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Isle of Palms planning commissioners review mobility plan, asked to pick top-five projects
Summary
The commission heard a presentation from the BCD Council of Governments on a non-vehicular mobility plan funded by the Charleston Visitors Bureau, reviewed an inventory of sidewalks and bike facilities, and was asked to submit their top five project priorities to help finalize scoring and cost estimates for a July report to council.
The Isle of Palms Planning Commission on June 10 heard a presentation from the BCD Council of Governments on a non-vehicular mobility plan and was asked to return a short list of priority projects to guide cost estimates and grant applications.
City staff introduced the project as a multi-year effort funded by the Charleston Visitors Bureau and described the commission’s role as a sounding board. "This is a project the city has had on the drawing board for at least two years," a city staff member said, noting the plan is intended to inventory existing facilities, identify gaps and produce a short, prioritized list that staff can use to chase small, recurring grant opportunities.
Katherine Basha, planning director at the BCD Council of Governments, described the team’s methods: a field inventory carried out with a mobile app and intern-collected photos, public outreach including a survey and open house, and a preliminary technical scoring of projects for accessibility, safety, connectivity and feasibility. "We have all that inventory now," Basha said, adding the data would be turned over to the city and combined with commissioners’ priorities and engineer cost estimates to produce a final ranked list.
Presenters said scoring included destination weighting (for example, the recreation center or city hall), a quarter-mile walking-distance measure for destinations, and five years of SCDOT crash data to identify unsafe segments and intersections. Some items were listed as "planning" projects and not scored because they require more detailed study or property agreements.
Commission discussion focused on tradeoffs between lower-cost shared-lane markings (commonly called "sharrows" — shared-lane markings painted on the roadway) and more expensive, dedicated multi-use paths. One commissioner suggested routing cyclists off Palm Boulevard by improving 21st Avenue or Waterway Boulevard. Basha said the plan was designed to highlight both smaller "low-hanging fruit" fixes such as repainting faded bike markings and crosswalk improvements and larger candidates for complete-street funding.
Presenters offered to provide larger printed maps and the underlying Excel scoring files and asked commissioners to submit their top five project priorities by email before the next meeting; staff said the team will add commission preferences into the scoring, finalize cost estimates with engineers and bring the consolidated package back to the commission in July, then to council in August. "If you would like to submit the top five, add comments — we'd love to hear them," a presenter said.
Votes at a glance: The commission approved minutes from the April 14 meeting by motion, second and unanimous voice vote at the start of the session.
The presentation and documents will be made available to commissioners; staff expects to return with final scoring and cost estimates in July and a staff report to council in August.
