Johns Island's Pool Runs on Bat Time

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Johns Island is finally getting a city recreation center. The construction calendar, it turns out, belongs to a bat.

The building lands off Maybank Highway near the Hayes Park development, at roughly 50,000 square feet. Inside: a 25-meter pool, a therapy pool, two full-size basketball courts, two volleyball courts, four indoor pickleball courts, a yoga studio and three meeting rooms. Outside you get more pickleball, a basketball court, a playground and a splash pad.

It will be the first city-run rec facility on the island. City officials have pitched it partly as a traffic fix, since fewer people would need to drive off Johns Island for a swim or a pickup game.

Now the calendar.

When the city announced the project in July 2025, the plan was to start building in summer 2026 and take 18 months. The city's own project page still lists a third-quarter 2026 start and a late 2027 finish.

That page needs an update. The Post & Courier reports the site gets cleared in November, construction starts in March, and the city expects to wrap up in December 2028. Call it a one-year slide.

Enter the northern long-eared bat. Federal regulators bumped it from threatened to endangered at the start of 2023, after white-nose syndrome, a fungus that attacks bats while they hibernate, cut affected populations by an estimated 97% or more.

According to the Post & Courier, the bat hibernates from December through February and federal rules limit disturbing its habitat during that stretch. District 3 Councilman Jim McBride told the paper that if the clearing slipped past this fall, the whole job would wait until next June. So the chainsaws are on a deadline.

The bat is a busy little regulator out there. McBride told the paper the county is running into the same problem as it plans a fourth lane on Maybank Highway between River Road and James Island.

The money is less mysterious. The Post & Courier puts the price at $65 million, paid out of the $70 million parks bond city voters approved in 2023. That bond was sold as a citywide parks package. One building on Johns Island is taking most of it. Do the subtraction at your leisure.

Locals have been asking for this one for a while. Back in February, Johns Island Council vice chair Peter Rubino told Live 5 that islanders often feel like city residents in name only, and he flagged an affordable swim program as a big deal because plenty of local kids never learned to swim.

What to watch: trees coming down in the 3500 block of Maybank Highway in November, a groundbreaking in March, and a ribbon cutting penciled in for December 2028. Pack the swim bag accordingly, bat willing.

Sources: The City of Charleston project page (amenities, original schedule) and July 2025 announcement (location, first city facility, $70 million 2023 bond, 18-month build), Live 5 (address, traffic rationale, Rubino comments), WCAX/AP (bat listing, white-nose syndrome) and the Post & Courier (new timeline, $65 million cost, hibernation window, Maybank widening)