Homeowners from the Old Village section of Mount Pleasant employed the “strength-in-numbers” approach at the March 4 Town Council Transportation meeting, with numerous residents alternately approaching the Town Hall lectern to ask local officials about specific street improvement projects at Whilden Street.
Neighbors were especially concerned about traffic conditions worsening along the road’s intersections in light of the opening of the Seabird Inn. The hospitality venue, they predicted, would only exacerbate motor vehicle traffic, as well as foot traffic in an area devoid of adequate safety measures for drivers and pedestrians alike.
With the Old Village neighborhood fast emerging as a tourist destination, those who reside there informed Mayor Will Haynie and fellow transportation committee members of an increasing number of failure-to-yield and T-bone collisions across a three block stretch of Whilden Street and beyond.
Resident Blaise Barber fired the opening salvo by communicating the need for a four-way stop sign at Whilden and Hibben streets, as well as proper curbs and sidewalks in the surrounding area.
“I’m also concerned about the influx of employees needed to run the Seabird Inn,” she stated. “Perhaps residential stickers would be necessary to help solve this.”
To that point, Barber acknowledged a shortage of room to cater to the additional parking that a “nice” hotel, restaurant or event facility would require to function.
Fellow homeowner and mother of four, Christine Lloyd, counted 13 young children who currently reside on Hibben Street who cannot safely access the nearby library or playgrounds with drivers “flying around” and no sidewalks to speak of.
“It’s really kind of sad to say that I cannot trust my 9 year-old child to walk to the Village Library, which is two blocks from [her house],” she began. Lloyd went on to detail her hardship in trying to guide her children to safety along the area in question, including a 7 year-old with cerebral palsy and a vision impairment.
“I’m nervous. I usually take a second adult with me. He needs his hand held and I have to navigate and say out loud what he’s coming upon: ‘Here’s the sidewalk, here’s the hole. You need step over.’ It’s really treacherous, and I do think we really need a four-way stop at the intersection,” Lloyd continued.
“I every day dread driving from my house to Coleman [Boulevard] because you can’t see traffic coming. There’s a big, grand oak that literally gives you a blind spot once you look left, right, left. I myself have almost hit many people and it’s just not safe.”
Charleston-based restaurateur Ben Towill was also in attendance and informed transportation committee members that he is “fully in favor of slowing down traffic and any sidewalk improvement,” as prepares to open his Seabird Inn.
Haynie reminded the audience that current Whilden Street streetscape improvement plans are only concepts and not an ultimate drawing on a final proposal. The Town, he added, is only in the nascent stages of the process.
Mount Pleasant Director of Engineering & Development Services Brad Morrison promulgated a similar message, stating that there’s really been no hard engineering or designs to this point in an area comprising three intersections (Whilden at Hibben Street, Whilden at Venning Street and Whilden at Morrison Street).
Morrison further noted that 10-15 years worth of traffic calming discussions have resulted in a safety action plan, while also reporting a $15 million grant the Town has received to implement that plan.
Previous efforts have seen speed humps installed in the Old Village area, along with radar feedback signs.
Moving forward, said Morrison, the intent is to rethink the configuration of the Whilden Street corridor by adding safer crossings, high-intensity flashers and possible LID (Low Impact Development) efforts along the stretch.
“We want to get speeds down at the entrance of Old Village,” affirmed the Town staffer, who later mentioned higher visibility for pedestrian crossings as an additional priority.
The next steps would include engaging the community to elicit comments and/or suggestions in formulating a rock-solid plan.
Weighing in on the prospect of residential parking stickers as a potential solution to some of the traffic chaos was Councilmember Howard Chapman. He cautioned Old Village homeowners that the sticker program wouldn’t only affect commercial entities, but also their visiting friends and family members who drive into area.
On a different, but related topic, Councilmember Daniel Brownstein asked Morrison to prioritize the possible identification of additional land uses for a more pedestrian-friendly environment in the form of an all-way stop at Whilden and Hibben streets.
“I think that we need to be moving towards a four-way stop, irrespective of the rest of the project, and maybe on a totally different timeframe,” offered Brownstein. “I think there’s a lot of potential to Whilden Street. If you look at it as it exists today, it’s wide and it’s straight, and it might as well be a dragstrip right off of Coleman Boulevard. I think if you look at the sidewalks, you see, as the residents have noted, there’s a patchwork of existing sidewalks of varying levels, as well as in places where it ends and you’re walking on grass.”
Haynie concluded the committee session by apprising residents that the Town can access crash data for the three intersections to get a sense of the day-to-day risks incurred by drivers and pedestrians. He then provided background on Seabird Inn.
“I just want to say that the hotel was not approved by the council when it came up for a vote. It went to a lawsuit and a settlement was approved. That was a long, hard slog ,,, I was sued personally for fighting that. This is not the kind of thing that the Town just approved, and this is one reason why and we need to be very careful as we move forward.”
“Just because we get sued does not mean we have to settle. I have no regrets of that battle or being sued because now we’re dealing with the consequences of that.”
