Moncks Corner wants to stay the ‘Lowcountry’s Hometown’ amid surging population growth

By Thomas Novelly [email protected]

Jul 18, 2020

Developers broke ground in 2005 on the 800‐acre Foxbank Plantation development bordering the west side of U.S. Highway 52 and the northern reaches of Cypress Gardens Road. Lauren Petracca/Staff

MONCKS CORNER — A wooden pavilion that is nestled just off Main Street and right next to the train tracks has been the sentinel of change for the small town.

It’s an event hall for weddings, corporate gatherings and parties. But long before it hosted buffet dinners, it was the Railroad Depot. And it was under the shade of its tin roof where residents watched Moncks Corner grow as steam engines, boxcars and passenger trains rolled through town.

Moncks Corner growth Brandon Lockett/Staff The Northeastern Railroad, which ran between Charleston and Silver City, N.C., was laid into the soil in 1856. The small Railroad Depot then became the center of town, and industry grew around it.

Leading up to the 1900s, Moncks Corner was a community just breaking 100 people. That growth inched along, steadily, for more than 100 years maintaining its slogan as the self‐proclaimed “Lowcountry’s Hometown.”

Today, it’s the fourth‐fastest‐growing town in South Carolina, with a 25 percent population increase in the past five years, according to town figures. This is due, in part, to its natural splendor and relatively close proximity to Charleston.

But it’s also more affordable. The median home value in Charleston is $336,539. In Moncks Corner, it is $233,002.

The town is located in the heart of the fastest‐growing county in the state. It’s the kind of place where a Sunday drive, complete with a container of boiled peanuts in the cup holder, offers views of rolling forests, a charming historic downtown and the Santee Cooper lakes that bring $415 million worth of tourism to the five neighboring counties.

But in the past two decades, the small‐town feel is finally beginning to change. It’s caught in the shockwave of new residents flooding the Lowcountry and new homeowners starting to trickle their way north.

U.S. Highway 52’s rural produce stands have been replaced with fast‐food restaurants, gas stations and strip malls. What was once a lonesome country road is now a one‐stop shop for all the essentials.

The population growth in town had always been predictable, until the 2000s. In the new millennium, Moncks Corner boasted around 6,000 residents. As of 2020, there are nearly 12,000. That kind of boom hadn’t been seen in the small rural corner of Berkeley County since the 1920s and 1940s when the population went from 300 to nearly 1,200 residents.

Now, more than 5,000 housing units in subdivisions have been approved. Neighborhoods are starting to dot the southern part of town that was once mostly home to ranches, farms and pastures. Traffic has started to become a concern for some locals. Developers call frequently, in hopes of capitalizing on the waves of residents that are destined to arrive and make the “Lowcountry’s Hometown” their hometown.

Berkeley County saw a surge of population growth when more than 6,000 people moved to the area in 2018, boosting the total population to more than 220,000, according to census figures.

But, unlike many of Berkeley County’s other municipalities, Moncks Corner has managed growth differently.

Jay Law, a real estate broker in town and a member of Town Council, said there are more people looking for homes in the area. But residents want to maintain the integrity, history and feel of the town above all else.

“You have to maintain these core values of what your town is,” Law said. “We have not bent the rules.” The town is OK with saying no to development, like when plans to modify a historic plantation last year were met with massive backlash.

“When a developer comes to town, we welcome them,” Doug Polen, the town’s community development director, said. “We welcome growth, but it’s got to be on our terms.”

Moncks Corner has arrived later to the game than neighboring towns, such as Goose Creek, Summerville or North Charleston. And this has also allowed it to troubleshoot. The town has learned from other’s mistakes.

“We know we have to be better,” Polen said. “We have to be different.”

Plantations to planned communities

Moncks Corner’s roots run deep in South Carolina history.

Before any planned housing development, it was once the land of the native Edisto tribe. The group still has a presence in the area to this day.

