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MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - Charleston County officials are considering an alternative plan to improve Highway 41, aiming to minimize environmental impacts while easing traffic congestion in Mount Pleasant neighborhoods.

The revised plan includes a new sidewalk stretching along Highway 41 from the Spinx gas station in Wando to the intersection at U.S. Highway 17.

Following concerns from those living in the historic Phillips Community, the update also proposes building a new road known as the “Southern Parkway,” which would link Highway 41 to Park West Boulevard. The road would provide residents in Park West and Dunes West an additional route in and out of their neighborhoods.

Officials say the road would cut through a wooded section of Laurel Hill County Park, but no trails would be affected. The area selected is currently unused, according to the County. Still, the Town of Mount Pleasant is pushing back.

The Town Council is expected to vote Tuesday on a resolution opposing the use of park land, citing concerns over tree loss, wildlife disruption and overall preservation.

“This is a compromise; no one is really happy with it,” Charleston County Councilman Herbert Sass, who represents District 1, said. “We went through about 13 different alternatives. This is the last alternative. It’s the only way this road works… building a two-lane road along the edge of Laurel Hill Park.”

Sass added that this portion of the project would force the County to clear approximately 10 acres of the 750 total acres of the park and an estimated two acres of wetlands.

The Highway 41 project originated from the 2016 Transportation Sales Tax referendum. Since 2017, Charleston County, Mount Pleasant and other stakeholders have struggled to reach an agreement.

The County says it is currently awaiting final right of way approval from the South Carolina Department of Transportation.

The Mount Pleasant Town Council meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Town of Mount Pleasant Municipal Complex located at 100 Ann Edwards Lane.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.

MOUNT PLEASANT — Boats sat idle in Shem Creek around noon July 2, as diners sauntered into restaurants along the crowded strip to peruse menus featuring all kinds of seafood, from crab to flounder to grouper.

Shrimp, a hotly debated topic in recent weeks, is offered fried, boiled, blackened or piled onto grits at many of the establishments in this popular tourist section of the Charleston area.

Just beyond Shem Creek's restaurant row, manager Sarah Fitch assisted customers outside Mt. Pleasant Seafood, a family-owned retailer founded in 1945. The market currently sells three types of shrimp.

One is locally sourced. Two are imported.

Mt. Pleasant Seafood's signage does not denote its shrimp as local or imported, but the staff is transparent with customers about where it's coming from, Fitch told The Post and Courier within earshot of patrons waiting in line.

But not every local business is being open about its sourcing methods, members of the shrimping industry allege.

About six miles away at another popular tourist area in downtown Charleston, the S.C. Shrimpers Association and its lawyer announced they had added the names of 25 Charleston area restaurants to an existing lawsuit that accused 40 establishments of selling imported shrimp while advertising them as being local or wild caught.

The 25 restaurants cited by name extend from Shem Creek in Mount Pleasant to downtown Charleston, up to North Charleston and Summerville, across West Ashley and out to Folly Beach. Some are widely known, with others less so.

Addressing reporters in front of the Pineapple Fountain at Waterfront Park, Bryan Jones and Rocky Magwood of the S.C Shrimpers Association and the organization's attorney, Gedney Howe IV, criticized the practice of passing off imported shrimp as local.

"It's obviously the shrimpers, like myself, Rocky, and the entire fleet throughout South Carolina, that are affected when they're undercut by restaurants not buying our shrimp and then purchasing imported shrimp and selling it as local," Jones said.

Those claims met pushback from members of the seafood industry, including some of the restaurants that have been singled out — with many denying they have done anything to directly mislead customers.

The cost of imported shrimp is significantly cheaper, said the managers at Red's Ice House, Tavern & Table and Sunsets Waterfront Dining, all located along Shem Creek. At other establishments, including Mt. Pleasant Seafood, owners said cost coupled with a lack of local availability create a need for imported shrimp.

The release of restaurant names came weeks after 40 out of 44 restaurants tested in the Charleston area were alleged to be misleading customers with the sale of imported shrimp. In announcing the initial results in June, SeaD Consulting of Texas publicly identified the four restaurants found to be selling local or wild-caught shrimp, and accurately advertised as such. Left out were the names of the 40 other establishments.

SeaD's testing was commissioned by the Southern Shrimp Alliance, an industry trade association based in Tarpon Spring, Fla. SeaD officials declined a Post and Courier interview request.

The names of the remaining 15 businesses aren't expected to be released in the immediate future.

Owners spotlighted by the research firm largely refuted the claims that they mislead customers. Questions remain about how SeaD Consulting carried out its testing, as well as what criteria were used in determining which restaurants to test and how conclusions were drawn.

