HANAHAN — Accusations and name-calling flew at City Council’s Sept. 8 meeting amid discussions of multiple lawsuits with a local developer and a proposed committee to investigate the city’s real estate dealings.
Mayor Christie Rainwater provided an update on some of the city’s ongoing litigation with Bowen’s Corner developer Ray Wrenn where she said Wrenn’s appeal of a Board of Zoning Appeals denial had been dismissed.
She said a judge ruled in favor of the city regarding Wrenn’s claims of due process violations and that the development was subject to review processes predating a 2008 update.
The litigation stems from a 2024 dispute between Wrenn and city officials over plans for a nine-home subdivision in Foster Creek Village, commonly known as Bowen’s Corner.
The homes were to be accessed by an alleyway, and the city required Wrenn to submit plans from an engineer stating a fire truck could fit down the passage. Wrenn did not submit the plans, she said, and he sued after his building permits for the subdivision were subsequently denied.
According to court records, Ninth Circuit Judge Thomas Rode declared in a Sept. 3 order that the development agreement does not preclude Bowen’s Corner from following the review process adopted in 2008, two years after the planned development was finalized.
“The city's position was simple: a planned development is a zoning tool. Under South Carolina law, zoning governs what can be built, where and how densely,” Rainwater said of the court’s decision. “It does not and cannot dictate the steps the city follows when it reviews a builder's plans. Those steps are set by the rules of the city that (are) on the books today, and they apply to Mr. Wrenn in the same way they apply to everyone else.”
Wrenn’s claims that the city has violated state open records laws are pending, with Rode declining to issue a summary judgement on those allegations.
Accusations and arguments
During her update, Rainwater said the legal woes would likely not have happened if council had voted in December 2024 to adopt an amendment to Wrenn’s development agreement. It would have required the development to adhere to standards set in 2008 as opposed to older rules in place when the agreement was first signed in 2006.
“It died on a 3-3 vote with one recusal. I'm not going to stand up here and pretend I do not know why. Some members of this body did not want to cast a vote that would upset Mr. Wrenn,” she said. “Voting no was the easier thing to do. It avoided a hard conversation. It avoided an angry phone call. It avoided a post on social media, a problem at the next election.”
According to minutes from that meeting, Rainwater, Councilman Michael Sally and then-Mayor Pro Tempore Kevin Hedgpeth voted for the amendment, while Councilwoman Amanda Colvin-Shea and Councilmen Tim Crowley and Adam Spurlock voted against it. Councilman Mike Dyson recused himself.
Though not explicitly naming them, Rainwater suggested Crowley and Colvin-Shea were to blame for the subsequent legal troubles.
“Their first official act of their term was to disregard the advice of the city's own lawyers on the very question that has now taken two years and a great deal of taxpayer money to answer,” Rainwater said.
Rainwater’s comments, along with discussion of the creation of a Real Estate Investigative Committee that died after Rainwater and three council members recused themselves from voting on it, resulted in an argument that saw Colvin-Shea walk out of the meeting early.
Sally accused Crowley and Colvin-Shea of voting the way Wrenn wanted them to. Crowley told him to “stop with the character assassination for once,” and later accused Rainwater of claiming he was in Wrenn’s pocket.
At one point, Sally accused Crowley of using ChatGPT to formulate statements in meetings, which led Colvin-Shea to walk out before the end of the meeting.
Dyson, Spurlock and recently sworn-in Councilman Chaz Campbell were not involved in the back-and-forth.
Sally contended that the whole argument and the investigative committee was simply to “create drama,” a characterization Crowley rebuffed.
Crowley then questioned Rainwater’s basis for highlighting the December 2024 vote and claiming he was “in Ray Wrenn’s pocket” and “a plant from Ray Wrenn.” Rainwater asked if she had ever told him that, to which Crowley said she had done so once before in a meeting in her office, which Rainwater disputed.
Colvin-Shea, Crowley and Sally did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Wrenn’s development company.
“Some heated moments happened after the meeting, and honestly, after two years of this wasteful fight, that's understandable,” Rainwater said in a statement to The Post and Courier. “What matters most is that our residents can see the law applies to everyone here the same way, no exceptions.”