Red tape holds up $2M skate park project

  • Robert Behre
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  • Posted: Saturday, April 30, 2011 12:01 a.m.
    UPDATED: Friday, March 23, 2012 5:55 p.m.
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Recreational skateboarding differs from the issue of using skateboards as transportation, but recreational skateboarders also have been bruised with bad recent news.

A year ago, the Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission agreed to spend $2 million to build a new skate park -- one of the largest on the East Coast-- under the Ravenel Bridge in downtown Charleston.

Today, it's still unclear when construction will begin.

"Is everyone frustrated? Yes," PRC Director Tom O'Rourke said this week. "The frustration is the project is slower than we'd like it to be, but the project in no way is dead."

The problem has stemmed from a bureaucratic Catch 22.

O'Rourke said his agency didn't want to spend $60,000 or so designing the park if the Federal Highway Administration and S.C. Department of Transportation would not allow it in the state right of way under the bridge. However, those agencies have said they need to see a design before giving their blessing.

"We don't like to spend money unless we know for sure that things are going to work out," O'Rourke said. "We asked them, 'Why don't you give us the parameters so we can do the plan?' And we went back and forth and back and forth and back and forth."

O'Rourke said he almost gave up on the site until Charleston Mayor Joe Riley agreed to help get the necessary approvals from the highway agencies.

The bureaucratic standoff has irked those like Shannon Smith, a mom, teacher and avid skateboarder who is on the board of the nonprofit group Pour It Now. She and other Pour It Now members appeared before city officials this week asking for their help in keeping the project on track.

O'Rourke said the Park and Recreation Commission could consider a design-build contract for the park at its next meeting, but he still is unsure when a design will be approved and when construction will start.

"We want to start pouring some concrete," he added. "I'm sure in a year or two, we'll look back and be pleased, but right now, it's pretty darn frustrating."