Survey launches regional planning effort

A survey in Friday's newspaper will kick off a $1.5 million, two-year effort to clarify what's most important as the Charleston area keeps growing.

It's being hailed as a significant step in regional planning.

Strong schools, efficient roads, natural beauty, a healthy business climate, good jobs, affordable housing — how can all these priorities be kept in balance as more people move into the Lowcountry?

The Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments hopes the survey will let citizens guide planners.

"Planning should be a democratic process," COG Assistant Planning Director Alec Brebner said.

The survey, a four-page insert being printed at cost, launches an effort called "Our Region, Our Plan" that involves leaders of all three counties and 27 municipalities around Charleston.

"I have seen more cooperation for regional planning in the last two years than in the previous 20 years," said Dorchester County Council Chairman Larry Hargett, who is leading the COG committee. "Everybody seems to be coming together instead of doing their own thing. There is a new spirit toward joint planning to improve our roads, our traffic, the environmental situation."

Hargett talks more about the project in an editorial that's scheduled to run Friday.

COG will continue to take surveys for several months, Brebner said. A community meeting is scheduled for July 26 at the North Charleston Convention Center.

Outside planning experts will help guide the two-year effort. COG spent $1.5 million to hire HNTB Corp. of Kansas City, Mo.

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier.