Wednesday's meeting about Maybank Highway improvements provided much support for the City of Charleston's proposal of building a secondary network of roads rather than increasing Maybank to a 5-lane road.

The Post and Courier reports:
A network of new two-lane streets would be a better solution to traffic than widening Maybank Highway, a consultant told a crowd of more than 100 people Wednesday evening.

Florida-based Hall Planning and Engineering had been hired by Charleston, Charleston County and the Coastal Conservation League to evaluate the options.

The argument is that adding two lane roads preserves the island's rural heritage and its live oaks. The improvements would be paid with using Charleston County's 2004 half-cent sales tax increase. Both the county and city are involved as part of the affected area lies in the city, the other part in the county.

[gmap line=#000000/3/0.5:32.75277692166274 , -80.01368522644043 + 32.751982886346035 , -80.01977920532227 + 32.7517663300311 , -80.02621650695801 + 32.7517663300311 , -80.0299072265625 + 32.74382556824491 , -80.03849029541016 + 32.73812222081388 , -80.04939079284668 + 32.73032464890156 , -80.06381034851074 + 32.72310406669792 , -80.07737159729004 + 32.720721146244294 , -80.08217811584473 + 32.72086556747839 , -80.08217811584473 |zoom=12 |center=32.7428148750609,-80.0408935546875 |width=470px |height=250px |control=Small |type=Map] The 3.8 mile stretch of Maybank Road being targeted. The city's plan would build new, parallel roads instead of widening Maybank Road.

If you'd like to comment on the road project, one way to do so is online.