For the purpose of the last article, “Defining Awendaw”, I focused most of the discussion around the blurry line between Mount Pleasant and Awendaw. Paradise Island on the northern shore of the Wando River across from Park West, Carolina Park, and Pepper Plantation creates a myriad of its own complexities. It’s in unincorporated Charleston County with an Awendaw zip code. To distinguish themselves from the existing residents on the east end of the island, developers decided to call the west end of the island “Big Paradise Island” even though there is no physical separation. Paradise Island (the former eastern end) consists of a single gravel road while Big Paradise has stricter covenants, paved streets, curbs, and public waste and water from Mount Pleasant Waterworks.
Paradise Island is a 15+ minute drive from Mount Pleasant through the Town of Awendaw and unincorporated Charleston County known as Woodville. The Town of Awendaw is nowhere close enough to annexing Paradise Island, but oddly Mount Pleasant is able to because it is just across the Wando River. The annexation would be allowed and some residents have made the request citing a desire to go to Mount Pleasant schools. Just one problem, annexation into Mount Pleasant has no bearing on the school district that you fall under. The City of Charleston which long ago “hopped” the Cooper River to annex Daniel Island has stretched all the way around from the west side and is adjacent to uninhabited Cat Island to the west of Paradise Island, and could in theory annex both islands if requested by property owners. One more fun little wrinkle in the puzzle. Paradise Island is part of Awendaw-McClellanville Consolidated Fire District, which is currently building a new fire station just 4 miles from Paradise Island to better serve their needs and lower expensive insurance coverage caused from the lack of nearby fire stations. If residents of Paradise Island went through the annexation process they would no longer receive coverage from this fire department and the closest Mount Pleasant Fire Department is 14 miles away. The closest Charleston Fire Department is 18 miles away.
For what it’s worth, of the 18 active and recently sold listings on Paradise Island, all had the correct 29429 zip code, but 3 incorrectly used “Mt Pleasant, SC” in their address. Two-thirds were improperly designated in area 41, half were incorrectly placed in the “Paradise Island” subdivision that should have been listed in “Big Paradise Island”. Finally, 3 listed the assigned school as McClellanville middle school, which closed over a decade ago, and one incorrectly listed Cario. The internet may have allowed buyers to be just a click away from mountains of real estate data, but what good is that data if it can’t be trusted? You can have great photos of a listing, but if your listing doesn’t show up when it is supposed to because agents aren’t aware of the pertinent details of a property than it is not going to sell.