The French Protestant Huguenots arrived during the late 1600s, and it became a major settlement for the religious group, author David E. Rison wrote in the University of South Carolina’s encyclopedia of state history.

But it wasn’t until 1735 when Thomas Monck, a slave owner who purchased 1,000 acres and established Mitton Plantation, that it began to take on the semblance of a town. The first store, opened by a Swiss immigrant, arrived at the crossroads around 1738, according to the South Carolina Encyclopedia. It became a sort of trading post for the Lowcountry.

Colonial America soon descended into war, and the Revolution found its way to Moncks Corner. In April 1780, British officer Banastre Tarleton gained his first victory at Moncks Corner, leading to the successful siege of Charleston.

After the war, the opening of the State Road between Charleston and Columbia and the completion of the Santee Canal caused the village to decline.

It became less of a trading post and more of a ghost town.

But when the Northeastern Railroad constructed a new station near the old settlement, things started to change. The town was officially incorporated in 1885. A decade later, Moncks Corner became the seat of Berkeley County. A school followed, then a bank. Then Santee Cooper brought electricity, jobs and its headquarters to the town. The creation of Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion brought fishermen and residents.

It was this time, between 1930 and 1940, that the population of Moncks Corner almost doubled, from 623 to 1,165, according to the South Carolina Encyclopedia.

A customer walks to a restaurant in downtown Moncks Corner on Thursday, July 9, 2020. Moncks Corner is the fourth‐fastest‐growing town in South Carolina, with a 25 percent population increase in the past five years, according to town figures. Lauren Petracca/Staff

But from there, until the 2000s, life remained pretty steady. Then, as Charleston became a popular place to live, the growth began to radiate outward.

Yalitva Martinez, owner of Sophia’s Boutiques in downtown Moncks Corner, said she can tell the town is growing because of “all those houses” on Highway 52 and the traffic that comes with it.

But this growth comes from lots of new residents, not new employers. Much of the traffic comes from commuting to other cities and counties for jobs.

Moncks Corner is an administrative town. The top five employers are Berkeley County government, Berkeley County School District, Santee Cooper, Walmart and Berkeley Electric Co‐operative.

Those five employers encompass around 4,000 jobs.

Rounding out the list of top 10 employers is Home Telecom, the town of Moncks Corner and Roper St. Francis. The Piggly Wiggly and Marvin’s home improvement store are also considered major employers.

Even though major employers are elsewhere, residents still kept flocking to the town for the quality of life.

“We hadn’t grown in 50 to 100 years,” Polen said. “When we finally had the opportunities to grow, we jumped at the chance.” Developers started to call Moncks Corner; there were homes to build.

Small‐town feel, big‐time development

As housing costs in Charleston and other areas closer to the Holy City climb, builders, buyers and renters look farther away for more affordable options.

Developers broke ground in 2005 on the 800‐acre Foxbank Plantation development bordering the west side of Highway 52 and the northern reaches of Cypress Gardens Road. In 2008, Moncks Corner annexed the subdivision into the town. It was the largest housing development in the town’s history.

Resident Alex Moore, a 25‐year‐old who was born and raised in Moncks Corner, said this was when she first started to feel like the town wasn’t as rural and tight‐knit anymore.

“I don’t like it,” she said. “The bigger developments have changed things. It used to be where everybody knew my name, or knew my mom. It was all woods then.”

The community gets its name from Fox Bank, a rice plantation that dates at least to 1819. In the mid‐ 2000s, the Randolph Group developers started mapping out the 2,500 proposed units for the site.

Nearly 1,000 homes are still awaiting construction.

Foxbank is the biggest development, but it’s not the only one.

In the town limits alone, which stretch from south of Cypress Gardens Road to the Tailrace Canal, more than 3,000 other housing units are in the works at nine other developments.

But it’s quality over quantity for town planners. Cheap vinyl houses won’t make Moncks Corner stick out, Polen said. Units have to be unique.

