JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) — Roper St. Francis Healthcare applied for a variance request to remove two grand oak trees to make space for an 11,000 square foot James Island emergency department, but some residents are pushing against the variance request ahead of the Board of Zoning Appeals hearing.
Located at 832 Folly Road, the applicant says a free-standing emergency department with both a patient entrance and a separate ambulance entrance isn’t feasible without removing the trees. The new facility would provide emergency and imaging services to the barrier island. The residents, however, still believe the trees should be protected, and the location isn’t ideal.
Pamela Dennis Paxton has lived on James Island for 40 years and says while she welcomes a new healthcare facility, she wishes the trees could stay.
“I realize that development is a good thing and progress is a good thing, but I also feel like we have a unique place where we live,” Paxton says. “And the trees and the water and the marsh are all part of that ambiance. And without them, we wouldn’t be Charleston. I really feel like that all of the environment should be taken into account when any developer is considering developing something.”…