Councilman Brandon Hudson

North Charleston is going to have a new mayor for the first time in 30 years. With that will come opportunities to update the visions for our City. As an active member of the community and president of my neighborhood, I understand the importance of budgeting for long term stability and growth while protecting the livability to current community members. I also understand that transparency and communication with residents is critical.

Supporting public transit and creating a more pedestrian friendly City with intelligent land use is a key tenet of a Strong Town.

Short-Term rentals are a valuable way for homeowners to earn revenue, but we need to make sure that these properties are not stealing our charm and affecting people’s ability to find housing. The City has taken a first step in regulation, but we need to evaluate the rules and update them to prevent companies from taking over our neighborhoods.

We need to refocus our tax dollars to improve neighborhoods we already live and work in through smaller, intelligent investment “bets” which will allow directed improvements with less risk. North Charleston is a destination for businesses, and smart policies will only encourage them to continue to create more jobs in our community.

North Charleston should work to update zoning that reflects what we want and need as a community. Increasing green space, helping with flood mitigation, and building with an eye on the long term are policies that will improve our City. We can promote public/private partnerships that create appropriate redevelopment within communities, especially in our underrepresented neighborhoods. 

Targeted changes to zoning such as reducing parking lot sizes, reducing minimum lot sizes and setback requirements could allow for reinvestment in dead commercial spaces along Rivers Ave. This will improve the quality of life for residents by allowing more affordable housing to be built near jobs and transit.

Our neighborhoods deserve to be clean. Illegal dumping and littering costs our City money and makes our streets look terrible. I want to prioritize fixing this problem. Cameras and neighborhood tips in conjunction with policing and strong fines can clean up illegal dumping. More trash cans and grass roots programs that reward our youth for cleaning up can help to get litter off our streets and out of neighborhoods.

Filbin Creek and our marshes deserve better. We need to work to clean up, protect, and enhance these resources and stop relying on them to manage poorly developed storm and wastewater upstream. Flooding and polluting our neighborhoods isn’t acceptable.

We need to create safer roads that discourage dangerous driving and provide safety for our residents. I will work to introduce passive and active traffic calming methods that slow cars down on our streets. Reducing and enforcing speed limits and installing physical street calming methods will make safer, slower roads that also discourage cut-through traffic.

I support the Low Country Rapid Transit Line and believe that it will transform the Rivers Ave corridor. To ensure that our residents have access to this new resource, we should improve and expand pedestrian corridors with new sidewalks and crossings as well as protected bike lanes, especially in neighborhoods along Rivers Ave.

I believe that North Charleston should have one of the best police forces in the nation. We need to ensure that our officers have the resources they need to do their job and that they can put an emphasis on being a part of the community they serve. Stable public resource officers and communication with community leaders provide an important feedback loop. Residents should feel safe with and confident in our police force.