Charleston’s Future: Stitching Together Growth and Opportunities

The City of Charleston is preparing a new peninsula plan, comprehensive zoning update, and coordinated affordable housing initiative that will bring thousands of new units online. The decisions being made over the next year will affect the Charleston Peninsula's historic character, livability, and long-term resilience for decades to come.

On May 18, Historic Charleston Foundation is convening preservationists, resilience experts, urban planners, mobility engineers, and civic leaders for our annual Advocacy Forum; Charleston’s Future: Stitching Together Growth and Opportunities will feature a 90-minute conversation focused on how Charleston can plan for growth without losing its character.

The goal is to engage residents and stakeholders around common themes that should contribute to the City’s upcoming planning efforts. By kickstarting the public engagement process, the forum aims to establish a shared vocabulary, foster an understanding of trade-offs and opportunities, and explore the interdependent systems of transportation, urban design, and resilience that can—and should—be mutually beneficial.

The Advocacy Forum will be held at The Charleston Museum’s Arthur Wilcox Auditorium and will begin promptly at 6:00 p.m. The evening will include a special introduction and overview from City of Charleston Mayor William Cogswell, followed by brief presentations from each speaker, a facilitated panel discussion, and an opportunity for audience participation. Expect maps, visuals, and Charleston-based examples. This program is free and open to the public; however, space is limited, and registration is required.

Forum Panelists:

Jared is a Senior Water Resources Engineer and Project Manager based in Charleston, where he specializes in flood mitigation, stormwater management, and resilient infrastructure planning. His project work includes contributions to the Charleston Water Plan, the city's foundational strategy for integrated flood and water management, and serving as Owner's Agent for the City of Charleston on the Battery Extension Project.

Andrea is a collaborative and solutions-oriented urban planner with extensive experience leading interdisciplinary teams on transformative place making projects. She has made notable contributions to the Lowcountry Rapid Transit (LCRT) project, SunRail (FL), and active transportation plans and strategic initiatives throughout the southeast.

Christian Sottile is the founding principal of Sottile & Sottile, a Savannah-based firm working primarily in Nationally Registered Historic Districts. The firm’s work includes urban design and civic architecture, and emphasizes historic research, urban analysis and community-wide engagement. Concurrently with his professional practice, Sottile is a professor of architecture and urban design at the Savannah College of Art and Design and is the former Dean of the SCAD School of Building Arts.

Forum Moderator:

Scott Parker co-founded DesignWorks in 1994, where he personally directs the design of each of the firm’s projects. Parker is a Board Member of The Riley Center and The Friends of the Lowline. He also serves on the City of Charleston Peninsula Task Force, the Advocacy Committee of Historic Charleston Foundation, The Urban Land Institute Council on Sustainable Design and The Riley Mayors’ Design Fellowship Resource Team.