No Paid Parking

What are your views on charging for parking?

I do not favor paid parking or “free" resident parking passes.

The most recent "not in 2021" paid parking decision is simply an election year ruse to avoid blame for a poor plan made entirely without public input. "Everything's on the table" means metering, additional enforcement costs, court expenses and threats to public land-recreation fields.

In the short few years we’ve examined this on Planning, the technology has evolved from simple parking meters to kiosks to cell phone apps. What the public should expect is to be able to “see” when Sullivan’s Island is “full up” and use another beach access or plan better next weekend, just as we all do with upstate parks and pubic resources. We are only big enough to accommodate so many visitors and they understand their own safety as well as convenience are part of our island’s limits.

The beaches belong to everyone in South Carolina and Sullivan’s Island has proven to provide excellent hospitality and access. We are not a private island and we’re respected for our hospitality. Every reasonable person understands that a six-lane bridge or 1000 car parking deck will still not accommodate everyone who would come to enjoy the beach in July. Paid parking changes nothing.

What would you propose to improve ingress/egress to the Town during beach season and other peak traffic periods, as well as parking in the commercial district?

As Chair of our Planning Commission, we’ve studied our surrounding communities as they wrestle with traffic, parking and playing host to the visitors who come to enjoy our public owned beaches. We’ve carefully watched the changes implemented such as one-side parking to allow emergency vehicle access everywhere in our community.

We have a finite number of roads, access, parking places and some balance seems to have been found. We need to continue to demand that Charleston County support our island safety with officers and resources in every season. If it's "everyone's beach" then safety and sanitation need to be a shared expense by everyone in Charleston County.