Roofing company in Pawley's Island, SC

A Charleston-based developer has revived plans for a sixth grocery store in the Pawleys Island area. It is proposed for the same tract on Highway 17 at the corner of Petigru Drive where the grocery chain Lidl proposed building a store in 2017.

A request to change the zoning to allow a 19,423-square-foot grocery store on a site currently approved for four buildings containing a mix of office and retail space is up for review today by the Georgetown County Planning Commission.

Holly Richardson, the county planning director, she was told the proposed store is Aldi, a privately-held German company. Earlier this year, the company bought 400 Winn-Dixie and Harveys supermarkets as part of an expansion in the Southeast.

Josh Walls, an owner of the property, said he couldn’t comment.

“The grocer is under contract,” he said, but added that it was “bad luck” to discuss it before the approvals are in place.

The public relations firm that represents Aldi said “we do not have any information to share regarding developments in Pawleys Island.”

The property, known as Pavilion Square, was the first “flexible design district” approved by the county. The zoning district was created to replace “planned development” zoning in the wake of a state Supreme Court ruling that planned developments needed a mix of residential and commercial uses to comply with state law.

With all commercial uses, Pavilion Square was zoned as a flex district in 2015 to allow multiple buildings on the 4.8-acre parcel, including two fast-food restaurants. Its original “general commercial” zoning would have required subdividing the property since only one principal use is allowed on a lot.

The flex district limited the number of curb cuts on Highway 17 to one for southbound traffic. It also required more landscape and pervious surfaces to reduce stormwater runoff.

In 2017, the flex district zoning was changed to allow a 35,962-square-foot Lidl supermarket. That change eliminated the fast-food restaurants. Area residents questioned the need for another grocery store, especially one across the street from the Publix that opened in 2015.

Lidl pulled out of the deal in 2019. The owners at the time, Jody Tamsberg and Guerry Green, asked the county to restore the zoning to the original flex district concept. They sold the property last year to 3J7B Real Estate of Charleston, which opened a 7 Brew drive-thru coffee shop on the site.

Traffic on Petigru Drive was a concern when Lidl, also a German-based firm, was approved. Richardson said that a study showed the grocery store increased traffic overall, but reduced the peak volume because the fast food restaurants were removed from the plan.

The study wasn’t revised for the proposed grocery store since it is smaller than the Lidl and would generate less traffic, Richardson said.

She is recommending approval subject to approval from the state of an additional curb cut on Petigru, shared parking, a connection with adjacent commercial property and a limit on outdoor lighting.

The building must also comply with the design code for the Highway 17 corridor.

The commission meets at 5:30 p.m. today in County Council chambers.

Property owners at Prince George are seeking federal and state approval to move Pawleys Inlet nearly half a mile north in order to restore the beach they say has been lost because of a renourishment project on Pawleys Island.

The beach that now stretches 2,500 feet south of the public parking lot on the island would be reduced to 435 feet under the plan submitted last month to the Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

And the proposal from the Prince George Community Association would allow it to limit future movement of the inlet.

“Experts agree that an inlet management zone is the best way to address the existing erosion problems and prevent such damage in the future,” the association said in a statement.

The inlet has migrated about 1,000 feet since the town of Pawleys Island completed a renourishment project in March 2020 that placed 1.1 million cubic yards of offshore sand on the island’s beachfront. Most of that sand was placed along the narrow south end.

The movement of the inlet prompted three lawsuits from property owners at Prince George, a gated community on the south side of Pawleys Island. They name DHEC, which approved the project; the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, which helped fund it; the town, its engineers and its contractor; and ask the Circuit Court to order the beach at Prince George be restored to its condition before the renourishment. The suits are scheduled for trial sometime after June 3.

While the suits are pending, all the parties agreed that plans could be made to restore the beach and inlet without prejudicing their legal claims.

The permit request calls for cutting a new inlet across the 750-foot-wide southern end of the island and using the sand, estimated at up to 185,000 cubic yards, to fill in the existing inlet. Up to 115,000 cubic yards of upland sand will be needed to completely fill the inlet and rebuild the beachfront at Prince George, according to the permit request. That will be hauled by truck through Prince George.

Once the new inlet is cut, the sand that is currently part of Pawleys Island is expected to migrate to Prince George.

“Periodic inlet relocation projects are likely needed as part of future renourishment projects depending on the rate of southern migration of the inlet,” according to the application.

It includes data from a 2010 study of Pawleys Inlet by Coastal Science and Engineering that was commissioned by the Prince George association that showed the inlet had moved within a range of 2,800 feet over 80 years. It recommended establishing an 1,100-foot “management corridor” within the middle of that historic range.

The Prince George permit request would place a new inlet at the northern end of the corridor. According to aerial photos, that is where the inlet was located in 1977.

Historical data shows the inlet migrates south at a rate between 40 and 75 feet a year. When the southern edge of the inlet reaches the southern edge of the corridor, planning will start to move the inlet back north.

“Assuming no additional nourishment sand is added to Pawleys Island, the inlet relocation cycle is estimated to be between 5-10 years,” according to the application.

The southern limit of the proposed inlet corridor is about 400 feet north of Beach Bridge Road, which provides access to the beachfront houses at Prince George. The road is now protected with a rock revetment.

Without the project, the houses, the road and utilities will be threatened by storms and high tides, the application said. Since the south end of Pawleys Island has grown wider as well as longer, it is less likely that the inlet will relocate as the result of a breach.

“The only benefits from this condition would be the longer beach for walking and some additional habitat on the spit/southern end of Pawleys Island, which would be subject to human intrusion,” according to the application.

It calls the proposed project “a return to the natural conditions.”

The agencies have not yet issued notices for public comments on the application.

Georgetown County Board of Education: First and third Tuesdays, 5:30 p.m., Beck Education Center. For details, go to gcsd.k12.sc.us. Georgetown County Council: Second and fourth Tuesdays, 5:30 p.m., Council Chambers, 129 Screven St., Georgetown. For details, go to georgetowncountysc.org. Pawleys Island Town Council: Second Mondays, 5 p.m. Town Hall, 323 Myrtle Ave. For details, go to townofpawleysisland.com. , .

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Think, “Midsommar.” Or “Shaun of the Dead.” Or, “The Wicker Man.”

These are some of the movies that have inspired 21-year-old film director Mathew Epp in a latest film project that takes place in Pawleys Island.

Epp, a Charlotte, North Carolina, resident, graduated from University of North Carolina at Charlotte recently and is working on a new project, “Eden Avenue.”

Pawleys Island has the perfect small town nature to it, Epp said. He had been visiting a friend — the lead actor — for the past five or six months and decided it was a perfect setting for the film.

“I just realized like the more and more I go down there, you know, it’s a small town,” Epp said. “It’s a local community. And it’s beautiful.”

“Eden Avenue” follows a group of recent college graduates — Michael, Allie, Nick and Brandon, as they decide to take one last vacation together.

The beach town they end up at is inviting at first, Epp said. The town name “Eden Avenue” is supposed to give the area a motherly, inviting feeling.

But there’s a darker side.

The people of Eden Avenue are infected by the algae in the waters. It turns them into a cult-like group of people bent on infecting the protagonists, Epp explained.

It takes on a theme of “group of kids versus everyone else,” he said.

All of this occurs as the protagonists face internal struggles about change. The movie is character driven, and is much more about personal conflicts, such as accepting change than the cult, he said.

With about 20 working on the project, including a crew of 10 and around five to 10 actors, it’s still a while before local residents can see Pawleys Island on the screen.

Epp said that “Eden Avenue” was still in a pre-production stage, but filming is set to begin this month and will take a few days. The crew is still working on getting permits to film in specific areas.

Local viewers can expect to see a recognizable area in Pawleys Island, including the Pawleys Inlet toward the south end of the beach. Epp said he was working with Clam Bake Cove or Oakley as possible settings as well.

He anticipates a spring 2024 release, with “Eden Avenue” distributed on public platforms and then premiering locally in theaters.

The project members are asking for donations to help with production.

And “Eden Avenue” still has some spots left for extras in some scenes, he said.

Those interested can email Fortis Fortuna Films, the production company, at Fortisfortunafilm@gmail.com.

This story was originally published August 11, 2023, 5:00 AM.

PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. (WPDE) — Some residents are upset after a street in a Pawleys Island neighborhood was turned into a private road.

Many said they were never informed of the change on about a 75-yard section of Heather Drive in the Hagley Estates.

A petition to make Heather Drive private was filed in court back in May and recently approved by a master in equity judge.

According to one nearby resident, her cul-de-sac has been cut off from Heather Drive. Many neighbors -- including the property owners association president – said no one was ever notified.

“It’s frustrating that we didn’t know. It’s very frustrating because that’s the route I take in and out of my house every day. If I went the other way around. It would add 6 minutes to my day every day,” said Nicole Stevenson, who lives on the cul-de-sac next to the private road.

Even the post office wasn't notified initially, which meant some residents were temporarily cut off from getting their mail.

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“My sister who is a senior and our handicapped nephew, who is mentally challenged, they have to have frequent medication deliveries and so waiting on those things was kind of frustrating,” said Susan Jeffers, who also lives on the cul-de-sac next to the private road," said Susan Jeffers.

SC code 57-9-10 requires anyone who files a petition for a road closure to post their intentions on the street and publish it in a newspaper once a week for three consecutive weeks.

The South Carolina Press Association tracks such legal notices -- and their database shows no publications were made in papers of record relating to Heather Drive.

Residents said they've informed the county council that no signs were ever posted and they've started an online petition to turn Heather Drive public again, and it's gained about 300 signatures.

“I contacted county council. I know neighbors have gone to meetings. I’ll be at the next council meeting. I’ve contacted everyone I can,” said Stevenson.

ABC15 reached out to the three parties who filed the petition to find out why they turned the road private.

Two declined to comment and one did not respond in time for this publication.

We also reached out to the Georgetown County Attorney and they responded with the following:

"Heather Drive was not closed by any action or process of Georgetown County's Administration or public services department. as a result, the county is unable to reverse this action."