Gateway Park at Camp and Folly

The Town of James Island has proposed that the property at the corner of Camp and Folly, where there is currently a vacant Subway, become "Gateway Park."    Charleston County owns the property, having purchased it in order to obtain the right of way for the Folly and Camp improvement project.

The proposed park will include a park benches, landscaping, a bus shelter, public parking, and way finding signage.   It will provide a bit of green space in the "Commercial Core" of James Island.

Town has requested that Charleston County lease the property to the Town for $1 per year for five years with three renewable terms.   The Town will be responsible for cleaning up the property and constructing the park.

The Town's proposal was presented to the Rethink Folly Road Steering Committee.   The Committee passed a resolution endorsing the project and requesting that Charleston County lease the property to the Town.

County Council's Finance Committee voted 4 to 3 to approve the lease.   There will be a public hearing at the County Council meeting on Tuesday, March 13 at 6 PM at Council Chambers in North Charleston.   County Council will then vote on the proposed lease.

At the Finance Committee, Chairman Rawl, Councilman Qualey, Sass and Schweers all voted in favor. 

In opposition were Councilwoman Johnson and Councilmen Moody and Pryor.   Those opposed were willing to sell the property to the Town for approximately $600,000.    They were not opposed to the project, but were not willing for the County to lease the property at a modest price.  The likely effect of their stand will be for the County to sell to a developer with the likely result of a third gas station at the intersection.

Councilwoman Johnson represents a substantial portion of James Island, but she said she would like to see the property sold and the money used for projects on Johns Island.    It might be helpful if some of her constituents on James Island would contact her and ask that she support projects for our Island as well!

There are nine members of County Council.   At the Finance Committee meeting, Councilman Darby abstained.   The real question mark is Councilman Summey, who was absent.   If Summey votes iffavor, then it will pass.   If he joins Pryor, Johnson, and Moody, then it will fail on a tie.n

The Town will fund the creation of the park using funds from its hospitality tax.   Nearly of the money from that tax is raised from restaurants on Folly Road in the commercial core.   This project will put some of that money back into the area.  This is consistent with the mission of Rethink Folly Road seeking to make it destination for people to stop, shop, eat and drink.   Many municipalities in South Carolina fund similar projects with the hospitality tax revenue.

If you can, please come to the public hearing next Tuesday and ask for the County's help with a gateway park rather than a third gas station at Camp and Folly.

Rethink Folly Steering Committee News

In January, the Rethink Folly Committee elected County Councilman Joe Qualey to serve as Vice Chair in place of former Charleston City Councilwoman Kathleen Wilson.   The Committee also welcomed new City Councilwoman Carol Jackson.

The Committee voted to recommend that the County's Bike and Pedestrian infill project begin in the area between Ellis Creek and Prescott Avenue.   This is in what the Folly Road Overlay Zoning District describes as James Island's Commercial Core.   The project is on the west side of Folly Road.

The County has selected the Reveer Group to do the design for the bike-ped project.   They should begin survey work shortly after March 1 and should have preliminary design by September.   This preliminary design will include options of a standard five foot sidewalk, a wider sidewalk (perhaps 8 feet) and multi-use path of variable width, narrowing in areas where there isn't sufficient room, and finally the proposal of moving the curb out into Folly Road, partly putting the multi-use path in place of the existing bike lane.   Cost estimates will be provided for these options, and the Rethink Folly Road committee will have an opportunity to provide a recommendation on these options.   After than, detailed design work will commence.   The project should be ready to bid our for construction in the summer of 2019.

County Council has approved $365,000 for the current bike/ped project, which added to the Town's $400,000, the City of Charleston's $400,000, the $1.5 million federal grant obtained by the Town from COG adds up to $2,665,000. 

The half-cent sales tax referendum included $15 million for James Island, and there are several projects going forward.   These include intersection improvements at Riverland and Central Park, Fort Johnson and Secessionville, and Fort Johnson and Camp.   The County still believes that there will be approximately $2 million left over after those three projects are funded, but County Council would have to approve spending any additional money on the bike-ped improvements on Folly Road.   (In previous reports, I had been counting all $2 million as being in the bag, but really there is only $365,000 has been approved.)

