Over here on James Island Roadwise (Charleston County’s division of SCDOT, also likely responsible for your Whipple Rd. project) was gonna “improve” the intersection at Camp and Folly Rds. Their initial plan called for tearing down 50 or so grand oak trees, while widening the roads on all four sides. After local clamor at the first meeting, where they intended only to announce the engineered plans they had, they postponed the project and went back to the drawing board. They came back several months later, and hosted several meetings where they unveiled 3 alternative engineered plans–each successful from the engineers’ standpoint in that they were improving the automobile traffic flow, which is what they set out to do. But the residents came out in even greater numbers, resoundingly denouncing all 3 alternatives for not reducing the number of trees damaged and/or cut down. Furthermore the new options had inadequate bike lanes and sidewalks. Back again they went to the drawing board. Finally they came back with something reasonable. But they still met resistance for certain deficiencies, and they are still working on it.

This was all thanks to a motivated and outspoken community and organization by the Islanders for Reasonable Expansion and the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League. Without public outcry, we’d have already broken ground on a $5 million project that would have been a permanent disappointment. By the third round of meetings, city council members, county officials, and James Island elected officials were all showing up in response to the letters, emails, and phone calls.