POPLAR GROVE: Charleston, south Carolina

A dozen miles west of downtown Charleston, not far from Highway 17, deer, wild turkeys, doves, ducks and other denizens of the fertile forests and teeming marshland that ring Rantowles Creek thrive in much the same environment they enjoyed centuries ago, when Poplar Grove Plantation was producing rice, cotton and indigo.

They have been joined in recent years by a smattering of homeowners more interested in a peaceful canoe trip than in a frenetic sprint in a speeding motorboat; more attuned to a walk in the woods than to a mind-numbing session in front of a television set; more likely to interact with their neighbors than to spend their evenings and weekends shuttered behind locked doors and drawn blinds.

More homeowners eventually will arrive – but not many more – and the birds and animals that live in Poplar Grove now Poplar Grove - Charleston, SC - bike riding near the townhouses share their pristine paradise with the horses inhabiting the recently-completed equestrian center. If all goes according to plan, someday soon the center will attract world-class hunter/ jumper competition. However, Vic Mills is not in a big rush to finish developing townhomes in Poplar Grove, Charleston, a philosophy that melds nicely with his reasoning behind buying the land in the first place.

When Blanchard and Calhoun Commercial Corp. purchased the 6,000-acre site that was to become Poplar Grove in 2002, it was zoned for 7,000 homes. Under the terms of an easement negotiated with conservation groups, that number has been whittled down to only 120 lots in the gated community of Poplar Grove Preserve. Other options are planned for future development. The equestrian section will offer lots of five to 15 acres, plantation lots will cover up to 100 acres and town homes and cottages also are on the drawing board.

"We'll be building for 50 years or so," Mills, chief executive officer of Blanchard and Calhoun, commented. "We're not in any hurry."

Mills explained that Poplar Grove's neighbors, Poplar Grove front porch view, Charleston, SC Millbrook Plantation and Middleton Place Plantation among them, also negotiated conservation easements, creating the Ashley River Plantation District and severely limiting development on 12,000 acres of land.

"The conservation community was all about limiting rooftops, and we worked with them," Mills said. "We went to great lengths to preserve the integrity of the land. The first thing we did was locate all the live oaks, and, as we designed improvements, we were always mindful of the impact on those trees."

To make life a little easier for Poplar Grove's indigenous wildlife, the developer removed trees that don't bear fruit, such as sweet gums, to give trees that provide food for birds and animals a better opportunity to thrive, and the company also planted chufa, corn, millet and sorghum as other sources of food. And because the developer sells timber harvested on the Poplar Grove property, residents will pay to maintain the community's amenities but not to build them.

With 50 miles of trails stretching throughout the community, Poplar Grove residents can walk, bike or ride on horseback from their homes to the equestrian barn, a 22-stall, environmentally friendly facility leased by Blanchard and Calhoun to Poplar Grove - Charleston, SC - Eqeustrian Barn Hillary Herald Sadler. She explained that many horse enthusiasts who live in colder climates spend their winters in the South and that a large number of them currently have second homes in Camden, northeast of Columbia, and Aiken, southwest of the state capital. Sadler, a highly-rated riding teacher and trainer who moved her business from Awendaw to Poplar Grove, hopes that will change, and they will instead choose the Charleston area as their winter home.

"The plans are for Poplar Grove to host an annual national hunter/jumper show within the next year or two," she commented. "The possibilities for growth are huge. We already have one riding ring, and we have plans for more and for a covered arena."

Poplar Grove has plans to host its first hunter/jumper competition – the Ashley Hall show – in April 2011. Sadler is the riding team coach at Ashley Hall, a private school for girls in Charleston.

For Blanchard and Calhoun, the purpose of building this facility is to establish a desirable alternative to Aiken and Camden. They feel that Charleston has always lacked a first-rate facility this close to the historic downtown district – there's no reason for that. So, Blancahrd and Calhoun's desire is to make this a destination for regional horse enthusiasts.

Poplar Grove's "green" barn, which can be doubled a kayak out of water near Poplar Grove in Charleston in size, if necessary, was built with energy efficiency in mind. The sloped roof is topped by large fans designed to lift the heat out of the barn, while high-efficiency air conditioners cool the office space, conserving as much electricity as possible. A 100-acre pond will provide irrigation.

Like the equestrian barn, all of Poplar Grove has been developed to attract homeowners seeking a safe and serene haven from the noise and congestion that awaits just a few miles up Highway 17.

"We're about quiet. We're not about speedboats. We're about canoes and kayaks and johnboats," Mills explained. "Some communities say they have a park. Our community is a park. You live in the park."

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POPLAR GROVE: Charleston, south Carolina