Building Business w/ the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
The Building Business podcast provides compelling stories of the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce's journey, its steadfast commitment to the local community, and its forward-thinking approach to addressing the needs of businesses in an ever-changing landscape. It stands as an invitation to listeners to become part of a movement that values growth, connection, and the collective progress of the Mount Pleasant, South Carolina community.
Be prepared to be inspired, informed, and motivated, as we provide a rich tapestry of stories that celebrate the dynamic interplay of business and personal growth right here, in our own backyard.
Building Business w/ the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
Growth, Conservation, and Community: Mount Pleasant's Path Forward w/ Mayor Will Haynie
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 Radio Group
Production Sponsor: rūmbo advertising
Committee:
Kathleen Herrmann | Host | MPCC Immediate Past President
Michael Cochran | Co-host | Past President
Mike Compton | Co-host | Marketing Chair
Rebecca Imholz | Co-host | MPCC Director
Amanda Bunting Comen | Co-host | Social ABCs
Darius Kelly | Creative Director | DK Design
inspiring wannabe mayor.
Speaker 2:Hey, I don't want to give anybody any ideas Talk me out of it.
Speaker 1:I'm talking 10 years down the road. Is there going to be doing this in 10 years?
Speaker 3:No, Hi and welcome to the Building a Business podcast powered by the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce. We are here recording in the Charleston Radio Group studios, who are huge supporters of the chamber. Thank you to everyone here for recording us today. I am your immediate past president of the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce and I am also the marketing director at Mount Pleasant Town Center, and one of my favorite co-hosts is here with me today.
Speaker 2:Oh hey, favorite, I know favorite, that's nice of you to say.
Speaker 3:He didn't know See he was really taken by surprise, but it is true. Please welcome Mike Compton. Mike is the president of Roomba Advertising and is the current marketing chair for the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce.
Speaker 1:You just keep asking me back for another year of marketing. It's so much fun though.
Speaker 3:You know why? Because you just keep doing everything so well.
Speaker 1:We just don't let you go oh my gosh, I am not paying you a dime, not a dime, not a dime. Thank you very much. You're very sweet Today. Oh, we need to update your script because the Charleston Radio Group is now called the Charleston Media Solutions.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, now we know. Well, the sign outside says Charleston Radio Group. We've got some branding work to do as a marketing head. Good to know different. So branding work to do, yes, as a marketing head, as a marketing head yourself, uh, yeah, it takes time.
Speaker 1:Yes, it takes uh-huh, uh-huh. Today we have a uh a guest, a recurring guest. We like to have this guest on a lot because he's such a good conversation and he does so much for our community. Mayor will haney, welcome to the show thanks, mike, good to be here.
Speaker 2:Yes, you know, I'm having flashbacks 20 something years ago, okay, up North Carolina, where Hurricane Helene did its damage, I had a morning talk radio show and I'm used to that, mike going live at 6 am which means you started your show prep at 4 am and boy, it was a long stretch, till 10 am.
Speaker 1:You're a marketing head too, you own a public relations company, don't you? Yeah, nice.
Speaker 2:I got away from marketing and more into strategic communications after I became mayor, but that's another topic for another day.
Speaker 3:Whatever You're asking me about mayor.
Speaker 2:I want to hear about you.
Speaker 1: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 in the green room earlier it's part-time. That's mind-boggling to me right now. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:Help me out. There are three kinds of government 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 North Charleston, goose Creek and maybe Folly Beach, I think Folly Beach. So there's no rhyme or reason as to who has which form of government. But like Mayor Riley and Mayor Summey, they ran the town and everybody reported to them. We have the middle form, which is called the council form of government, so the council and the mayor. I'm just one voting member of council. Now, yes, I have to sign the bonds and I have to sign the ordinances and I have to give the state of the town address, but I don't set the budget, I don't hire and fire staff and I can't direct staff. So when Mr Compton calls and says, hey, my trash didn't get picked up, this morning, I would never Well there's nothing wrong with that, and that doesn't happen in Mount Pleasant often, by the way, it did last week.
Speaker 2:Right there you go During the snow. I, as an elected official and council members, we don't call the head of that department and say go pick up the Compton's trash. We get in touch with their boss, the town administrator, who is a trained professional and a very good one, Eric DeMora, and he has to direct his staff to do that. If you're in Charleston or North Charleston, I'm ratting on my friends, this is education.
Speaker 2:You can call them and they can say hey, this is the mayor, Go get the Compton's trash. It's a different form of government and we have to abide by the law. And the reason I'm bringing that up is lots of people have moved here recently. Yes, and they're from places where, if the mayor wants your trash picked up, the mayor gets on the phone and says go pick up their trash.
Speaker 2:They are not used to our form of government. And you know why don't you change this traffic intersection? Why don't you do it? Because the mayor does not have that authority.
Speaker 3:But they still bother you in the supermarket.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't say bother.
