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Summerville wants to take a breather before it sprawls itself to death


krazeeboi

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One way to help control the growth is to set a moratorium on new housing permits by stating the water supply cannot support any more development until the existening water plant facility can handle future growth. Thus, this will make it easier for Summerville to catch up on updating utilities, highways and city services.

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But that can only do so much.

"The town also is feeling the pressure from dozens of new subdivisions Dorchester County has been approving just west of town. That's why it wouldn't help much for Summerville to limit the number of building permits unless the county adopts a similar policy"

Growth is going to happen. Moritoria can be effective, but they aren't always the solution.

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The Raleigh Observer had an interesting big front-page article in Sunday's paper about NC's inner coastal development. It says there are telling signs of poor water quality as measured by the health of shell fish in the creeks. So much is now off limits to fishermen, and the reason is pollution from run-off coming from housing developments.

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^You really think so? I'd think people would opt for another part of the Charleston metro like Berkeley County or something.

Development is already starting to sprout up around Moncks Corner, which is pretty isolated from most major highways except US 52, so I think it's only a matter of time. If it can go there, I could see it grow on the other side of I-26, especially if S'ville starts limiting construction.

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well. attempting to stop growth is only serves to do one thing....make housing in th the area even more expensive. Nobody areound here wants any more development. Every since Mt Pleasant put the brakes on, Berkeley County has already exploded. From The bulk of the 113,000 or whatever homes planned are in Berkeley County. Summerville has already institued a minimum lot size, which only creates more sprawl. A cty-wide moratorium would simply push devleopment into the county (which is already occuring). A county-wde moratorium would simply put more stress on Berkley County. Either way, atrificially constricting supply while demand will remain high, would mean even higher home prices.

You can't even touch a decent single family residence in Mount Pleasant for less than $300K. The new neighborhoods in S'Ville are starting at about $180-$190K .

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You can't even touch a decent single family residence in Mount Pleasant for less than $300K. The new neighborhoods in S'Ville are starting at about $180-$190K .

In dense urban cities, its not uncommon for people not to have a single family residence. The insistance that everyone in America have a detach home on a lot is the reason we have the sprawl in the first place. My earlier comment on the political will to stop it means that nobody in SC is going to put in the growth policies to force the construction of more dense housing in lieu of sprawling cul de sac subdivisions.

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The Raleigh Observer had an interesting big front-page article in Sunday's paper about NC's inner coastal development. It says there are telling signs of poor water quality as measured by the health of shell fish in the creeks. So much is now off limits to fishermen, and the reason is pollution from run-off coming from housing developments.

My point being...SC's inner coast and coastal water quality are next.

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In dense urban cities, its not uncommon for people not to have a single family residence. The insistance that everyone in America have a detach home on a lot is the reason we have the sprawl in the first place...

That's part of the American dream, and you're sounding like that's the wrong thing to have or to want. Not everybody who live in cities want to live like New Yorkers or Bostonians. The point is that people choose to move to the South in general because they don't want to live in multi-story tissue boxes crammed with 10,000 other residents on one city block.

Infinite brought up a very good observation. One of the reasons why Chas has such astronomical real estate prices is that the cities and counties drive up the costs with their moratoriums. This also drives the demand further from the urban core of the city. Charlestonians need to realize that their area cannot be an exclusive club where only select people can live. Limiting growth with these knee-jerk reactions is just making things worse, and once the residents just accept that Chas is one of the hottest places to live, work, and play, the bureaucracies can implement procedures to accomodate and enhance growth, particularly in the more urban, infill areas.

For Chas residents who hate all of this growth, there is one option for them: move to a slower, less-growing city. :whistling:

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I wouldn't be so sure.....

Incumbents' stance on growth costly

Rozier has been pretty popular but the anti-growth crowd can legitimately say that they flexed some muscle in this election. Is this a trend for the Trident?

In my mind, a strong urban policy should equal a strong rural policy as well. Good land use planning encourages greater densities in urban areas, thus protecting the rural areas from encroaching sprawl (or at least staving it off).

Charleston needs to implement a regional growth plan, and do it NOW! It's so obvious but city/county leaders don't seem to get it. I feel like tearing my hair out (but I'm not because I just paid $60 to get it locked, LOL).

