Upcoming Planning Commission Meeting on Courier Square Phase III

Posted: October 9, 2023

The city’s Planning Commission will meet on Wednesday, October 18^th at 5:00 pm to consider redevelopment plans for Courier Square Phase III. This huge project is the third and final stage of the redevelopment of the Evening Post properties in midtown Charleston and is located on the site of the Post & Courier’s former office and printing facilities on upper King Street, bounded by Line and Columbus Streets. The development team is proposing a mixed-use project on the roughly 3.7-acre site with a creative urban design strategy to accommodate generous public realm improvements, placemaking amenities, open space, and connectivity to the future Lowcountry Lowline. Proposed uses include: retail/restaurant, residential, continuing care for seniors, office, and accommodations with commitments to affordable and workforce housing and the peninsula’s first “attainable” retail spaces. However, this project also proposes buildings up to 12 stories in order to reallocate density to accommodate significant open space through the block. The site is currently zoned for 8 stories, with the possibility of 9 with architectural merit.

The former headquarters of the Post & Courier on the corner of King and Columbus Streets – the future site of Courier Square.

Plans for the site of The Post and Courier’s former building show a mix of uses and open space that connect the planned Lowcountry Lowline linear park (bottom), with King Street (top). Building renderings have not been developed. Site rendering/Sottile & Sottile

HCF is grateful to the development team for ample opportunity to meet and review this project over the course of its development. It is very evident that significant time, thought, and effort have been applied to this project, and we applaud the team for the public engagement and creative approach to redevelopment of this significant site in Charleston’s rising midtown, as well as for their commitment to affordable and workforce housing and attainable retail space. Over the past several months, HCF has been working with the applicant on their PUD submission to find concrete ways to ensure that this major rezoning process will result in what has been described and promised.

Together we have been working on:

• Enhanced and expanded design principles;
• Clarification on the programming for the open space to ensure that it truly feels public and provides unfettered access to the Lowcountry Lowline;
• Clarification on the purview and powers of the BAR in reviewing this project; and
• Narrowing eligibility for rezoning into the proposed 8-12 height district.

However, we remain concerned about the height proposed for the project, the deviation from the recently created Old City Height District that allows for up to nine stories already, and the precedent this project sets for future proposals. At up to twelve stories, portions of Courier Square III would be among the tallest buildings on the peninsula, and we continue to work with the applicant to understand their proposal in the context of the surrounding blocks and if the project’s significant contributions to the public realm and open space justify the intensification of height and density in this part of the peninsula.

-Cashion Drolet, Chief Advocacy Officer, October 9, 2023

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5 responses to “Upcoming Planning Commission Meeting on Courier Square Phase III”

1. susan Flater says:

   October 11, 2023 at 4:57 pm

   It still seems absurd to me that sidewalk edges are being counted as green space. This plan is too dense, too isolated from the city, and generally has the smell of most intense exploitation possible. It clearly belongs to the raft of featureless, over-large piles of undistinguished masonry which characterize this part of the cityscape.

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2. Matthew C. G. Brockbank says:

   October 11, 2023 at 4:58 pm

   Where is the meeting

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3. Linda B Mallace says:

   October 11, 2023 at 5:21 pm

   I agree wholeheartedly that building height in Charleston NOT breech the current 9 ft maximum height. Residents and visitors love Charleston for its historical beauty, and they give an emphatic “yes” to hold to the 8 ft height limit. That is already an incursion on the beauty of Charleston. If the height goes to 12 feet, it will only be a matter of time for the historical beauty to be lost and visitor traffic to decline. Charleston must not go the route of Charlotte and other places that have lost their historic context and beauty.

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4. Ledlie Bell says:

   October 11, 2023 at 9:02 pm

   Next month I will be making my required deposit to insure my choice of a unit at The Peninsula of Charleston. I attended the information-only presentation on Courier Square II and share your concern with the twelve-story hotel in the middle of the project. The affordable housing in partnership with Star Gospel Mission and the effort to have affordable local retail stores strike me as good approaches.
   East-West Partners is being sued for water intrusion at Venue Range, their first project in town which includes the City Gallery.

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5. Ledlie Bell says:

   October 11, 2023 at 9:04 pm

   I will miss the presentation on Phase III. Please give another grand overview of it.

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