New Planning for an Old City

I love to see Charleston's long-term plans for more livable, human scale, as opposed to vehicle scale, neighborhoods taking shape! This place is just getting better and better!

"A 22.5-acre parcel near the Maybank Highway-Folly Road intersection on James Island could become the site of a miniature 'downtown' that will feature upscale homes, high-end retail stores and class A office space. That’s the vision J. Luzuriaga, president of Charleston-based real estate firm J.L. Woode Ltd., has for the heavily wooded property.

Luzuriaga’s general vision of the property’s potential blends with the city of Charleston’s concept of transforming the area surrounding the Folly Road-Maybank Highway intersection into a pedestrian-friendly, mixed-used development where people live, work and shop all within walking distance or a bus ride, thus reducing automobile traffic, said Christopher Morgan, planning division director for the city’s Planning and Neighborhoods Department.

Sidewalks bordered by storefronts, offices and restaurants; tree-shaded streets; parks and other public places; a residential mix of townhouses, apartments, condominiums and single-family detached houses; and a community design in which cars are parked in the rear of buildings is what the city has on the drawing board for that area. It would be dubbed McLeod Village, named for the adjacent McLeod Plantation, the forthcoming home of the American College of the Building Arts, Morgan said.

McLeod Village is one of the city’s 19 proposed 'gathering places,' mixed-used developments built at major intersections. Right now, city planners are focusing their attention on several of those gathering places in addition to McLeod Village, Morgan said. Additional gathering places include the Bees Ferry Road-Glenn McConnell Parkway intersection in West Ashley, the Old Towne Road and Sam Rittenberg Boulevard intersection in West Ashley and the Clements Ferry Road-Interstate 526 intersection on the Cainhoy peninsula, Morgan said."

For the full Charleston Regional Business Journal article: http://www.charlestonbusiness.com/pub/13_16/news/10009-1.html

For Charleston's full city plan: http://www.charlestoncity.info/dept/content.aspx?nid=1304