If the idea of walking and cycling is to be promoted, and I hope it is, ALL developments, retail and housing, should have accessible green space and parks WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE. Should there be significant impact fees on developers/every new property and every new development, to assist with purchasing space for satellite parking for downtown Charleston, improved bus services and bike transportation from these satellite parking areas, and more accessible parks and green space nearby to mitigate increased density that is appearing on the peninsula and nearby? I think this should be of the highest importance. We can’t wait until every space has been filled then wish we had created parks and open space, or better transportation options. Are we already behind in this endeavor or is there a great plan I am unaware of? I feel this should be a top priority to keep Charleston and the surrounding areas livable.
So many plans are based on on models that are many years old and not appropriate to the area and the current need for conservation and traffic control. PUDs, new apartments and communities are being built without the infrastructure to support them, and no regard to the quality of life of the residents. Charleston needs a mayor who will not be afraid to say, “this doesn’t work anymore” to plans that have been sitting for years on some developers desk and don’t take into consideration the wants and needs of the existing residents and current traffic concerns.
Long Lake by Mason Prep and the Ashley House has tremendous potential. Why not build a boardwalk in parts along Lockwood Boulevard, then behind those Calhoun Street buildings to Halsey Boulevard. The reason I’m suggesting a boardwalk is that the sidewalk along Lockwood Boulevard is too close to a busy road to be comfortable, but if you put the boardwalk in the lake and ran it toward the more spacious area near the Ashley House, you’d have a nice walk.
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One public facility that the residents of West Ashley have been asking for is a farmer’s market. Somewhere in the DuPont area, where all of these properties come together, is the logical place for a new farmer’s market to happen. Combining the farmer’s market with neighborhood meeting space and a small performance/exhibit space would keep the property occupied and functioning as a vibrant center of neighborhood activity. Music and arts programs could easily be run from such a facility.
An improved crosswalk and landscaped median at Wappoo Road similar to the one just completed in Avondale, would make this dangerous intersection safe for the school children who cross there as well as for the people who might want to connect from the Bike Path to the Greenway.
New public facilities have been built West of the Ashley in recent years, but predominantly in conjunction with new construction on the periphery of the city. This is fine for attracting people to the new neighborhoods in the farthest reaches of the suburbs, but it does nothing for the older West Ashley neighborhoods which have never had these advantages.
We need to go back and right some planning wrongs that have occurred here in the past fifty years.
We have parks, playgrounds, The Bike Path, and the Greenway in the older areas, but how much better would they be if these facilities were interconnected? The city has a perfect opportunity to create synergy from these assets at the Firefighter’s Memorial and the soon to be purchased 1901 Savannah Highway property.
Public transportation may seem limited to buses for now, but might we consider using small rubber tire trolleys, somewhat like elongated golf carts, on the old ACL and SAL rights of way that could shuttle residents from South Windermere all the way to the Clemson Extension with the historic crossing at DuPont, where passengers could change “trolleys” for Maryville. These vehicles would be more like elongated golf carts and would not interfere with the pedestrian and bicycle traffic. This would also help get bus traffic off Savannah Highway and other major corridors.
There will be almost a million people living in the tri-county area by 2030. We will need higher density housing and West Ashley is one of the logical places for it to go. Higher density residential and office development could easily be built at Croghan and Citadel Mall that would provide both ridership and commercial destinations for the trolleys at opposite ends of the Greenway.
Less affluent neighborhoods with “good bones” like Ardmore have the ability to provide significant affordable housing in an area that desperately needs it. The problem is that people are scared to invest in areas where the only City Department with any visibility in the neighborhood is the Police Department.
Code enforcement must be intensified. The best way to protect our tax base and keep our tax rates low is to have a strong code enforcement program in both the City and the County. A proactive property maintenance program is essential for private properties as well as public rights of way. There are sidewalks in the West Ashley area that are impassable because obstructions as large as palm trees have grown up in the cracks between the slabs. Buildings like the Kerr Drug building at Wappoo Rd. have not been cleaned or maintained in more than a decade. Large properties like Church Creek Shopping Center and Charleston Hardware continue to go vacant and threaten their adjoining neighborhoods with all the problems that come with vacant commercial buildings. We need more muscle and we don’t yet have it.
The two jurisdictions that control land use in the West Ashley area, the City of Charleston and Charleston County, have never been able to finalize and adopt common community standards for the appropriate level of intensity of commercial uses along the West Ashley commercial corridors. The City and the County must adopt mutually agreed upon and jointly approved zoning overlay districts for all commercial corridors to prevent the further degradation of our adjoining neighborhoods. This is how we will prevent another massive storage facility like the one on St. Andrews Blvd. and how we will stop the proliferation of automobile dealerships on Savannah Highway.
One of the first things that we must do for our community is to document and make available to our residents the wonderful history of this place that we call home. For the most part, residents of West Ashley are completely ignorant of its history. The fundamental problem with that fact is that people do not tend to take pride in things that mean nothing to them. Knowing our history will help us to do things like developing appropriate design guidelines for new construction that reflect who we are as a people and where we have come from as a community. Late Victorian and early 20th century wood frame farm buildings and railroad structures comprised much of our older built environment West of the Ashley. We should draw from those historic forms as we build up our community. It’s our identity and we need to reclaim it. Without our history being easily accessible to our people, the land between the Ashley and the Stono will never be fully appreciated and we will have no community identity.
There is WAY too much trash in our city. We need an aggressive, year-round ‘do not litter’ campaign. More trash cans (decorated by students k-12), visible advertising, fines for littering, community and school involvement in periodic clean-sweeps.
The City of Charleston Peninsula Recreation Department youth sports program has exploded in the last few years–the U6 micro soccer league has gone from 6 teams to 16 teams in 6 years. The City needs a comprehensive recreation facility for all these little athletes!
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I’d look to best practices used here in our country as well as abroad. I’d consult with knowledgable parties and implement technologies that will safeguard our communities and businesses from flood damage. Here’s something that’s been tried in Tokyo: http://fw.to/6dki4aT
Create a park on the vacant land next to the James Island Connector on Harbor View Road. It’s a perfect area for a paddle park to launch kayaks and stand up paddleboards. A Farmer’s Market can be held there on the weekends.
Don’t allow this area to be rezoned commercial. The city and the Town of James Island can pool their resources to create a green space that is attractive and useful to all James Island residents.
This area is the first part of James Island one sees coming across the connector. Instead of a big ugly office building, it would be nice to show people enjoying what makes James Island special!
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Excellent idea that should be seriously considered. All great cities have great parks. This City should be no different.