At the February Meeting, the Committee approved a change in schedule to meeting every other month.   This was a compromise with the staff recommendation that the meetings be quarterly.   The meetings will now be every other month on the fourth Wednesday at 3:30 PM.  The next meeting will be April 25.

Also at the February meeting, the Committee voted to recommend that the speed limit on Folly Road be reduced from 40 mph to 35 mph in the segment between the James Island Connector and Fort Johnson Road.   The Rethink Folly Road plan calls for the speed limit to be reduced to 30 mph from the Wappoo Bridge to Fort Johnson Road and then to 35 mph on to the Folly River Bridge.   SCDOT recently reduced the speed limit from 45 mph to 40 mph between the James Island Connector and Fort Johnson Road.   The Committee believes that this remains an excessive speed for a central business area, and it is especially dangerous for pedestrians as well as those using the bike lanes.

Town wins $1.5 million COG Grant for Folly Road Sidewalks

The Town applied for $1.2 million of Federal complete streets funding through the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments (BCD COG) to complete sidewalks on the west side of Folly from the Ellis Creek bridge to Eugene Gibbs (near Chik-fil-e).  This would connect up to the sidewalks included in the County's Camp-Folly improvement project and so complete sidewalks along the west side of Folly to near the old Burger King.

At its November meeting, in response to the Town's application, the BCD COG awarded $1.5 million for bike-pedestrian improvements on Folly Road. 

The Town has pledged $400,000 (from our hospitality tax revenue.)   Sidewalk infill on Folly Road was a listed project on last year's 1/2 sales tax referendum and the County anticipates that $2 million will be available.   The City of Charleston has matched the Town's $400,000, though it will probably only be available in the City's 2019 budget.   This adds up to $4.3 million.

While this is plenty of money to complete a sidewalk between the Ellis Creek Bridge and Eugene Gibbs, the project has expanded to become a proposed multi-use path along the west side of Folly from the Ellis Creek Bridge to Sol Legare Road.   The cost of the expanded project is $15.9 million.

At the request of the Rethink Folly Road Steering Committee, the County prepared an application for Federal complete street funding through the BCD COG for this entire project.   The County asked for $6.9 million, which was all of the complete street funding available.  The County application arrived too late to be considered at the November meeting, and since the Town's application was funded for $1.5 million, that leaves $5.4 million.    We cannot count on the County getting all of the remaining money and it might not get any.  However, if it did get all of it, combined with the $4.3 million that would add up to $9.7 million, well short of $15.9 million.

The application for funding the larger project should come before the BCD COG early in the new year.    However, the Rethink Folly Road Steering Committee is anxious to make recommendations for spending the $4.3 million on hand.   Charleston County Transportation Department is preparing options for consideration at the January 17 meeting.

The County application included various options including a sidewalk everywhere there is an existing bike lane on the west side of Folly Road and a mulit-use path elsewhere.   The estimate for that was $10.3 million, but I found an inconsistency in the estimates for right-of-way and asked if there was an error.   When the error was corrected, the cost of the sidewalk/bike-lane/multi-use path option fell to approximately $9.7 million.   While that option could be funded if all of the additional $5.4 million was obtained, as I explained above, receiving any, much less all, of that funding is hardly certain. 

The multi-use path option between the Ellis Creek Bridge and George Griffith (Walmart) includes shifting the existing curb on Folly Road into the current roadway taking away the existing bike lane.   This would require reconstructing the drainage system.   The total cost of the multi-use path along this segment is $7.5 million.   The reason for moving the curb is that federal regulations require 12 feet for a multi-use path and it must be 3 feet from the curb.  There is not enough room between the existing curb and the Sunoco Station and Doctors Care near the Ellis Creek Bridge and the power substation near Walmart.   There is more than enough room for a five foot sidewalk and that would cost less than half--$3.3 million.

