I wanted to write to keep you informed with what is happening in our town.  A few things have happened since my last article. 

The main thing that will be happening is the one-way streets that will be coming to our downtown area.  The previous Council as well as this Council has been looking at ways to make our traffic downtown flow more efficiently.  At the height of our traffic, people would sometimes sit through 4-5 light cycles while vehicles tried to turn left and cross oncoming traffic.  We requested a study to be done by SCDOT and they feel that changing 3 of our streets to one-way will help this problem for us. The 3 streets that will be affected are College Street, Academy Street, and Curtis Street.  College Street will be one-way heading toward town until it reaches Main Street.  Curtis Street will be one-way from Maple Street to Academy Street flowing out of town.  Academy will be one-way traveling northbound to College Street.  This should help with traffic backing up on College and Curtis from vehicles turning left on Main across traffic.  

There will be a few additions of streetlights at some of these intersections as well replacing the existing stop signs.  I know some of us on Council have brought up for the islands to be removed on Main Street to help with the traffic concerns there.

The other issue we face as a city is the number of developers wanting to build here.  We are constantly faced with requests for annexations into the city.  We did deny on a vote of 6-1 on a developer’s request in June to annex a new development off Georgia Road.  I for one am very concerned with too much growth to our city and the costs of infrastructure, policing, garbage pickup, wear and tear of our roads, among other issues that come with adding developments. 

It’s been a pleasure so far serving you and please, reach out to me if you have any questions!

Regards,

Aaron Rupe
Simpsonville City Council
Ward 2