Upcoming Charleston County Comprehensive Plan

As a realtor I have an obvious interest in all of the details of the upcoming Charleston County Comprehensive Plan, but one fact really highlights the significance of what they're doing: "the county expects to need around 42,000 new living units by 2020, about 70% of which would be single-family dwellings." Where will these houses be built? Where will they NOT be built? What will they look like? Where will their owners shop? Drive? Go to school?

Now's the time to influence these decisions! What an exciting time to live in the Lowcountry!

"Residents, developers or anyone interested can search land-use plans by neighborhood under Charleston County’s upcoming comprehensive plan. It’s part of the county’s goal to make the document more reader-friendly, said Dan Pennick, director of the Charleston County Planning Department. The plan identifies where growth will occur and what types of development are appropriate for certain areas, said Jamie Greene, a principal with ACP Visioning & Planning, an Ohio-based planning consultant hired to assist the county’s efforts.

Architecture will be an important part of that discussion, Greene said. 'People here are really concerned about the character,' he said. State law requires counties and municipalities to update their comprehensive plans at least once every 10 years, and Charleston County began that 14-month process with public workshops last fall.
The comprehensive plan will focus on nine elements of growth:
• Population.
• Economy.
• Natural resources.
• Cultural resources.
• Housing.
• Community facilities.
• Land use.
• Transportation.
• Priority investment.

The county expects population to grow about 1.8% a year through the next decade. By 2020, the population is expected to be about 430,000. That’s a 30% increase from the estimated 2006 population of 332,000, according to estimates from the U.S. Census.

Because of that growth, the county expects to need around 42,000 new living units by 2020, about 70% of which would be single-family dwellings. The county needs to determine where that growth should occur.

'A lot of the effort will be looking at where the infrastructure is now,' Pennick said.
Based on a series of public workshops last fall, county residents want to curb sprawl, preserve historic and rural character, limit density in rural areas and provide public space in new developments."

To view the Charleston Regional Business Journal article: http://www.charlestonbusiness.com/current/14_5/news/11481-1.html

To view the upcoming Comprehensive Plan website: http://www.charlestoncounty.org/index2.asp?p=/departments/Planning/CompPlanUpdate/CompPlanUpdate.htm