Moratorium could put hold on auto-related business development in Goose Creek

GOOSE CREEK, S.C. (WCBD) – The City of Goose Creek is considering a temporary moratorium on automotive-related businesses in two specific areas. It comes amid a plan to beautify the city and grow new business.

There are currently more than 20 auto-related businesses in these specific areas – a zone north of the railroad tracks, mainly along St. James Avenue, and a zone south of the railroad tracks along Red Bank Road.

Goose Creek city officials want to use the moratorium time to enact a plan for growth and new development for these areas.

“The first thing to realize is that this is not a city-wide moratorium. This is for two specific areas,” said Frank Johnson, Goose Creek Information Officer. “We recently conducted a very thorough comprehensive plan with the help of our residents, and this is a result of that.”

Residents said they wanted more sit-down restaurants, retail, and technology businesses. But there are currently several auto-related businesses – like body shops and used car lots – in these areas.

“These are very important businesses to us. There is an important part of the deal here; if there weren’t any of these businesses within these areas, we would be looking for incentives to get them here,” Johnson explained. “As it stands, there are 21 of these businesses just in these two specific areas that we’re looking at.”

Goose Creek City Council is considering a moratorium on any new auto-related businesses within the zones over the next year or so.

The city planning department will spend that time creating new design standards of how they want businesses to look in the future.

“It’s going to be a year, maybe even less,” Johnson said. “It’s going to be up to conceivably 18 months.”

Current businesses or businesses already in the process of opening in the area will only be impacted if they are planning to expand during the moratorium. New auto-related businesses would not be able to open during the moratorium.

“We want it to look great and we want it to have a diverse selection of businesses. Restaurants, retail opportunities- that’s true in these districts they were specifically looking at and it’s true for the entire city, frankly.”

Goose Creek City Council has passed the first reading of this. They will vote on implementing the moratorium in August.