POSITION PAPER:

Coleman Boulevard Vision Endorsed, But Details Should Be Improved May 5, 2012
Charleston Moves has provided frequent input throughout the six to seven-year planning process that has resulted in the Coleman Boulevard Revitalization plan. Our organization advocates on behalf of bicyclists and pedestrians and supports infrastructure planning that promotes active, healthy lifestyles and low-impact transportation options. Places where families and citizens can ride their bikes and walk safely are desirable, vibrant, connected communities great neighborhoods and business districts. Where they exist, theres improved quality of life, higher property values and economic prosperity. This is our vision for Mount Pleasant. With this in mind, Charleston Moves enthusiastically endorses the Towns long-standing vision for Coleman Boulevard as the Main Street of Mount Pleasant healthy connective tissue, not merely a conduit for cars. The focus of Coleman Boulevard should be on linking neighborhoods and people, sustaining surrounding neighborhoods by serving multiple uses and users equitably. Todays Coleman Boulevard is vastly different from when it was primarily a route to the beaches. It has become a hub for small businesses, shops and neighborhoods that have individual character and local color. As a Main Street, it announces a unique sense of place complete with well-planned human-scale gathering places such as the Farmers Market. A coherent revitalization plan will help ensure this invaluable quality is preserved and enhanced. This objective cannot be attained by luck or happenstance, or by endless compromise to all detractors; it requires strong leadership, progressive vision and professional planning. The Town missed a huge opportunity with the so called improvements to Johnnie Dodds, which now is a massive 10-lane asphalt scar dividing Mt. Pleasant. It would be a travesty to succumb to the cars only thinking that has turned a large part of our Town into a highway. Looking ahead toward improvements in the plan, Charleston Moves will support a plan that slows traffic, improves flow, provides safe designated bicycle lanes, pedestrian areas and crosswalks, that knits communities together. Mayors Woods-Flowers, Hallman and Swails, together with Managers Burdette and DeMoura, the Planning Department, the CRAB, and members of the Town Council have worked diligently on this plan for many years. There has been ample opportunity for citizen input; this has not happened in a vacuum. We applaud the careful process and the long, serious effort that has been invested. We strongly urge that this vision be preserved, even as key elements are further improved. The role of responsible citizens and civic planners is to prepare our community for the future, for our children and their children. We must think long-term, with a vision for a vibrant Coleman Boulevard that serves multiple users while enhancing Mt. Pleasants sense of community. __________________________ MORE INFORMATION: Stephanie Hunt (843.442.1161) Tom Bradford (843.813.0101)