Speaker 3:Talk to you.
Speaker 2:When you're the mayor in Mount Pleasant, you are always working. There's no place to hide restaurants and stuff and and I'm not saying that people are a problem at all but I I bet you, if I asked today, at whatever time it is that we're, that we are filming this, what is your state legislature voting on today? What are they voting on in congress or the united states senate today? I bet you don't know.
Speaker 2:Everybody knows what we're voting on when we do things and if you're out in town, they want to talk about it and it's their right to talk about it. Now there are times when I have to say here's my card. Call me at the office, because I'm on my way to an obligation or something, and that's not a bother, but that is a reality, I'm sure it is.
Speaker 1:Well, you're a public figure, people gonna. They don't know that. This is the different. This is how we run the show here exactly um. They don't know that you don't, you can't just make a phone call right which is which is interesting to me, because I I am from the north as well. Right, I'm a come ya. No, okay, I know you are as well, I know kathy is, but you had I wasn't born here.
Speaker 2: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:That's close enough for me now, exactly, I'm not from here.
Speaker 1:Exactly Well, you can know more about that in our last episode that we had with you last year, Mayor. But where you said to people like myself I'm from Detroit, but I lived in Tampa for 18 years.
Speaker 2:I moved up, so I'm like half way up.
Speaker 1:Where are?
Speaker 2:you seeing a lot of people moving from. You know we kind of track that stuff and everything.
Speaker 1:I don't need that. I don't need real data.
Speaker 2:Just like. Where do you think? Well, what I see is the most in migration to these areas is actually Georgia, North Carolina. Now everybody says Ohio, new York and all that New.
Speaker 3:York, new york, new jersey. But that's not right. That's not necessarily that's what I was looking for the most, it's not so we're getting a bad rap again.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know I know your personalities are just so big. It's enough for two senses of two people. That's right, I'm kidding, I'm only 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:we launched the podcast last year with our episode with the mayor.
Speaker 1:Correct Right and about the same date today Around-ish right, so we're really excited to have you back.
Speaker 3:Thank you and I know this is a really horrible general question, but in honesty I mean, let's talk about what's changed in a year.
Speaker 2:There you go, wow, and.
Speaker 3:I know we don't have to go over everything, because obviously the town is growing and there's so many different things going on, but if you had to pick one or two things that have really changed, obviously in a positive way, is what we want to focus on in the last year. Top of mind, no stats, no data. Two things.
Speaker 2:Two things we have been recognized in the last year for some of our most important things that we do as a town for the betterment of the town now and in the future. One is we received a statewide award for excellence in conservation leadership, and by conservation I mean not only taking care of green space and taking 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, look at California, right where the wildfires were. A little management and a little thinking about resilience. So we got a statewide award for that. We got a statewide award from the Municipal Association of South Carolina because we were the only municipality in the state to have a reduction in opioid-related deaths and overdoses.
Speaker 3:And that reduction was 40%.
Speaker 1:That's huge 40%.
Speaker 2:And that's because we have a partnership with Wake Up Carolina, which Nancy Shipman started. She's a homegrown Mount Pleasant person, lost a son to an opioid overdose years ago and turned ashes into beauty, and so we have a partnership there. Because if you have somebody in your family struggling with addiction, do you want to call the police or do you want to call a nonprofit that comes alongside and says, let us help you? Let us help you, of course, or do 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 we have we cannot arrest our way.
Speaker 2:This is Carl Ritchie's words we cannot arrest our way out of an addiction crisis. It takes more to cure addiction.
Speaker 3:Well, just arresting people and throwing them in jail is not going to have any effect on the problem.
Speaker 2:No, and so we got those. Wake Up, wake Up Carolina, wake Up Carolina. Yes, and they are homegrown Mount Pleasant. So I could go into all those details. The other thing and this is a little wonky but it is huge is that every 10 years by law we have to have a new comprehensive plan and that is how Mount Pleasant will be used, both developed, undeveloped green space and redeveloped properties, how those can be used in the future to make our community good you know.
Speaker 2:And that's what and that has to be translated into zoning. That is a use that is sort of like a big picture and zoning is this parcel has A B zoning or residential or mixed use or whatever. So I know it's down to the wonky stuff. You have to hire an outside law firm. It took us two years and we just passed that new zoning, nice. So now we have on the map you know what your zoning is, what can go here. Have on the map, you know what your zoning is, what can go here. And we also in the past year included for mixed use a requirement for attainable housing.
Speaker 3:I was going to say yes, you heard about that.
Speaker 2:There's a minimum, or mandatory minimum I should say exactly of attainable housing correct and and this is why in my 10 years, I got elected to council in 2015 and mayor in 2017. In my 10 years, I have seen the attainable housing thing going from a being perceived as a very nice social agenda to a strategic economic goal of both the town and the region. And I sit on on the regional, all the regional economic things. Because if you can't afford to live in this town and y'all, y'all have lots of employees at town center and all that as we do at the town, and the uh median house price is over 880 000, where's your workforce going to come from? Right, and the old term was workforce housing and people thought, oh no, there goes the neighborhood right?
