All Along The Waterfront

Looks like West Ashley is about to get yet another waterfront park.
Last week, City Council gave initial approval to purchase 3.3 acres of waterfront property along the Stono River adjacent to Wappoo Road leading up to Edgewater Park Bridge.
Council voted to pay $980,000 for the property, which was the former site of the WPAL radio station, the only station that remained on the air during Hurricane Hugo many years ago. The city has to complete due diligence investigations and other procedural moves before the purchase is completed.
The property includes a small house that had been the offices of the station, and a long wooden dock that juts across the marshy land and into deep water of the Stono. Its sweeping vistas of the marshlands and river are interrupted by the former station’s radio tower, which will remain.
City Councilman Bill Moody, who represents this part of West Ashley, had been pushing for months for the city to purchase the land. “The key attraction is that this is the only access the city has to the Stono River.”
The city has been pursuing preserving public access to waterways in West Ashley for the past few years.
In addition to the Northbridge Park, which includes a short dock and place for kayakers to put in near fishing, the city has been working on Higgins Pier in Maryville, and is also moving forward with mediation to purchase another park property in Maryville on Bender Street.
Moody said the property on Wappoo would be the perfect place for a “passive” park, holding community meetings in the remaining house, or for a kayak and paddleboard dock. “Neighbors could ride their bikes down here, or have a picnic, or bring their poles and go fishing,” he says.
But some neighbors have voiced concern, worrying that the wrong use for the site could overwhelm the two-lane road and the quiet neighborhoods nearby.
Betsy Renken has lived her entire life in the nearby Edgewater Park neighborhood. She wants to make sure the city talks with local residents about their plans for the site.
“It’s an unsightly piece of property right now; maybe what the city plans to do is lovely,” says Renken. “But we as residents want to know whether it will be open 24 hours, or if the times will be limited, and that the park will be well-kept before the city jumps in with both feet.”
City Councilman Keith Waring, who helped broker the deal, said he welcomes concerns and input from Renken and others in the community.
“Look at what we went through at Hampton Park,” says Waring, referring to public outcry over the city’s initial plans to improve that downtown park. “Input both negative and positive is the best thing we can have, as what comes out is normally better than what would been planned.”
Waring says that public outcry resulted in a much better improvement package than what was originally envisioned at Hampton Park, that some in the public brought ides to the table that hadn’t occurred to the city in two years of planning.
Additionally, Waring says that the peninsular Waterfront Park had large numbers of detractors at first, too. “But where are they now?”
Renken wonders if all of the claimed 3.3 acres is usable “high” land. “$980,000 seems like a lot of money to me for that land,” she says.
The city has had recent trouble purchasing parkland in West Ashley. The Bender Street property was also initially approved, but due diligence showed that not all of the land claimed by the sellers may not belong to them. A court has ruled that the city and the sellers enter into mediation in the coming months after neither side could agree upon a new price.
Moody says that there’s more concern from nearby residents than may be warranted. “We haven’t even put pen to paper planning the thing yet,” Moody says, adding that he understands that no one wants a small marina or boat dock there.
Former WPAL owner Bill Saunders isn’t excited about the purchase. “I always visualized it staying like it was,” says the Civil Right veteran who still harbors hard-earned distrust of government.
“When was the last time the government did what it said it was going to do?” asks Saunders, who sold the station and property in 1998. He thinks nearby neighborhoods like Capri Isle could be in trouble from the park 10 years down the road.