At this point in the year, county and city leaders have already met and decided on goals and needs for our entire community. We have read these plans, and reported on them, to you, our readers.
From reading our leaders’ plan about the City of Walterboro, we, as an editorial staff, made a plea last week to our city leaders to add more housing opportunities for our residents. This is not just adding low-income housing. Our city leaders need to add additional housing options for single-family dwellings: more families with children need to have places to live and thrive in our community.
The same plea now applies to Colleton County.
Based on reading the county’s comprehensive plan and its goals and needs assessments, there is a blaring need for two things in our county: more jobs and more housing.
Yes, we need more recreation.
Yes, we need more public transportation.
However, the more immediate need seems to be jobs – Colleton County has the infrastructure and locations for new industry and the training opportunities for potential employees – and for actual residential housing. We are asking our county leaders to work with builders to bring actual housing opportunities to our county. We need new residential neighborhoods to be built, particularly on the outskirts of Walterboro near Cottageville and Green Pond. These neighborhoods need to have sidewalks, playgrounds and include their own master plan for residents, who would use our retail sites and grocery stores and schools. The parents would work in our county.
It all ties together.
We want more jobs for our residents. We want more places for our residents to live. Further, we need to provide more opportunities for people who want to live here: this is the way to grow our community and to expand our tax base to provide for more recreation and more enticement for ongoing employers.