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That's part of the American dream, and you're sounding like that's the wrong thing to have or to want. Not everybody who live in cities want to live like New Yorkers or Bostonians. The point is that people choose to move to the South in general because they don't want to live in multi-story tissue boxes crammed with 10,000 other residents on one city block.

The thing is... nobody who supports smart growth around here has ever said people shouldn't be able to live in single family, detached houses. Search the internet. You'll not find one quote containing that sentiment. A lot of people wouldn't mind living in condos (just see how expensive they are), but that would never be the only choice. It's just about preserving quality of life. If you want to live in a city that hasn't preserved its green space, has all its amenities spread out along miles of clogged highways, and has its growth policies controlled by people who only want to make an unfettered buck, then there are plenty of places like that. Actually, real estate there in those towns is really cheap, because no one wants to live there anymore.

BTW, I've also never heard of a person supporting smart growth that doesn't believe Charleston will be a much bigger town 30 years from now. The challenge is to make the Charleston of the future a truly great city, and not a strip mall, cookie-cutter subdivision hell.

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The only way (IMO) to move to a more dense development pattern is to convince the consumer (or larger #s of them) of the benefits of denser living in urban environments. I think that can be done. But the answer truly is in a denser development pattern. All of these building caps and minimum lot sizes only serve to decrease density. Urban growth boundaries, etc serve to constrict the available developable land, and thus drive prices higher. The only real answer is to have people choose to live in closer with higher density...thereby redirecting demand while mainting land supplies. Hope that makes sense.

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^ that would be closer to the city limits of North Charleston. It is also right behind two new schools they are building. THis corridor is extremely popular and will continue to be so until it is completely built out. BTW that is right behind the neighborhood I live in and is adjacent to a mid to high end condo project the Beach Company is building.

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From my time in Charleston the only areas that are protected from growth are inhabitated by people who CARE. The local government could care less. The only reason Wadmalaw and all of Johns Islands have not been paved over are the citizens groups and The South Carolina Conservation League. The coastal areas draw tourists because of their beauty, so there is some incentive to protect it,in order not spoil "the golden goose". Mount Pleasant is dominated by pushy transplanted yuppies who complain loudly enough to get moratoriums in place. The poorer and until recently rural inland counties not so much. They are dominated by old boy pro-business development officials that favor money and growth over petty minors concerns like the environment :rolleyes: There is going to a continual sprawling mini megalopolis all the way up 26 to Columbia.

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From my time in Charleston the only areas that are protected from growth are inhabitated by people who CARE. The local government could care less. The only reason Wadmalaw and all of Johns Islands have not been paved over are the citizens groups and The South Carolina Conservation League. The coastal areas draw tourists because of their beauty, so there is some incentive to protect it,in order not spoil "the golden goose". Mount Pleasant is dominated by pushy transplanted yuppies who complain loudly enough to get moratoriums in place. The poorer and until recently rural inland counties not so much. They are dominated by old boy pro-business development officials that favor money and growth over petty minors concerns like the environment :rolleyes: There is going to a continual sprawling mini megalopolis all the way up 26 to Columbia.

I don't know... The voters in Berkeley and Dorchester Counties just booted out two of the most outspoken "old boy pro-business development officials": Jim Rozier (Mr. "I'm an Environmentalist, But All My Campaign Contributions Come From Developers") and Skip Elliot (Mr. "If You Like Scenic Views, Get Together and Buy the Property Yourself, Otherwise Butt Out"). As much as Berkeley and Dorchester's odd shapes hurt Charleston (they each stick a toe in awfully close to the Peninsula), they are massive counties that stretch many miles inland, much too far for even the most sleep-deprived commuter. If the voters there are getting more conservative about rezoning, then there will be no way to leap-frog those areas and start suburbs in Orangeburg or Clarendon County.

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  • 5 months later...

Summerville recently commissioned a traffic study which discovered that around 8% of the 138 miles of roads around Summerville are severely congested. In 2030, after all the road projects are finished, about 29 percent of the roads will be severely congested, according to the study. On the other hand, without the projects, 42 percent of local roads would be severely congested in 2030.

Some residents said they wanted municipal officials to use the study not just to decide where to add more lanes but to manage growth. For example, if the computer model shows that a new development will overcrowd the roads, council should not approve that development.

The bummer is that I read absolutely nothing in the article about the proposed commuter rail line to downtown Charleston, or about mass transit in general for that matter. :(

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