Speaker 3:Well, I think they still think that about attainable housing too, and that's what concerns and scares me.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:Attainable housing. It's for the everyday person.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:It's for my kids who wanted, if they wanted to live here, and police and firemen and school teachers and nurses Everyone we need to make this town the awesome town that it is to live in.
Speaker 3:they can't afford to live here, right, you know. So that is what attainable housing is everybody it is. You know, we need it to survive.
Speaker 2:It is not the projects like you see coming in on the interstate and other municipalities. It is built to the same standards, the same quality and I'm glad that during my term as mayor so far that we've had one new attainable housing. That was sort of like the breakthrough done and now we have permitted another hundred units and we're working on. Greenville is the model in South Carolina and Greenville didn't go out and just build it. Now they do put money from their budget in it. But what Greenville did is when the developments came in, they said, okay, you would do this and you can't do it.
Speaker 2:It's called inclusionary zoning. You can't say we'll give you the zoning, you have to have a planned development. Okay, so you've got some mixed use and you've got some residential, but we want 20% or 25% attainableable in there and it has revitalized downtown greenville. So you know, I think we've started a little water over the dam and I'm in the last year of my second term and and I want to make sure we keep this progress going. Because how old do you have to be, even if you're a doctor or lawyer, if you're graduating from high school now in Mount Pleasant, how old do you think you're going to be before you can afford the median home price in this town. You're probably going to be well into your forties and that's sad, you know.
Speaker 3:we're losing amazing talent because they literally cannot afford to live here and they don't want to do the drive or whatever it might be. So they're taking their talents and they're moving out of state or moving back home or moving somewhere new Right, and I find it's a shame. It is Well you're working on it though.
Speaker 1:We're working on it.
Speaker 3:We're getting there.
Speaker 2:Well, we don't have areas like Charleston and North Charleston have, and I won't call any of this easy, but they've got places where they can put a few hundred units and it's not overcrowding schools or roads or anything. We don't have that in Mount Pleasant, right, and we also know if we pooled our money regionally, which could make sense, we know that the dirt is so expensive in Mount Pleasant that the regional buy. They're not going to buy the land in Mount Pleasant and build it. So our way and our vision in the 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 mixed use where you have retail on the bottom, a moderate amount of residential on top, and that's where that requirement kicks in.
Speaker 3:I like that I think everybody can be happy with that. I like that too, Mr Mayor.
Speaker 2:That's downtown Charleston. I'm not talking about the big high stuff. I'm talking about a story or two.
Speaker 1: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 missing here in this beautiful town, city, but we'll talk about that later. Um is is something over two stories, that's right. Can we? Can we? I understand why we keep things low here in the holy city, right, but are we over there? Do we have to over here too? In mount pleasant side do we have the height restriction?
Speaker 2:we do, and and we redid those a couple of years ago and I think we got a good model. We have up to 80 feet in some places, like where East Cooper Hospital is, because it's already 80 feet. You wouldn't notice it there, but if you tried to put 80 feet at town center, you're going to get a lot of resident pushback and so on. Our height maps most of it is 50. Some of it is 55. Most of it on the street is only 35.
Speaker 1:What does that equate to story-wise Mayor, Help me out with the math here Two stories, like right on a corridor. Copy that.
Speaker 2: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:That's one of the things I love about this town is the height restrictions and no digital billboards, but that's a whole thing Right, that's a whole thing and what we were
Speaker 2:able to get, for the tall ones is on the street. You're one level and then it's called the wedding cake design and then you go back and you might have two and then three, four, five here. So I can tell you, there's one very famous tract of land in Mount Pleasant. It's been vacant for years and years and it's getting ready to be built on. What you see on the street will be one height and then there'll be another story and the tallest portion they're allowed, which is up to 65 feet, is so far in. It will not feel like a 65 foot, five or six story building. Sure, that's the way a well-designed municipality does it, and it passed, and that's what we did.
Speaker 1:See that. Yeah, thank you. Good way of thinking there. You you mentioned something about, um uh, things that are being expensive in the town of mount pleasant, and correct me if I'm wrong, but can you own chickens?
Speaker 2:did you see my post on facebook? Apparently there is a law, uh, that goes way back in Mount Pleasant you are allowed five laying hens in your yard, but no roosters, because they crow and disturb the neighbors.
Speaker 1:Okay hens only.
Speaker 2:But good luck with your HOA and I will double check and make sure that the interpretation I got of that law is still valid. Yeah, yeah, sure that uh the interpretation 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 we speak, because of the bird flu and stuff. Yeah, um, don't we all wish we had five laying hens?
Speaker 2:I would do it if I could do it. I checked with my hoa this week and they said no, we can't allow you to have my hoa neither as well.
