The County Non-Standard Road Program

About the Program

Category: Transportation (Best in Category)

Year: 2017

On December 6, 2011, Charleston County Council made the unprecedented decision to change a 1965 road policy affecting many of the rural dirt roads in Charleston County, South Carolina. The action would prove to affect over 3,500 property owners living along 299 rural dirt roads. These roads were commonly referred to as “community roads,” which were scattered throughout the rural areas of Charleston County and varied in size and length. For many years, these roads had been maintained by Charleston County without any documented right-of-way. The reality of the situation was due to a policy which County Council passed 47 years ago, which directed the Public Works Department to continuously maintain the roads without any referenced documentation to their location, ownership or condition. Prior to Council’s December 2011 decision, the County’s Legal and Public Works departments worked relentlessly for a way to officially bring these roads into the public maintenance system so that these residents could continue to legally receive maintenance from the County. Thus, in January of 2012, the County Non-Standard Road (CNSR) Program was initiated and a journey began that would take County staff and landowners on a winding road to an improved quality of life and better community relations.