South Carolina Senate Heated With $1.2 Billion Controversial Mystery After Few Answers From…

$1.2 Million Government Grant to Lowcountry Rapid Transit for for Fast Movement in South Carolina

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Charleston, SC: The Federal Transport Administration (FTA) has given the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments (BCDCOG) a new grant to help plan for affordable housing in a major Lowcountry transport project.

The Biden-Harris Administration announced on Tuesday that 16 states will get $17.6 million in funding to help with transit-oriented development (TOD). Each of the projects that were chosen has a part that provides affordable homes and will not need local matching funds.

Director of the FTA, Veronic Vanterpool, said, “Housing and transportation are the two biggest costs for most Americans.” “Today, we’re giving money that will help make affordable places to live and lower the costs of getting around for the people who live there.”

The Lowcountry Rapid Transit (LCRT) project is one of the 20 on the list that will get $1.2 million.

The LCRT is South Carolina’s first project to build mass transit infrastructure. It is a 21.3-mile bus rapid transit system. There are 19 guided electric buses in the system that will go from North Charleston to the WestEdge building in downtown Charleston.

South Carolina Senate Heated With $1.2 Billion Controversial Mystery After Few Answers From Treasurer

BCDCOG officials said the new money will be used to carry out the latest part of the LCRT’s TOD study, which aims to create a “strategic affordable housing blueprint” for the LCRT corridor.

“Work on planning in Phase 3 of the LCRT TOD Study will connect regional affordable housing programs with bike, pedestrian, and transit infrastructure to support multimodal connectivity and make it safe for residents to walk or ride their bikes to transit stations,” said Mike Seekings, Chairman of CARTA and a councilman for the city of Charleston.

According to BCDCOG, earlier stages of the TOD study found that more than half of renters in the project corridor are having trouble finding cheap housing and came up with ways to help these projects go forward.

Officials said that the next step will be to work with more partners from the public and private sectors to make mixed-use development possible in station areas over the next 18 months.