Speaker 1:Um well, I certainly didn't check with mine, but I'm gonna have to assume they'd say no to we can't allow you to have it. Am I OHOing either as well?
Speaker 3:Well, I certainly didn't check with mine, but I'm going to have to assume they'd say no too. Dunes West yes.
Speaker 1:Probably not. They don't allow golf carts there, they don't allow chickens. Maybe, Anyways, thought that was a fun question, certainly is. Was it real when I heard I hear a lot of things right, I hear a lot of things right that you limited the amount of new permits being able to build in the mountain? Oh yeah, we did that years ago.
Speaker 2:I love that and we did it. What we did, we didn't just say we don't like people who are moving here, we don't like growth whatever. We looked at our police calls for service, our fire calls for service. We looked at our school populations and everything and we took the data and backed into what we thought was a sustainable growth rate, and so we effectively cut the growth rate in half. Much less we did not like the distinction of being the wild west of the east. We were the fastest growing municipality east of the Mississippi River and I kind of got elected mayor on the. We will slow growth down, and that is called. The building permit allocation system is still in effect and so it limits the number of multifamily that can be built a year and the number of new construction. Now it does not apply if you have a house and you want to tear it down there was a house there and there's one house there when you're done. But this is for new residences in town so yeah because you can't just you.
Speaker 2:You know somebody's got to provide police, fire, manage traffic and build new schools and you can't just let every developer come in and say we're doing 500 homes here I feel like that's what happened, though, in like 2003, 2005.
Speaker 1:I mean, you know what I mean. Yes, that's when my neighborhood was built and there's hundreds of people back there, yes, houses and whatnot families.
Speaker 3:Well then, also, you know, they built an open Lucy Beckham because there was too many students at Wando. And then Lucy Beckham's already full, she's full yeah, right.
Speaker 2:So we have two high schools in this town and they're both phenomenon of that. Was they planned right for the growth and the end migration? What they?
Speaker 1:did not expect was the family, because Lucy Beckham is such a good school, you know thanks to Anna Dassing's leadership, we're blessed with great school leadership in this town.
Speaker 3:Well, ccdsd is amazing to work with. They're incredible, charles Coker at.
Speaker 2:Wando is fantastic, and so what they did not count on was a number of families that took their kids out of private schools and out of magnet schools to go to Beckham, and that's why it reached capacity.
Speaker 3:I wouldn't have counted on that. Nobody did.
Speaker 2:They nailed the number of new move into town. But they realized man, people are leaving the magnet schools and going to beckham. But aren't we blessed to have?
Speaker 3: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 of moving 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're going to go anywhere in the Charleston area, mount Pleasant has the best schools.
Speaker 2:I'm married to a school teacher. She taught well. She's not teaching now it's after her career, but she taught at Jenny Moore for almost a decade. Oh, wow. So I'm real partial to that.
Speaker 3:And let's don't leave out Oceanside.
Speaker 2:I just did groundbreaking out there Oceanside.
Speaker 1:But the last thing in the news I heard that Oceanside was gone, but now they're back on. What was that all about?
Speaker 2:That was an administrative thing about their charter. They're a state charter school. They're not a Charleston County school. They just won a state championship in football Amazing.
Speaker 3:I think their float came in second at the Christmas parade last year.
Speaker 1:Were you you judge? I sure was, I thought so.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, it was so much fun. I had such a great time.
Speaker 1:Kathy, what else you got?
Speaker 3:Well, I'm going to talk about business for a little bit, because one of the things that obviously the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce supports our local businesses is do you have any kind of insight or direction or ease of starting a new business in Mount Pleasant? It could be a little bit difficult, so we'd love to hear from you about the best way to go about it. I never want to use the word shortcuts, but you know by the permitting process and things because we want to support our businesses getting open.
Speaker 2:Yes, two things. One, we have a great economic development director who did this podcast.
Speaker 1:Where is he from?
Speaker 2:Matt Brady. We stole him from Goose. Creek, where my good friend Greg Habib is the mayor and he's still mad at me.
Speaker 3:Sorry, I'm sorry. I love Goose Creek and I love your mayor, he is one of my best friends.
Speaker 2:I talked to him the other day but for one, Matt is there to help. Now it is not his job to issue permits and all that kind of stuff, Correct, but he can say and we have a kit for new people to do that we also have, and this is a big part of my state of the town address that's all video.
Speaker 3:By the way, it's only five minutes, it's only five minutes.
Speaker 2:The new one. We'll have our OPAL. That's an acronym for something online permitting assistance.
Speaker 3:Oh, is that new? Yeah, it's new.
Speaker 2:Okay, I was going to say I don't think it is a one-stop digital shop to help you with all your permits and all of those type things. That is exactly what we need.
