COASTAL OBSERVER

Funding for a roundabout for the Waverly Road and Petigru Drive intersection that previously caused an uproar in the community has been restored at the request of Georgetown County.

The Grand Strand Area Transportation Study Policy Committee last week approved $1.15 million for the project, listed as the region’s top intersection improvement.

GSATS allocates federal funds to state highway projects in the region.

The roundabout, originally proposed in 2017, drew opposition because the state Department of Transportation planned to remove an oak tree on the corner of the offset intersection. The community said the tree was too significant to cut down.

Council Member Bob Anderson, who represents the county on the GSATS committee, said the roundabout is needed, but he thinks it can be built to avoid the tree.

“That’s what I would like to do,” he said.

The Pawleys Island Civic Club opposes the project, said Vincent Davis, its president. They are not against the roundabout, but don’t want the tree cut.

The topic is so important to him that Davis said he loses sleep over it some nights.

“My organization expects results, so I have to be able to achieve those results in the process for this community,” Davis said. “And I can’t fail.”

Even Gov. Henry McMaster, a Pawleys Island property owner, weighed in to request DOT to explore tree preservation options back in 2017.

Mark Hoeweler, executive director of GSATS, has looked at every possible way of locating the roundabout and preserving the oak. After meetings with Council Member Stella Mercado and the civic club, he doesn’t see the two coexisting.

“It’s just not in the cards due to the proximity of other property lines,” Hoeweler said.

Along with public opposition, DOT couldn’t strike a deal with adjacent property owners to buy the right of way to shift the roundabout, he said.

Mercado said the roundabout is needed for safety, drainage and to accommodate a bike path along Petigru Drive.

If the tree has to come down, “I’m not going to do it without their support,” she said of the civic club.

Todd Stephenson of Total Tree Care assessed the oak to be in “unkept good health” as of 2017. Three quarters of the critical root zone, extending 25 feet from the trunk, is located under pavement.

A recent inspection by Stephenson showed it hasn’t changed, according to Hoeweler. The arborist said there wasn’t an immediate need to remove the tree, but it’s on a steady decline.

Only eight of more than 100 comments at a public forum held in June of 2017 were in favor of the roundabout. Many residents suggested lowering the speed limit or implementing a four-way stop as alternatives to the roundabout.

Public opinion hasn’t swayed much in eight years, according to Hoeweler.

“No one in the public is desirous of it moving forward,” he said.

Funding for the project was removed from the GSATS transportation improvement plan three years ago.  The policy committee last week approved $150,000  for fiscal 2027 and $1 million for fiscal 2028.

The numbers don’t reflect inflation.

“It would involve additional funds being put to it if it was an actual project that we’re constructing,” Hoeweler said.