Charleston City Council officials to discuss improvement and development opportunities for King Street with business owners

Charleston, South Carolina – Charleston City Council officials are about to meet local business owners on Tuesday to discuss King Street’s opportunities for future development and improvement. CCC officials are about to hear Charleston Downtown Association’s plans aimed towards growing businesses along King Street while improving the shopping experience.

Recent years have been hard for business owners to keep their businesses running, which eventually turned into lower income and profit for them. While they are forced to operate with limited financial abilities, Kind Street’s business owners are dedicated to improving Charleston’s historic district into a safe and pleasant place for everyone.

Doug Warner, Explore Charleston Vice President for Media and Innovation, said that most of the businesses located in the district from Meeting Street to Line Street already expressed their support for paying additional and higher fees, expecting to see improved services including security, cleanliness, beautification, marketing, programming, and more standardization.

Per Warner, more than half of 467 units in the district from Meeting Street to Line Street already signed statements showing their consent to pay higher fees, hoping that those fees will help the city officials to continue improving the area and keep it safe and clean.

In addition, dozens of business owners are part of the King Street Alliance, a group consisting only of area business owners, with a focus on further King Street’s development in the long run. The group is constantly working with the city officials to find ways to improve King Street’s experience for everyone.

While the majority of the area business owners are compliant with the idea of paying more to get more, others say they already pay a lot of fees every month and more expenses will further worsen their financial situation right now. In addition, this group of business owners further claims that the city officials seek more money from them to solve problems that are an everyday thing in the area, although these issues should have been solved by now. Graffiti, trash, and homeless people’s presence in the area are only a few of the problems business owners see every day.

The meeting is set to take place Tuesday night. During the meeting, city officials are expected to provide more details on how they plan to implement the proposals. If the plans pass, at least a third of the properties will pay less than $500 more annually in additional fees and taxes.