Speaker 3:That's amazing, so everyone keep an eye on that Way to go, Matt Brady. O-p-a-l.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:So when you're looking to start your new business, everything will be available for you in one spot on the Mount Pleasant website. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Right Permitting and all of that. The other thing, too, is the attitude that you have about business. How many ribbon cuttings does the town do with the chamber? We do a lot and we won't talk about the one-take-will aspect. I'm under pressure to get it in one take.
Speaker 3:Right off the cuff, yeah, but you do a fantastic job Almost.
Speaker 2:Almost Thank you.
Speaker 3:And Rebecca's got it nailed. She doesn't screw anything up anymore. Good, she never did. No, she's rebecca imholtz, our director of the chamber, does all these ribbon cuttings and I mean she's got that down, it is I will say this.
Speaker 2:I've seen others and been other places. Ours is a well-oiled machine the town and the chamber. It's seamless, it's fun, but those are important. You can say ribbon cuttings are symbolic, but they show we we are glad you're here and we support you and we put it out. We have 70,000 followers on Facebook and the chambers got it. But you know we do that.
Speaker 2:The other thing we did is we got the. We had this one region roadmap commission and I was on it and it was business leaders and government leaders commission and and I was on it and it was business leaders and government leaders. You know through through the chamber, the charleston metro chamber and and um and the uh charleston regional development alliance and mount pleasant has a seat at that table as well and I was on that and and we charted the sort of future for economic development for the whole region because it's better to do it as a region. Oh yeah, and the lead technology agent in that is the Charleston Harbor Entrepreneur Center Not Charleston, but Harbor Entrepreneur Center and they landed in Mount Pleasant and it's a public-private partnership. The town put money in it and now there are like 109 businesses related to that.
Speaker 1:That's wild.
Speaker 2:They are full, but people are moving in and moving out all the time as they grow and everything, and people can say, well, what's the return of investment on that to the town? Well, what's the return of investment on an art center or a playground or a?
Speaker 3:senior center Happiness, success, vibrant community.
Speaker 2:It's a vibrant community and it shows the community. We care about this and we care about startups and and mount pleasant is not going to get the boeings and the volvos.
Speaker 1:We know we're there's no space for them.
Speaker 2:There's no space, we're gonna get these kind of startups and everything, and I think it's very important that the harbor entrepreneur center is in mount pleasant and is the lead agent for the whole region for technology development they just started too, didn't?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, how long ago, a couple years, I think.
Speaker 2:They've been there less than two years. Yeah, I was gonna say that because we were looking.
Speaker 3:We were looking at the possibility of having our offices there at one time, before we had our current offices, and so that was all around the same time yeah, yeah, they're doing amazing things over there um grady grady, yeah, yeah and, uh, patrick bryant. Yeah right, we talked to patrick, we did, we did, we did he was a guest on the episode, he was able to speak with us too so then that kind of makes my marketing head go a little bit crazy.
Speaker 1:But so are we marketing to other regions by chance. Are we doing any kind of?
Speaker 2:outreach to where and how we are doing it and keep in mind for our region it is a team approach between Charleston County Economic Development and the Charleston Regional Development Alliance, who got the Boeings and the Mercedes and the Volvos here and 50,000 jobs in 20 something years. Um, we cannot compete with uh CRDA traveling the world doing trade shows in London, paris, munich, you know.
Speaker 2:I was curious in Asia we can't compete with that, nor nor should we. But we can market ourselves somewhat regionally, but we we don't want to step over each other, so we're putting our best foot forward. Um, we make sure that we do everything we can and position ourselves and we buy ads and do that type of thing too. Um, but we are not trying to out-compete the county and the region for that. For the other reason is we have a very narrowly defined. I mean, let's just say you're in retail. I don't want to say retail is easy in Mount Pleasant, but we aren't hurting because of our demographics. I mean there's $3 billion in retail sales in Mount Pleasant a year. $3 billion.
Speaker 3:As long as most of that comes to me, I'm good.
Speaker 1:And you're a half percent of that. You know I mean you've seen nationally in restaurants.
Speaker 2:They love our demographics, they love our low crime, they love everything that we have in Mount Pleasant, so we're not just out there going. Oh, we need, you know, I think we need more than one Waffle House. That is one of the biggest failures of my time in elected office.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry, we have 20 Starbucks and one.
Speaker 2:Waffle House we need five, you know, and that type thing and we lost Cracker Barrel.
Speaker 1:Speaking of yeah we lost Cracker Barrel. How does that work? Years ago.
Speaker 2:So but yeah, we do that, and the other thing is we have the Mount Pleasant Made.
Speaker 3:Yes, you know, that's our brand. Yes, what's?
Speaker 2:that all about we, we, we market and and produce that we, mount pleasant, are a, and we may be different than charleston and north charleston, but we are mount pleasant, we have a vibrant economy, we have vibrant businesses that are growing, expanding and and the other thing, when you're a mount pleasant, what you want to do is when they grow here, you want to keep them here, and sometimes we lose people, not because they don't like Mount Pleasant anymore, but because they need a different type of space or they need more space or something like that. So one of the things that Matt Brady does is keeps his eye on inventory, on land and things like that, so that we can keep it going.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, that's important for sure.
