County approves funds for Urban Horticultural Center

CHARLESTON - The plan to turn nearly 3.7 acres between Magnolia Road and Sycamore Avenue into a park, community garden and headquarters for the Charleston Parks Conservancy got the support of Charleston County Council Tuesday night.

The council approved a $410,500 expenditure from the Greenbelt Bank to purchase the land for the project. The Parks Conservancy is also chipping in $20,000 towards the cost of the land. All that remains is for the Mount Pleasant Land Conservancy to close the sale and place a conservation easement on the property before it can turn it over to the Parks Conservancy.

"It's a triumph," Mount Pleasant Land Conservancy Executive Director John Girault said. "It's a big deal and a wonderful success story that's just getting started."

The MPLC acts as an advocate for owners of properties smaller than 30 acres to request funding through the county's Greenbelt program because the program requires a nonprofit organization own the land. MPLC began working with the county on the Small Landowner Program projects in 2010, and because the organization focuses on small parcels, it has been an ideal partnership to shepherd projects with small geographical footprints through the process.

"The purpose was to do easements on small properties," Charleston County Director of Greenbelt Programs and Greenbelt Bank Advisory Board member Cathy Ruff said. "We were looking for a partner to be an advocate for those properties. They acquire the land and transfer it to the owners/managers with a conservation easement on it."

The Greenbelt Bank funds come from a portion of the county's half-cent Transportation Sales Tax program, Ruff said. A certain amount of funding is made available to each municipality in the county, and the Greenbelt Bank Advisory Board approval is the first step in the process to awarding the funds. County Council has the final say on whether to award the funding.

Though the land will be turned over to the Parks Conservancy, the idea for the project didn't originate with the organization. Adam Webb is a resident of East Oak Forest and was the one who sought out the help of the Parks Conservancy and MPLC to bring his idea to fruition.

"I like to garden for a hobby," Webb said. "I have a large privacy fence and a lot of big pine trees in my yard which produces a lot of shade, which isn't great for gardening.

"This property had just been sitting there for the six or seven years that I've lived here and I was talking with my wife Katie about it," he continued. "We said wouldn't it be great if we could talk to the property owner and move our little garden up there."

Around that time, in May 2010, Webb read about College of Charleston horticulture students creating an urban garden and then a couple of his friends, Paul Stevens, who has a degree in horticulture, and Andrew Wilkins told him about the county's greenbelt program.

"That led us to John Girualt at the Mount Pleasant Land Conservancy and that led us to look for a nonprofit to hold the property," Webb said.

Which in turn led them to the Parks Conservancy.

"This came from the community to begin with so we didn't have to go out and build support," Jim Martin, Executive Director of the Charleston Parks Conservancy said. "A lot of our earlier projects, it was the other way around, but it is starting to turn around and we're getting more people coming to us."

The Parks Conservancy's plan is to keep the community involved as much a possible through open forums to develop a plan for the property. It will come with a conservation easement so most of the uses will have to be passive, but from the beginning the plan has included eventually building a headquarters for the conservancy that would include educational space.

Other ideas have included a park, community gardens and greenhouses and other similar uses.

"The first thing we have to do is close on the property," Martin said. "Some of our first steps will be to start having major conversations with the community to get to know West Ashley better. Also we'll look at what can we don to the property immediately, one month down the road, one year down the road."

The $410,500 approved by the county and $20,000 from the Parks Conservancy will be enough to buy the property, but it will take more money to turn the open space into an urban horticultural center as planned, and Martin said the Conservancy will be relying on support from the community to raise the needed funds.

"Fundraising and community involvement are a huge part of it," he said. "We're thrilled for it to have gotten this far."

So is Webb.

"One great thing if we'll get to preserve those 26 great oaks on the property," Webb said. "I'm really proud of that."

He's also very excited about the educational prospects the project offers.

"What started out as this little 8-foot-square plot of tomatoes turned into this urban horticultural center," Webb said. "I really want to see it incorporate education for kids in underserved communities and adults alike. It's good for kids, especially urban kids who may not know where their food comes from, to see it go from a seed to a seedling to a plant to produce.

"There is a sense of pride in seeing it mature and enjoying the fruits of your harvest," he continued.

Webb recalled that an elementary school project that involved sprouting corn kernels was the thing that first got him interested in gardening.