COLUMBIA, S.C. — Columbia residents are speaking out about the future of the capital city.
25 years after the Columbia leaders adopted the “City Center Master Plan," the public was invited Thursday to share what they’d like to see in the coming years.
Local residents met with city planners during two sessions at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center to share their ideas on how to make Downtown Columbia the best it can be.
Lucinda Statler is the Planning Administrator for the City of Columbia. She said the city is focused on six big ideas for Downtown Columbia, including how to highlight, refresh, connect, reclaim, champion, and streamline the community.
"So what we’re doing is trying to get public input on these six ideas. They are sort of high-level ideas. Then they (the planners) are going to put together kind of a final plan The idea usually would be to take that to our city council and get them to adopt that plan,” Statler explained.
She said many of the ideas are to make the city more walkable.
“It’s everything from planting trees in downtown to making safer crosswalks, providing more space for people and trees and bicycles and maybe a little less space for cars on some of our wider roads. So it really is all about the public space of the city,” Statler said.
Residents at the meeting told News19 they also wanted to see the city become more bike and pedestrian friendly.
“I love Columbia and I want to help make it better. I don’t just want to see it by car, I want more places where I can walk and run and bike and feel safe. Like finding more ways to be able to see new things and get there without fear of imminent death from a driver going 70 miles an hour in a 35 is ideal,” said Regan Freeman, a member of the COLA Bike Coalition.
Dara Brown, with the Active & Accessible Transportation Coalition said pedestrian safety benefits all.
“Anything that’s going to make Columbia and its adjacent communities more walkable, more accessible and greener is just going to benefit everyone in the long run. It will create more jobs, it will bring more tourism and it will be a much friendlier community for us all to be in,” Brown said.
“I would like to see a really big emphasis on, obviously bikes, but also pedestrian infrastructure. I’ve seen a lot of near misses with pedestrians at crossings and things of that nature, So I just want to prioritize on safety, which I think goes hand in hand with building bike and pedestrian infrastructure,” said Kaitlin Mahoney, a local resident who bikes to work.
City planners say they will take the information gained from Thursday’s session and incorporate it into future designs that will eventually be sent to the city council as proposals. The next step in the process includes an initial draft of the new plan. That should be released sometime in mid-September.
To learn more about the Downtown Columbia strategic plan, you can visit the city's dedicated webpage, here.