Meeting regional planning challenges
By Bill Settlemyer
President and CEO, Setcom Media
Ironically, the current slowdown in new residential construction may have come at just the right time for the Charleston tri-county region. It opens what is likely to be a small window of time in which to bring more order to the path of future growth here.
Given our projected population growth of 265,000 by 2030, along with 186,000 jobs, it is vital that all of us in our regional community work together to “get it right.” The price of getting it wrong is already evident, from frustrating rush-hour traffic jams to battles between cities and counties over land use to public resistance to bearing the cost of schools and other infrastructure needed to support residential growth.
The title of a 2004 growth planning report for the state as a whole does a good job of describing the problem and the solution: “Growing by Choice or Chance—State Strategies for Quality Growth in South Carolina.” That report was produced by the Urban Land Institute and the South Carolina Real Estate Center at the University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business.
Growing by choice or chance?
Are we growing by choice or chance in the tri-county region? The answer is mixed: There are a lot of choices being made, but they’re usually made city-by-city, county-by-county, and development-by-development. And in reality the choices too often turn out to be “by chance” when they depend on the outcome of annexation and zoning battles between the various interested parties.
Do we have a regional strategy for quality growth? Not really, not yet. We’ve had a good deal of discussion on the subject over the years, aided recently by the comprehensive Citistates Report published earlier this fall by The Post and Courier. But we have not yet arrived at a functioning consensus that leads political, business and civic decision makers to agree on solutions that are truly for the common good across our internal political boundaries.
I like to go back to the analogy of running a business, something I’m familiar with.
Successful businesses get everyone on the same page, and those that fight internally over what to do and how to do it are more likely doomed to mediocrity or failure. You can see this in the cultures of the big three American auto manufacturers, which are famous for internal turf battles and conflicts over business strategies and allocation of resources.
If you looked at the tri-county region as a business enterprise, what kind of marks would you give? Years ago, when the closing of the Navy base was announced, a brief and difficult period of regional debate and struggle led us to come together on issues related to economic development. Ever since, there has been strong cooperation and collaboration in attracting new businesses to the region and promoting the expansion of existing businesses. This culture of regional collaboration on economic development has played a huge role in the region’s economic success.
Unfortunately, we haven’t achieved anything remotely similar when it comes to land use planning. That’s understandable, since land use involves many more competing interests, viewpoints and stakeholders. But just because collaborative land use planning is harder doesn’t mean we don’t need to do it. On the contrary, the very fabric of our day-to-day lives will be determined in no small part by the presence or lack of visionary planning that looks far into the future as well as considering the needs of today.
Time for a reality check
On Dec. 3, the S.C. district council of the Urban Land Institute will convene a multi-sector group of regional leaders to participate in “Reality Check,” a day-long program designed to work toward consensus on the direction of residential and commercial growth in the region.
This is a highly structured exercise used successfully by other metropolitan areas around the country.
Teams of Reality Check “players” will gather around large-scale maps and use Lego blocks
and ribbons to represent the proposed location of new households, jobs and roads. The goal is to quickly build a new understanding of the region’s growth issues.
Further work and additional meetings and discussions will take place in the weeks that follow, and the resulting data and conclusions will be passed on to the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments for their use in mapping out a regional vision for future growth.
Ideally, the end game of all this work will be a rough consensus shared by the public, business leaders and government officials on how we want the region to grow. Even more important is the goal of ensuring that the effort leads to a stronger culture of collaboration between the political leaders of our cities, towns and counties.
It’s an old story: If you want to accomplish anything for the common good, individuals and special interest groups have to give up something in the process. But what they give up may be far less than what they get in return. Much of the “giving up” mainly requires a departure from stubborn adherence to narrow visions.
In place of that modest sacrifice, we will be rewarded with regional growth that “makes sense” and helps us balance the need for growth with the need to preserve the “quality of life” we value so much.
That’s my reality check for today. Stay tuned for further developments.
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