VOTE411 Voter Guide

Something currently in place that I support is the Flood Prevention Task Force. This task force allows residents to report flood prone areas and then staff are able to go out and assess the area and come up with solutions. In order to reduce flooding impacts, I am a big proponent of avoiding development near our wetlands as they provide natural protection from flooding. I would also love to explore expanding the composting program as composted material can be used to mitigate flooding when mixed with sandy soil.

I think making sure the urban growth boundary stays firmly in place will help protect possible overdevelopment or sprawling into more rural areas. This also provides valuable protection to the development within the boundary as it mitigates flooding and allows the undeveloped land to absorb effects from hurricanes and other natural disasters. In order to balance developmental pressures with protection of resources and neighborhoods, we need to do assessments of possible areas for development to make sure the appropriate infrastructure (roads, sidewalks, schools, medical, grocery stores, etc.) is in place prior to any sort of decision making. We also will need to make sure the infrastructure is paid for up front by developers. This can be paid back with tax incremental funding that will build on the increasing property value of the new homes that are built without costing potential buyers anything additional up front.

The biggest way to avoid gaps in service and conflicting priorities is active, open communication. My goal during both my campaign and my future service on the Council is to be accessible to constituents, other intergovernmental agencies and officials, etc. and to work collaboratively as much as possible to come up with solutions that work best for all entities involved. Through continual rapport building, working across the aisle and working across city/town lines we can build a stronger Charleston, together!

I support several County Council–aligned actions already underway that are directly addressing flooding across Charleston County, particularly in coastal and low-lying areas like our district. I support continued investment in stormwater capital improvement programs. These include both large-scale projects and smaller, targeted drainage fixes that can quickly alleviate localized flooding. Smaller projects—such as pipe replacements, ditch clearing, and localized capacity improvements—are often some of the most effective near-term solutions for residents dealing with recurring issues. I would push for a stronger requirement that new development does not worsen flooding conditions. That means enforcing strict stormwater standards and requiring developments to manage their runoff on-site so they do not add to existing drainage problems. In many cases, flooding has been exacerbated by upstream development, and that must be addressed more aggressively.

I support several County Council actions already underway that aim to balance development pressures with the protection of natural resources and existing neighborhoods. I support the continued use and enforcement of the Charleston County Comprehensive Plan. This plan is the foundation for responsible growth, with clear priorities around protecting natural resources, managing density, and preserving quality of life. However, it must be treated as a binding guide for decision-making—not something that is easily set aside during rezoning requests. Second, I support the County’s use of growth boundaries and land use frameworks that direct higher-density development into appropriate areas while preserving rural and environmentally sensitive land. These tools are essential to preventing unchecked sprawl, protecting marshes and wetlands, and maintaining the character of our communities. I plan to get the City. County, Kiawah and Seabrook to make the urban growth boundary firm and permanent.

The duplication of services in the Lowcountry is extremely inefficient and fiscally wasteful in my opinion. I have always thought that the municipalities should come together and look at streamlining trash/recycling services to make it more unified and less confusing on the residents. To have multiple services only going to houses served under certain municipality on a specified day is wasteful and inefficient.. A unified approach would most certainly provide the greatest bartering power to reduce the overall cost to the third party provider saving all three municipalities which may be an opportunity to reduce taxes on its citizens. From my experience the individual municipalities do NOT currently communicate in this manner and are very siloed at present. It is time to change this for the reasons I have illustrated in the above context.

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