Panel to consider Johns Island toll road

A controversial proposal to build a four-lane toll road across part of Johns Island will be considered this afternoon by a Charleston County Council committee.

Councilman Paul Thurmond has proposed a resolution that would ask the state Department of Transportation to seek proposals for construction of the Sea Islands Parkway.

"It pretty much puts the ball in SCDOT's hands, and says look, we want to get going with this," Thurmond said.

Supporters of the parkway say it would reduce the traffic problems on Johns Island's network of scenic two-lane roads, and would not contribute to the development of the island.

"Right now, Bohicket and Main and Maybank are already overcrowded, and River is a dangerous road, and it's overcrowded," said Paul Roberts, chairman of the Kiawah Island Community Association.

Roberts was the founding director of the Center for Transportation Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and said traffic studies show that the need for the parkway is clear.

Opponents say that running a four-lane road across the island would harm it's rural character and cause an explosion of new subdivisions.

"It's all about Kiawah and Seabrook, and any damage done to Johns Island is immaterial to these people," said William Saunders, co-founder of Concerned Citizens of the Sea Islands.

Saunders said he's amazed that County Council is preparing to vote when the exact route and cost of the parkway have not been determined.

"This has been around for a long time," Thurmond said. "It's time to make a decision."

The parkway was first proposed in 1995 as a toll road that would start in West Ashley at the end of the Mark Clark Expressway, run to Johns Island at the Stono River end of Maybank Highway, then cut across the island between Bohicket and River roads to the Betsy Kerrison Parkway leading to Kiawah and Seabrook.

At the time the road was projected to cost $140 million, and the idea was that a private company would build it and then collect a $2 toll. The state Transportation Commission killed the plan in 1996, after thousands of Johns Island residents objected to the parkway.

In the years that followed the state moved forward on its own with plans to extend the Mark Clark to Johns and James islands, and last year the parkway concept was revived by supporters on Kiawah and Seabrook.

The hope is that a private company would take on the cost of building it in exchange for the right to collect tolls. Land would be required for such a road, however, and the government would likely have to play a role there.

Thurmond and Roberts said the parkway would have limited access, to discourage development around the road. Between the two ends of the parkway, there might only be access at Plowground and Edenvale roads.

"There's no reason this road can't be rural on the left and rural on the right, and still get people where they need to go," Thurmond said. "What I think is so interesting is that the (Coastal Conservation) league is opposed to this, but we think this is a way to keep Johns Island rural."

The council meeting is scheduled to begin at 4:15 p.m. in the Lonnie Hamilton III Public Services Building, 4045 Bridge View Dr., North Charleston.