Greening Charleston, South Carolina
(Page 2 of 3)
January/February 2005
By Robyn Griggs Lawrence
The base’s closing compounded the problems of a community already beset by challenges, including higher-than-average unemployment and lower-than-average education and income. Home ownership was low; crime was high. Heavy industry and petroleum processing choked the air. Natural resources were trashed; watersheds had been cleared and paved. Stormwater runoff caused flooding and degraded water quality, and most upland systems were overrun with non-native weeds and grasses.
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Yet developer John Knott, who had recently spearheaded Dewees Island off the Charleston coast, saw pure potential.
Knott fixed his sights on the vacated naval base and surrounding neighborhoods, envisioning a community based on the triple bottom line—a balance among people, planet, and prosperity. He formed the Noisette Company (named for a creek in the area) and partnered with the City of North Charleston on the Noisette Project, a billion-dollar, 3,000-acre, sustainable redevelopment plan that includes 350 acres of the former Charleston Naval Base. The Noisette Project is the one of largest urban reclamation projects ever to be undertaken in the United States—and it leaves the area poised on the verge of another boom. Real estate prices in North Charleston have increased 35 to 100 percent in the past two years.
Seeking to meet the “economic, functional, aesthetic, social, and spiritual needs” of the North Charleston community, the Noisette Project is the result of a five-year discovery process that included citizens and community leaders now documented in a comprehensive plan that sets forth goals for housing, economic development, natural and cultural resources, and land use. The plan calls for 7,000 new housing units, 5,000 rehabbed houses, 10 million square feet of new retail space, and, at the former naval base, a park and urban preserve.
In a New Urbanist sort of way, the ambitious plan addresses issues of scale, streetscape, and density, allowing for livelier sidewalks and more mixed-use development. Its launch point is a City Center district on the former naval base, home to cultural and recreational amenities, a conference and research center, and a historic residential area.