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Citizen’s group examines alternatives to Mark Clark
By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer
When it comes to transportation on Johns Island, it’s a love-hate relationship. Residents may hate their congested intersections, but they love their tree-canopied roads.
Islanders in early October turned out for meetings and arranged to receive input on proposed highway improvements, including the extension of the Mark Clark Expressway from West Ashley.
The Coastal Conservation League and citizens group Concerned Citizens of the Sea Islands, has hired Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin, a traffic engineering consulting firm with offices in Atlanta, Orlando, and West Palm Beach, Fla., in an attempt to develop alternative traffic solutions for congestion on Johns Island that do not require the construction of the Mark Clark Expressway.
“The Mark Clark is going to make things 10 times worse,” said Thomas Legare, a Johns Island native who founded the citizens group along with Bill Saunders, another lifelong resident of Johns Island.
Slowing down growth is the only thing that will solve traffic problems on the island, Legare said.
“The Mark Clark is going to do nothing but bring more traffic to Johns Island,” he said. “We need to strengthen our zoning laws where Johns Island doesn’t become another cookie-cutter development.”
Legare said there are some intersections that need improving on the island and that the county should move forward with the widening of Maybank Highway, which is being funded through the half-cent sales tax initiative.
“They need to speed that up and get that done, because that is where traffic backs up in the afternoon,” Legare said. “But everybody needs to stop and remember that, yes, it takes a few minutes to get on and off the island, but we used to have drawbridges. You never left
Johns Island that you didn’t have to stop at a drawbridge. You’re still sitting in traffic for five minutes, so it’s nothing new.”
The slower pace and the narrow, tree-lined roads are one reason Jan Temple moved to Johns Island nearly 20 years ago.
“When we moved there, you could get in and out easily, no problem, and there were still a lot of farms here,” Temple said. “There’s a lot of beauty on Johns Island, and there’s got to be investments made and a connection with the people on the island. They should have some input. We do not want the nightmare of Mount Pleasant.”
Scores of new residential developments, zoning changes and property annexations by the city of Charleston have changed the dynamics on Johns Island in less than a decade. A 2001 traffic study done for the island is now outdated and being revised with $75,000 approved by Charleston County Council.
Dan Moses of Charleston County Roadwise, which oversees projects funded by the half-cent sales tax, said another public meeting will be held in the coming months and the update should be completed next year.
Temple said she feels the city’s annexations have occurred before infrastructure needs were met to address the masses of people visiting or moving to the island.
“There’s a lot projected to happen, as you know, with the expansive growth down Maybank corridor,” Temple said. “The real concern is that it’s done in a way that you sustain the beauty of this island.”
In his initial meeting with area residents, Ian Lockwood, principal with the Glatting Jackson firm, said the group will look at different approaches to solving traffic problems that will not be as impactful as a high-speed expressway. Residents of Headquarters Plantation, a neighborhood closest to where the Mark Clark Expressway will impact Johns Island, said they are concerned about noise and destruction of trees.
“Does an interstate-style road need to happen?” Lockwood said. “If anything is the opposite of what you are talking about that would be it.”
Lockwood and his team plan to return to the area Nov. 12-14 to share ideas and hold design charettes with the public. They will make a formal presentation on Nov. 14, although a date and time have not been announced.
Megan Desrosiers, a program director for the Coastal Conservation League, said the S.C. Department of Transportation has put out a request for bids for a new environmental impact study that will help determine the effects of extending the Mark Clark Expressway. The current study is 10 years old and the new report will cost about $5 million, funded by the State Infrastructure Bank.
The bank has also promised the county $420 million to cover the extension of the Mark
Clark, but the $420 million price tag is several years old.
“Everybody knows it’s going to cost more,” Desrosiers said.
A year ago, Charleston County Council released a study by the Atlanta-based consulting firm EDAW that stated that completion of the Mark Clark Expressway would cause the population of Johns Island to double by 2030.
“The way areas are being developed and the demands on our highways as a result of more and more traffic, we’re going to need all of the improved highways that we can get,” said Curtis Inabinett, Charleston County Councilman for District 6.
Johns Island needs traffic relief, Inabinett said, but there are still some questions in his mind with regard to the Mark Clark Extension.
“The majority of the residents in that area that have contacted me are all against the extension, but they are for improvements to the existing highway system,” Inabinett said. “In my opinion, it’s not going to get better. If anything, the traffic situation in Charleston County is going to get worse.”
Bill Saunders, a descendent of African slaves who lived on Johns Island for generations, said he has emotional concerns about the island and fears new development will push out families who have always called the island their home.
“We can’t stop all the growth, but after these roads are built, I can’t see my people being here another 30 years,” Saunders said. “We know what it is and what it was, and we don’t want to lose it.”
Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at kdayton@setcommedia.com.
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