Charleston officials, advocates and developers spent four days this week, Nov. 9 through Nov. 12, working through how to make Union Pier and its surrounding streets safer for people on foot, not just people in cars. The Safety & Walkability Workshop wrapped up Thursday with a site walk and review, capping a push that organizers say is meant to reconnect the long-industrial waterfront site with downtown Charleston and the peninsula neighborhoods around it.
The effort brought together the City of Charleston, the Union Pier development team and several local advocacy and preservation groups, according to El Informador, including Charleston Moves, the Coastal Conservation League, the Historic Charleston Foundation and the Preservation Society of Charleston. A public presentation on the workshop's progress was held Wednesday at City Gallery before Thursday's closing walk-through. As WCIV reported, designers working on the site are emphasizing a pedestrian-first approach that reconnects the existing street network rather than treating Union Pier as a standalone destination, aiming instead to extend downtown's street grid onto the property.
Advocates Say They've Been Making This Case for Years
Katie Zimmerman, executive director of Charleston Moves, said the organization has pushed for exactly this kind of street-first thinking for a long time. According to WCIV, Zimmerman said advocates have urged people to consider Charleston's streets this way for years, and Charleston Moves has said its broader goal is to make Union Pier and the area around it a walkable destination rather than a place people simply drive to and through. The Union Pier development team includes experts from around the world advising on best practices, per the same report, and Charleston City Councilmember Mike Seekings, who represents District 8, was among the local officials involved.
One visitor from outside Charleston offered her own take on what's at stake. Dawn Shaw, who visited from San Antonio, Texas, said Charleston's walkable character and beauty are worth protecting, according to WCIV's account of the workshop.
A $1 Million Budget Line, Still Not Final
The timing of the workshop lines up with a broader funding push at City Hall. Mayor William Cogswell's recommended 2027 budget includes $1 million for pedestrian-safety projects, according to ABC News 4, and that funding would not depend on landing a state or federal grant. Safety advocates had called for that $1 million to be dedicated to pedestrian safety in the city's budget, per WCIV, and Zimmerman said the recent funding decisions show that elected officials are listening and incorporating community priorities. Charleston City Council is expected to finalize the new budget by mid-December, meaning the allocation is not yet locked in.
Voters also approved a transportation sales tax on Nov. 3 that ABC News 4's report says is expected to provide Charleston $22 million over its lifetime for bicycle and pedestrian improvements, adding another funding stream beyond the general budget. The urgency behind that spending has a grim backdrop: the station's report notes Charleston police had recorded six fatal traffic collisions involving pedestrians in the city through Oct. 22.
Contractors Haven't Shown Up for Funded Work
Zimmerman's optimism about new money comes with a caveat rooted in recent history. She said community frustration over slow safety-project progress stems from funding limits and contracting delays, according to WCIV, and some Charleston safety improvements have been waiting on contractors for six or seven years. She added that direct city investment could speed up improvements, and she urged the city to maintain momentum and hold people accountable as Union Pier planning moves forward.
That frustration echoes a countywide pattern. Nearly a dozen Charleston County road projects, many of them meant to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists, are delayed because of a lack of interest from paving and signal contractors, according to The Post and Courier. A Charleston County Public Works official told the paper that a decade ago the county often saw five to eight contractors regularly bidding on projects, but now officials are lucky to get even one bid within budget.
What's Actually Being Built on Union Pier
It's worth noting that nothing discussed during the workshop amounts to an approved road project yet, per El Informador's reporting on the four-day session. The broader redevelopment is envisioned as a mix of housing, public parks and commercial space extending downtown, per WCIV, on a site whose size is described differently depending on the source: Charleston Moves has put the Ports Authority property at roughly 65 acres, while the City of Charleston's own site lists it as 70 acres.
Ben Navarro announced plans to buy Union Pier from the S.C. Ports Authority in 2024, and the Post and Courier has since reported that Beemok signed a $250 million deal to purchase the site from the Ports Authority in 2025, with the sale expected to close in 2027. Beemok's concept for the site has been described as a framework that grows slowly rather than an instant, comprehensive master plan, the paper reported. A separate 2025 Ports Authority proposal for the site included a grassy pedestrian mall of just under an acre connecting downtown to the waterfront alongside a five-acre park, according to SCBiz. Charleston Moves had also criticized an earlier 2023 draft of the redevelopment for including zero on-street bicycle infrastructure, pushing the kind of changes now surfacing in this week's workshop.
