West Ashley VisionQuest

A group of West Ashley residents, property owners, and design specialists are taking an active part in deciding how their slice of Charleston can continue to thrive.
Representatives from that organization West Ashley–James Island Business Association (WAJIBA), met recently with municipal planners to build on City of Charleston plans to further improve the Avondale Point area located between Blessed Sacrament church and the Coburg Cow along Savannah Highway.
That same group will welcome the public the weekend of April 19-21 to a series of open gatherings, where the collective insights and “genius” of local residents and businesses could contribute, eventually, to the city’s future plan for the area.
Avondale Point has undergone a transformation over the past decade that has brought to the area hot restaurants, diverse shopping destinations, and a vibrant nightlife scene.
Its transformation has also brought with it some unintended, negative consequences — like increased traffic, parking fights between merchants and nearby neighborhood associations, pedestrian safety concerns, and fears of increasing crime.
The city had originally planned to close Magnolia Road to incoming traffic where it intersected Hwy. 17, and then use the blocked off space as an enhanced parking area. But design and property ownership issues scuttled that plan, and little had been done to the area since then.
But now, the city has an ambitious plan to calm traffic, find more parking, and continue to help the area thrive, without hurting neighborhoods, according to Christopher Morgan, a senior planner with the City of Charleston, who also owns a rental house on Magnolia.
Earlier this year, WAJIBA’s board (of which the publisher of this newspaper is the current president) decided to make improving Avondale Point priority and quickly enlisted a host of concerned professionals to head up the efforts. One of the point men, architect Dinos Liollio, knows the area well.
“When I was a child, my father’s office was located on Savannah Highway, across from what is now the Mellow Mushroom,” said Liollio, 59, who grew up in nearby Parkwood Estates. “On Saturdays, when my dad was working, we’d cross Savannah Highway without fear of being killed or run over, and go watch movies in what was the theater.”
Liollio has also enlisted the help of Rick Day, principal of a huge national planning company, Stantec, which has an office in North Charleston. On top of consulting on a host of projects across the country, Day, who also grew up in the area, was consulted recently on providing solutions to an increasingly congested Interstate 526.
Liollio stressed that it was crucial to reach out to nearby businesses and residents, because their current knowledge of and proximity to Avondale Point should reap heaps of insights and benefits.
City planner Morgan said this week that the city was excited to see what emerged from the process. Morgan said the city has recognized that the key to furthering Avondale Point’s “amazing rebirth” would be “calming” the traffic whizzing through on the highway to a slower drone.
Already the city has succeeded in negotiations with the state Department of Transportation (SCDOT) to lower the speed limit to 35 miles per hour along that corridor. The city also has plans to build a 12 to 14-foot-wide median between Nicholson Drive, one of the side entrances to Byrnes Down neighborhood, all the way up to Coburg Lane.
The median, while not as tall as the one recently constructed downtown on the Crosstown, would be punctuated with bright, clear paint lines, to further direct cars away from diners, shoppers, and revelers. Morgan said the city was also still considering posts where parking decks, disguised as normal buildings, could be tucked into.
Those interested in letting their ideas flow into the planning process, can attend a morning meeting on Friday, April 19, at Triangle Char & Bar, located at 828 Savannah Hwy. Later on that day, Liollio’s group, which also includes shop owners and property owners, will meet with nearby neighborhood associations for more brainstorming.
The next day, Saturday, April 20^th, designers and planners will begin focusing on laying out the schemes and ideas that emerged in the meetings the day before. And on Sunday, at 10 a.m., there will be a public forum at Triangle, the results of which will be turned over to City Council for consideration.
Tierney Simpson, the president of the Ashley Forest Neighborhood Association, directly behind Mellow Mushroom, said the public forum was a “great idea” and that she planned to attend.
“I think it’s great that we are having this proactive effort, because we do not want to turn into Mt. Pleasant or Folly Road,” said Simpson.