Isle of Palms hosts input meeting, hitting on topics like traffic and beach safety

ISLE OF PALMS, S.C. (WCBD)- The Isle of Palms is working to create a better experience for residents and visitors, by receiving community input on what needs improvement across the city.

Wednesday morning, the city hosted a community input meeting. Sue Cotton, who moved to IOP three years ago was there.

“It’s a great community to live but I think it’s important they share what’s happening within the community,” Cotton said.

Cotton says her biggest concern is traffic, especially as we’re now in the summer months.

“We don’t have that nailed. Coming off of Memorial Day weekend, it honestly was a disaster,” Cotton said.

Other issues discussed during the forum were beach safety, protecting IOP’s natural beauty, and short-term rentals.

“We want to hear the comments behind those ideas. So if we’re talking about environmental issues, whether it’s animal control, sea level rise, we want to hear people’s stories and words and most importantly any ideas or suggestions,” host of the forum, Davis McNair said.

David McNair owns a consulting company that helps communities and businesses grow organizationally and internally.

He says it’s crucial for city leaders to hear feedback from their residents.

“I think anyone responsibly that serves on behalf of a city or town, they want to make sure it’s not just their voice, but they reflect what do the people they’re representing want to see happen,” McNair said.

Cotton agrees, saying it makes them better as a city, “It’s a small town, it’s a small village, a small city. We’re all of those things because we have residents, tourists, and businesses. Each one of those things has a different meaning. So being able to pull all of those people together in a forum, which you can collect the information so it doesn’t have to be one size fits all.”

There’s going to be another forum in a few weeks at the IOP Recreation Center, and then all the results will be submitted to city council for them to review.