Does anyone remember these signs that were briefly displayed on 52nd Avenue in the fall of 2012?

Well, here is the story.  The information that follows is taken from court documents in the lawsuit the residents of this street have filed against the city.  You can find them at http://www.charlestoncounty.org.  Go to the section dealing with cases in the circuit court and put in the case # 2014CP1002090.  The case was filed on 31 March 2014 and is 50 pages in length.  There are quite a few documents associated with the suit and they make for fascinating reading!

OK, here is the gist of the story.  The dudes on 52nd didn’t want any daytrippers parking on their street.  But what to do?  First they formed a non-profit corporation named Beach Property Owners Association on 09 August 2012.  Once formed they persuaded the Beach Company (Charles Way) to sign a quit claim form on 10 September 2012.  Of note to some of you political insiders reading this, the form was notarized by none other than Nick Sottile!

Having this form in hand the Beach Company conveyed the street to the Association on 12 September 2012.  At this point the Association felt they owned the street so they erected the above No Parking signs.

Well, it didn’t take long for the city to say, “Just one minute, boys, we own that street!”  The city took the signs down and the Association decided it was time to lawyer up.  And thus, about a year and half later, the Association filed a lawsuit against the City of IOP and the SC DOT to clarify that 52nd Avenue is a private street.

It was kind of a harebrained scheme to begin with, but, hey, it was worth a shot.  As for the lawsuit, the city is being defended by Brent Halversen.  And you, fellow IOP resident, are paying for this defense of this ridiculous lawsuit.

PS.  If I can find the time, I will comment on some of the fascinating documents associated with this case.

IOP Parking

Another summer season is almost here and with it the tidal wave of daytrippers coming to enjoy a day at the beach.

After 6 years of planning on how to deal with this unsafe tsunami of cars, City Council has decided to do….nothing!  Talk and plan, talk and plan, and then talk and plan some more. T o be totally fair they have put up a couple of nice wooden signs with arrows pointing to the parking lot.

Council hired a parking consultant, Stantec, and paid them $148,000 (so far) for which Stantec held some meetings, took some aerial photos and did some car counts.  After this exhaustive research Stantec came to the stunning conclusions that a lot of cars come here in the summer, a lot more come on the weekends, and a lot, lot more come on holidays!  And, oh yeah, a lot of people have unlawfully put stuff in the easements.

Council decided to go with a paid parking system, but with no idea on how to sell the passes, how many passes to sell, how to price the passes, how to monitor the passes, etc., etc.  With so many variables to deal with Council decided to can the whole idea, step back, and do some more talking and planning!  Six years…

Now all plans have been postponed until next summer, and if the past is any indication of the future, it will be delayed next summer as Council tries to find the perfect plan that will make everyone happy.  It has been said the perfect is the enemy of the good.  This is so very true as we get ready to be swamped by cars while Council looks for perfection.

Isn’t it time to just try something, anything?  If it doesn’t work it can be scrapped or changed.  It is way past time to quit thinking and just try something.

Ralph B. Piening

246 Forest Trail

Yes, besides Ocean Blvd, there is another No Parking Zone on the IOP.  Pictured above is the city-purchased Greenspace!  When purchased many had the thought that it would be left in its natural state thus making it a sanctuary for birds and other wildlife.  Nope.  City hires some dudes to come in and clear it out.  Then city decides it needs a parking lot.  As best this editor can tell, employees of the shops next door starting using the lot all day, so cones were put up so no one could use it!

The photo below is what the lot looked like when purchased by the city.

Snap decisions on this site made by a city council that has been thinking about parking for years and still with a lot more thinking to go!

Now that the space has been cleared, could it be used for daytripper parking….?

As the weather turns nice we saw cars lined up to Rifle Range Road at the end of April waiting to get onto the IOP.  As we approach another summer season and the tsumani of cars it will bring, IOP City Council spends its time on peripheral issues.

First, council dealt with offshore drilling.

Then council decided to take on plastic bags.

To be clear, this editor is not taking a position one way or another on these issues.  Perhaps, you say, Council can certainly do more than one thing at a time.  Well, clearly this is not the case as Council has been “working” on daytripper parking for 6 years. What is concerning is that the house is burning down and council is worried about the weeds in the yard.  We are again about to be overrun with daytrippers and again a plan has been delayed until NEXT summer.

More than likely something will come up to delay it next summer as well.

Come on folks, just do something, anything, besides talking and planning, and talking and planning and talking and planning.