Adopt James Island moratorium | Editorials
It will take a supermajority of Charleston City Council votes tonight to approve a badly needed six- month moratorium on large new developments on James Island. Council members should not hesitate to lend their wholehearted support. The Town of James Island unanimously passed a moratorium in May. So did City Council, although the city Planning Commission rejected it in June. County Council inexplicably has remained largely silent on the issue. But no one should be under the illusion that a half-year ban on multi-family developments will somehow straighten out the island’s longstanding, growth-related woes in and of itself. Rather the moratorium is simply an opportunity to do what City Council should have been doing for decades — develop a workable strategy to preserve James Island ’s livability and unique character in the face of a booming population. That strategy must involve infrastructure upgrades , like pushing forward the stalled but crucial Rethink Folly Road plan in coo...