Mayor visits DI, asks for input on new park, e-bikes, and a toll road?

The City of Charleston plans to ask residents in January what they’d like to see at the site of a 62-acre parcel donated last year by Daniel Island developer Frank Brumley. 

Staff are open to all ideas, Mayor William Cogswell told a crowd of about 100 at his State of the City address at the Daniel Island Recreation Center on Oct. 20.  

“There’s a lot of different ways we can go there,” Cogswell said of the land, located near Oak Leaf Lane, south of the nearby soccer fields. “We want to be respectful of the neighborhoods around it. We’d love your input.” 

The mayor’s office is delivering its annual State of the City speech this year with separate visits to Charleston communities. On his Daniel Island stop, Cogswell covered a long list of the residents’ stated priorities, including repairs to a popular pedestrian bridge, e-bike safety, public ferry service, and traffic problems.  

Development and traffic lie at the heart of many residents’ concerns. As the city prepares to create a roundabout at the intersection of Seven Farms Drive and River Landing Drive, plans also include adding safety measures for pedestrians at the intersection of Pier View Street and Seven Farms. 

Marleen Durfy, president of the Pier View Condominium Association, said she’d like to see lighting similar to the upgraded crosswalk installed near Credit One Stadium to help people cross on busy evenings. 

“The minimum thing they could do is make sure the traffic-calming device does what it needs to do – help pedestrians,” Durfy said. 

Traffic on Clements Ferry Road is also a major concern. The city is considering adding six new traffic signals and is also looking to buying four acres outside the entrance to Point Hope that are permitted for 80 units of housing, part of a plan to create a larger parcel that will hold a new fire station, police station, and public works facility.  

“We are trying to manage development in a very constructive way,” Cogswell said. “It is not always easy, but there are solutions.” 

The mayor also showed slides of a proposed an outside-the-box toll road idea that would widen Clements Ferry Road by two lanes. Drivers could buy a monthly pass to travel on dedicated lanes.  

“It’s your decision if you want to opt into it,” Cogswell said. “It frees up existing lane space, so the net flow is increased.” 

That project, if it happens, is a long way down the road. But just 30 days away, Cogswell said, Daniel Island residents will see other longed-for change, including construction work at a closed wooden footbridge on the Waterfront Park leisure trail behind Governors Park and Credit One. 

Electrical motorcycles or dirt bikes, often called e-motos, are a rising cause of tension on the island and elsewhere. Residents often share photos of young riders doing wheelies in the street, zipping in front of cars, or racing through parks and lawns. Cogswell noted that in May, the city passed an ordinance governing e-bike use. Compliance lies with parents, not police, he said. 

“I don't need my officers arresting 14-year-olds,” he said. “This is something we need the community to lean in on, too.” 

Jeremy Smith, chair of the Daniel Island Neighborhood Association’s Safety, Streets, and Sidewalks committee, said that he thinks development of the 62-acre parcel should include some trails dedicated to e-motos – an idea, he said, that Berkeley County is considering.  

“We need to give the kids someplace to go that is safe for them,” Smith said. “Then maybe the kids wouldn't be popping wheelies on the street.”