In my opinion, moving the curb, reconstructing the drainage, moving all of the underground utilities, and spending $7.5 million is not reasonable.    I also think doing nothing in James Island's commercial core is unacceptable.

There are no similar barriers and so no need to move the curb onto the roadway south of George Griffith.  (There is no curb south of Grimball/Fort Johnson.)   In those segments, the federally-required 12 foot muli-use path 3 feet from the roadway is more practical.    There is no bike lane on the west side of Folly between George Griffith and Rafael, so a multi-use path will take care of bikers as well as pedestrians.

We will see what the County transportation engineers say and what the Rethink Folly Road Steering Committee recommends.

Town Prevails in LOST Class Action

The class action suit against the Town of James Island filed in 2015 by former Mayoral candidate Trent Kernodle was dismissed due to lack of jurisdiction.   The class representatives working with Kernodle were former JIPSD Commissioner Rod Welch, former JIPSD Commission Chair David Engelman and current JIPSD Vice-Chair Sandi Engelman. 

The class action sought refunds of Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) monies received by the Town.  The Revenue Procedures Act (RPA) prohibits any class action for tax refunds and instead requires that taxpayers seek refunds from the county or state official that assessed the property tax.   Any dispute regarding a requested refund must be litigated using the State's administrative court system.    The RPA instructs any judge hearing a claim in circuit court to dismiss that action without prejudice.   Taxpayers seeking a refund may request a refund from the appropriate state or county official.

The Town levied a property tax starting in 2015 and has provided the required credit against that tax, resulting in no net municipal property tax liability.   The remaining dispute was over LOST revenue the Town received between 2012 and 2014, before it levied a property tax.   The Town's legal position is that it is not required to provide a credit against a tax that does not exist, so the Town did not collect any excess property tax that it must refund.   There are approximately forty municipalities in South Carolina without property tax receiving revenue from LOST.  None of them provide refunds of credits against a nonexistent tax. 

While the Judge dismissed this case, he rejected Kernodle's argument that taxpayers of the Town deserved a refund of a tax they did not pay.   In 2016, he added Charleston County as an additional plaintiff against the Town and eventually made it plain that he favored giving the Town's LOST money to Charleston County, who would then use it to provide property tax credits to all County taxpayers.   If that had occurred, approximately 2% of the benefit of that money would go to Town taxpayers.  Nearly all would have gone to those outside of the Town, mostly people living in Charleston, North Charleston, and Mount Pleasant.   Fortunately, Charleston County did not cooperate and supported the Town's position that the RPA required that the suit be dismissed.

There is good reason to believe that the Judge's theory was in error because the distribution of the revenue between municipalities and county government is set out in the statute.   In 1995, the City of Charleston made a more plausible argument that the municipal share of LOST revenue should solely be distributed among municipalities that have a property tax to provide a credit against.   While  I don't agree with that legal position and have no reason to believe the City of Charleston would pursue it again, I also believe it is safer for the Town to continue with a property tax and provide a credit against it.   The Town would be shielded from any harm due to legal action based upon that theory, and, in fact, would benefit if the revenues are directed solely to municipalities with a property tax.

October Rethink Folly Road Steering Committee Meeting

The Rethink Folly Road Steering Committee met on Thursday, October 26.    At the last meeting, the Committee had requested that Charleston County have their consultants prepare a proposal appropriate for an application for grant funding from the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments (BCD COG.) 

The Reveer Group developed a conceptual plan and cost estimate for a 12 foot multi-use path on the west side of Folly Road from the Ellis Creek Bridge to Sol Legare Road.   The estimated cost is $15.9 million.   They made a presentation to the Steering Committee.

They identified $9.3 million in possible funding.   Charleston County Transportation estimates that there will be approximately $2 million from 1/2 cent sales tax that can be used for this project.   The Town has committed $400,000 from our hospitality tax revenue.   At the meeting, Charleston City Councilwoman (and Steering Committee Vice Chair) Kathleen Wilson said that she believed that the City of Charleston could at least match the contribution of the Town of James Island.   The largest source of potential funding is $6.9 million of Federal complete street funding that might be obtained from BCD COG.   Adding funding from the City of Charleston, that sums to $9.7 million.     That is $6.2 million short.

