Mayoral Candidate Forum - Part 4

In this week’s issue, we continue our coverage of the Daniel Island News Mayoral Candidate Forum by bringing you two additional questions posed by Moderator Steve Ferber at the September 17 event, along with the candidates’ responses. In this part of the series, the candidates focus on concerns closer to home on the Cainhoy Peninsula. Seeking Charleston’s top executive post are Ginny Deerin, William Dudley Gregorie, Toby Smith, Leon Stavrinakis, John Tecklenburg, and Maurice Washington. The Mayoral election will be held on November 3, with a likely run-off on November 17.

Q: How do you balance growth of the Cainhoy Plantation Project with the rural areas of the city? That is, how do you balance growth with preservation of our traditional neighborhoods (reader submitted question)?

Toby Smith: “I was reading the thesis earlier of a young man who was doing some work in this area and one of the requirements he had to write this was to take a pictorial analysis of the area. I’d like to share the comments of one young lady. She wrote, “I believe it would be a good idea to put something in the area that better accommodates those that are already there. Putting a set of homes of greater value makes the people who are already there feel less important and devalues what they have worked on for so long.” Balance is critical to making sure people can embrace what’s coming, which I think many of us want to do, but when it trounces on people who are already there, they don’t feel a part…then we have a problem. We’re going to have to wrestle with that and her comments were so fitting and so telling and I wish you all could see the picture….And the message is ’Is this what you think of me?’ So we’ve got to strike a strong balance.”

John Tecklenburg: “For Cainhoy development, and I would like to see this in other parts of the city as well, that we have a variety of housing types and sizes so you that have a range of income levels that can afford to live there. And as Ms. Smith just mentioned not have had mono-cultures of very wealthy folks and be able to mix it up. The other thing is we’ve got to improve Clements Ferry Road, and I know there is a plan in place for that, but that’s a critical thing. We have to also make sure we coordinate with Berkeley County because there are some services, even basic services like fire and police protection, where we need to have the right agreements in place so that our citizens get service from the closest provider and there is no delay in getting a fire truck or a policeman to your call.”

Maurice Washington: “I believe in management from the bottom up and I truly believe that it will require such a management style, and that means we will have to bring a lot of different people to the table. We have to bring the Lowcountry Land Trust folks to the table, the Coastal Conservation League to the table, Berkeley and Charleston County governments to the table. We have to protect the urban growth boundary lines and hold firm on that and we cannot be afraid to issue moratoriums on development because sometimes it is necessary to stop and pause and catch our breath and determine ‘Where do we go from here?’ Most of the city’s residents live in neighborhoods so it is imperative that the city protect quality of life in existing residential neighborhoods.”

Leon Stavrinakis: “You do this through zoning and this is an area where I have a lot of experience. As member of Charleston County Council, I helped write Charleston County’s first sustainable growth plan ever and we had, when we first started, broad zoning classifications for the county and we were going to make sure the densities made sense. We created the first Urban Growth Boundary to preserve the rural parts of Charleston County and created a green space preservation bank. We went back in. I actually did the work of going to visit communities in our county and we found there were special communities that needed special attention and we created special heritage and cultural zoning classifications on Johns Island, Wadmalaw Island, James Island and other parts of this county, the northern part of the county, to make sure we preserve something that is very important, and that is the cultural heritage of Charleston County, and the beautiful environmental landscape that is such a large part of what all of us love so much about Charleston.”

Ginny Deerin: “I am very excited about the growth, but I think it’s important that we put it where we want it and keep it away from where we don’t want it. I do think we need a mayor who has a strong enough backbone to say no to developers when the plan they’re putting forward will undermine the quality of life of our neighborhoods. I will be such a mayor who is willing to do that when the projects are not good for the city. I received a check for $1000 from the Beach Company and I returned it because not that I’m not anxious to work with them, I’ve worked with them over the years on many good projects, but downtown there are some projects that are going on that are just undermining our neighborhoods. So I think that is very important. Cainhoy scares me. Clements Ferry Road is going turn into Savannah Highway if we don’t jump on it…It already is. And we’re now yelling in West Ashley having to go back and fix that. Yesterday we should have been on this and as mayor I will be.”

William Dudley Gregorie: “It is a tough question. One way to do it is to make sure that you keep people like Gary White as your representative who continues to fight to make sure that we protect what’s getting ready to happen in the Cainhoy area. We’re talking about potentially 60,000 homes. That’s a lot of density folks, and we’re talking about that density right close to the Francis Marion Forest. How do you maintain the forest and build at the same time? It’s a tough, tough question. No mayor can do it alone, it has to be a mayor that has a strong relationship with City Council. Because it takes seven votes. I don’t care what anybody up here tells you about what they are going to do. If they don’t have a strong relationship with City Council, it’s all for naught. It’s just luck.”

Q: Aside from the growth challenges that we just discussed, please tell us what specific steps you would take to meet the needs of citizens in each of these three neighborhoods - Cainhoy, Huger, and Daniel Island.

