Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority’s (CARTA) plans to build a park-and-ride facility at the fairgrounds. This park-and-ride facility is a part of CARTA’s Lowcountry Rapid Transit Plan – the first-ever large-scale transportation project in the region.
CARTA Chairman Mike Seekings, says this $600 million plan is the result of over a decade of regional planning. If plans go through, the facility will take up about six acres of the 180 acres available for parking on the fairgrounds.
Mike Jernigan, a member of the Exchange Board as well as the former president of the Coastal Carolina Fair, says that their initial discussions with CARTA were about leasing an acre to an acre and a half of land for a bus stop, but he said that CARTA wanted more land to either purchase or take by eminent domain.
Seekings is surprised by this response. He says that they spoke with the leadership of the fairgrounds early in the process and have had conversations over many years about this area of land.
Officials with the Coastal Carolina Fair say that their issue is not the size of the facility, though, but the location. The park-and-ride facility would be located in lot 2A of the fairgrounds which is adjacent to Highway 78 and Gate 2 – one of the major entrances of the fairgrounds.
“We feel like supporting public transportation is a good thing. We’re not opposed to that in any way,” Jernigan says. We just feel like this location is the wrong location. That there are other options that are available adjacent to our property, or even at a different place on our property, but not to take our prime parking spot.”
Read More – News Article
Real Estate Matters in Charleston SC - Gena Glaze 