West Ashley Urban Horticultural Center proposal clears first hurdle

CHARLESTON - Between Magnolia Road and Sycamore Avenue sits a mostly vacant 3.69 acre parcel of land that the Charleston Parks Conservancy envisions as the home of its headquarters, a community garden and a park.

The Parks Conservancy, in conjunction with the Mount Pleasant Land Conservancy, recently applied for funding from the Charleston County Urban Greenbelt Program to purchase the parcel. On Wednesday the Charleston County Greenbelts Urban Grants Review Committee unanimously recommended approving the outlay of $410,500 to help purchase the property.

Last year the Greenbelts Urban Grants Committee set up the Small Urban Land Trust.

"The greenbelt advisory group had set aside $1.2 million for small land purchases because they had gotten a lot of requests from small landowners," John Girault said. "But they needed a group to manage the program,and that's where I came in."

Girault is the Executive Director of the Mount Pleasant Land Conservancy and has been working with the Greenbelts program since last fall. The West Ashley Urban Horticultural Center project is the second one he is helping to shepherd through the process. The first was the Phillips Community Association, which worked to conserve land near Dunes West and Wild Dunes up Highway 41 in Mount Pleasant.

"We're a small group, we focus on small urban parcels," Girault said. "The things that fly under the radar of the larger land trusts."

A phone call a few months ago from West Ashley resident Adam Webb was the genesis of the project, Girault said. Webb lives near the land, which is adjacent to a former school and one time mental health facility that is now vacant. He was interested in finding a way to start a community garden, Girault said.

The Mount Pleasant Land Conservancy has been receiving requests from people all over the county for Small Urban Land Trust projects since the Phillips Community Association project was completed, but Girault said they moved so quickly on the West Ashley project because the land was in jeopardy of being bought and developed. In fact it had been slated for development as recently as earlier this year, he added.

The parcel at Sycamore and Magnolia came back on the market around the time Webb called Girault, after a residential development deal fell through.

"There were a lot of concerns in the neighborhood about it," said Heather Hall, who lives nearby on Tovey Street. "Some people were looking forward to it but with the lot sizes (approximately 20 single-family homes were included in the plan) a lot of these big trees would have had to come down."

While laying the groundwork for the proposal Girault contacted the College of Charleston's Urban Agriculture Program and the Charleston Parks Conservancy. He also sent letters to every property owner within 300 feet of the parcel with information about the proposal, a requirement of the Greenbelts program. He told the Greenbelts Committee that no one had voiced any opposition to the plan, and that several people responded with letters encouraging the project.

Hall authored one of those letters.

"I think it will be great for us," she said while walking her dog Abe on the property. "We don't really have any nice big parks in this area."

Specific plans for the property are still a work in progress, but preliminary ideas include a headquarters building for the Parks Conservancy, space for community gardens, greenhouses, a park with a walking trail and possibly a playground. However the money recommended by the Greenbelts Committee will only cover the cost of purchasing the land.

The Parks Conservancy has chipped in $20,000 towards the purchase as well, Girault said. And once the sale of the property is closed the Mount Pleasant Land Conservancy will turn it over to the Parks Conservancy which will be responsible for funding and installing the amenities.

The Greenbelts Urban Grants Review Committee's recommendation will go next to the Charleston County Parks and Recreation Committee for approval on July 18. If that committee concurs it will then head to Charleston County Council for approval. None of the money can be spent until the County Council approves it.

If the West Ashley Urban Horticultural Center grant clears all the hurdles before it, $427,000 would still remain in the Small Urban Land Trust program, Girault said.