Walkability is near the top of the list as designers sketch out streets for Union Pier, the 65-acre waterfront site on the Charleston peninsula.
Charleston leaders, community stakeholders and developers are taking part in a workshop this week on the redevelopment and how to reconnect the site with peninsula residents, ABC News 4 reported Nov. 11. The station labeled it the Union Pier Safety & Walkability Workshop. Its report did not say who organized it.
Katie Zimmerman, executive director of the advocacy group Charleston Moves, which is involved in the workshops, said designers are taking a pedestrian-first approach to the street network.
“One of the designers was explaining that their goal is to not make it a destination,” Zimmerman told the station, “but simply extend the street grid that currently exists and that used to exist hundreds of years ago, revisiting that and just sort of knitting the community back together and making it a place to be rather than to go to.”
Charleston City Councilmember Mike Seekings, who represents District 8, said the planning effort is drawing on outside expertise.
“They’ve got an entire team of experts from around the world to think about best practices,” Seekings said, according to ABC News 4.
The site is envisioned as a mix of housing, public parks and commercial space that extends downtown, the station reported. Businessman Ben Navarro announced plans in 2024 to buy the site from the S.C. State Ports Authority, according to ABC News 4. The last cruise ship left the terminal June 30.
Advocates tied the workshop to recent funding decisions, including passage of a transportation sales tax and a proposed $1 million for pedestrian safety in the city’s budget, according to ABC News 4. City Council is expected to finalize that budget by mid-December.
“Let’s keep up the momentum. Let’s keep our folks accountable,” Zimmerman said.
