An online petition going around asks a question many folks have had for years: Why is Woodland Shores Road so unsafe? Good question, long answer.

Of course, this was prompted by tragedy. Before dawn on June 21, local resident Jenn Drummond was found lying in the middle of the James Island road, suffering blunt force trauma to the back of her head.

Many people initially assumed hit-and-run, because the road — which has no sidewalk — is often used by speeding motorists as a cut-through between Riverland Drive and Maybank Highway.

Even Drummond had mentioned the danger on occasion.

“This tragic incident highlights the urgent need for safe sidewalks and speed mitigation measures along Woodland Shores” Road, the petition says.

Truth is, Charleston County has been trying to make road improvements there for years.

The reason it isn’t already finished illustrates why it takes so long to get anything done in a community struggling with unchecked growth, complicated infrastructure standards and diverse opinions.

Plans to build a sidewalk along Woodland Shores, and a crosswalk at its intersection with Maybank Highway, actually began four years ago — shortly after another tragedy.

In early 2019, David Massey was killed trying to cross the highway at Maybank and Woodland Shores. Horrified residents and local businesses demanded change, and the county responded with two studies.

The volume of cars on the road prohibited the use of speed humps to slow traffic, and the speed limit is set by state standards, but engineers designed an 8-foot-wide sidewalk that would run the length of Woodland Shores Road.

As infrastructure projects go, it was economical: Barely more than $2 million. By year’s end, the proposal was awarded federal and gas tax funding.

That’s when it went off the fast track. The pandemic didn’t help, but that was the least of the problems.

For one thing, the county had to mitigate any flooding a sidewalk might cause in a neighborhood that chronically floods. Engineers determined the sidewalk couldn’t be built before completion of a stormwater project on nearby Carol Street.

That was the relatively easy part.

The county considered both sides of the road for its sidewalk, but residents objected to using the west side because it required cutting down several trees. Unfortunately, that put the sidewalk in the path of local utilities, which meant Charleston Water System and Dominion Energy had to move their lines.

Which is just as bureaucratic, complicated and time-consuming as it sounds.

Also, the county needed permission from every resident along the route to build a sidewalk that encroached on their land. There wasn’t enough right of way for the 8-foot sidewalk, and it’s illegal to simply condemn property for projects with such funding.

Not that County Council would have attempted such a politically fraught idea.

It took six months to get answers from six dozen residents, and more than a dozen said “no” (some said more colorful — and unprintable — things when the county sent a notary public to secure permissions).

Which is why the sidewalk will only be 4 feet wide in some places.

The Woodland Shores Road project qualified for federal funding because it tied into a larger plan for connectivity across James Island, including the Maybank Highway overlay district, a “complete streets” project.

That means the project must consider the needs of walkers and bicyclists as well as motorists and, as such, requires a median in Maybank Highway ... which prohibits left turns against traffic.

Several Maybank businesses continue to protest plans for the median. Which is an ongoing delay.

All that’s why a simple plan for a neighborhood sidewalk has dragged on for four years.

And one county official notes that, believe it or not, Woodland Shores is actually ahead of schedule.

That’s because whether you find this completely or only partly ridiculous, it’s typical.

No matter how simple anything sounds, no one can agree on much of anything these days — especially with infrastructure projects, where the details of engineering are kind of an exact science.

See: Avondale, Johns Island, the Sam Rittenberg/Old Towne Road suicide merge, Coleman Boulevard, etc.

Engineers build significant time into every project to account for this “debate.” County Councilwoman Jenny Honeycutt says the system isn’t flawed simply because it takes time; it also would be flawed if governments could just do whatever they want.

“I have worked extremely hard to balance all the interests at play — property rights and safety features,” Honeycutt says. “We’re trying to work together, there are just a lot of interests at play.”

That’s for sure, and the past weeks have added more.

Whether the road played any part in this recent tragedy, the petitioners are right — it’s dangerous, and someone is going to get hurt.

But it’s difficult to remedy such problems when no one can agree on exactly what should be done.

As Woodland Shores Road shows us, time and again.

Reach Brian Hicks at bhicks@postandcourier.com.