Ongoing litigation

Testing results culminated with the Shrimpers Association filing a federal lawsuit on June 13 against all 40 restaurants initially accused of selling imported shrimp. An updated complaint was filed July 2 to name 25 businesses, but not the remaining ones.

It's unclear what the association, as well as SeaD Consulting, consider to be fraudulent. Howe said the Southern Shrimp Alliance, the group that funded the study, provided the restaurant list to the S.C. Shrimper’s Alliance.

SeaD officials would not address how the 44 places were selected to be tested, nor what the company considers to be fraudulent. SeaD's testing took place in late May, about a week before the commercial trawling season opened.

The lawsuit accuses the restaurants of false advertising and violating South Carolina's Unfair Trade Practices Act and the Lanham Act, a federal law that prohibits false advertising. According to the lawsuit, restaurant defendants "falsely advertised shrimp served in their establishments as 'local,' 'Carolina-caught' (and) 'fresh South Carolina shrimp,' among other misrepresentations."

"The SeaD Consulting results that we've been provided do not specify … which of the specific rules may have been violated to indicate that that facility had a violation. We've checked on every one that we've named, and we found things that we believe violated with the state of federal law," Howe said.

These are restaurants that SeaD Consulting determined were not actively advertising their shrimp as local, Howe said. Following a thorough review of menus, restaurant décor and marketing materials, The Post and Courier found no indications that many of the 25 restaurants explicitly claim to be selling wild-caught shrimp.

Some of the restaurants may not be familiar to the average Charleston diner. But the testing results paint a broad picture of alleged deceit in a restaurant industry reliant on places serving seafood.

SeaD’s list featured Dockside Charlie's, a virtual kitchen operating out of O’Charley's. It is only available through online delivery services.

"We take the quality and standards of our seafood very seriously," a spokesman for Dockside Charlie's said in a statement. "We have yet to be served anything related to the lawsuit in question and, as such, cannot comment on something which we have not seen. If and when we receive more information, we will, of course, investigate it fully."

The complaint also listed Poseidon's Playground, a food truck in North Charleston, that serves shrimp tacos. Its menu makes no claim that they are made with wild-caught shrimp.

Teri Turner, manager of a Cajun seafood restaurant in North Charleston called Crab Du Jour, said they make no such assertion. The business does not sell locally sourced shrimp and doesn't claim to, she said. Their shrimp comes frozen from an outside provider.

Turner said the restaurant only claims to offer fresh seafood, so she can't figure out why the group was targeting them.

"I think it is unfortunate that they have to lie," she said. "We do good business here, and we are very honest with our customers."

Red’s Ice House lists "local peel ‘n eat shrimp" in its Lowcountry boil, even though the restaurant acknowledged they are sourced from outside the U.S.

"That should have come off our menu a long time ago," said Skipper Kress, a manager at the Shem Creek restaurant. "We don’t get local shrimp right now."

Hyman’s Seafood, a downtown mainstay which draws a line down Meeting Street most days, does not claim to sell wild-caught shrimp in marketing materials. Some of its social media posts in the past, however, have alluded to local sourcing. Hyman’s ownership recognized that those posts implied that “we were serving fresh shrimp, when in fact we were serving imported shrimp at those times."

MOUNT PLEASANT – A splash pad, exercise equipment and elements that nod to long-gone landmarks are features of the expanded Memorial Waterfront Park under the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge.

Motorists can catch a glimpse of the park's basketball and pickleball courts when coming off the bridge into Mount Pleasant. For roughly two years, crews with Hill Construction worked to turn the swath of dirt and grass beneath the bridge into an extension of the "crown jewel of Mount Pleasant."

The area beneath the Ravenel Bridge on Harry Hallman Jr. Boulevard remained an undeveloped grass lot for years, primarily used for overflow parking during events like the Sweetgrass Basket Festival or the Blessing of the Fleet.

But on June 2, the park was almost finished as Special Projects Manager Steve Gergick walked through, chatting with construction crew members who fiddled with equipment and sealed light fixtures.

Save for a small field in the center blocked off with orange fencing to protect the sprouting new grass and four basketball backboards with no nets, the latest iteration of Memorial Waterfront Park appeared ready to welcome visitors.

After a series of permitting and construction delays, the $6.75 million expansion officially opened on June 4. Originally scheduled to open in 2024, the park expansion across from the pier and the Sweetgrass Cultural Arts Pavilion, will open the same day.

"We've been trying to cross that finish line for a long time," said Gergick. "We didn't want to open it up before it's in good condition for the public."

A piece of the Grace Memorial Bridge is on display at the front of the park, accompanied by a historical marker, a remnant of the Ravenel Bridge's predecessor that connected Mount Pleasant to Charleston. The Grace Memorial Bridge, along with the Pearman Bridge, were demolished in 2005.

