Workshops let people get in their 2 cents' worth on ideas for widening roads or building 'greenway'   It may seem we've been down this road before, but there are some new twists and turns.   Residents of Johns, Kiawah, Seabrook and Wadmalaw islands are once again at odds over the idea of building a road through southern Johns Island. And Charleston County officials don't exactly know where the road would go, how to pay for it or whether to build it at all.   This may sound familiar, as the debate over a cross-island road has been going on since at least 1995, but the latest push to address Johns Island traffic has been gaining strength.   The issue now seems to be not "if" but "how."   Consider that County Council agreed in September not only to take a fresh look at the cross-island idea but also to study the potential widening of several of the tree-canopied winding roads for which Johns Island is known. Charleston Mayor Joe Riley endorsed the county's plan to study those options, after the idea of a four-lane, cross-island expressway was scaled back to a two-lane "greenway," and the town of Kiawah provided some funding.   And that's how people ended up at public workshops Monday at the Johns Island Regional Library, where they were asked to consider if they would prefer to see Main, Bohicket and River roads widened, or a new two-lane road built through the middle of the island.   The two-lane road proposal is what the county now calls the Sea Islands Greenway, a limited-access road, likely financed with tolls, that would run from the Betsy Kerrison Parkway near Kiawah to the proposed extension of Interstate 526 below Maybank Highway. Whether I-526 gets completed is a separate question, awaiting new funding estimates from the state next year.   Sandra Rourk was among nearly 260 people who attended the workshop. She supports the cross-island road plan, and said it has been unfairly characterized as something meant for folks on Kiawah and Seabrook.   "I live on Bohicket Road, and we went up and down knocking on doors and couldn't find anyone opposed to the Greenway," Rourk said. "We want the greenway, and there are a lot of people on Johns Island who really want it."   She said the proposed road would remove traffic destined for Kiawah and Seabrook from Bohicket Road.   Anna Barnett lives near Seabrook, and she doesn't see anything green about the Sea Islands Greenway.   "I came out here and fell in love with the general beauty, and now it's turning into James Island, with all the concrete and houses," Barnett said. "I think this will make it three times worse."   Inherent in the conflict is this question: Would building a new road reduce the traffic that's been caused by development, or would it simply prompt even more development?   Just last week, a nearly 1,300-home and hotel development by The Beach Co. called Kiawah River Plantation was given preliminary approval by County Council, on Betsy Kerrison Parkway near the proposed end of the new cross-island road.   Beach Co. President John Darby said the company bought the property years before there was talk of such a road, and that it wasn't a big issue for the development.   "We could take it or leave it," he said at a council meeting Thursday. Proposed plans for the road: The Sea Islands Greenway The Cross Island Parkway (plans from 2008)   Developer Hank Hofford, whose company has a separate county-approved development in the works on Betsy Kerrison Parkway, also said the road wasn't crucial to his plan, but he supports the idea.   "If you want to save the rural character of Johns Island, then routing it (traffic) away from rural areas with an expressway is one way to do it," he said. "Doing it now, before the next wave of development hits, when people need jobs and construction costs are down, would be the time to do it."   "Realistically, the Sea Islands Parkway, or whatever they are calling it, is the only viably funded transportation option," Hofford said, referring to the idea of paying for the road with tolls.   As the road plan previously faced opposition, and was scaled back from four proposed lanes to two, the name was changed from the Cross-Island Expressway to the Sea Islands Parkway and then to the current Sea Islands Greenway. Previous stories: One expressway may take a toll, published 06/19/95 Islanders seek road-widening study, published 05/25/00 Johns Island road plan advances, published 08/28/09 Panel to consider Johns Island toll road, published 10/16/08 Alternate route for Johns Island? published 09/02/09   "It would allow for greater density of population," said Tom Griffen, a Johns Islander who opposes the plan. "And greater density leads to more requests for infrastructure."   Kevin Dunn, of Kiawah, said a road would improve traffic safety and create jobs.   The county is assembling the comments collected Monday and taking new ones online here. The next steps would be environmental and traffic studies.   County officials say no decision has been made, although at the meeting in September, County Council directed the county staff to prepare a request for proposals, seeking "potential public-private financing and construction of the Greenway."   Councilman Vic Rawl, of Johns Island, said he thinks the county is not close to issuing that request, but he said this: "I don't think there's a question in anybody's mind that traffic on Johns Island is a disaster that needs to be addressed."

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