New cities north of 526?

[krazeeboi]

Here's an article from the P&C that talks about the challenge of residential development in areas north of 526 and the potential form they might take. An excerpt:

North of Interstate 526, there's potential for intense development too. Logical locations are in the area of the intersection of U.S. Highways 176 and 17A in Berkeley County, or U.S. Highway 52 toward the Cooper River, between Goose Creek and Moncks Corner. All are in the bull's-eye of where The Post & Courier has identified the thickest numbers of housing permits already approved or actually under construction in the region...

Could these locations, many slated for pockets of as many as 5,000 to 9,000 housing units, be developed more sensitively to the needs of our times? Converted from standard sprawling suburbia

[Spartan]

I'm going to have to read the article in its entirety later on, but I just wanted to comment... I think that it will be business as usual, but that ideally the Charleston Trident Region needs to agree as to what needs to happen and the actually do something about it. The biggest problem as I see it is that Berkeley and Dorchester are still largely rural counties, and they are just happy to get new investment. Having new cities and new urban nodes would make the most sense. Minimizing sprawl now will make the Charleston metro much more livable in the future. I'll comment more later on.

[Infinite1]

In my opinion, any new "urban center" would be an extension of the suburban type developments we see now. I do think the Cane Bay/ Carnes Crossroads area is poised to be another hub of commercial development, but I certainly don't expect anything as quaint as Summervlle or Moncks Corner, or as dense as DT Charleston. As I have mentioned before, density might as well be a 4 letter word around these parts. Most people around here are not interested in smart growth or efficient developement, they are only interested in stopping growth.....of course only after they move in.

[Spartan]

True. Sprawl is sprawl. But, I think its possible though to cluster development in a more orderly fashion that actually resembles a city and more urban style neighborhoods. The challenge will be getting Berkeley and Dorchester to actually do something.

[krazeeboi]

I think the impetus is there for Dorchester County, with Summerville actually considering implementing growth controls. I can't really speak for Berkeley County though.

Looking at it from a different angle, if the $600 million economic development project in eastern Orangeburg County proves successful by bringing in the thousands of jobs as projected (8K-10K), both counties doing something now to sensibly guide growth would be a very good thing, as St. George (Dorchester) and Cross (Berkeley) would definitely see some growth in connection to that project.