It takes only seconds to recognize that I’On isn’t like any other subdivision.
It has won national awards for design and is used as an example of what new developments should be.
And, the community fought to stop it with all its might.
Feelings were so strong that every Mount Pleasant council member who voted to allow the development was thrown out of office. A community group even fought the necessary land rezoning to the state Supreme Court before losing the battle.
I’On is on the forefront of modern planning, but it also is one of the first participants in the battle of changing ideas in development in South Carolina.
Cities and counties around the state are writing land-use plans that encourage “traditional neighborhood developments” such as I’On, but the projects often meet conflict.
“We built this through a wall of political opposition,” said Vince Graham, the I’On founder and developer. “People were concerned about density, traffic, apartments –‘you’re going to bring in undesirables.’ Typical NIMBY arguments.”
The “Not-In-My-Back-Yard” contingent has been an enemy of innovative development, and not without reason. Many things about I’On — putting businesses near houses, high-density and small streets — have been illegal in zoning codes over the last 50 years.
But land-use ideas are changing. Mount Pleasant’s land-use plan called for this type of development and even pointed out the site as a good place for it, but the residents said the traffic would overwhelm the roads.
The situation is similar to the rezoning battle brewing in Richland County over a proposed mixed-use development. The county’s plan supports it, but many Northeast Richland residents have come out against it.
Named for James Bond I’On, a War of 1812 hero buried on the site, the development is 762 tightly placed houses, 10 civic buildings and 30,000 square feet of commercial space situated on narrow two-lane, sidewalk-lined streets.
“I know more of my neighbors here than anywhere I’ve lived,” said Anne Kendrick, who has lived in I’On for a year.
Kendrick, who has two young children, said the neighborhood felt and looked enticing. “It’s great because there are parks everywhere,” she said.
I’On has a 12-acre public lake, a bird rookery, athletic fields, two miles of marshfront paths, a community club, a boathouse and a pavilion.
The Charleston-style houses are artfully crafted with porches, columns, bay windows and other architectural features. No garages are allowed on the fronts of the houses. Each house must pass design muster to be built.
Since it opened in early 1998, lots in I’On have increased in price by 40 to 300 percent, depending on the location, said Chris Anderson, director of sales and marketing for I’On.
The few homes that have been resold in the two-year period have gone for 30 percent to 50 percent more than they were purchased for, he said.
Anderson said residents of the neighboring subdivisions come to I’On to run and to use the lake. The town uses the recreation fields for soccer.
About 135 homes are finished, with the remainder to be completed over the next six years.
At first, some homes in the development sold for around $160,000, but now, nothing sells for less than $275,000. The top price is $1.5 million.
Originally, the 243-acre project was to have 440 townhomes and apartments, 90,000 square feet of commercial space and several connections to other neighborhoods.
The final project of 762 houses and no apartments and 30,000 square feet of commercial space is a failure in some senses because of the lack of affordable housing, Graham said.
Land planner Andres Duwane, who built the Seaside community made famous in the movie “The Truman Show,” helped design I’On.
It won the “Professional Builder”/National Association of Homebuilders Best Community in the Nation Award in January.
Plans for the project were first submitted to Mount Pleasant in 1995. The request for rezoning breezed through the Planning Commission.
But protests about the apartments and interconnections to other neighborhoods plagued the project. Graham resubmitted a scaled-back version with 130 apartments and less commercial space.
Despite the concessions, Town Council denied it 5-4 in December 1995.
In 1997, Graham and his company, Civitas, asked for rezoning again. This time, the Coastal Conservation League joined the battle to support the development as a step in the right direction. Residents of Mount Pleasant were divided on the issue.
It passed City Council in a 6-3 vote. In the next two elections, every council member who voted for the project and ran for re-election was defeated.
Tom Tanis, one of the six council members who voted to allow the development, lost his position on the council.
“It wasn’t politically beneficial for me to support it,” Tanis said. “But we are all going to benefit from it.”
A group of residents, led by Vince Adams, tried to overturn the rezoning by getting a referendum on the ballot with thousands of protest signatures.
Adams said this week that the neighborhood was tastefully developed, but that doesn’t change the fact that the density was nearly doubled.
The referendum would have gone to a vote, but Civitas and Graham sued to stop it.
Graham won at circuit court and the state Supreme Court. The final decision came in January 2000.
The Supreme Court decided that referendums couldn’t be used to overturn rezoning decisions because the process to establish the rezoning was sufficiently comprehensive.
“I think there always will be some people discontent with the process,” Anderson said. “Now that people see what we are building, we really don’t have very much, if any, criticisms or complaints.”
Despite the opposition to the project in Mount Pleasant, planners hope the financial success of I’On will persuade developers to build more mixed-use neighborhoods.
