Kiawah thoroughfare's tough test

Kiawah residents, like their counterparts throughout Charleston County, want their money's worth for their contributions to the county's tax coffers. But those contributions can't be used to justify an expressway through John's Island to their resort homes, not when the project has previously raised a justifiable alarm by thousands of Johns Island residents about its potential impact on the remaining rural landscape. A plan to build such an expressway was dropped in 1996 after being roundly criticized at public hearings by the residents of Johns Island who would be most affected by its construction. Islanders complained that an expressway would divide the island, change its rural character and increase pressures for development. Five years later, a consultant's study put the project back on the table. About half of those surveyed were said to prefer an expressway to the widening of either River or Bohicket roads. Protesting residents said that was no real evidence that the overwhelming opposition to an expressway that was reflected in their petitions had changed and that options other than those cited in the survey should be explored. (George Miller, who formerly served on the land planning committee for Johns Island, tells us that building an expressway between Bohicket and River roads may now be blocked by the recent approval of plans to build a golf course community near their convergence.) Apparently the recent passage of a local half-cent sales tax has encouraged Kiawah officials to push again for the expressway, which they say would make travel there faster and safer. Highway Commission Robert Harrell has noted the proposal can be resurrected with the Charleston Area Transportation Study Committee and the tax, if finally approved by the courts, is a possible source of funding. The initial proposal called for the expressway to be built as a toll road. The allocation of half-cent sales tax revenues ultimately will be made by Charleston County Council. Council should reassure the public that its involvement will be a key component in how the sales tax revenue will be spent. There apparently is a consensus that one of the major projects to be funded with the tax is the completion of the Mark Clark Expressway, which will touch down on Johns Island. There are still many Johns Island residents who remember that when concerns first were raised about the impact of Kiawah on their island, the original developers allayed those concerns by citing the scenic Johns Island highways as part of the appeal for their resort. Kiawah's mayor cites the major tax contribution the island now makes to the county compared to the few services it receives as one reason for considering its few requests. Actually, Kiawah's decision to be a gated community is the factor that determines the services it receives, and the services it provides its residents are little different than those made available by most municipalities. The Kiawah expressway idea should remain on the shelf until there is hard evidence that Johns Island residents have had a major change of heart.

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