Speaker 3:So, mayor, what other? We talked about affordable housing, of course, and all that and the moratorium on apartments and things like that. So what other in 2025, kind of do you have any other like pet projects or any kind of focus or any kind of projects or initiatives that you find to be just top of mind for the town.
Speaker 2:We are working on something, and it's legal and contractual, which will be a major green space thing for us.
Speaker 3:Okay that's wonderful.
Speaker 2:Here's the thing about green space and let me tie this into business, since this is really a business-oriented thing. I am a big believer in what they call the placemaking dividend. Is that the age of people looking for smokestacks and business parks and three-phase power and pavement are kind of over. What people are looking for is good education, low crime, high quality of life and the aesthetics of life that you have a place. And that placemaking dividend means people come through and I've had how many businesses do we know of? People say I came here with my family and I thought why don't we move here? Why don't we move our business here and move our family here? I'm a big believer in that. And instead of looking for deals and for looking for discounts or incentives a Harvard business study, business School study shows they are looking for values, and those values are taking care of people, taking care of business and taking care of the environment.
Speaker 2:And the thing about green space in the environment is you can't look down the road and say why don't we put this money aside, and when that track comes up for sale 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 there and and you're planning on green space and people love it's one of the highest rated things we get when we do surveys. People want us to buy and protect green space. It's part of what makes like you, you agree with that.
Speaker 1:Good, thank you. Thank you well. So the green space I live down 41 and we're talking about going through some green space to as one option for the road systems.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right against that I. I went to the state permitting hearing and said you know, don't permit this, we don't need a road through that park no, that's so.
Speaker 1:We're talking about park west.
Speaker 2:We do need to fix 41 and we do need to fix the intersection. It's a safety issue, but I don't think they need to permit that road. Do the rest and leave that road out of the park. So, if everything works out, you're going to see a really big all work out. We now have one mil of your tax bill is set aside where that money can only go towards purchasing and maintaining green space, and I think the public really really likes that.
Speaker 2:And yes, that is a business incentive thing too that I've always said. You know, the best-selling pitch we have to any business is we are a town that is, on purpose, taking care of our people, our businesses and our environment, and that's what we're trying to do and you're doing it. And you know, when I was a council member and we passed the no, it was after I was mayor we passed the single-use plastic bag I hate to say ban, but we changed that. Nobody went out of business. No, we didn't have these big corporations coming down saying y'all don't like us, we're pulling out of here. They said, okay, we get it, yeah, exactly and they bought into it.
Speaker 1:Yeah you brought up the fact that you were council. How, so? What was your track then to become mayor, and and what's your future track looking like?
Speaker 3:be very careful. Mike's listening to this. I could not imagine being mayor, being elected mayor without or no?
Speaker 2:I couldn't imagine serving a day as mayor without having been on council first you got to see how it works, what the issues are and all that and know 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:How many years were your council?
Speaker 2:Two years, and so I ran in the middle of my the first the term that I was elected to, because I just felt like we weren't going to get the change that that I felt passionate about without somebody of that mindset being mayor, whether it was me or somebody else. Um, I have no political ambitions other than being the mayor of Mount Pleasant. 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 town where you have your own Christmas parade where you have your own blessing of the fleet you know where you have all your own sweet grass basket festival and all of these things.
Speaker 2:I don't want to be one member of a body of you know a hundred or hundreds of people, and all that because I like having a town. That is, that is our town, that is my town, and and so that's just the way I'm wired.
Speaker 1:Nice yeah, and we're nonpartisan.
Speaker 2: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 the last election I endorsed people of both parties who were the best, who had Mount Pleasant's best interest in that part, regardless of their party Nonpartisan.
Speaker 1:I like that, yep.
Speaker 3:So town council. Mike, Did you write that down?
Speaker 1:I've already met a couple guys there.
Speaker 3:We know a couple of them. We know a couple of them, sure, through the chamber, very supportive of the chamber.
Speaker 1:Wrapping things up a little bit. I love how we're even becoming more intertwined with the chamber and the town. One example is we're doing all the ribbon cuttings. Now Rebecca is officially taking that over. That's right.
Speaker 3:One example is we're doing all the ribbon cuttings. Now Rebecca is officially taking that over. That's a lot right there and of course, matt Brady is back as official town liaison back on our executive board of directors. It's great to have him there.
Speaker 2:It's great that the chamber has a physical headquarters. Now, that is huge, do you think that was?
Speaker 1:something that we needed a lot. Do you think that was the button that was pushed? That makes it legit? Is that what it was?
