Our View: Slow down and get Union Pier right

Photo credit: SC Ports via Charleston City Paper

Tower. Tower. Tower. Tower. Tower. Tower. All on one street. Then multiply by four.

What you get is 24 chunks of buildings in a six-by-four grid over 70 acres. That’s the nascent plan for redevelopment of Union Pier into a so-called neighborhood that will “blend seamlessly with the surrounding community, complementing the Charleston skyline.”

We’re not sure how cramming as many multi-story buildings as possible into 70 acres complements anything but greed. This plan is too much and just not right for Charleston. And the good folks at the State Ports Authority who are leading the redevelopment effort should know that. They should know we don’t need 600 more hotel rooms and 1,600 multifamily residential units on the peninsula. What we desperately need is way more than the plan’s 50 proposed affordable housing units.

 

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