Staff Writer

After two steps toward a lower Harrington Street speed limit, City Council passed a first reading to change its 30 miles per hour limit to 25 near the western end of Harrington between Calhoun and Nance streets.

City Council first requested research for the possibility of lowering the Harrington Street speed limit at its August retreat.

Then, “coincidently, within a very short time after the retreat,” a city memo says, the city received a request for a lower speed limit from the developers of the new Opera Square, which is bordered by Harrington Street.

Kevin McLaughlin, traffic engineer for the S.C. Department of Transportation wrote the city by e-mail stating that he did not observe any conditions of excessive speeding, aggressive driving or a history of traffic accidents that warrant a lower area speed limit.

However, the city memo states McLaughlin “indicated that if City Council desired the lower speed limit that his agency would act on the City's request.”

Council member Zebbie Goudelock said he tried the route at 25 mph and said the pace was a little slow.

“I felt like I was in a funeral procession,” said Goudelock, who is manager and director at Wilson Funeral Home.

Council member Foster Senn pointed out that the Opera Square homes are set close to the road and that he approved of the slower limit.

“Maybe if we had a speed limit of 25, people would only go 30,” Senn said.