Exchange Club presents second option for CARTA amid dispute over 6 acres of fairground

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD)- A year-long battle between the Charleston Exchange Club and the Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority, or CARTA, over 6 acres of land is continuing to heat up.

CARTA held a board meeting this afternoon where members of the Exchange Club voiced their concerns about CARTA using the land.

“If we have a park-n-ride in this parking lot, it’s going to affect our ability to park patrons closer to the gates,” fair committee member, Carl Shultz said.

The battle between the two is over 6 acres of land on the fairgrounds that CARTA wants to use for a park-n-ride facility.

“This is a project we’ve been working on for a number of years. We’ve done it cooperatively; we’ve done it in public,” Chairman of CARTA, Mike Seekings said.

CARTA officials saying the park-n-ride will increase mobility in the Lowcountry for thousands of people every day.

However, the Exchange Club says it will completely mess up their operations.

They say those 6 acres are used for their premier parking, not just for the fair, but also for events year-round.

“If we have a park-n-ride in this parking lot, it’s going to affect our ability to park patrons close to the gates, and it’s also going to affect our traffic flow,” Shultz said.

At CARTA’s board meeting this afternoon, the Exchange Club presented a second option, a different portion of the fairgrounds on the other side of the front entrance.

They say moving the space would accomplish the same goal for CARTA – without disrupting their operations.

“That’s the part that we don’t understand. Why are they so insistent that they take our primary parking,” Shultz said.

However, CARTA officials say the land they’re proposing has not been federally approved for a grant and would set them back years.

“We would have to go and change the whole thing. It would put us in a place where we would probably lose our position in line for that grant, and we are not going to jeopardize a 375 million dollar grant at this point in the process,” Seekings said.

Seekings says unless they can come to an agreement soon, there’s a strong possibility that there will be legal action taken.