In 2008, the son of Senator Strom Thurmond, Paul Thurmond, wished to curry favor among certain segments of the Kiawah Island resort community he represented by reviving an idea of the Cross Island Expressway to connect to downtown Charleston, South Carolina. It would enable residents of Kiawah to enjoy the dining and cultural amenities of downtown Charleston in an evening drive. The expressway would cross both historically African-American farms and longtime white farms too. In particular, the African-American farmers had been told in the past that this area far-removed from Charleston was for them to farm, less desirable because further to market. But now, it was on the way to Kiawah Island, which was farther still and not a quick drive unless an expressway was added.

This conceived expressway would be paid for with tolls, so it could be unhindered by the South Carolina state infrastructure bank queue or other highway funding sources. Drivers with disposable incomes would be users, but the cost would be relatively high for those of more limited means. To toll expressway proponents, it was fiscally responsible to not weigh on the state dollars and construct a private project that would be paid for by the users. However, proponents also recognized the potential criticism of the toll expressway project’s inequities. Instead, they marketed making the roads safer in these exurban areas. They contended the expressway would cause less fatalities, and that existing roads had historic live oak trees next to them that could not be cut down or moved further from the road.

Councilmember Thurmond persuaded the Charleston County Council to call a public hearing with the minimum statutory required two-week notice. It would be in the high school gymnasium on Johns Island between Charleston and Kiawah. Thurmond had the support of a faction of well-organized Kiawah residents and influential county council members who knew that this project was important to these deep-pocketed residents.

I was the project manager on point to organize on behalf of my regional development advocacy organization. I developed a strategy supported by a quick analysis to counter this misleading safety narrative, and organized the community to support an alternative safety plan for local roads that would not take longtime African-American lands.  I developed the strategy of our engagement, coordinated fellow staff, and was responsible for the implementation of our efforts.  I knew transportation best practices and proposed that lower speed limits and better marking on trees and signage, along with a few limited road safety upgrades would accomplish safety improvements for a small fraction of the cost of the toll expressway and would not displace local area farmers in a rapidly growing and gentrifying exurban area. The local improvements would cost a fraction of the toll expressway’s cost, we estimated, and so would save the county well over $100 million in 2008 dollars. Although tolls were supposed to pay for the project, we noted the fact that toll expressways often fell short of ridership projections and thus revenue—the Greenville, SC Southern Connector had just this outcome. In these cases, the county and taxpayers ended up assuming the cost.

With our two-week notice, we got to work mobilizing the farmers, other area residents, citizens concerned about equitable growth, and more. We put up fliers around John's Island in public spaces and in the few neighborhoods, we worked with local churches to spread the word, and we placed painted 8' x 4' billboards on sympathetic farmers’ land at major intersections across the island with the date and time and location of the upcoming public hearing. When the day came for the hearing, the Charleston newspaper reported 600 residents showed up for a sweltering standing room-only public hearing. Speaker after speaker at the hearing expressed overwhelming support for finding an alternative and not building the toll expressway. Many of them supported visions in line with the plan we’d put forward.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the Charleston County Council right then and there decided to look at alternatives, and not to proceed with the toll expressway. The farmers and residents of Johns Island were able to continue their lives without a major toll expressway taking their land for quick travel to the resort island. The alternatives were studied, and limited safety improvements moved forward in the months and years ahead. The county did not incur the risk of a $150 million project; instead, better land use that was more equitable to area residents prevailed.