CHARLESTON — Mayor William Cogswell has moved to have the city take lead control of redeveloping 50 acres of low-income housing sites owned by the Housing Authority, a project of massive scope the authority had already been pursuing.

The plan, which Cogswell described as a partnership, would create an executive leadership team with the mayor, City Council and the authority’s city-appointed board of directors in charge of plans covering 100 acres of land mostly on the peninsula.

The new direction is aimed at fulfilling the mayor’s goal of creating more than 3,500 units of affordable housing by 2032 – a goal that leans heavily on the city taking lead control of the quasi-independent Housing Authority’s holdings.

Cogswell introduced the concept to a city committee Oct. 16, the same day the Housing Authority announced the board decided its CEO, Art Milligan, would be replaced. 

The mayor and the Housing Authority’s board chairman both said the timing was a coincidence and that the city wasn’t involved in the decision to remove Milligan and seek a new CEO.

A search has already begun for his replacement, though he will stay on until the next CEO is named.

While Cogswell said he didn’t believe Milligan’s departure is directly tied to his plan, “there may have been some influence, just because this is going to be a heavy lift.”

“I’ve got certainly no complaints about Mr. Milligan. In fact, I have a lot of admiration for him,” Cogswell told The Post and Courier.

“This is going to be a big undertaking that is very different from what the traditional skill sets have been, which are by and large management of existing properties,” he added.

Under Milligan, the Housing Authority was pursuing sweeping plans to redevelop three of its largest housing projects on the peninsula covering about 40 acres, and had selected a company for the job. The Cooper River Court, Meeting Street Manor and Gadsden Green complexes would be replaced with a much larger amount of rental housing for people of all incomes.