The community-led Transportation Advisory Committee met Wednesday, February 18, and began discussing transportation-related projects for consideration in the November referendum. TAC Chair Lisa Sulka opened the meeting asking the committee to vote on a schedule of dates, times and locations for future meetings. They also discussed how best to proceed with prioritizing projects by taking into consideration the size, cost and scope of each proposal. That then led to the topic of the referendum itself and the specifics of length of time and amount to be collected. 

Chair Sulka emphasized that the committee's process and decisions need to help build trust with the public, discussions must be sensitive, realistic and above all palatable to taxpayers. She noted that talk is cheap but the price tag is not. All committee members need to be reaching out to citizens in their districts to get a sense of transportation issues of concern, while also being advocates for process, the projects and the overall success of the referendum vote. 

Beaufort County Engineering Director Bryan Bauer gave a brief presentation outlining several traffic studies--Lowcountry Area Transportation Study (LATS)--that have been done by Lowcountry Council of Governments and traffic studies done by Beaufort County. All studies will be provided to committee members to help determine project priorities and funding costs. Watch his presentation here. Watch his interview with BCTV.

Chair Sulka then invited committee members to share transportation-related projects that they feel are priorities in their districts. Reminding the committee that transportation projects will also include proposed walkways, pathways and bikeways, projects discussed included paving dirt roads, adding sidewalks on heavily traveled roads, addressing drainage issues when appropriate, reviewing neighborhoods that flood regularly, several intersections that need safety improvements including Savannah Highway and Parris Island Gateway, Ribaut Road and Lady's Island Drive, widening of Squire Pope Road and Spanish Welles Road, Sea Pines Circle, reworking several intersections on Highway 170-Highway 462, Argent Boulevard, Oldfield entrance, and finally discussing with local First Responders the various traffic chokepoints in Bluffton that may delay their response and accessibility due to heavy traffic conditions.

The next meeting will be Wednesday, February 25, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., at Town of Port Royal Town Hall, 700  Paris Avenue (map). The public is invited to attend.

Meetings will be held at locations around the County so they will be convenient for everyone to be able to attend at least one. The deadline for the committee to submit a final recommendation of projects to County Council for consideration is Monday, May 11. The meeting schedule voted on by the TAC can be found here.

All committee information, projects and priorities can be found at beaufortcountypenny.com.

To watch the meeting in its entirety, click here.

To watch the BCTV interview with the newly elected Committee Chair Lisa Sulka, click here.