood associations say they’re strongly opposing a plan by The Beach Company to build an 18-story residential tower, 118,000-square foot of office space, 40,350-square-foot retail facility and large parking garage to redevelop property at Broad and Barre streets.

The groups say the proposed redevelopment of the Sergeant Jasper property would alter the city’s skyline with a tower twice as high as area steeples. They say the proposal violates several zoning ordinances, such as how the project is “not in harmony” with the character of the city, incongruous with the neighborhood’s “prevailing character” or “detrimental to the interests of the Old and Historic District and against the public interests of the city.”

[UPDATED] A special meeting of the city’s Board of Architectural Review on the Sergeant Jasper application is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. May 13 at Burke High School’s auditorium. A city Planning Commission meeting is set for 5 p.m. May 18 to discuss a height variance, also at Burke High School’s auditorium.

According to a press release, groups that oppose the company’s plans include 3 Chisolm Street Home Owners Association (HOA), Cannonborough-Elliotborough Neighborhood Association, Charlestowne Neighborhood Association, French Quarter Neighborhood Association, Harleston Place HOA, Harleston Village Neighborhood Association, Historic Ansonborough Neighborhood Association and the Radcliffeborough Neighborhood Association.

• Click here to read more about The Beach Company’s plans.

Also in the news:

Graduation time. Lots of local colleges have been having graduations:

• Charleston School of Law. On Sunday, 132 students graduated from the Charleston School of Law in a ceremony during which noted novelist Dorothea Benton Frank, a Sullivan’s Island native, challenged graduates to take risks and prove their naysayers wrong during their careers. “Dream a dream as big as you can imagine and start figuring out how to realize it,” she said.
• Charleston Southern University. Approximately 500 undergraduate and graduate students received degrees. Speaker Kenneth M. Evans, president of Lord and Evans Capital Group, told them, “”The centerpiece of this historic moment is the mantle of leadership being placed on your shoulders as a college graduate Leadership is inescapable; everyday you are leading someone, be a role model for someone. Influence comes from same word as influenza; you can spread your influence.”
• The Citadel. Some 514 cadets, eight active-duty service members, 24 veteran students, 289 graduate students and 61 graduates of the Evening Undergraduate Program got diplomas on Saturday.

Winning chef. Congratulations to Danny Avenel, chef manager at Porter Gaud School in Charleston. He won the grand prize in a national recipe contest celebrating school chefs, according to a press release. He won a $2,000 prize for creating cranberry, kale and quinoa stuffed poblano and duck tacos for the Cranberry Marketing Committee USA/Flik Independent School Dining Cranberry Recipe Contest.

Guardian ad Litem volunteers sought. The Charleston/Dorchester County office of Cass Elias McCarter Guardian ad Litem Program is offering a 30-hour, free training program to qualify volunteers to become child advocates for children in the foster care system. The next training starts May 26 and will be offered on Tuesday mornings, Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings. Learn more online here.

Day of Giving. Lowcountry Giving Day shattered last year’s record by garnering more than $4 million in donations from more than 10,000 donors becoming the top community in the nation on the annual day to give to nonprofits. The annual event also led to matches by big donors worth more than $3 million. More.

Winning recruiter. Hats off to David Ginn, president and CEO of the Charleston Regional Development Alliance, for being named one of the nation’s top 50 economic developers by site selection consultants in a recent survey by Consultant Connect.

• You can hear Ginn on a recent national podcast here.