Charleston City Council member Peter Shahid ran for council on a platform heavily built on redeveloping areas of West Ashley like the former Piggly Wiggly site at the corner of Sam Rittenberg Boulevard and Old Towne Road. Now he’s running for mayor, and he says the lack of advancement on the project is a big reason why.
“There’s only so much I can do on city council, but the current administration is not pushing this to my satisfaction nor to the satisfaction of the people of West Ashley,” he said. “This should be a priority. … There should be dirt kicked up on Sumar Street already.”
Some put the responsibility back on Shahid, however.
“As chairman of the West Ashley revitalization Commission since 2016, Peter Shahid has had as much to do with the planning and timing of this project as any other single individual in city government,” said Jennifer Mieras, campaign spokesman for Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg.
The city purchased the 2.5-acre space in 2017 with high hopes for a redevelopment plan that offered West Ashley residents an iconic and premier community center at which to gather for events, meetings and more.
“West Ashley is entitled to have something nice, but we don’t need to be spending $45 million for the sake of spending $45 million,” Shahid said at a public meeting on April 28. “If we can do something that accomplishes the goal for less than half of that, we should.”
Back to the drawing board
The developer for the site, Landmark Enterprises, was given a 60-day extension after the city council voted April 11 to reject its initial proposal. Shahid said he and other council members were concerned that Landmark’s design was too far off the original idea proposed years ago — and came with a $45 million price tag.
The original plan was to redevelop the vacant lot into a surface-level parking lot, a large civic center and a handful of commercial buildings for restaurants, stores and other businesses. Landmark’s design instead incorporated a strip mall along Sam Rittenberg Boulevard, several city offices and a below-ground parking garage to make room for the additional buildings. It did, however, keep the idea of a large civic center.
“[Our initial proposal] does not require a garage,” Shahid said. “You’ve got zoning requirements as to, ‘X number of square feet requires X number of parking spaces.’ In order to satisfy the extra required spaces for this many buildings, you had to come up with a garage. … To build this garage is $85,000 per space.”
Landmark Enterprises did not respond to requests for comment.
The jump in development costs with the garage in place gave several council members pause, Shahid said.
“The extension granted to Landmark is to say, ‘Get rid of the underground garage. Get rid of the offices for the city … and come up with something that looks more familiar [to the original design].”
Traffic woes cause for concern
The converging corridors on either side of the lot also continue to give pause to developers and residents. Often called the “suicide merge,” the zipper merge of Sam Rittenberg Boulevard and Old Towne Road has been an ongoing discussion for redevelopment for years.
The current plan is to tackle the traffic and safety at the merge indirectly by looking at neighboring intersections at Charlestowne Drive and Old Towne Road, and Amberly Street and Sam Rittenberg Boulevard.
“The changes are, in a broad sense, designed to provide other options besides vehicles,” Shahid said. “There’s a cut-through on Orange Grove Road to Sam Rittenberg … that strip there is going to become a pedestrian bike path. On Amberly, we’re adding a stop light, and that will be a huge improvement.”
At the large intersection of Orange Grove Road and Sam Rittenberg Boulevard, plans are tentative. The corridor is heavily traveled, with most traffic turning left from Orange Grove onto Sam Rittenberg to head to the bridge and the arterial Interstate 26. Shahid said there have been talks about improving the turn by adding an additional left-hand turning lane.
Further north, talks about a pedestrian bridge connecting North Charleston and West Ashley at Cosgrove Avenue continue.
“That’s going to be our Ravenel Bridge of West Ashley,” Shahid said. “It’s going to be elevated … it will be a utility for people … but also an amenity for us. … I think it’s going to complement what we have planned for all of this.”
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