Will Charleston TND Run Into Gridlock?

Can 1,600 residences and 300,000 square feet of office and commercial space co-exist on 287 acres in the suburbs of Charleston County? HPH Properties of Charleston and the City’s planners think so. That’s the plan according to the Post & Courier – oh, and don’t forget the adjacent 1,200+ acres and another 3,000 homes planned by Associated Developers and the SIM Group, known as Long Savannah.

While it may seem good in concept and fit all of the new urbanist ideals, will it really work without an extreme transportation fix to the area. And, I don’t just mean the extension to the Glenn McConnell Parkway – this is going to be a mess without substantial additional changes to the road network in West Ashley. Dover Kohl, the planners for the 287-acre tract and Long Savannah, is well respected across the country and it certainly sounds great on paper but can the system really take the additional traffic which is notoriously under-estimated by TND traffic engineers? Who knows, but I guess we’ll find out someday - maybe when Watson Hill gets developed at the same time. Maybe even on April 23 when the City of Charleston Planning Committee hears the pitch.

Check out the story here.