After four years and three tries, it appears that Charleston County will finally have the funding needed to improve its transportation infrastructure and protect more green space. This time around, the prospects for a successful court challenge to the half-cent sales tax appear dim. If tax referendum opponents insist on putting the issue before the courts, there is reason to hope for a speedy resolution in favor of the referendum as passed.

And by the way, the referendum won not by a nose this time, but by a mile, with a 59% to 41% margin in favor of the tax. What a difference from the razor-thin margins for and against the tax the last two times it was put before voters.

Prior to the election, people asked me how I thought the vote would come out, probably thinking I’d give my “all-seeing pundit” opinion and boldly make the call. But like more than a few business leaders who backed the tax the last two times around, I was still smarting from the negative outcomes and controversy of the previous efforts. I was far from certain that the result would be different this time.

With 20/20 hindsight, I agree with other post-election observers who said the biggest change since the 2002 vote was that more Charleston County voters have experienced major traffic congestion “up close and personal,” and that drove home the need to pass the tax. I think people also understood that without funds to preserve greenbelt areas for future generations, the county would be powerless to act on this vital quality of life issue. They also understood that our struggling mass transit system was close to shutting down altogether.

Let’s get together

Earlier this year an ambitious effort was made to bring business and community leaders together for the “Planning for Prosperity” conference. Joined by a number of experts from outside the region, a broadly representative group of area citizens discussed ways to strike a balance between economic growth and preservation of the region’s quality of life.

I think we’ve reached the point where most people understand that regional growth management is a huge challenge. Over and over again, both businesses and individuals who move here cite quality of life as the prime motivator. If we don’t do the best possible job of managing growth, we’ll effectively kill the goose that keeps laying our golden eggs. In the final analysis, there’s a commonality of interest between advocates of economic growth and those who are understandably alarmed about growth and rapid urbanization.

I strongly disagreed with the Coastal Conservation League’s opposition to the sales tax referendum because I felt critical opportunities would be lost to preserve green space and fix major traffic bottlenecks if the referendum failed. I also think that environmentalists, along with everyone else, have a significant interest in funding a viable mass transit system for the region.

Now that the tax has been enacted, I hope the league will roll up its sleeves and join in a continuing effort to see that the sales tax proceeds are spent wisely. This organization should be at the table along with many others, including developers, city representatives and advocates for affordable housing.

Regional planning should be ongoing

Urban growth is an extremely complex process. Conflicts and the need for tradeoffs between different objectives are unavoidable. As the region grows, our goal as a tri-county community should be to make the best possible choices on land use, transportation infrastructure and other issues. At the same time, we simply have to recognize that while we can mitigate the negative impacts of urbanization, there is no way we can completely avoid them.

How can we achieve the ambitious goal of making the best of this difficult challenge? I think there is only one way: We should establish a permanent ongoing regional planning process with built-in participation by citizens, representatives of business and environmental groups, regional governments at all levels and experts in the field of growth management from around the country.

We can no longer afford the repeated pattern of unresolved land-use conflicts such as those between the city of Charleston and Dorchester County or Mount Pleasant and Charleston County. Neither can we afford planning that stops at the borders between our three counties. Nor can we afford to approve development plans that fail to make provisions for affordable housing. Nor should we throw money at road projects designed to open vast new areas to development without considering the impact on traffic and government services and yes, on quality of life itself.

The joy of planning 

It may be a stretch to describe urban planning as a joyous experience. But the same could be said of building a new house or renovating an old one. As a homeowner, you expect to encounter many roadblocks, conflicts and headaches. What sustains you during this difficult process is the knowledge that the end result will be a better place to live for years to come. The same idea, on a much larger scale, applies to planning for urban growth.

People often say we can’t have regional planning here because we’re too fragmented politically. But the reality is that most of us understand that stopping growth in its tracks is unrealistic. And knowing that, we should realize that careful and thorough planning with broad community input is the only path to achieving the best balance between growth and preservation of our quality of life.

We can do it. The people of the Lowcountry have survived earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, wars and, all too often, our own pig-headedness. We can survive growth too, if we put our minds to it and work together.