Our view: Lake Wylie needs to wake up to more business

Bedroom communities across America sprang up in the post-World War II era as people began moving out of the cities and into the suburbs.

In recent years, the flow of people into the metropolitan Charlotte area has shaped the evolution of Lake Wylie into this kind of community.

We now share many of the characteristics of bedroom communities everywhere, with residents only sleeping here, spending our waking lives working and commuting elsewhere. We have little development activity other than residential construction and some retail businesses. There are few businesses here that employ more than 25 employees.

However, unlike typical bedroom communities across the country, which can adapt to rising populations by building wider highways or adding rail links, those are not options for Lake Wylie, thanks to our geography. The feature that makes us unique and makes our community attractive is also our greatest weakness.

That is, of course, the lake itself.

Think about it: a single four-lane bridge is our only direct connection to the 16th largest city in the U.S.

We can and will continue to add more residential units and our population will continue to rise. But because a significant number of those new residents will work in Charlotte, traffic pressure will correspondingly rise on Highway 49 and Buster Boyd Bridge.

Anyone who has lived in our community for five years or more can attest to how much busier that artery has become.

If we continue to add residents to the Lake Wylie area whose places of employment are in Mecklenburg County, it won’t be long before we experience total gridlock every morning and evening.

To offset that eventuality, or at least slow its arrival, we believe something should be done to attract new industry to our area – businesses that will make it possible for people to live and work within the same community. In addition to not adding traffic to our connecting highway, more businesses would help our existing retail stores and restaurants by adding mid-day customers.

We believe the Lake Wylie area is an especially great place to locate a business.

Our entire state is business-friendly. A 2014 survey of 500 CEOs on their views of the best and worst states for business, ranked South Carolina as the fifth best in the nation.

But our region is particularly attractive, thanks to the lower taxes with proximity to more business, entertainment and recreational assets of Charlotte. We believe that a winning combination as a place to start up a business or add a branch location to an existing one.

We encourage our chamber of commerce, York County and our government leaders to actively work together to promote this area’s assets as a commercial venue.

Let them know Lake Wylie means business. It will help all of us who call this community home.

This story was originally published March 12, 2015 at 4:40 PM with the headline "Our view: Lake Wylie needs to wake up to more business."