Mayors at Kiawah Island forum press for regional cooperation on traffic, green-belt and a $4.25 billion transportation sales tax

Two visiting mayors speaking at an informal forum on Kiawah Island on Monday urged regional cooperation to tackle chronic traffic chokepoints, protect open space with a green belt and support a proposed $4.25 billion transportation sales tax referendum.

The moderator opened the discussion by inviting each mayor to share a personal anecdote. The conversation quickly moved to transportation and growth, with Speaker 1, identified in the program as a mayor, saying the city is pursuing a hard urban growth boundary to protect neighborhoods and focus new development inside existing limits. "We are focused on, actually, the opposite, where we have a hard urban growth boundary," Speaker 1 said, arguing city services are more efficient when growth is compact.

Why it matters: the mayors framed the discussion as linked problems — increasing visitation and outlying development have strained roads, traffic and public services across the region. Speaker 1 noted the city has diversified its economy beyond tourism and said that strategy lets officials be selective about the kinds of growth they court.

Traffic and local fixes: both speakers highlighted Johns Island and the Maybank corridor as priority areas. Speaker 1 described a locally led effort that enabled an additional lane on a congested approach to Johns Island without removing oak trees. "We dug into it a little bit… and so now we have a much more expedited way of getting that additional lane, which is moving forward and has been funded by the county," Speaker 1 said, adding that the project’s cost had fallen from an earlier estimate of "20 plus million dollars" to about "7 and a half" million and should move through regulatory review within the next four to six months.

State roads and funding formulas: the mayors said the patchwork of state-owned roads complicates local planning. Speaker 1 explained Charleston is disadvantaged by a state paving formula based on road miles, population, and pavement condition. Because Charleston’s district has extensive marshland and fewer road miles, the city is "dinged" in the formula despite high population and local investments in maintenance, Speaker 1 said.

Relinquishment and liabilities: Speaker 3 said smaller secondary roads have been transferred from the state to local jurisdictions when maintenance proved unreliable, but added that primary roads such as Maybank would be harder to acquire because the state typically conveys roads without funding for ongoing liabilities. "Primary roads like Maybank may be more of a challenge," Speaker 3 said.

Transportation Sales Tax and green-belt funding: the conversation turned to the county’s proposed Transportation Sales Tax (TST). Speaker 3 described the TST as a necessary, albeit politically fraught, funding opportunity. Speaker 1 said the county has improved outreach since the last sales-tax vote and defended earlier county choices not to bond revenue as fiscally conservative but ultimately costly. "In hindsight, that was a terrible plan," Speaker 1 said of the county’s decision not to bond for construction, arguing higher construction costs later made projects more expensive.

On allocation, Speaker 1 said the green-belt share of the proposed package had been negotiated down from 20% to 15% but stressed that even 15% would represent substantially more funding for land protection than prior referendums. "It's way more money than the green belt funds have ever gotten in the past two referendums combined," Speaker 1 said, adding the preserved land in prior efforts amounted to "almost 50% of Charleston County that's permanently protected."

Political dynamics and next steps: both mayors urged voters and local leaders to study the final TST numbers once they are published and to weigh the trade-offs — more local investment in roads and the green belt versus possible property-tax alternatives. Speaker 1 said he is confident county and municipal leaders can reach an agreement on the package, including allocations for communities such as North Charleston that asked for a larger share.

No formal action was taken at the forum. The meeting shifted to a brief Q&A and closed with thanks from the mayors and moderator.