MOUNT PLEASANT — Mount Pleasant shoppers won’t have to wait long for their latest grocery store option.

Aldi — touted as one of the nation’s fastest-growing grocery chains — will officially open its second East Cooper location at 3153 Highway 17 and KOA Campgrounds Road at 9 a.m. on July 17.

Known for its quarter-deposit shopping carts and bring-your-own-bag policy, the chain continues to grow its customer base through its no-frills model.

Plans for the second location was announced about two years ago.

"I am brimming with anticipation for their new store," said Daniel Brownstein, a Mount Pleasant Town Council member, who's been updating residents on the opening date through social media posts.

To mark the grand opening, the Illinois-based grocer will offer swag bags and gift cards to the first 100 customers. Shoppers can also enter a sweepstakes for a $500 gift card throughout opening weekend.

The store will be open daily from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

This location is Aldi’s seventh in the Charleston region, with others in James Island, North Charleston, Goose Creek, Mount Pleasant and Summerville. Its first area store opened in 2015 off Dorchester Road in a former bowling alley.

Roughly 90 percent of Aldi’s inventory consists of exclusive brands at low prices, including organic meats, fresh produce, sustainable seafood, wine and cheese, frozen foods and home goods.

The chain eliminated single-use plastic bags at the end of 2023, offering customers paper bags for a fee at checkout. Customers’ quarter deposits are returned when grocery carts are returned to the corral.

Founded by the Albrecht family in Germany in 1961, Aldi now operates 2,356 stores across the U.S. The grocer has seen a dramatic increase in foot traffic in recent years — topping 900 million visits in 2024, a 51.2 percent increase from 2019, according to a Grocery Report 2025 by Chicago-based JLL commercial real estate investment firm.

Aldi remained the fastest-growing grocer in 2024, according to the report, adding over 2.3 million square feet of new space with 105 new openings, its second consecutive year in which it opened over 100 new locations.

The Mount Pleasant location supports Aldi’s goal to launch 225 new locations nationwide in 2025 and open 800 stores by the end of 2028.

It's the newest offering in the East Cooper's abundant supermarket lineup that includes Fresh Market, Whole Foods, Publix, Harris Teeter, Trader Joe's, Target and Walmart.

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - Mount Pleasant leaders made a recent update to Tree Protection Zones to protect the town’s natural resources.

A recent update to Mount Pleasant Tree Protection Zones is expanding how town leaders measure areas of protection for trees. The protection zone covers the space in a circular area around the bottom trees. The newest rule covers a one-foot radius per one inch of diameter at breast height of trees.

Town of Mount Pleasant Planning Department Urban Forester Eddie Bernard says current codes list different tree protections based on the type of property. Tree sizes of eight inches and larger on commercial buildings, including schools, churches and recreation facilities, are protected. Residential properties with trees 16 inches or larger also see protections.

Bernard says the update places greater emphasis on protecting pine trees.

“Pine trees historically were not a protected species outside of special buffers,” Bernard says. “They are now protected at 24 inches and larger. So residential 16 inches and larger typically is a protected tree size, minimum size, so now pine trees are unique in that sense now that they are 24 inches and above.”

The new rule requires replacement trees to be planted if trees are removed from residential properties.

“Instead of a 4-inch minimum replacement tree, it’s gone down to a 2-inch caliper tree, which is smaller and easier to come by and cheaper. They’re more apt for a homeowner to be able to plant instead of a contractor.”

The update comes from the town’s first-ever Community Forest Master Plan that was created in 2023. The plan details the need for preserving the area’s healthy forestry as trees help mitigate environmental impacts such as flooding or stormwater runoff.

Town Planner Chris Lubert says the process of creating the master plan included consultants who identified recommendations on the tree protection ordinance. Lubert says the plan’s review found the town falling behind surrounding municipalities when it comes to tree protection limits.

“What we found was that we were protecting the least amount of area from the comparisons that they pulled out,” Lubert says. “And so we felt it was time to upgrade it, because science has changed, research has changed, and showing that roots are growing well beyond what we were protecting. So, if we want to feasibly protect these trees, we need to expand that tree protection zone.”

Lubert says the goal of expanding protection zones is to give trees the highest chance of survival. The planner says the plan has no intention of restricting development for homes or commercial businesses.

Leaders say the county council is considering a Tree Task Force with the hopes of overseeing tree ordinances and potential changes. Leaders say public meetings are expected if the idea moves forward.

The community has the opportunity to participate in three public meetings in June to discuss a five-year update to the town’s 10-year Comprehensive Plan. The plan identifies the town’s initiatives towards topics such as population, natural resources and economic development within a decade.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.