West Ashley Dream Team Being Formed

Everyone has the same dream: a revitalized, thriving West Ashley, replete with verdant public spaces, connected by bustling commercial corridors, dotted with inspiring gathering spaces, and inhabited by happy citizens.
French author Antoine de Saint-Exupery was probably not speaking about West Ashley when he wrote, “A goal without a plan is just a dream.” But it sure seems fitting.
But getting that to full reality is the tough part.
Last week, City Council took another step in the planning phase to improve West Ashley when it voted to create a West Ashley Revitalization Committee. The committee will be an advisory committee to the Mayor John Tecklenburg and Council on what should happen, and in what order, next in West Ashley.
Its membership will be a mix of appointees by the mayor and Council. Mayoral spokesman Jack O’Toole said Mayor John Tecklenburg wants to populate the committee with more than just the usual city planners and politicians, with a decided bend toward citizens known for their civic participation.
O’Toole stressed the need for a plan for West Ashley, and that all parties “move in concert.” Tecklenburg recently asked Council to reassign $350,000 to create a West Ashley master plan.
City Councilman Bill Moody, who already represents a big chunk of West Ashley, has called on the mayor to appoint him to the committee, leaving him free to have an additional appointee.
Moody would like to place citizens like Carmen Nash, a DuWapp neighborhood organizer and involved citizen who hosts his weekly coffee klatch Tuesdays At WildFlour Pastry. “She’s a researcher; a smart lady,” said Moody, stressing the need for members to come to the table without preconceived notions.
Moody said it would be important for representatives from the county also be named to the committee, as well as local business people and developers: “people who know how to get things done.”
Moody added that he understood the inclusion of developers might rankle some, as they can represent a double-edged sword that adds benefits as quickly as it cuts down trees.
West Ashley Councilman Keith Waring, who has been preaching that the city needs to get beyond planning and get to the “doing,” has one name at the top of his list: former City Councilman Aubry Alexander.
Alexander lost his reelection bid last year to Peter Shahid, and was not available for comment.
Waring said someone like Alexander would bring considerable experience of both the public and private sector to the process, especially where the two interests could intersect.
“We need people who have signed both sides of a check,” laughed Waring referring to businessmen like Alexander, who have been successful at both paying employees and running a successful private venture.
Waring said it would be important for West Ashley going forward to have eyes on the ball that know where government spending can dovetail with business growth.
He referenced the past decision to hang fancier streetlights and signals downtown along newly paved sidewalks and the positive effect it had luring more business further up the peninsula.
Moody said he also understood that the naming of “yet another” committee could be read by some as dithering — more planning and less action. But to those critics, he stressed that they needed to look at what’s been accomplished in the last few years on this side of the Ashley River.
He referenced the hiring of a West Ashley-specific city planner, Mandi Herring Bello, the creation of current parks like Northbridge and Higgins Pier, and the purchase of future park sites like the former WPAL property on Wappoo Road.
Tom Petty, not exactly on par with the author of “Le Petit Prince” once wrote: “The waiting is the hardest part.”
If Tecklenburg, Moody, Waring, City Councilman Marvin Wagner, and others are right, things could begin to take off for West Ashley. Let’s hope so.
I-526 update
In related news, City Council also voted last week to consider charging a toll to pay for Interstate 526 completion. A more robust inner-loop could mean lessened traffic problems within West Ashley and the region, but could also lead to even more development.
The vote has been viewsed by some as delay tactic to mollify the state legislature, angered by perceived foot-dragging locally on the project.