SerpApi.Org
NORTH CHARLESTON — Virginia Jameson tearfully, joyfully hugged Mayor Reggie Burgess and others after Charleston County Council agreed to place a sound barrier her Northwood Estates community has sought for years on the list of projects a proposed sales tax would fund.
It was one of several last-minute changes the council approved July 21 before a final vote on the language of the sales tax referendum that will be on the November ballot. The council approved the final referendum ordinance 7-1, with Brantley Moody opposed and Kylon Middleton absent.
If voters approve, the half-percent sales tax would begin when an existing one ends in 2027 and would last up to 25 years, raising $4.25 billion primarily for road projects, mass transit and protection of undeveloped land.
Most of the final project list has been in place for weeks, with big-ticket items including Charleston’s Battery Extension flood wall, the widening of U.S. Highway 17 South in West Ashley, a North Charleston overpass where rail lines cross Rivers Avenue, and plans to redesign the traffic-choked intersection of Highway 17 and Houston Northcutt Boulevard in Mount Pleasant, among others.
To put a $17 million sound barrier for Northwood Estates on the list, North Charleston had to give up other projects — a bargaining that played out throughout the day of the council meeting with city and county officials.
The resulting compromise to find the money came in an amendment proposed by Councilman Teddie Pryor that eliminated from the project list planned improvements on Ladson Road at Miles Jamison Road, and preliminary engineering studies for two more railroad overpasses.
“We were trying to find a way to get something done that was not happening,” said Burgess, referring to the long-sought sound wall along Interstate 26. He said he’s been to homes and back yards in Northwood Estates, and he found the road noise to be very loud.
Some had feared that money for Reynolds Avenue improvements and sidewalks that would connect to the planned Lowcountry Rapid Transit line would be forfeited for the noise wall, but those projects remained on the list.
“Reynolds Avenue, we need that area to be vibrant,” said Burgess. And the sales tax could provide $10 million.
Another late change to the project list added $2 million for bicycle and pedestrian improvements on Huger Street, on the Charleston peninsula, funded by trimming a proposed peninsular bus route study by the same amount.
Councilman Rob Wehrman proposed that change, and also added language to the ballot question stating that road projects “shall consider the inclusion of bicycle, pedestrian, and public transit access in the design process, as contextually appropriate.’”
That’s already county policy, but Wehrman wanted it to be clear to voters.
If the referendum is approved, most of the tax money would go toward road projects, with smaller amounts dedicated to mass transit and preserving green spaces from development.
A previous transportation sales tax referendum was focused on funding the controversial multi-billion-dollar Mark Clark Extension and suffered a stinging defeat at the polls in 2024.
The 2026 referendum would fund dozens of transportation projects around the county, many of them chosen by local mayors, with no attempt to revive the Mark Clark plan. The $4.25 billion would be divided into three main priorities, with roads, flooding-related improvements, intersections, paving, and bicycle/pedestrian improvements accounting for more than $2.4 billion.
Public transit would get $860 million, the Greenbelt program $690 million, and an estimated $284 million would go toward interest payments on money the county expects to borrow against the future tax collections in order to get work started quickly. The county counts the interest expense as part of the road funding, which it puts at $2.7 billion.
Moody, the lone vote against the referendum, has said it comes too soon after the defeat of the prior one, and criticized the current plan for directing too much potential funding to projects that don’t involve asphalt — Charleston’s flood wall, the county Greenbelt program, and the sound wall among them.
Councilman Henry Darby said he shared some of Moody’s concerns but “at the same time, I’m of the mind to let the public make that decision” by putting the referendum on the ballot.
