North Charleston chosen as award finalist by the International Award for Livable Communities

The City of North Charleston was named a finalist in two categories for the International LivCom awards, which were selected based on applications submitted to the Board of the International Awards for Livable Communities, based in Berkshire, UK earlier this year.

The LivCom awards  are a United Nations Environment Program-backed competition designed to recognize civic environmental achievement. Since the awards competition was held in Songpa, South Korea this year, it was decided to defer any presentations until the competition is held in North America.

“No question, it is an honor to be selected as a leading city for sustainability in the world,” says North Charleston Mayor R. Keith Summey. “We hope to participate in future LivCom competitions. Nonetheless, this announcement is on a par with the National League of Cities and Home Depot Foundation awards of the past two years.”

Only two other American cities were finalists in the global awards program, Carmel, Indiana, and, Albuquerque, New Mexico. No American cities won awards in their respective categories at the competition in South Korea. Overall, the competition involved three days of intensive evaluation for 77 finalist cities from 26 countries. This was the largest awards event yet for LivCom.

North Charleston was a finalist for Category C (cities with populations from 75,001 to 150,000) in the Whole City awards, for its efforts at sustainable revitalization and urban planning of the East Montague Corridor and Park Circle. The City’s Oak Terrace Preserve residential project was a finalist for the Project Award, for its role as a prototype for sustainable, urban infill development.