Lowcountry planning forum scheduled for Saturday

Those concerned about how the Lowcountry is changing might have one of their best opportunities Saturday to speak up and make a difference.

The Our Region Our Plan session will begin with registration at 8:30 a.m., and its sessions will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a break for lunch. There's no fee to register, and nearly 200 people already have.

Dorchester County Council Chairman Larry Hargett said the event might be the biggest single public session in the two-year, $1.5 million planning process expected to provide a new blueprint for how local governments should build roads, schools and utility lines — as well as where they should use zoning to encourage or discourage new building.

"We don't want government to make all the decisions. We want to get citizen input going forward," Hargett said.

The planning began in June as consultant Peter Katz, HNTB Corp. team leader for the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments' regional vision plan, showed several participants different images and asked which they liked best.

Top picks included an image of a Portland, Ore., streetcar; a pristine swamp; a wide sidewalk; a narrow tree-lined street and Burbage's corner store at Broad and New streets.

Those scoring the lowest included the James Island shopping center at Maybank Highway and Folly Road, the modernist Bank of America building on western Calhoun Street and Savannah Highway, just west of Interstate 526.

Not only will the Saturday session feature other inter- active programs where people can vote on the kinds of places they value most, it also will reveal the results of a survey published in The Post and Courier and online.

Katz recently outlined the plan to municipal leaders in the state and said the Charleston-area plan could set a national precedent when it's unveiled in about 18 months. "This is the first major regional plan that's going to be done in the post- $4 a gallon gasoline era."

Hargett said more people are aware of how one government's decisions can affect neighboring governments. The regional plan isn't meant to take power from cities, towns and counties, but it is designed to help them make better-coordinated decisions.

"What we might do in Dorchester is our business. It's what we do, but it also impacts Charleston, Colleton, Berkeley and Orangeburg counties," Hargett said. "If we want to plan a new road somewhere, what would they do and say? Would they approve the same plan we're planning, and if they wouldn't, maybe we shouldn't move forward with that plan."

Hargett said the plan ultimately is a way for the region's three counties and 27 municipalities to talk to one another.

"We've never had this before in our three counties, where everybody sat down and talked."

Reach Robert Behre at rbehre@postandcourier.com or 937-5771.

Earlier versions of this story on Charleston.net stated incorrectly that the Our Region Our Plan session would take place on Sunday. The Post and Courier regrets this error.

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