Leon Stavrinakis: “I think it’s really important we focus on neighborhoods and focus on them individually. You first start with making sure, especially in a place like Daniel Island, and this area, that whatever commitments the city has already made have to be honored. I am a firm believer in this. I’ve been through a number of things in government at different levels where you come into office and previous administrations made commitments, and you come into office with new people and some people don’t want to honor those commitments because they aren’t convenient to them. And their attitude is well I wasn’t a part of that commitment and I’m ready to do something else. I just don’t think that’s acceptable. I’ve never taken that mentality no matter what government I’ve served in. And I think it’s really important to get on the ground in each community to make sure that you have a chance to be heard by me and City Council and to let me know what you’re priorities are. In any community, whether it’s here or West Ashley, that’s important work, getting on the ground, making sure that I know what your concerns are and your gonna work with city council to make sure those concerns are met, and it starts with good parks, good recreational facilities, community center, and again making sure that previous commitments are honored.”

William Dudley Gregorie: “First of all, I would go back to a plan, which is a consolidated plan done by city, and that plan is conducted and develops a needs assessment neighborhood by neighborhood. It doesn’t just deal with housing issues, it also deals with issues of transportation, it deals with issues of fair housing planning, numerous issues. What I would do is make sure I have an appropriate needs assessment that is at the neighborhood base and then after we do that start to implement accordingly. You will see me as a mayor make sure that we have unbelievable citizen participation in anything that we do. And I agree with Leon. There are things on the books that I don’t care who the next mayor is, it’s gonna be hard to change. What we have to do is be able to have sustainable and managed growth, and where we can make zoning changes where appropriate, then we do so. But you just can’t come into office and say I’m not gonna give you a permit because I don’t like your project. But you’ve already been zoned for it. It takes a little more than that. Again, even to do that, it takes seven votes on City Council for that to happen. All power lies in City Council folks. Let’s get it straight.”

Toby Smith: “I would add a few things…Frequent communication with community leadership. We have a little newspaper here that is so critical called the Charleston Chronicle…The Chronicle is delivered to every single church every Sunday. That’s very important because we suffer from a lack of communication. Second thing is get community leadership on board with what you want to do. Sit and break bread often. You often have gaps in what you want versus what I want. You don’t find out about it in the normal ways, you read about it in the paper. So let people know how much you care about what it is they’re doing. Even if you can’t fix it immediately, keep in touch and let them know. That’s one of the things I heard when I came over here for my meeting with the Daniel Island ‘elders’ I’ll call them…one of the things they said was no one came back to say we heard you, and that was important, and I took that away so I would add that to what my colleagues have said.”

John Tecklenburg: “For all of the neighborhoods, Huger, Cainhoy, Daniel Island, we need to provide basic city services that are efficient and meet our needs. That’s a reason why I’m looking forward to bringing my business skills to bear on city services….I will conduct a performance audit of each of our city departments just to make sure we’re doing things that make sense and not just because we’ve been doing them the same way for 40 years. I plan to centralize our citizen services, our neighborhood services and Ombudsman services to one Citizens Services Department. Have one phone number, so if you have a request for a sidewalk repair or a tree that needs to be trimmed, you would have one non-emergency number to call for city services. I would have one of our Citizens Services staff on the island one day a week…Beyond that, I lived here on the island for eight years. And I know the city dragged their feet a bit getting parks done and some of the other commitments that were in the original agreement, and some things have changed folks but it’s time for us to amend the original agreement, settle up on what we need to do to fulfill that agreement with the city. One thing in my opinion would be a great community center that could serve not only for recreation but for cultural arts events as well. We need to bring cultural arts to other parts of the city other than downtown, including Cainhoy and Daniel Island.”

Ginny Deerin: “Toby makes a great point about listening and one thing that I heard loud and clear is that Daniel Island wants and deserves a top notch, big-thinking recreation and athletic facility on the island and I think that is extremely important to show the city is very committed to delivering on what the citizens really want and deserve. Like John, I am for making sure that we revisit, re-clarify and recommit to the agreement….I understand, what I pick up when I am here on the island is that there is a real sense that the city has not delivered. And it’s very important to clear the air and make sure that we’re all set. Clements Ferry we already talked about, as mayor I think it’s very important to make sure that we commit to not developing the State Ports Authority land. I think that’s very important to the residents of Daniel Island. And then there are small things, they’re small but they’re big - mosquitos - it’s nice to know when that’s going to happen so you’re not strolling your kids around or out in your garden, so I go from the big thinking down to the really service-oriented pieces.”

Maurice Washington: “As mayor, I would focus on several things. One, public safety, fire stations, especially at the entrance to Nelliefield (on Clements Ferry Road). God forbid a fire were to hit during peak hour with traffic, police substations, very important. Also parks and safe playgrounds for the various communities. I would also focus on a state-of-the-art, world class community center to match up with that world class number one swim team you have here on the island. They do a great job. But I would also focus on the core services - the streets, the sidewalks, the green space, the wetlands, tree trimming, sanitation. Daniel Island has a unique look, you drive through certain parts of it and it just looks like a garden…We can duplicate that feel and that look throughout Cainhoy and Huger and protect the urban growth boundary lines and continue to invest in our schools. There are eight parks here, four managed by the city, three wonderful schools, let’s make sure we protect and preserve all of what’s precious and special (here).”

Daniel Island Publishing

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