In the debut episode of Talking Charleston, Mayor William Cogswell sits down with Councilman Ross Appel, who represents parts of West Ashley and James Island. The conversation was recorded September 18th.
Appel and the mayor dig into Charleston's growing pains: why the city doesn't control most of its own roads, how state and county funding structures shape local traffic solutions, and what "concurrency" legislation could mean for future development.
They do a deep dive on the Riverland Oaks property on James Island, explaining how decades-old zoning and the city's strengthened stormwater manual have already cut the project from 153 to 95 units, and what other options are still at our disposal.
The conversation also covers recent happenings in Appel's district, including the Fort Pemberton Park ribbon cutting, the Windermere stormwater project, signal retiming in West Ashley, an upcoming pothole repair partnership with SCDOT, and the plan to bury power lines along the municipal golf course.
Talking Charleston is a brand new monthly podcast from the City of Charleston that focuses on issues that affect all of us every day. Every month, the Mayor sits down with a different Charleston council member to go over what is happening in their district and beyond.
Watch or listen to Talking Charleston wherever you get your podcasts!
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/0346CDe7AOhWZcBf5UKYf9
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW4POECQG_hQ
Apple:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-charleston/id6815488372
Chapters:
(00:00) Welcome to Talking Charleston!
(00:48) West Ashley and James Island overview
(01:11) Traffic and Growth
(01:53) Why SCDOT owns most of our roads
(03:06) How are roads are funded?
(06:45) How "Concurrency" laws could help
(13:04) Riverland Oaks
(14:40) "Why can't the City say no?"
(16:52) "Why can't the city buy out Riverland Oaks?"
(21:16) How Stormwater regulations cut units
(23:54) Using Greenbelt funding to cut units
(30:11) Red tape getting in the way
(35:05) State of the City West Ashley
(39:26) What does it mean to be from Charleston?
(45:59) What's coming to West Ashley/James Island?
(48:59) Closing time!
Intro Music:
"Cool Intro" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
