Berkeley County planning commission recommends PD rezoning for 5,500‑unit Cane Bay village after extensive public comment

The Berkeley County Planning Commission voted to recommend a plan‑development (PD) rezoning for a multi‑parcel proposal that would allow a planned mixed‑use village near Moncks Corner, enabling up to about 5,500 dwelling units and related commercial and institutional uses.

Staff told the commission the PD and an accompanying 25‑year development agreement would establish form‑based standards, an approximately 429‑acre nature overlay, and phased transportation triggers. Staff said the proposed gross density—about 2.75 units per acre when spread across the assembled acreage—was below some suburban zoning maximums and recommended approval subject to conditions and further wordsmithing of the development agreement.

Developer representatives, including Martin Grambling and Ben Grambling, described community outreach and offered commitments the applicant said would be included in the development agreement: a clause to prohibit road interconnections into the Wynwood community, timed delivery of external road connections (Pinecrest within 30 months; Fairwinds Boulevard extension within 54 months), a $10,000,000 allocation toward transportation mitigation, school and emergency‑services set‑asides, and preservation of open space within the nature overlay. Martin Grambling summarized outreach and pledged that the developer would memorialize no interconnections into Wynwood "so that even if we changed our mind and even if the county changed its mind, there still couldn't be any of those connections." Staff emphasized the PD would include triggers that require mitigation as intensity thresholds are met.

More than two dozen residents spoke during public comment. Concerns clustered around traffic and road capacity, construction impacts, drainage and watershed effects, preservation of historical resources and the adequacy of the developer's infrastructure commitments. "When history is bulldozed, it's gone," said Margaret Lee, who urged protection for unmarked graves and Revolutionary War artifacts on county land. Multiple speakers warned that local roads and emergency services already strain under current growth and urged stronger guarantees that infrastructure would be in place before occupancy; one resident summarized the concern as a need to get guarantees "in writing before the first resident moves in, before the first shovel is turned." Foster Hester and other lakefront property owners requested clearer watershed analyses and assurances that drainage would not be routed into private lakes.

Developer engineers responded to specific drainage questions, saying there were no direct discharge points toward the Wynwood lake owner’s property and describing existing ditches and an overall drainage shed intended to move water away from those lots; they said pre‑ and post‑construction measures would be implemented and that some flows go east through an existing box culvert under Highway 17A.

Commissioner Bill Sineath moved to approve the PD rezoning with staff‑recommended conditions; Commissioner Lynn Hoover seconded. The motion passed on a roll call and the commission forwarded its recommendation to Berkeley County Council. The commission’s decision is a recommendation only; county council will hold subsequent public hearings and has the final decision authority on rezoning and the development agreement.

Next steps: the commission’s recommendation will be scheduled for county planning hearings and three readings before county council, where the development agreement and any council conditions would be finalized.