Speaker 3:like a lot. You think that was the button that was pushed. Well, I mean, is that what it was? I'm not the only one who has said this. I'm not going to call it any names, but when I first moved here, the first thing I I didn't know anybody. So the first thing I wanted to do business-wise was to join the chamber right, and at the time it was the mount pleasant business association, wasn't even the chamber, wasn't even the chamber. And so I'm looking around, I'm trying to find it. I can't find. It took me like three days to find it and I call and I think it was Tamara who answered. But anyway, I almost shouldn't have called her out. But anyway, we miss you, tamara. But I say, can I stop by? I'd like to stop by and get some information on and they go well, we don't have offices.
Speaker 1:Her cute southern accent super nice.
Speaker 3:How does a chamber not have a space?
Speaker 1:Brick and mortar.
Speaker 3:Or even a space in a space, like at the welcome center, whatever it might've been Right. So, to answer your question, yes, I think that it's just. It's just one of many steps that we've taken over the last level those up. I mean to be we. We call ourselves a real chamber. Now, like we are, we are big girl chambered, big boy chamber with our own offices. A great new board of directors staff full-time staff and just be doing all these great things.
Speaker 2:And for a town that does $3 billion a year in retail sales, by golly we ought to have a real chamber and we have one, thanks to the leadership.
Speaker 1:A town that does $3 billion. You like to say that we are?
Speaker 2:a town. It's a mentality. I know we meet the qualifications of a city, but we will always be and consider ourselves a town.
Speaker 3:Do you think anyone will ever change that Mayor?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 3:Okay good, because I don't want to change it.
Speaker 1:I don't think anybody will ever change it, unless you have to, unless you have to change it. Is there a way? No, you don't have to.
Speaker 2:Is there like?
Speaker 1:No, there is no law of what you're called Is the tax bracket doesn't get any better.
Speaker 2:No, and there's no thing that says when you pass this, you know the census says you have this many people. There is nothing that says that.
Speaker 3:No kidding, oh, I'm so happy about that.
Speaker 2:That made me really nervous.
Speaker 3:I'm like if we continue to get people, they're just going to automatically.
Speaker 1:I mean just the to grow, there's no doubt about that, but the fact that there's no legal button that has to be pushed for the population.
Speaker 3:I absolutely love it. It's so funny, I absolutely love it.
Speaker 1:And then we're also working together on the business resource side of things too, the Mount. Pleasant Made resources starting a business, and then you said you were starting an app.
Speaker 2:There's that app, Opal. It's a permitting thing that's a great thing to go to. It's a one-stop click of a button thing to help you with all permitting and applications and everything.
Speaker 3:Again back to the chamber for a second. We would have new businesses join, and then they would say, well, how do I do this? We'd be like, oh, go to the town. But now, since we're, doing so many things together, though we're sharing your information on our website. You're sharing our information on your website, so I mean, it's just everywhere. It's just so easy, and we don't have to send people you know, just go.
Speaker 3:We don't have to say we don't know anymore. We can say exactly where people can get information, and that just shows what a great partnership it is.
Speaker 1:Because we used to get tourism questions, oh, all the time. Here's a tourist question for you IOP and Sullivan's Island are they under your? Is it Mount?
Speaker 2:Pleasant, or those are different cities, right.
Speaker 1:Municipalities, Municipalities different towns.
Speaker 2:They have mayors and councils.
Speaker 1:yes, Yep, interesting. Okay, what about the annual island? No municipalities, different towns. They have mayors and councils. Yes, yep, interesting okay, all right.
Speaker 3:What about the island? No, that's um, that's charleston, that's berkeley county, right, that's a weird one too, though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but we won't go into the different zones and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Well, north charleston is in three different counties. It's in dorchester, charleston and berkeley. Can you imagine? No, that's you got different council elections when there are referendums on the ballot. You know, on berkeley county's got a referendum, why wouldn't on mine? Because you're in dorchester, it's, it's crazy. Well, here's, here's one for people that move here from other places, some of the.
Speaker 1:There are big areas right in the middle of mount pleasant that are not in the town they're called donut holes I don't want to bring that up when you come into 526 and you get to where Johnny Dot 17 North goes under. That is not in the town of Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 2:And a few years ago when you were on Coleman Boulevard, which for decades has been the de facto main street of Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 3:We don't really have one.
Speaker 2: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 little shopping center. That was not in the town of Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 1:I don't get it. Maybe I do get it, though. Hold on. In Tampa there's an offset called Ybor City and within Ybor City there's a plot of Cuban land. Could this land be?
Speaker 2:Cuban? No, but the principle is there and I've told people at the state level because we are trying to get a bill passed that if you are completely surrounded by a municipality because, see, everybody thinks municipalities can say we're annexing you, we can't in South, you have to apply and want to be annexeded. There is no like hostile annexation like that. So interesting. So, um, imagine if you were driving up i-26 and all of a sudden there was another state. You're now entering georgia and a mile later you're now entering south and I wouldn't stand for that?
