February 10, 2025

Planning is Important: The Urban Waterfront District

Lisa Jones

Director of Advocacy

THE CITY'S COMPREHENSIVE PLAN LAYS OUT A VISION FOR UNION PIER

On March 25, 2025, Charleston City Council adopted an ordinance to amend the Charleston City Plan to include an Urban Waterfront Future Land Use District. We believe this comprehensive plan language reflects our priorities, and we will continue to advocate for development on Union Pier that reflects historic Charleston’s development patterns, centered around an accessible and vibrant public realm.

This statement may leave you scratching your heads. Wearisome nomenclature such as “public planning processes” and “comprehensive planning efforts” often serve as deterrents for busy people who save their energy for more exciting topics. At HCF, we strive to connect residents to planning and advocacy efforts by simplifying the process and its importance. Let's break down what the City of Charleston's Comprehensive Plan amendment to add an Urban Waterfront Future Land Use District actually means for the future of Union Pier and why we support it.

Dictionary

‍Comprehensive Plan – Any municipality regulating land use in South Carolina (meaning, every city) is required to have a comprehensive plan as outlined in state law (1994 State Comprehensive Planning Act, SC Code Title 6, Chapter 19). The comprehensive plan, updated every five years and rewritten every ten years, is intended to serve as a guide for land use decision-making, zoning, and growth. The City of Charleston adopted its comprehensive plan in October 2021.

There are nine elements in the plan. For the purposes of this post, let’s focus on the Land Use element, which includes Future Land Use maps that are intended to guide land use decisions for ten years.

‍Planning Districts – These future land use designations appear on page 112 of the comprehensive plan and are general descriptions of areas, ranging from rural to industrial (see table 1, pt. 1 and 2, at bottom of page)
Amendment – Changes made to a comprehensive plan must go through a lengthy process that involves public input opportunities. First, an amendment must go before the Planning Commission (that happened on February 19, 2025). Then, it must pass three readings at City Council (that happened on April 8, 2025) to be formally adopted.

COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AMENDMENT APPROVED LANGUAGE:

URBAN WATERFRONT FUTURE LAND USE DISTRICT: “These vibrant and inclusive mixed-use districts are located along portions of the Peninsula’s waterfront and areas designated as Neighborhood and City Centers. Development in these areas preserves Charleston’s rich cultural and maritime heritage and facilitates recreational, civic, and economic connections between urban areas and the waterfront. Building and site design prioritizes resilience, maintains continuous public access along the waterfront in coordination with perimeter protection, creates public access and street view corridors toward the water, and is compatible with the city’s skyline. There are a mix of uses, including a variety of housing types for residents of diverse incomes, civic, commercial, outdoor public gathering places, and opportunities for small and local businesses. The waterfront is activated with public parks and open spaces, as well as restaurants, events, and other public and commercial uses that engage and serve the Charleston community. Maritime recreational and transportation uses are encouraged on a scale consistent with landside uses, to replace prior cargo and cruise ship uses. Block patterns, street design and building scale and massing, which will include varying heights and densities, are compatible to the neighboring commercial and residential districts to create a properly scaled extension to the city.”

Translation

The Urban Waterfront Comprehensive Plan amendment that HCF and partners support is about establishing a visionary framework for Union Pier.

In 2021, when the City of Charleston was in the process of passing their comprehensive plan, the future of the Union Pier site was in flux. The SC Ports Authority had just decided to abandon plans to expand the cruise ship terminal, and there were tentative discussions with a developer interested in purchasing it.

In addition to the undetermined status of the parcel, no single district (as outlined in the table) seemed to fit what the City and the public envisioned. To give the community and the City more time to define their vision, the “Future Planning Area” placeholder designation was applied to the entire Union Pier site.

The proposed designation through the comprehensive plan amendment is the first step in what will ultimately result in zoning changes through a Planned Unit Development (PUD), site plans, and much more specificity around the types of land uses that the development will contain. We believe this comprehensive plan language reflects HCF's priorities, and we will continue to advocate for development on Union Pier that reflects historic Charleston’s development patterns, centered around an accessible and vibrant public realm.

Reasons to Care

The roughly 70-acre Union Pier site represents the largest redevelopment opportunity on Charleston's peninsula in decades. Currently owned by the SC Ports Authority, Union Pier is poised to be developed by local billionaire Ben Navarro, with assistance provided from the recently approved Union Pier Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district.

Although the general comprehensive planning language does not provide a specific blueprint for the site, it establishes the City’s vision for what it should become.

HCF has been a part of a team of valuable partners meeting with city planners to outline what we believe is important on this site:

Development that incorporates resiliency principles
Continuous public access along the waterfront
View corridors toward the water
Compatibility with the city skyline as seen from the city and the water
Mix of uses, including civic, retail, commercial, parks, greenspace and a variety of housing types
Block patterns, street design and buildings that include varying heights and densities (more to come on densities in my next blog!)
Properly scaled extension of the historic district

Being a part of this visioning process is the best way to ensure that we don’t see highly dense, uniform, single use, and poorly designed development.