Johns Island parkway would protect rural character

A recent article reported that Bill Saunders of Concerned Citizens of the Sea Islands indicated that he did not see how a a parkway across Johns Island would benefit Johns or Wadmalaw islands.

As a resident of Wadmalaw Island, I have given it some thought, too.

Traffic from property owners at Kiawah and Seabrook represents less than 5 percent of the volume on Johns Island roads. The majority of traffic volume on Bohicket and River roads comes from workers. The benefit of a proposed parkway would be for the working person, like me, not the owners at Kiawah and Seabrook.

Kiawah Island, Seabrook, Camp St. Christopher and Freshfields Village represent more than 11,000 Charleston County jobs, but the majority of those employed there do not live on the sea islands for any number of reasons.

To explain, I will share a personal story: Our family simply could not afford Johns Island real estate. Historic areas such as this come with a higher price tag, and that is how it should be. So regular folks trying to get to their jobs are travelling across the front doors of Johns Island residents, so to speak, which is not fair to the residents or their beautiful island community.

Both Bohicket Road, with its native American name, and River Road, with its ties to early American history, offer abundant Lowcountry scenery and a real sense of place.

These Johns Islanders need safe neighborhood roads, not two that are already ranked as fifth and sixth most dangerous in the state by a Washington, D.C., engineering firm.

Between 2002 and 2006, there were 28 fatalities and more than 200 vehicular accidents with injuries on Bohicket and River roads. These make the crosses and flowers on grand oak trees along the roadsides hard to bear. Those crosses represent our family members, friends and workers. Another head-on collision this past week — during working hours — brought home the reality.

If only those beautiful historic roads could be improved to handle greater volumes of traffic that the Council of Governments says will increase another 29 percent on Bohicket Road and more than 200 percent on River Road by 2030.

But widening these roads means that we are potentially cutting down grand oak trees and removing many more homes where neighbors have lived for generations. It also means removing historic congregations and buildings. That widespread disruption would ruin the fabric of the community. To that end, a cross-island parkway is already ahead of the game since neither historic roads nor the communities are disturbed.

I was saddened to read that in the same article that the best that Megan Desrosiers of the Coastal Conservation League could offer were little bandages, such as reducing speed limits and adding turn lanes. To me, this seems to indicate how out of touch CCL is.

First, who could argue against lowering speed? Accidents occur because of driver error. There is no room for errors with current road conditions. There are few safe locations to pull over because there are no shoulders and the grand oak trees are very close to the road. There are deep ditches very close to the road in several locations and few standard lines of sight.

But lowering the speed limit does not work without police enforcement. Under such unsafe conditions, Charleston County Sheriff's Office deputies could not provide adequate enforcement.

In addition, current manpower constraints within the sheriff's office and the volume of calls for service in Charleston County, diminish the priority level of proactive traffic enforcement activity for deputies.

Second, regarding the idea of adding turn lanes for deceleration and acceleration, if that were done, we would need to remove grand oaks, which again is not acceptable.

With respect, I believe Bill Saunders' comment that a cross-island parkway creates traffic volume increases was not realistic. I say, let's keep Johns Island rural forever. We can do it.

A proposed new controlled-access parkway would limit traffic on Bohicket and River roads. It would mean that grand oaks are not removed and that homes are not destroyed.

Planning the new road should consider issues like noise and light mitigation, appropriate lines of sight for motorists and some screening for nearby properties.

Staying rural is not about roads. Places stay rural when they are zoned for rural. So a place that has a density zoning of three homes per acre will not stay rural, particularly when it is as attractive as Johns Island. While road engineering can eliminate dense traffic conditions, it is vital that citizens seek zoning ordinances to control growth in ways that ensure that the rural character is preserved.

Megan Desrosier believes that paying a toll is a hardship on workers. I disagree, again with respect. The hardships so far have been the 28 deaths. A buck or two is not comparable. The Kiawah, Seabrook and Freshfields employers need to take up the toll issue with their employees. Some already have.

For my part, a proposed parkway would benefit Johns and Wadmalaw islands tremendously.

Joe Bunting is a registered landscape architect serving on the board of the Association of Professional Community Managers. He is chief operating officer of Kiawah Island Community Association. He may be reached at joe.bunting@kica.us.