Engaged News

The $9 billion state budget that takes effect Monday spends tens of millions of dollars on local parks, festivals, law enforcement agencies and historic buildings.

A growing number of residents are voicing concerns about a development company's plans to build a rental home community in an area that was zoned more than 40 years ago. 

Three new hotel projects are likely coming to Charleston's upper peninsula area after securing a key zoning approval this week.

Graduate student Phil Riazzi of Dayton, Ohio, said students felt pressure to elevate an already popular park but that it was rewarding to work on a space "that's so intertwined in the community."

Two small infill housing developments are in the works in the city of Charleston — one on the peninsula and another in West Ashley.

Mayor Tecklenburg’s latest plan for slowing hotel growth on the peninsula will focus on “empowering” a board that makes key approvals for hotel projects.

The city of Charleston wants residents' help deciding how to turn a former grocery store site into a community destination for West Ashley.

Mayor John Tecklenburg’s campaign literature “A Plan for Charleston” contains several measurable goals. Here’s a sampling, followed by updates on whether they’ve been achieved so far. 

The plot thickened almost immediately after he took office. Council vs. mayor. Tecklenburg has faced a skeptical City Council at almost every meeting he's led. 

A crowd of 50 people braved 90-degree weather at the corner of Meeting and Brigade streets Friday evening for a rally intended to raise awareness for the lack of traffic signals signage at the intersection.

The Board of Architectural Review has the power to approve an extra floor based on "architectural merit and context," city zoning administrator Lee Batchelder said, though it has yet to do so.

The city of Charleston and the National Trust for Historic Preservation have filed a lawsuit challenging the city of North Charleston's annexation of a rural West Ashley property. 

Click to view the Preservation Society of Charleston's 2016-2017 annual report

Johns Island residents flooded into the Charleston City Council meeting Tuesday to argue for and against a proposed 6-month pause on new home-building there.

Charleston's largest suburb now has an expansive master plans to shape its future.

Plans for a 100-room timeshare on the site of the popular Starbucks at Calhoun and East Bay streets got a crucial thumbs-up from a Charleston zoning board Tuesday.

One of the largest planned developments in Charleston’s history is poised to change the landscape in outer West Ashley.

The Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments will host an open house Monday to discuss the Regional Transit Framework Plan.

When you look around at historic preservation events in your community, who do you see? Do you see a spectrum of individuals who represent the diversity of your community in terms of gender, ethnicity, profession, and age? If not, the time to work toward a more inclusive preservation movement is now! 

Charleston, South Carolina needs all of its leaders working together for the entire city. We hope our new members will help keep the oars in the water in unison.

With North Charleston poised to annex a large piece of undeveloped land in West Ashley, Charleston City Council made a pre-emptive strike Tuesday to take the area first.

In most cities across South Carolina, lobbyists could meet with local officials behind closed doors without anyone knowing it.

Charleston’s representatives in Washington have been broadly supportive of Republican efforts to pass new tax legislation. No question, reform is needed.

For a city well known for heated battles over architecture and new hotels, the most recent project at one of Charleston's most visible and historic parcels has so far been met with remarkable calm.

The city of Charleston Planning Commission could finally vote on the proposed short-term rental ordinance at a special meeting Monday afternoon after deferring it twice in the past few months.

"The Building Charities business model is a perfect example of genius at work and is exactly what we encourage our students to do themselves. Mrs. Hazard is looking at an industry and using her creativity and innovation to disrupt a market, something every entrepreneur hopes to achieve," says Burr, adding, "There could be no finer memorial to Billie (Hazard) than restoring houses while also providing money to charities."

Nearly two years after the original plaque, installed in 2013, was knocked down by a delivery truck, the The Preservation Society of Charleston reports that a new plaque is finally now in place.
 

A joint session of the Planning Commission and Short Term Rental Task Force underlined the continuing chasm between members of both bodies on how to best regulate short-term rentals

How well do we prioritize what to build or fix? Not well at all, says a new report.

Do you want to learn more? Do you have questions or comments? Your voice matters! There are upcoming opportunities throughout the month of October for community members to comment on the Plan West Ashley Draft Report.  

One of the most iconic locations in Charleston also happens to be a critical piece of flood prevention infrastructure and a prominent public space. It also needs to be replaced.

If the massive flooding experienced along the Battery during Tropical Storm Irma was any indication of what’s to come, the city of Charleston faces an increasing threat from rising tides.

Charleston’s suburbs haven’t gotten nearly as much attention from city officials and planners over the years as the peninsula. That is changing.

