photo by Leslie Cantu

Participants break out the maps in a Council of Governments exercise in regional planning.

The tri-county area needs better regional cooperation and leadership so it can guide development in a balanced, sustainable manner, said participants in a regional planning workshop Monday.

The meeting at Summerville High School was part of the Berkeley Charleston Dorchester Council of Governments’ preparations to develop a variety of future growth scenarios, which will then be molded into a regional plan that will prioritize how the COG makes funding recommendations.

“This is a vision plan.  It’s not one that locked into a particular set of the COG’s plans,” said Phil Hanegraaf, vice president of HNTB, the consultant leading the planning process.

But he cautioned participants to try to make their ideas realistic.

“There’s a fine line between visioning and hallucinating,” he said.

The 30 or so participants broke off into small groups to brainstorm the top regional issues and where they’d like to see development and conservation.  The entire group then voted for the most important of those ideas.

When asked to vote on the three most important regional projects of 10 listed, the extension of the Glenn McDonnell Parkway was the clear winner with 64 percent of the votes.

Protecting waterways earned 50 percent of the votes and having commuter rail and a rail and trail system earned 39 percent of the votes.

The top three issues, the group agreed, were better regional cooperation, a seamless transportation system and creating livable, sustainable communities in which people can live, work and play in close proximity.

Chris Campeau said during group discussion that he’d like to see more jobs spread throughout the region, rather than concentrated on the peninsula.  That would take care of a lot of the road problems, he said.

Edward Tupper said he wants to ensure there are opportunities here for young people, so his son can stay here if he chooses to.

Mac Baughman said the tri-county needs a regional capital improvement plan.  A plan would prioritize projects and provide transparency about what’s next in line to be funded.

“It’s too often been us versus them,” he said.

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