The Reveer group also looked at ways to reduce the expense and phase in the project.   One possibility is to put a 5 foot sidewalk in areas where there is an existing bike path on Folly Road.  The cost of that approach is $10.3 million.     (The extra $5 million is largely the cost of moving the curb to the edge of the existing bike lane and then putting in an asphalt multi-use path.) 

They also broke the project down into segments based upon existing conditions.   The first segment is from Ellis Creek to Prescott St.  (Prescott is across from Nativity Church.)    It is mostly in the Town and is in what the Folly Road Overlay initially identified as James Island's  "Commercial Core."  That description was also adopted in the Rethink Folly Road Plan.   There is a bike path everywhere on this stretch (or will be when the Folly-Camp project is completed in the Spring.)    Charleston County Transportation told the consultants to assume that there would be no change to the Folly Camp improvement project, so this cost estimate is based upon that stretch continuing to have sidewalks and a bike path.    The existing sidewalks are very patchy--more like nonexistent.   Completing the sidewalks in this area would cost $2.3 million.   Replacing the bike lane and limited sidewalks with a muli-use path everywhere other than in the area of the Folly-Camp project would be $5.3 million.

The second segment is between Prescott Street and George Griffith Blvd. (Walmart.)   This is in what is identified as the "South Village."   There is a bike path here and an area of sidewalk, though it is only four feet wide, which is substandard.   Completing a 5 foot sidewalk in this area would cost $1.6 million.   Replacing the existing bike path and limited sidewalk with a multi-use path would be $2.2 million. 

The third segment is from George Griffith Blvd. to Grimball/Fort Johnson.  It is also in the "South Village."  There is no bike path there, though there is an existing sidewalk.   The cost of putting in a multi-use path is $1.6 million.

The fourth segment is from Grimball/Fort Johnson to Rafeal Lane. (This is past Signal Point Road.  There is a self storage near this point.)    It is in the "South Village." There is currently no sidewalk or bike lane in this area.   The cost of a multi-use path would be $2.5 million.

The fifth segment is from Rafeal Lane to Sol Legare.   It is in what both the Folly Road Overlay and the Rethink Folly Road Plan describe as "Neighborhood Preservation."    There is an existing bike path but no sidewalks.  The cost of adding sidewalks is $2.3 million and a multi-use path is $4.3 million.

Based upon the decision of the Steering Committee at its September meeting, the County is going forward with an application to BCD COG for the $15.9 million project.   Depending on how much funding is obtained, the Steering Committee will be making future recommendations about ways to reduce cost and phase in the project.

Councilwoman Wilson spoke in favor of building multi-use paths, explaining that if we accept the sidewalk/existing bike path option now, it will be many years, and maybe never, that we will get multi-use paths.   Many members of the Steering Committee shared the view that multi-use paths are better than bike paths on Folly Road.   The consensus is that few people want to ride a bike right next to the fast moving traffic on Folly Road.  That was the conclusion of the Rethink Folly Road plan too.

Also, in the area south of Grimball/Fort Johnson, the proposal is to pipe the existing open ditch and put the multi-use path on top   This saves on the cost of obtaining additional land, which is expensive and also obtaining right of way is very time consuming.     Some members of the steering committee pointed out that the Rethink Folly Road plan proposed "green" infrastructure, such as bio- swales. 

There was also discussion of the Rethink Folly Road Plan's suggestion that we use pervious pavement.   This pavement allows water to soak through rather than run off.    The Town used such pavement on Ben Road and Jeffrey and Lemontree and is planning to use it for sidewalks on Seaside Lane.  It is substantially more expensive than regular pavement, but avoids the need to put in drainage ditches or pipes.  The current cost estimates is for using concrete for sidewalks and asphalt for the multi-use path. 

I shared my view that the Rethink Folly Road Plan has always been about good, better and best.   I emphasized that I believe that getting sidewalks in the commercial core is important.   I think current conditions are a travesty.

