Last night was the planning commission meeting at the town hall to discuss possible ways to spend the town’s share of the proceeds resulting Charleston County Greenbelt Program . This is the money raised by the 1/2 cent sales tax increase that has to go to preserving greenspace within Charleston County. McClellanville has been told that we will get a share of this fund, but not how much that share will be. I went and was a little surprised that I was the only one that came out to present my ideas, but I think several people have already presented their ideas at other meetings.
My idea (see map above) was to turn the area in the fork in the road between Old Cemetery Road and S. Pinckney Street into a natural park while also creating some sort of boardwalk / bridge across some of the marsh grass at this little finger of Jeremy Creek near the small bridge. The park would add beauty to the main entrance into town and could have a nice “Welcome” sign. The boardwalk would serve as a great place to take a stroll and observe nature (it seems like there is always an egret hanging out on the old dead tree in the marsh there). The boardwalk would also allow safe traffic around a rather treacherous turn that has no sidewalk and connect two existing sidewalks together. The property is owned by Rutledge and hopefully, he would be willing to donate the land (for a nice tax break). Silver Hill needs a nice park to call its own and ARA may get some benefit as well. The planning commission will review all presented ideas and make their recommendation to the town council. If you have any good ideas, please go to the town hall and speak with Kathryn Basha as soon as possible.
I also received an email from the Coastal Conservation League asking everyone to urge Charleston County Council members to approve the Greenbelt Bank Board projects before their July 24th meeting. One of the purposed projects involves adding more land to the Francis Marion National Forest which benefits us all.