Over the next month, as voters east of the Cooper are considering for whom to cast their ballots, it will be important to keep in mind recent events that have occurred a few miles up Highway 17 in Awendaw.
Awendaw, just north of Mount Pleasant, contains about 450 homes and a population of approximately 1,200.  Despite its small size, actions taken recently by this tiny town have the potential to seriously impact residents of Awendaw, Mount Pleasant and Charleston County as a whole.  Over the past few years,  Awendaw has annexed thousands of acres and rezoned them for thousands more new homes. These decisions have more than doubled the size of the town and will eventually result in a tripling of the town’s population.  
This may not seem to be a significant number, but consider this:  Currently, the Town of Awendaw has no ability to provide existing residents services such as police protection, garbage pick up, EMS, drainage or road maintenance.
It relies on Charleston County taxpayers to pay for those services.  
Likewise, Charleston County taxpayers will pay for and provide services to the massive new growth the town is planning in and around the Francis Marion National Forest and Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge.   
Awendaw is also looking to Mount Pleasant to bail them out with a water system they can not afford to make fully operational.  About seven years ago, Awendaw received $4.4 million in federal grants and loans to build a public water system. Homeowners were assessed fees to tie into the water system and residents have recently begun to receive water bills.  Yet an empty water tank sits over town hall and fire hydrants wrapped in blue plastic dot the roads. Not a drop of water has ever flowed through the lines.
Although all taxpayers in Charleston County will take a hit as a result of Awendaw’s irresponsible growth policies, existing residents in Awendaw will be hit the hardest. The Awendaw way of life will change.  
Multi-generational residents will gradually be forced from their traditional communities by the advent of high-end gated subdivisions. The character of this rural town will be changed forever.  
Next in line to feel the effects of Awendaw’s decisions will be the residents of Mount Pleasant. Like the rest of us county residents, Mount Pleasant taxpayers will be asked to foot the bill for this growth. But unlike the rest of the county taxpayers, Mount Pleasant residents will directly experience the realities of this growth in the form of traffic congestion.  
Mount Pleasant residents are currently spending tens of millions of dollars to improve Highway 17. But nothing Mount Pleasant does to improve traffic or better plan for their own growth will have an effect on the stream of residents coming from newly built communities in Awendaw.
This past week the town voted to annex about 300 acres of forestland that sits inside the Francis Marion National Forest. The annexation of what is called the “Nebo Tract” now makes possible the annexation of 7,000 adjacent acres of private land known as “Fairlawn Plantation.”  (7,000 acres is twice the size of Daniel Island.)  Fairlawn and Nebo are under virtually the same family ownership.
The annexation gave the owners of Nebo the opportunity to escape Charleston County’s rural zoning, which would have allowed only one unit per 10 acres within the Francis Marion. Through the annexation, the owners received permission to build more than one unit per acre on Nebo and an allowance for 170,000 square feet of commercial zoning on the property. This is the equivalent of four Harris Teeter stores - hardly something one would expect to see within the Francis Marion National Forest.   This will be only the tip of the iceberg if Fairlawn follows suit and annexes into Awendaw. The tragic thing about how this is unfolding in Awendaw is that there are excellent examples – right here in the tri-county area – of real conservation development.  
These developments don’t require massive infrastructure investments and they do enhance the region’s greenbelt.  
Furthermore, they are profitable.  
For example, in 2005 the owners of Poplar Grove (4,500 acres in Dorchester County) made the wise decision to reduce the total number of units from 4,000 to 450.  
Four hundred of the units are being clustered on 1,000 acres and a conservation easement has been placed on the remaining 3,500 acres which will be subdivided and sold in large parcels.
Charleston County residents should take their tax dollars seriously.  Not only are our hard earned dollars being used for police, fire, EMS, schools and road improvements, but they are also being used to spur development in the Francis Marion National Forest.  
We should not stand by and let one small town misuse our tax dollars and threaten our public resources.  
I urge all East Cooper voters to ask those running for office about what they plan to do to protect Awendaw and Mount Pleasant residents from irresponsible growth decisions.  
Our natural resources are at stake.  Our tax dollars are at stake.  And, most importantly, our communities are at stake.

(Megan Desrosiers is the director of Conservation Programs for the Coastal Conservation League).