Most major challenges facing the rapidly growing Charleston region are problems of success, from new development outpacing needed infrastructure to the gradual loss of once-rural areas, especially those valued for their scenery, habitat or history.
While these challenges are nothing new and will require dedicated work over many years, 2026 looms as a particularly pivotal year, for better or worse.
That’s in large part because of the uncertainty over whether Charleston County Council ultimately will be able to frame a successful referendum to extend its half-percent transportation sales tax, one that addresses our most urgent needs and will be seen as such by a majority of county voters in November.
No one likes taxes, but keeping this sales tax — it would not be a new tax, merely the extension of an existing one — will be a critically important way (and some might say the only way) to raise the billions of dollars needed to tackle most major challenges facing the county and the region, challenges such as traffic congestion, flooding and conserving land. While none of the $4.2 billion would be used to build new housing, extending this tax also would address rising housing costs by improving mobility and transit options near jobs and suitable development sites.
And while the 2024 sales tax extension proposal failed miserably, that was because of what it proposed to fund, not because of the county’s spending to date. A recent state audit of the county’s sales tax expenditures from 2019 to 2024 — more than $767 million spent in about 13,500 individual transactions — found problems with only $615, which the county has since reimbursed.
Letting this revenue stream dry up would risk serious erosion of our future road improvements, bus system, land conservation efforts and more.
What follows is a look at these challenges and how we hope they will be addressed in the year to come.
Reduce congestion
A major concern remains our increasing difficulty in getting around; not only the longer times it takes to get from one place to another but also the increasing unpredictability of how long any trip will take — and the likelihood of arriving too early or too late.
Our region’s leaders should solve this problem in myriad ways, most obviously with projects to improve roads and ease the worst choke points. A few such projects should be included in Charleston County’s 2026 transportation sales tax vote.
But we won’t be able to build our way out of congestion, so we also must support improvements to public transit. The Lowcountry Rapid Transit project — which will be South Carolina’s first express bus line, with its own lane for much of its route between Ladson and downtown Charleston — already has taken years longer to build than we had hoped, and leaders must work to ensure there are no more delays.
They also should continue work on the Lowcountry Lowline, Mount Pleasant Way and the Ashley River Crossing, which will give more people an option of walking or biking safely for short trips. Yes, these paths will see much recreational use, but they also will give some people a way to get around without getting in a car.
Conserve, preserve
Another major concern regarding our growth is the pressure to develop areas that many wish would remain rural.
This is a worthy goal but not one that can be achieved through zoning alone. Instead, local governments and nonprofit conservation groups must continue their successful efforts to either buy or place easements on properties that people value for their rural character, agricultural potential, scenery, habitat and history.
This takes money, and Charleston County’s sales tax proposal should contain a large amount to continue this work, particularly as local dollars often are matched with state and federal grants and private donations. Berkeley and Dorchester counties already are seeing successes with similar greenbelt programs, but this important work is only getting more challenging as both growth pressures and land prices rise.
Add housing
A growing concern in our region is the difficulty many face in finding an affordable place to live near where they work. The growing appeal of our region as a destination has helped create more jobs and tax revenue, but it also has tempted more property owners to focus on short-term rentals, which makes it more difficult for workers to find a place to live.
Cities and counties must continue to support efforts — through subsidies, incentives and other creative steps — to build housing that teachers, police officers and other middle-class workers can afford. We continue to need more new townhouses and condos, not only single-family homes.
It’s good to see ambitious goals, such as Charleston’s aim to build 3,000 new homes in the next five years, but there also have been frustrating delays, such as the inability of the city and Charleston County to advance a deal to build new housing on the county’s Morrison Drive property.
Ease flooding
The Charleston region avoided any seriously damaging storms in the 2025 hurricane season, but we all know we’re still vulnerable not only to hurricanes but also to a changing climate that is bringing more frequent king tides, heavier downpours and land subsidence. Daytime flooding is no longer rare.
The city of Charleston needs to make sure nothing sidetracks its ambitious partnership with the Army Corps of Engineers to protect the peninsula and suburban parts of the city from flooding; while the city signed an agreement with the Corps in the fall, this important work remains closer to the starting line than the midpoint. Meanwhile, the city must ensure that its own smaller drainage projects make as big a difference as possible in easing neighborhoods’ worst flood spots.
Other governments should ensure their development standards are strict enough to prevent new development from increasing flood problems around it; written correctly, these standards should ensure new buildings and parking areas actually improve drainage rather than worsen it.
Local officials also must emphasize the importance of homeowners buying flood insurance and everyone knowing how to prepare before the next big storm hits. The region has been fortunate recently, but our luck won’t last forever. We all must be ready.
Cooperate more
These challenges have little to nothing to do with county or city limits. Some, such as congestion and housing affordability, are shared by South Carolina’s other growing metro areas, while others — particularly the increasing danger from higher tides and storm surges — are unique to the coast.
Our regional cooperation has been a mixed bag. Mayors, county leaders and others cooperate on transportation planning and running the Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority, but as the region-wide planning exercise, Reality Check 2.0, made clear last year, much more needs to be done.
Several local governments agreed on an urban growth boundary — a zoning line that clarifies which parts of our region we would like to see retain their rural character — but they have been less successful in identifying areas most suitable for more density and more growth. Progress on that will be critical, as it will help ease pressure to move the boundary or dilute its effectiveness by increasing the allowable densities on the rural side.
Our leaders must not take too much comfort in knowing our region is one of the fastest-growing in one of the nation’s fastest-growing states, because if people don’t have hope that their lives will get better, then the pendulum will swing back the other way.
As we said a year ago, these challenges are no secret. They won’t be solved this year, and without enlightened leadership and positive action, they could easily get worse.