I explained that the County needs to put forward the application as soon as possible, and that revising it would result in a long delay.   A member of the committee asked whether we would be limited to the exact plan described in the application.   The consultant said that no, as long as the money was used for bike and pedestrian improvements in the proposed area of Folly Road, things like piping ditches or pervious pavement could be adjusted.   No one voiced dissent regarding going forward with the application as soon as possible.

As we have more information about how much funding we will have, the Steering Committee will be making further recommendations.

The Steering Committee will meet on the fourth Wednesday of each month at 2 PM.   However, our next meeting will be Wednesday, November 29 (rather than the day before Thanksgiving.)

Flood Insurance

    I received a letter from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) with copies of the proposed new flood maps for James Island.   In the letter, they said that the Town does not participate in the NFIP (National Flood Insurance Program.)   They encouraged us to join so our residents could benefit from low cost federal flood insurance.
 
     Of course, many in the Town, including me, have flood insurance with NFIP.   The Town was accepted in 2008.   At that time, the Town adopted Charleston County's flood management ordinance and did so again in 2012.   There has been no lapse in the regulation since 2008.  Further, through our intergovernmental agreement, those regulations have been continuously enforced by Charleston County Building Services.   Still further, the Town participates in the various educational programs on flood prevention managed by Charleston County.

      I explained the situation to FEMA, but their position was that when the Town was closed down in 2011, the Town's participation lapsed.  In order to make sure that Town residents could continue to renew their flood insurance policies, we applied again for membership last December.

     The Town was reinstated into NFIP this July.   The good news is that residents of the Town can continue to renew their policies.   Those without flood insurance are eligible to obtain policies.

      Unfortunately, FEMA is treating the Town as a new member of NFIP.   This is a problem because a new member must wait one year before applying for a CRS (Community Rating System) discount.  After we apply, it will be some time before our application is reviewed and we can receive a discount.   That means that for the time being, as flood insurance policies are renewed, the previous 30% discount will be removed.

      I have contacted Representative Sanford, Senator Graham and Senator Scott asking for their help.   In my view, it is very unfair for our residents to treat the Town as a new member.

       Since it is impossible to obtain Federal Flood Insurance if your community does not participate in NFIP, when a community first joins, the rates start off high.   As a community begins to implement various regulations and educational programs, its residents get a reduction in rates.

       The Town is not in that situation.  Many of us have had flood insurance policies for years.  It is unfair to remove the discounts when all of the flood control regulations and programs remain unchanged.

        Senator Graham's staff discussed the issue with FEMA.   The FEMA staff agreed that the Town's situation was unique, but they said that existing legislation leaves their hands tied.   There is no provision for any waiver.

       Senator Scott has been working on the reauthorizing bill for NFIP.   I met with members of his staff and they are looking for a legislative fix to help the residents of the Town.

       I have also spoken with Congressman Sanford and he has agreed to help us in the House.  

       I think it will be helpful for residents of the Town to thank Senator Scott, Senator Graham and Representative Sanford for their help and to share with them the importance of fairly priced flood insurance.
   

Harborview Road and North Shore

   Many residents have complained that drivers continue to turn left coming out of North Shore onto Harbor View Road.   I have seen it as well.   A few have even seen cars go into the dedicated right turn lane for going onto the North Shore, going the wrong way!

    I instructed the Island Sheriff's Patrol to work on it and also asked City Councilwoman Kathleen Wilson if the City Police could help.    She did ask, but the City Police say they cannot.   While the intersection is in the City, just to the south, where the cars are turning, is in the Town. 

    The Island Sheriff's Patrol has stopped 39 cars in the last month at this intersection for illegal turns.   Almost 90 percent are not from James Island.   The number one excuse is that their GPS tells them to go to the intersection and turn left.   (Google maps does not show this, but it is "online."  Many GPS systems require updates, which many drivers fail to do.)

    We are working with Charleston County to have better signage on North Shore to better direct them to Harborview Road.