The city’s largest suburb is the focus of an impressively ambitious revitalization effort that has been in the works since earlier this year. The first draft of the Plan West Ashley master plan was released this week.

Mount Pleasant needs a good comprehensive plan to help guide the town’s explosive growth over the next ten years. And by most accounts, a good and inclusive team of 34 community members is set to help develop that plan over the next few months.

The planning document that will guide the future of West Ashley is one step closer to completion. 

Dover, Kohl & Partners, the national planning firm hired to study and create the master plan for Charleston's largest suburb, has published its first draft for residents and city officials to review and critique before a final copy goes to City Council by the end of this year.

While the long-term plan to revitalize West Ashley is still under construction, smaller projects to improve the Charleston suburb have started taking shape.

At its meeting last month, Charleston County Council approved the following sidewalk extensions which will help connect West Ashley's neighborhoods and commercial areas:

• Sycamore Avenue, connecting to Magnolia Road.
• Carriage Lane, connecting Ashley River Road to Old Towne Road.
• Markfield Drive, connecting Savannah Highway to the West Ashley Greenway.
• Orleans Road, connecting the Sam Rittenberg Boulevard intersection to Hazelwood Drive.
• Stinson Drive, also connecting Savannah Highway to the West Ashley Greenway.

For new Charleston residents or novices to city government, a Charleston City Council meeting might be a bit overwhelming.

In a single evening, the 12-member body and Mayor John Tecklenburg can sign off on dozens of capital projects, grant applications, zoning requests and new ordinances — all of which can have huge impacts on the way the city functions.

All six Charleston City Council members whose seats are up for election this year are asking voters to send them back for another four-year term. Most of those incumbents are facing challengers.

The filing period for City Council's even-numbered districts in the Nov. 7 election closed at noon Monday.

Once upon a time there was a small town occupied by early settlers known as Charlestowne. In spite of many local hazards such as alligators, snakes and pesky mosquitoes the settlers made it into a nice place to live.

Illustrating the broad concerns about growth and development in this fast-growing town, a whopping 250 residents have volunteered for a steering committee to craft the next Comprehensive Plan.

Eventually it will be cut down to 30.

Are there some things you don’t like about your community? Are you doing what everyone else does when they don’t like something? Are you whining about it to your friends, neighbors, social media connections and all the other people in your life?

If you’re annoyed do you take it to social media or complain to your neighbors? That always results in useful conversation.

Charleston City Councilman Dean Riegel hasn't been an established resident in the West Ashley district he represents since he sold his home 10 months ago.

The City of Charleston is seeking public input as designs were released Tuesday for an extensive reconstruction project to the “Low Battery” on Charleston’s peninsula.

Charleston city designers are asking residents to provide input to craft a public space along the Low Battery seawall. 

As the city prepares to replace the Low Battery with a higher, sturdier wall, the Design Division sees the space as a potential linear park.

The Charleston Planning Commission met Wednesday and unanimously voted not to recommend the moratorium, a vote that came after several  members said the move would block not only unpopular large developments but new businesses as well.

Charleston made history when it created a Board of Architectural Review in 1931 to preserve the architectural character of its old city, and more than 2,300 cities and towns have since followed suit. So perhaps it's not surprising that Charleston's most significant rewrite ever of that 1931 law is stirring plenty of anxiety over whether the city will get it right.

The Plan West Ashley effort is still in the relatively early stages, and it’s going to take a very long-term push to update and renew an entire part of Charleston. But that effort has a lot of momentum. Don’t miss the chance to take a hands-on approach to guiding West Ashley’s future.

Anyone with concerns, questions or comments about proposed changes to the boundaries of the Charleston peninsula's hotel zone have an opportunity to air them this week.

Less than a year ago, Charleston voters elected their first new mayor in 40 years — one who campaigned on a promise to reel in development, put a renewed focus on West Ashley and protect residents’ quality of life.

City Council narrowly approved the bike lane plan in July to the joy of the biking community, but the county — which holds the purse strings — now has reservations. And angry constituents.

Nicholson’s decision Tuesday upholds a key condition of the city’s and company’s recent settlement agreement and could mark the end of a nearly two-year-long saga over the controversial property just west of Colonial Lake.

While the Sergeant Jasper is often portrayed as a “peninsula issue,” residents of every neighborhood in the City of Charleston should sit up and take note of what is going on. With areas from West Ashley to Cainhoy on the cusp of revitalization or expansion, our planning processes are all we have to protect against hasty, ill-considered decisions that do not adequately take into account neighborhood character and residents’ desires to shape the future of their community.