“When people move to the Lowcountry, I don’t want them to look at the map and realize that Moncks Corner is the only place they can afford.” Polen said. “I want people to move to Moncks Corner by choice, not chance.”

A person bikes down the street in the Foxbank Plantation community in Moncks Corner on Thursday, July 9, 2020. Lauren Petracca/Staff

Nothing showcases Moncks Corner’s dedication to responsible growth like the approach to Gippy Plantation.

Developers Hoyer Investment Co. and D.R. Horton wanted the property off of Highway 52 between Lewisfield Plantation and Fairlawn Barony to be annexed by the town. Hoyer and Horton are no strangers to the Lowcountry and have frequently applied for development projects in the tri‐county area.

Gippy Plantation is a landmark in the town. It was named for a nearby swamp and covered about 1,850 acres, where mostly rice, cotton and pine were grown in the 1800s. By 1928, Gippy was a 1,000‐acre working dairy farm that continued into the late 1980s. It has more than a 170‐year history in Berkeley County.

The developers had plans to turn the existing farm structures into amenity centers. There wasn’t a lot of variety in the home‐style options. And residents worried that the construction would pollute the headwaters of the nearby Cooper River.

In April 2019, residents wearing “Save Gippy” T‐shirts and holding signs packed the small Town Council meeting room.

Developers originally asked to be annexed and then rezoned to allow for more than 1,200 homes. After a flood of concerns and public pressure, the developers reduced the number to 1,000 new single‐family residential homes and scrapped plans for duplexes and townhomes.

Ultimately, Moncks Corner Planning Commission denied the developer’s application to annex the property.

Norman Brunswig, a Moncks Corner resident, felt re‐energized after the development was shut down.

“They made a very courageous vote,” Brunswig said. “It would have made the neighborhood look so different from what it is now.”

The developer, Stefan Hoyer, owner of Hoyer Investment, was shocked at the backlash.

“I can’t compete with the emotional attachment to this property,” he said

A matter of time

While the town can be selective when it comes to development, it cannot stop the inevitable.

The Lowcountry is growing. Fast.

Studies show that the tri‐county population could reach 873,479 by 2040. And most of that is heading outward from Charleston.

The Charleston area growth predicted for 2030 is already here, and more is coming

Polen isn’t from Moncks Corner. He grew up in Sumter, and attended Wofford College.

He moved to Moncks Corner in 2014. He quickly learned that this town was different.

He heard it was a big moment when the Chick‐fil‐A finally opened in 2015 off Highway 52. He witnessed the excitement of the Starbucks coffee shop’s grand opening in 2018.

“I like Moncks Corner, because it’s homey,” Polen said. “I haven’t been here 20 years, but I don’t want to regret what it will be in the next 20 years.”

So far, all major developments have been annexed within a reasonable reach of emergency services. But as more people aim to make Moncks Corner their hometown, they’ll have to anticipate and learn from the mistakes of other Lowcountry municipalities.

“We’ll need fire stations, recreation programs and we’ll have to be smart about it,” Polen said. “It’s a lot of responsibility.”

He’s settled into life in Moncks Corner. He listens to some of his employees complain about the newfound rush‐hour traffic on Highway 52 or the bumper‐to‐bumper standstill that can happen when school lets out. Times are changing.

But he also listens to them reminisce about the 1981 Big 16 state championship game. Berkeley High finished the season 12‐2 but was able to avenge both regular‐season losses in the playoffs against Sumter and Summerville. Then it came time to face previously unbeaten Gaffney for the title game in Columbia.

Against all the odds, the Stags squeaked out an 18‐15 victory. It was a game, as town residents say, for the history books.

Reach Thomas Novelly at 843‐937‐5713. Follow him @TomNovelly on Twitter.

Thomas Novelly reports on the military community across South Carolina. He also covers growth and development in Berkeley County. Previously, he wrote for the Courier Journal in Louisville, Kentucky. He is a fan of Southern rock, bourbon and horse racing.

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