Speaker 2:no, but we have to deal with that as as a city.
Speaker 3:But what about, like, what about trash services and things? Yeah, yeah water all of that.
Speaker 2:Well water is a whole different issue, but trash, no. We don't pick up trash outside the county. We have an agreement If there's a fire, our fire truck isn't going to pull up watch a home burn down and go.
Speaker 3:Oh dang, what bad luck there in the county. But what about the donut?
Speaker 2:holes. Not going to do that. Yeah, all of that, it's the same thing.
Speaker 3:It's so wild. So where does their garbage go? Don't ask, if you don't want to know.
Speaker 1:I'm curious.
Speaker 2:However, the county does it, which I think they contract for a private entity.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's so, and that's also the same with Boone Hall too, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, boone Hall is not a town. In Mount Pleasant fire station. They are not in Mount Pleasant. Yeah, so our fire trucks could drive past another fire station. You know they answer the call and they drive past the Allendale-McClellanville fire station and go by and put out a fire and there's a fire station right there. Now there is mutual aid and stuff, but just the irony that's, that's what donut holes result in. Wow, it's not efficient and it's not great and what's the fix?
Speaker 1:what's the solution?
Speaker 2: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 through agreements, like I I said for first responders and all that stuff, and we try as much as we can for the county's comp plan and zoning to match ours. So that right, I mean, what if somebody had bought that land? What if somebody had bought Boone Hall? No, I won't.
Speaker 1:I won't.
Speaker 3:Somebody will say don't go there. What if?
Speaker 2:somebody had bought the old shopping center on Coleman and decided what if the county zoning there allowed them to put a junkyard or a place where they stack up tires to be burned or recycled, or something that would ruin Mount Pleasant's business in that area? But now that did not happen and hopefully it won't. But, with the wrong leadership and wrong zoning and all, something like that could happen.
Speaker 1:Is there like a mayor of these donut holes? Is there like their own leadership? It's our county council.
Speaker 3:County council yeah.
Speaker 2:Who represent both. You know, the people in the municipality and not Every time I talk to him, I learned something new and I've been, oh, it's almost nine years now. I've. I've known you and I just aren't we fortunate, so I don't want to leave anybody hanging.
Speaker 3:No boone hall is under a conservation.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, which mount pleasant helped happen. We took our green belt money from the county and applied it to that, even though it's not in the town, because if it had gotten, developed.
Speaker 3:Oh well, it's really funny. You say that because we interviewed jim west a whole last year gm he's a great and I'm not gonna.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna paraphrase him because I'm not gonna remember exactly what he said he goes, but he's. We were talking about traffic and things like that. He said he goes. You know, people complain about when I have an event that there's traffic, yeah, and he goes. And all I can say to them is could you imagine if this was sold and you built houses and condos and concert halls and whatever it might be? You want to talk about traffic?
Speaker 2:every day, of every day and they only do that about 30 days.
Speaker 3:Exactly Tops, tops Right, and it's not that bad either. You know where it is. You go in the left lane to go right by.
Speaker 1:You live by a farm this is the best part of living here I love. Every time I drive by there I still I say to myself how lucky I am to live in in a place like this, never going anywhere else, lucky to have you, mayor. Thank you very much for your time. Is there anything else you want to touch on? Did we, did we miss?
Speaker 2:anything? Um well, no, we didn't, we didn't miss anything I hope we didn't take too much time.
Speaker 2:Um, I never say no when scout groups want to come and uh and meet the mayor and and tour town hall, and so I had had them there. The other day there were nine of them. So I said, hey, this is perfect. Y'all sit up there like council and the mayor and make a motion and vote in second. And one made a motion and the other said, well, I disagree with that. Okay.
Speaker 2:And so they learned to compromise and I said that's government, that's how it works. And so at the end I said what questions do y'all have? And they asked a couple of questions, this and that. But one of them said what's the most important thing about being mayor and I say this with all my heart because I learned it from a mentor of mine it's not being good on taxation, it's not being good on zoning or business, it's being good at loving the people that live in this 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 in this town, and you know we hear talk about there's this side of town which I won't refer to that town.
Speaker 2:We are all mount pleasant and we've all got to love each other, and that's the most important thing I can say love it.
Speaker 3:Thanks, yeah well, thank you so much for your service again, mayor. We love having you. Make sure you know every year we're going to have the mayor on, every single year to kick off our year, we'll report. Again. Thank you so much. The name of Charleston.
Speaker 1:Media Solutions Charleston.
Speaker 3:Media Solutions. I'm going to have to write that down.
Speaker 1:Charleston Media Solutions Studios.
Speaker 3:Very excited about that. Yeah, they're so awesome to us letting us record here. We hope you enjoyed today's podcast, Mike. Thank you so much. Yeah, great having you here and the mayor always, always love to see you Always a pleasure, sir, y'all make it so easy. Thank you so much for listening Mount Pleasant Until next time.
