February 8, 2011 Letter to Mayor Riley

Posted February 21, 2011

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Daniel Island Neighborhood Association

February 8, 2011

The Honorable Joseph P. Riley, Jr.
City Hall
Charleston, South Carolina

By Hand Delivery

Dear Mayor Riley,

I’d like to start by thanking you for the courtesies extended to me by you and your staff over the last two years while I’ve served as President of the Daniel Island Neighborhood Association (DINA). While we didn’t accomplish everything I had hoped, I do appreciate your willingness to meet with me to hear the needs of our community.

As we transition to new DINA leadership this month, I want to make sure that unfinished business does not slip through the cracks. Some of the issues listed below have remained unresolved for a number of years. For this reason, I have asked former DINA presidents to cosign this letter with the understanding that you will work with my successor to resolve them before the end of 2011.

  1. Street Lights: Daniel Island has a problem that may be unique in the city of Charleston. As you may know, the city has a policy whereby it only activates a street light when five successive homes are completed. In many of our neighborhoods (and perhaps in other newer communities across the city), builders rapidly develop entire neighborhoods and the policy seems to work. However, in some other locations on our island, individuals have purchased lots with varied building schedules. What often happens is one family moves into a house next to a lot that may remain vacant for months, years, and perhaps indefinite periods of time. This results in dark streets where our citizens live, where they walk and jog, and where their children wait for the school bus in the morning. We ask that you work with city staff to recognize that Daniel Island is different from most neighborhoods in the city, and develop a workable policy that solves this public safety issue once and for all.
  2. One sided parking: One sided parking is called for in Daniel Island’s zoning documents, yet it has never been enforced by the city. Acting on a joint request of DINA, the Daniel Island Property Owners Association, and the Daniel Island Company, the city finally began last year to enforce one sided parking on the streets within one of our residential neighborhoods. For years we have been concerned that cars parked on both sides of narrow streets create hazardous conditions and render some of our streets unnavigable by emergency vehicles. While we’re pleased that the situation has been addressed in one neighborhood, we’d like to see significant progress toward the ultimate goal of enforcing this policy island wide. This, like street lighting, is a public safety issue.
  3. Street Striping: Many of the original traffic lanes on Daniel Island are so faded that you can’t even tell where they were. Others are in such poor condition that our community looks as if it’s in disrepair. We ask that you direct your staff to address these routine maintenance issues in a timely manner.
  4. Street Signs: On Daniel Island we are fortunate that a Property Owners Association is in place to serve many of our day-to-day needs. They maintain numerous parks, serve as a liaison between homeowners and the city, county, and other officials, and provide a significant amount of community programming. We learned at our annual association meeting several months ago that the POA also spends significant dollars replacing street signs across the island (close to $30,000 in the past five years). We don’t mind paying POA dues for items that aren’t typically covered by the city. However, given that the city replaces damaged and missing street signs in all other parts of the city, we believe that as taxpayers, we are entitled to the same services here on Daniel island. We shouldn’t have to pay both taxes and POA dues for street sign replacement.
  5. Parks: We have made some great progress over the last two years, particularly with Governor’s Park still under construction. However, there are still major deficiencies in the city’s Daniel Island Park plan that we’d like to resolve:
    • The development agreement states that each neighborhood park will have a 1500 square foot community/recreation building. Currently, we don’t have any. As we discussed during our Governor’s Park conversations, we consider this point negotiable but five promised and none delivered is unacceptable to us.
    • We also had numerous discussions about the Neighborhood Park required in Daniel Island Park. We’ve agreed that this location is inappropriate for active recreation, and would prefer to see that park either eliminated or reduced in size so those budget dollars can be reallocated to another park on the island.
    • Based on the development agreement, city development of the District Park bordering SPA property should be well underway. In fact, more than $3 Million should have been spent by now. We would like to know the city’s plans.

Mayor Riley, thank you again for giving your time to me over the last two years. It has been a wonderful experience to represent my neighbors. I will be sure to provide a copy of this letter to my successor so that he or she can follow up with you on these issues and any others that may arise in 2011.

Sincerely,
Stacey Lindbergh
President, Daniel Island Neighborhood Association (DINA)

Mac McBride
Former DINA President

Anne Medio
Former DINA President

Erik Brine
Former DINA President

Franklin Medio
Former DINA President

Tim Callanan
Former DINA President

cc: Councilman Gary White

© 2010 Daniel Island Neighborhood Association. All rights reserved. Banner photo by Jon Strother.