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N. Charleston getting public involved in its future development
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
At the North Charleston planning commission’s May 29 open meeting initiating public participation in the city’s comprehensive plan, a blueprint determining North Charleston’s development over the next decade, city residents reflected the seriousness of the matter.
Some sounded skeptical about just how fair the planning commission would be when selecting city residents for citizen advisory committees that will participate with the planning commission in workshops to plan the city’s future.
The planning commission has yet to determine the size of the citizen advisory committees or the member-selection process. However, the commission will seek the participation of residents from all parts of North Charleston, assured Bill Gore, North Charleston’s planning director.
“We want as much public participation as possible,” Gore said.
Project manager Scott Brown of Atlanta-based urban planning consultancy Robert and Co. agreed. Public participation is “vital” to the process, he said.
The comprehensive plan’s first public workshops will be from June 25 through June 28, with one workshop a day, each at a different location. In these workshops, citizen advisory groups will discuss with the planning commission what they consider to be North
Charleston’s strengths and weaknesses and their concerns about the city’s future development.
The second set of public workshops will be held July 23 through July 27 and cover ways in which land in North Charleston can be used or developed. Again, there will be one workshop a day, each at a different location.
The final set of public workshops will discuss the draft of the comprehensive plan and will be held Aug. 27 through Aug. 30. As with the previous set of workshops, there will be one a day, with different locations.
Workshops locations have yet to be chosen. The different workshop days and locations will help generate more public participation, Brown said.
Since becoming a city in 1972, North Charleston’s population has grown from 21,000 to more than 80,000 and is South Carolina’s third-largest municipality. The city occupies 60 square miles.
The state mandates that municipalities do comprehensive plans every 10 years.
Since its 1996 comprehensive plan, North Charleston has seen the arrival of the Noisette Co.’s urban revitalization plan for the city, which includes the redevelopment of the former Charleston Naval Base, the creation of the massive Centre Pointe retail development, new hotels along International Boulevard near the Charleston Area Convention Center, the arrival of the Vought Aircraft-Global Aeronautica fuselage assembly complex for Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, the building of the Verizon call center on Mall Drive, the resurgence of the city’s old business district on East Montague Avenue and the revitalization of the neighboring Park Circle area, and the rise of new residential communities.
Among North Charleston’s most positive changes are the city’s “explosive” development on the upper Dorchester Road corridor, particularly Westcott Plantation; the city’s agreement with Noisette to make further city development sustainable, meaning environmentally friendly, economically efficient and healthy for residents; and the growth of homeownership on the city’s south end, said Kurt Taylor, city council chairman.
“In addition to the infill construction in the southern end of the city, we need to fully implement the sustainable development practices that make sense for the city, to encourage more infill density to avoid suburban sprawl, integrate mass transit into every development and handle drainage issues throughout the city,” Taylor added.
More than 10,000 residential units have been proposed within the Mark Clark Expressway alone, Gore said.
“I believe that managing this new growth in the heart of the city will be a major challenge and opportunity and will help redefine North Charleston,” Gore added.
Much of North Charleston’s growth will occur in the 3,000-acre footprint of the Noisette Co.’s master plan, which the city will try to integrate into its comprehensive plan, Gore said.
Gore suggests the comprehensive plan should take into account communities neighboring North Charleston.
“There are many areas on the periphery of North Charleston where we adjoin other communities that are experiencing rapid growth. The comprehensive plan should be a vehicle for engaging the issue of coordination and cooperation between jurisdictions particularly along corridors where infrastructure is shared and capacity is having trouble keeping pace with development,” Gore said.
“This would include an area like the Dorchester corridor, which is adjacent to high-growth areas in southern Dorchester County and Summerville, and also the Neck area near the Union Heights and Accabee communities where our borders meet the city of Charleston.”
Dennis Quick is senior staff writer of the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.
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