Stay the course on Angel Oak

The effort to develop property adjacent the tiny Angel Oak Park continues, and so does the campaign to preserve the acreage as a park. The Charleston Commercial Corridor Design Review Board is correct to insist on a more appropriate scale for the project. Expanding the park around the iconic live oak would be appropriate, too.

As Samantha Siegel notes in her letter to the editor today, the Coastal Conservation League is working to have an 18-acre parcel added to the existing two-acre park.

Conservation League project manager Katie Zimmerman says an appraisal of the property has been done and forwarded to the land owner and prospective developer. She said the League is committed to find funding for its purchase.

Possible funding sources include the city of Charleston, the county's Greenbelt fund and the Gullah-Geechee Heritage Corridor, which eventually is expected to get financial support from the National Park Service.

Ms. Zimmerman tells us that Sea Island Comprehensive Health Care, the former owner of the property, also has endorsed the League's efforts.

In 2002, Charleston Mayor Joe Riley cited the need to increase park acreage around the Angel Oak as a prime example of what approving the referendum for greenbelt funding could do.

"The best poster child of why we need this is the Angel Oak," he said. "It's either going to be a beautifully wooded, classic sea island scene forever, or it's going to be a caricature of a beautiful old tree slam up against a paved parking lot."

The city reportedly has only an estimated $500,000 in greenbelt funds left from its allocation, but that certainly could help toward expanding the size of the park site.

The grass-roots organization headed by Ms. Siegel has approached a difficult task with enthusiasm and has achieved a measure of success. For example, the buffer around the park has been greatly increased in response to public opposition to an earlier development plan.

Clearly, momentum continues to build for more protections for the Angel Oak from adjacent development. That will mean providing more acreage for the Angel Oak Park.