The new year is shaping up to be smooth sailing for newly elected County Council Chair Joe Boykin. Despite shifting from a rural focus for his Johns Island district to a broader countywide vision, he says he is looking forward to the challenges and promises ahead.
Charleston County Council members voted 5-4 Jan. 6 to elect Boykin, a Republican, to be their chairman for 2026, succeeding Democratic member Kylon Middleton. The shift came as the county lasers-in on a new proposed half-penny sales tax expected to appear on voters’ ballots this November.
The Charleston City Paper sat down with Boykin to ask about his goals, challenges and priorities. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for clarity and brevity.
City Paper: So the topic on everyone’s mind is the transportation sales tax. It was voted down in a big way in 2024. What’s going on this year? What’s different?
Joe Boykin: Well, the biggest change is we won’t have the Interstate 526 project on it. It truly was the elephant in the room in 2024. It was a project we were contractually bound to pursue, and had we not put that project on the ballot, we stood to have been in default on the contract we had signed with the state. It could have cost the county tens of millions of dollars.
I am happy we have moved through that situation and it’s in the rear-view mirror now. We have a clean slate, and I want to focus on county-scale projects — and many of them. The Main Road Corridor A [on Johns Island] is a huge project. It’s expensive, too, but the traffic relief will be immeasurable. That’s our showcase project right now, but smaller projects are on the way.
We’re working on potentially putting a fourth lane in on Maybank Highway, and that will open that up significantly. The Sol Legare Road project has been in the making for a long time, and we have done a ton of work already on James Island with safety and intersection improvements.
CP: Aside from the referendum, what are some other projects or ideas coming down the pipeline that you’re prioritizing this year?
JB: Well, you’ve heard about our Urban Growth Boundary (UGB). It has been a fantastic tool to control sprawl and define where growth should and shouldn’t be. I live on a large family farm on Johns Island, and that boundary cuts right through the island. Only about 20% lies within it, and that means 80% of it enjoys low-density, agricultural development.
There are only three signees onto the UGB: the town of Mount Pleasant, the city of Charleston and Charleston County. I would like to pursue the city of North Charleston, Seabrook Island and Kiawah Island to join in an agreement with the county or sign onto the one that already exists . I’m looking to get more buy-in, and I would love to get Awendaw, too.
We can have it all. All the vibrant urban areas, the industrial areas and commercial areas, but we are saving what makes Charleston County special. We live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, and I don’t blame all the folks trying to move here. Heck, I would move here, too. We just have to make sure we can support that growing population.
CP: Shifting from managing your mostly rural district to now this very diverse county as a whole, how are you going to juggle the differences between, for example, rural Johns Island and the urban Charleston peninsula?
JB: It really kind of dovetails into this master plan of the UGB. It has worked very well. We just have to get these other municipalities to sign on and say, “We’re good here.”
CP: What’s something that you think will be a real challenge?
JB: Right there on Bees Ferry Road, we’re facing a potential landfill crisis. Bees Ferry has served us well. Our staff has come up with truly innovative ideas to extend its life and process more of our waste there, so there are all kinds of ranges about how long we could make it last.
One figure that was bounced around was 15 years, and it could be longer, but right now, we’ve hired a consultant to start looking at Charleston County for future landfill sites.
Talk about difficult — nobody wants a landfill in their backyard. But if we don’t, we’d have to truck all that waste out of town and pay somebody else to do it. Our job is to find a site or multiple sites for these landfills and get those purchased, permitted and constructed, so that when Bees Ferry can take no more, we’re already ahead of the curve.
CP: “Ahead of the curve” seems like it could be the whole headline here.
JB: I don’t want to be surprised. Nobody likes surprises. I can see the train coming down the tracks. We are blessed in Charleston to have an outstanding staff. The support is second to none, as far as I’m concerned. I could fill an ocean with the things I don’t know, but I try to learn as much as I can, and I lean on our staff to point me in the right direction. I am confident, is what I’m trying to say. I know I can do the job, and I’m so thankful to have so many people around me that are so supportive.
What I’m most proud of on our council is the amount of respect each of us have over there. It’s not a circus. We have decorum. I appreciate this opportunity more than I can say, and all I can do is promise to work as hard and fast as I know how to. I only have one year, and I’ve already lost eight days of it.
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