West Ashley residents worried about construction of large home on small lot

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Residents in a West Ashley community say they are concerned about a home currently being constructed in their neighborhood.

“We are very concerned about this house because it’s being built on a lot of insufficient size, meaning the lot is too small and does not meet the requirements of the 6,000 square feet,” said Marsha Higgins, president of the Maryville-Ashleyville Neighborhood Association.

Johnny Starks lives next door to the lot. “We thought it was a one-story house, and now it’s going to be a two-story house,” he said.

Starks said one house used to be on the lot, but it was torn down, and two homes are now on two lots. He assumed that the home would be like the one-story next door.

“It usually has to go through the Board of Zoning Appeals zoning or the Planning Commission for review and approval,” said Higgins.

She has been reaching out to the City of Charleston about the concerns for a few years now – emails going back as far as 2023.

The home is owned by Ashley Cooper Homes, LLC. The company’s owner told us that he reached out to the city to see if he needed anything approved before getting a permit before they even closed on the property. He said the city told him since there had been a home on the lot before, they would not need a variance and said the home was six feet shorter than the maximum height allowed by the city.

He said they always do whatever they are told they need to do when building homes. As a matter of fact, they recently did get a variance approved on a vacant lot down the street.

News 2 reached out to the director of planning and a couple of other officials with the City of Charleston. We are waiting to hear back from them.