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"We don't want to become another Atlanta"


krazeeboi

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Lately, we've seen Charleston and Columbia present studies about the feasibility of commuter rail in their regions, and Spartanburg is studying consolidation. Are we beginning to turn the corner a bit as far as how we think about growth, at least on a local level? What can be done to change this on the statewide level?

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Interesting obvservation. Perhaps these are signs that SC is making *gasp* progress?

I think that in terms of the state, the major holdup is Glenn McConnell and his kronies. The other holdup is money. I know that SCDOT would like to spend more money on more transit projects and road improvements, but it simply doesn't have the money to do so. I suspect that most parts of government are like that as well.

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I think we have far too many roads that fall under state jurisdiction when they should be maintained locally.

As far as Glennie is concerned, I'm really glad that a lot of his crap is getting exposed for what it is. If it takes the Hunley fiasco for people to really question if they have the right guy in office, so be it.

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Studies have been conducted for commuter rail between Greenville and Spartanburg. They determined that it was not feasable because ridership would be too low.

Greenville is in a unique spot in that while it is the center of the Upstate, the other major cities in the region like Spartanburg and Anderson are not reliant on Greenville for jobs. Especially downtown Greenville. Whereas Camden, Newberry, and Batesburg-Leesville are becoming solid exurbs of Columbia, and many of them work in state jobs and such in downtown Columbia. Greenivlle also doesn't have an extensive existing rail system around the city. Commuter rail just isn't a feasable option at this point in time. However... Greenville has light rail or bus rapid tansit in its sights. They have made this very clear.

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Studies have been conducted for commuter rail between Greenville and Spartanburg. They determined that it was not feasable because ridership would be too low.

Greenville is in a unique spot in that while it is the center of the Upstate, the other major cities in the region like Spartanburg and Anderson are not reliant on Greenville for jobs. Especially downtown Greenville. Whereas Camden, Newberry, and Batesburg-Leesville are becoming solid exurbs of Columbia, and many of them work in state jobs and such in downtown Columbia. Greenivlle also doesn't have an extensive existing rail system around the city. Commuter rail just isn't a feasable option at this point in time. However... Greenville has light rail or bus rapid tansit in its sights. They have made this very clear.

I know what you mean. The only real place that seems to rely on Greenville for jobs is Powdersville, Easley, and maybe Greer.

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One of the best chances for rail in Greenville is between Mauldin and downtown. Hopefully a north/south line and an east/west line will eventually be created as studied. With fuel prices rapidly rising and people moving here at a steadily high rate, they would be successful.

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  • 2 weeks later...

One of the best chances for rail in Greenville is between Mauldin and downtown. Hopefully a north/south line and an east/west line will eventually be created as studied. With fuel prices rapidly rising and people moving here at a steadily high rate, they would be successful.

I'm thinking the best hope for light rail in Greenville would be downtown Greenville to the Power Corridor (Verdae/ICAR/Millenium Campus/South Financial Campus)... maybe at some point a long spur to Clemson.

Mauldin will need to fundamentally change their downtown to make it rail-worthy. Right now, it is arguably less dense than Greer and Simpsonville's... but neither of those are even close to having the critical mass to support rail. Of course, Mauldin has plans to change their downtown, but they have a long ways to go. I think connecting to the development associated around ICAR and Verdae is more likely.

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It's all great to talk about, but we are certain to look back in ten years and say, "well that sure didn't happen as we had hoped." How are we to expect a joint vision with so many individual municipalities looking out for themselves? Who would regulate the vision anyway?

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^All legitimate questions. Coming up with suggestions is easy; implementing them is another thing altogether. For starters, we set up a committee like this to demonstrate what we need to do to grow smarter, but we restrict cities from annexing territory that should be in the city limits anyway, territory that would be subject to more zoninng and land use regulation controls, at least in theory. That's a fundamental contradiction. Our governor gets it, but in SC, that position is little more than a figurehead.

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I don't think the city governments themselves are generally responsible for the high amount of sprawl happening around the state though - at least not entirely. My next question is, how large do we want this "consolidation" of vision to be? In theory it should continue on up the ladder until the entire nation abides by the same visionary regulations, but we know that would not happen with our current form of federal government, nor would most want it to happen. So if you start with several cities and one county working together, then add another county with its own cities, and etc., how far can you go and still expect adequate and relatively equal results without completely reorganizing each local governmental entity? It is a real head scratcher to me. At this point, it seems that the closest we can come in any reasonably short amount of time is to hone our unified marketing strategy with the hope that eventually each government organization will see the power and necessity a shared vision can bring.

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I think that despite all of the projections and predictions, we aren't going to start really doing something until the problem is front and center. We will have missed a grand opportunity to truly be proactive, but unfortunately, because we lust after what other cities/states have so much, we're pretty much going to try to copy just about everything they've done, including sprawl.

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I'm interested in this topic, but I don't know much about it. These are some interesting articles, though.

My understanding is that counties can have a major impact on urban sprawl. Compare Georgetown County with Horry and Charleston Counties. I'm not intimately familiar with that area, but it seems that Georgetown County has preserved land and limited growth much better than its neighbors. Would y'all agree with that?

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At this stage in the game, counties do have the most impact because they, by far, control the most amount of land. Its their development policies that will ultimately determine what happens to our state- not the cities.

- - - - - - -

That was a mediocre article at best. If you're going to talk about regional growth and planning, it seems to me that you'd include the whole region in your discussion. Basicly what we learned from that article is this:

Anderson County: Planning for the future, glad to have about grwoth (Comprehensive Plan)

Pickens County: Don't want Greenville (inspite of being attached at the hip), doing some planning (Vision 2025)

Greenville County: Midway between Charlotte and Atlanta- major growth, center of Upstate region, (no talk about planning)

The lack of discussion on Spartanburg aside- this article is missing a lot of info given what I expected from its title and introductory section. Notice anything missing? The other 7 counties perhaps? Some stats on the 10 county Upstate area as a whole? Discussion on the rest of the Piedmont Megalopolitan area (which includes Atlanta and Charlotte among others) ? I could continue, but siffice it to say that as far as I'm concerned this article is nothing but fluff.

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