Lowcountry Rapid Transit's impacts on small businesses
Something that has brought me hope this year has come from participating on a BCD COG Advisory Committee for the Lowcountry Rapid Transit (LCRT) Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Phase 3 planning process. Now that's a mouthful of alphabet soup — but ultimately it is being in a room of decision-makers from across Charleston County, housing authorities, and local municipalities who want to weigh in on how the soon-to-break-ground 22-mile bus rapid transit line will impact the residents and small businesses along the planned corridor.
This transit project is monumental. In tandem with the City of North Charleston's UDO, it will bring great opportunities for more walkable communities and reinvestment in some pockets that greatly need it. It allows us to reimagine what developing neigbhorhood-serving businesses along the line can look like. Most importantly, being in this room has allowed me to learn and share ways we can to prevent and discourage small business displacement during and after construction.
It's quite obvious to me that the people on this committee care deeply about their neighbors and the affordability challenges that so many of us are facing. That includes commercial affordability. Yesterday, we talked about the commercial rent increases along the corridor. We talked about rising labor expenses. Rising costs across the board. We talked about the fears small businesses have of the construction impacts coming their way.
I was grateful to share about Lowcountry Local First's Commercial Space Advising program and some of what I've been gleaning from the Small Business Anti-Displacement Network (SBAN) and other Communities of Practice around construction relief programs.
Supporting our small businesses through this kind of public investment work is possible but it takes all hands, hearts and minds. I believe it's possible.
What's inspiring us?
- Denver City/County Business Improvement Opportunity Fund
- LA County's Business Interruption Fund
- Toronto's Transit Construction Mitigation Fund
And many more!
