Upgrade for Colonial Lake area proposed

Improving the park

In the heart of a region accustomed to road-widening projects, the Charleston Parks Department and the nonprofit Charleston Parks Conservancy propose to do the opposite, with a plan that calls for narrowing Rutledge Avenue by nearly 9 feet in order to expand Colonial Lake Park.

View the proposed improvements.

A plan to improve Colonial Lake and Moultrie Playground is not the first effort by the Conservancy, but it's the most ambitious effort yet by the organization, which was created and funded nearly two years ago by South Carolina businesswoman and philanthropist Darla Moore.

"The power of that (organization), for Charleston, will eventually be enormous," said Mayor Joe Riley.

Moore gave the Conservancy $1 million for startup operations and set up a $9 million endowment fund that will provide ongoing funding. The organization has been working closely with the Parks Department, renting space in the department's offices and jointly planning improvement projects.

The Conservancy hopes to create a network of volunteers and financial donors who will help support the city's more than 120 parks.

"It's one thing to build a park," said Parks Department Deputy Director Matt Compton. "It's another to have volunteers come and help maintain it."

He said Hampton Park in Wagener Terrace has a volunteer program, but that's the only city park with such an organization.

"The Parks Department does a fantastic job with the resources they have available," said Jim Martin, executive director of the Conservancy. "This (organization) is a bridge for the community to get

involved in any park they want. We're the bridge between them and the city," he said.

Alan Hawes
The Post and Courier

Sterling Kenan walks her dog and two others around the Rutledge side of Colonial Lake. The city is working on a plan that calls for more landscaping along Rutledge Avenue and beautification of Moultrie Playground.

The road-narrowing would leave Rutledge Avenue between Broad and Beaufain streets with the same number of lanes — one in each direction and parking on both sides — but would leave the road no wider than surrounding side streets such as Queen Street.

Colonial Lake would gain a landscaped buffer between the existing sidewalk and Rutledge Avenue.

Around the lake and on the grounds of the playground, grass and sparse landscaping could be replaced by a horticultural wonderland, under the Conservancy plan. Landscaping and paths could extend beyond the playground and along Canal Street, creating a vista to the Ashley River marsh and the river beyond Lockwood Boulevard.

"I think it's going to be great," said Jane McGreevy, who lives on Canal Street. "The playground certainly needs to be redone."

Canal Street is named for a canal underneath the road that feeds tidal Colonial Lake. The plan calls for a dock at the lake for launching model boats, but the city and Conservancy are leaning against allowing real boats on the lake, which was a common sight in past decades.

The Conservancy and the city are also discussing closing Ashley Avenue between Broad and Beaufain streets at certain times, in order to temporarily connect Colonial Lake and Moultrie Playground and make the street available for recreation, as the city does at Hampton Park.

The playground area could get new equipment, paths and a dog park. Six tennis courts and a baseball diamond would remain.

"Anything that would make it a little more appealing would be good," said Bryn Ginn, with a glance toward a cinder block wall marred by graffiti that now borders one side of the playground area where her children were playing Friday.

Compton said the part of the Colonial Lake plan that calls for narrowing Rutledge Avenue grew from the need to raise the sunken curbing along the Colonial Lake side of the road. He said that by creating a new landscaped buffer, the city would not have to replace the sidewalk adjacent to the sunken curb.

"It's probably less expensive to narrow the road than to re-do the curb where it is," he said.

Jason Gates lives near Colonial Lake, and said the park is under used and has "obviously seen some wear and tear."

"It could be a phenomenal place," said Gates, who also liked the idea of narrowing Rutledge Avenue, because that could reduce speeding.

Compton said the city and the Conservancy will be reviewing comments received about the plan in the coming weeks. More public meetings are expected to follow. Only when a final plan is developed will cost estimates be determined.

"It would be a large undertaking, but you don't do phenomenal parks without some cost.

Reach David Slade at 937-5552 or dslade@postandcourier.com.