Northbridge Park Plan Seeks to Beautify Gateway

CHARLESTON - First impressions are important, and a planned park below the Cosgrove Bridge will help the city make a better one on people coming off Interstate 26 and into West Ashley.

The area under the bridge is currently used by fishermen and crabbers, and for less-reputable past-times.

"We've cleaned syringes out from under there before," Charleston City Council District 9 Representative Aubry Alexander said.

Some people have even taken to living under the bridge in the past, Alexander said.

The new park, which the city calls a "gateway park," would seek to address those issues by installing lighting and cameras under the bridge and improving the access points on both sides of Sam Rittenberg Boulevard at the foot of the bridge, allowing Charleston Police better access to patrol the area.

Vehicle parking spots will also be added to the now unpaved area on the southbound side of Sam Rittenberg, and a picnic area is also planned.

Eventually the park is slated to include a fishing pier and canoe/kayak launch, but that part of the project is awaiting approvals and funding according to Alexander and Jason Kronsberg, Charleston Parks Department Project Manager for Capital Projects.

The park plan arose from a charette held in the Old Towne district in 1998 that developed a master plan for the redevelopment of the area. Alexander's predecessor, Paul Tinkler, was the City Council representative for the district at the time.

Since 1998 several pieces of the master plan have been addressed including beautification efforts performed on the median traffic islands behind the Piggly Wiggly at the intersection of Sam Rittenberg Boulevard and Old Towne Road, the demolition of a former car dealer lot and subsequent construction of the Bi-Lo shopping center on Sam Rittenberg Boulevard and the installation of a pedestrian and bicycle path along Old Towne Road.

"The park is appropriate there because it is a gateway to the city and the highway department doesn't take care of it," Alexander said. "It will change the dynamics of the area, it will show there is development here that this is an area that cares about itself."

Charleston has set aside $465,000 to build the first phase of the park, Kronsberg said. Additionally Charleston County chipped in $100,000 in Transportation Sales Tax funds to pay for the park's design and engineering.

The city is still waiting on S.C. Department of Transportation to sign off on the ingress and egress points on Sam Rittenberg Boulevard that will allow vehicle access to the park.

Once all approvals are out of the way, Kronsberg said the goal is to send the park construction project out for bids in October, and then bring the winning bid before City Council in December for approval.

If nothing interrupts that time-line, construction could begin in early 2012. Phase I construction should take about six months, Kronsberg said.

Phase II, the pier, could take substantially longer though.

"The challenge now is to find $500,000 for the pier," Alexander said. "I will go to the County Parks Department and I'll go to the state to look for funding, but everyone's budgets now are so stretched so it may take longer than anyone expected to fund the pier."

Kronsberg said the city will apply for several grants to help fund the pier construction, but it can't apply for any until the SCDHEC Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management approves the pier construction.

Once an approval is granted, it will remain good for five years.