‘The Citistates Report:’ Will we heed the warnings?
By Bill Settlemyer
President and CEO, Setcom Media
Will success spoil the Charleston region? That’s the core question posed by “The Citistates Report” recently published by The Post and Courier as a five-part series presented in consecutive Sunday editions of the paper.
The report is the result of an extensive series of interviews conducted by The Citistates Group, led by syndicated columnist Neal Pierce and urban affairs expert Curtis Johnson. The group was paid for their work through the generosity of the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation and several other contributors. The authors of the report have written reports on 24 metro areas over the last 20 years.
It’s not hard to see how easily we could become victims of our economic success as a region, because the warning signals are already flashing yellow. Here’s my personal “rough cut” version of the Citistates series as I see it.
What are the key challenges?
Traffic congestion. It’s bad and getting worse by the day. Just a few weeks ago we all learned that a bad wreck on Interstate 526 could bring gridlock not only to that highway, but also to the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge as tens of thousands of cars and trucks were diverted over the bridge serving as the only alternate route to Mount Pleasant and elsewhere east of the Cooper River.
Yes, this was one of those “worse case scenarios,” but it serves as a visceral warning for the future and a reminder that today and every workday, area commuters spend hours in heavy rush-hour traffic jams. Not good.
Solutions include building alternate side roads that connect subdivisions rather than forcing all traffic onto main arteries. The “New Urbanism” design concept, finally taking hold in the region, offers the possibility that residents of subdivisions can enjoy more shopping, recreation and work opportunities within their own planned developments. My own pet solution is to use information technology and business peer pressure to facilitate more telecommuting and staggered work hours to ease the rush hour crush.
Affordable housing. Yes, there is affordable housing. It’s out there—WAY out there. In a pattern very familiar in other rapidly growing urban areas around the country, people have to “drive ‘til they qualify,” meaning they have to travel to the far outskirts of the urban center to find affordable houses and mortgages. This, of course, only compounds the traffic congestion since many of the jobs will still be located in or near the urban center.
We need to reach the point where the public, municipal and county governments and the developer community reach a consensus on the high price paid for development that doesn’t include plans for affordable housing as a part of the mix. That will take vision and courage and the ability to look at the bottom-line benefits in terms of years and not just the next quarter’s results.
Environmental damage. Our region has been known as one with a passion for preserving our natural environment, our “pristine” barrier islands, creeks, rivers and wetlands. That gives us an edge as we grow, but we risk losing that edge due to the sheer magnitude of urban growth.
“Non-point source runoff” is a dull-sounding term for the problem we create together from the pollution given off by our cars, our homes, manicured lawns and the misdirected storm runoff that comes from paving things over without allowing for natural storm water management.
The master plan prepared some years ago by the Noisette Co. included extensive reviews of proven methods of restoring natural landscapes as a means of managing storm water runoff and non-point source pollution. The general principles outlined in the master plan should be applied throughout the Lowcountry to protect our fragile environment from additional damage.
In addition to the damage we all do together, there are more specific concerns related to port expansion, including the new South Carolina State Ports Authority terminal at the old Charleston Naval Base and the recently announced expansion of Kinder Morgan’s coal terminal. The concerns about diesel and coal dust pollution are well founded.
To be honest, until recently too many of us have simply looked (down?) upon North Charleston as an industrial area and accepted the idea that pollution there is somehow more acceptable there than in historically more upscale areas in the tri-county region. That needs to change. There’s too much at stake in the successful redevelopment of North Charleston and the neck area to ignore these issues any longer.
With regard to the concerns about truck traffic from the new port facility, we really should study the possibility of a system that puts containers directly from ships onto short-line trains that could take them efficiently to the inland port facilities beginning to take shape around the intersection of interstates 26 and 95. There’s a cost to “the extra lift” this requires in container handling, but with some ingenuity and careful study of similar solutions at other ports around the world, I think we could make this work and take a huge amount of pressure off our local road system.
Regional planning or lip service?
In the quarter-century that I’ve lived in the Lowcountry, we’ve slowly moved from a lack of interest in regional planning to an acknowledgment that we desperately need it. But without action, it’s just lip service, no matter how fervently expressed.
The proof that we’re failing at regional planning lies in the various conflicts between cities and counties over zoning and development. While I totally sympathize with the frustrations of developers whose plans are stymied by municipal or county intransigence, we can no longer afford the current “forum-shopping” approach to the approval of residential and commercial development
The Citistates Report suggests that COG (Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments) is the appropriate entity for regional planning. It probably is, but in the end, COG has to have teeth—some real authority arising out of mutual agreement among the area’s cities and counties that can both shape and enforce a consistent vision for regional growth.
As always, where there’s a will there’s a way. Traffic congestion, the lack of affordable housing and environmental impacts are already having a negative impact on our quality of life, will ultimately impact our prospects for sustainable economic growth in the coming years.
Will our business, civic and political leaders rise to the challenge? If so, they need to be speaking out and acting on these vital issues starting right now.
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