Lowcountry Rapid Transit planners hold community open houses for design update

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Lowcountry Rapid Transit (LCRT) leaders held two open house sessions, updating the public on the latest design of the transportation system Tuesday.

The Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments (BCDCOG) reached the final design phase milestone and shared it with the public at the Keith Summey North Charleston Library. Attendees were able to speak to leaders about any questions, comments, and concerns they had.

“As we’ve gone through this process, it has been a community-first initiative,” Sharon Hollis, principal transit planner, said. “We want to make sure that each hit milestone, that the community can come out and see where we are and provide their input. A lot of the decisions we made through 60% design came directly from the community. We’re here to present that and share the next step of what maybe they haven’t seen and what we want to get their feedback on.”

While some visitors were businesses, others were residents who were looking to see when the project may be completed and the impacts it would have to their daily lives.

“I had just been complaining to my husband about how we should have some better public transportation around here,” Jen Hartman, North Charleston resident, said. “I’ve been in other cities that have it and it’s really nice, and I’m tired of the traffic, car congestion, and pollution that I see around here. So, I wanted to check it out and see it. I also live pretty close to Rivers and it’s something that would impact me directly, so I was curious about it.”

As officials are in the engineering phase, they said the last step is construction which is estimated to begin in 2027.

“Now with this key milestone, we’ll be able to really start looking at what that constructive phasing looks like,” Hollis said. “Of course one of the questions we get is how will my business or how will traffic be impacted by construction. So, our goal is to have as minimal impact during construction. We’ll be working out those details and communicating that in the future.”

Hollis said that leaders will be heading out to neighborhoods in January to communicate where the project stands to residents. The LCRT is expected to hold up its virtual meeting version, with an interactive map, of the sessions until Dec. 18.

Hartman said she is looking forward to seeing this project come to life.

“Yeah, I would definitely take it to go downtown if it was right there because we could walk to it from our neighborhood,” Hartman said. “Then we would be able to go downtown and do some more things for my kids, like the aquarium or the museums, and not have to sit in traffic on I-26 on the way home. So, I would really love that.”