Rollin' It All Together

Charleston Parks Conservancy executive director Harry Lesesne has envisioned a new future for West Ashley’s Greenway and Bikeway as a conjoined linear park, replete with event areas, basketball courts, and picnic spots.
“And community gardens, smaller farmers markets, places for food vendors, public gathering spaces, and …” Lesesne continues.
“What we want, what we believe, is that the 11 miles of the combined greenway and the bikeway should be seen as one public space,” says Lesesne. “ The two of them makeup and tie together a huge amount of West Ashley.”
Nothing in this part of town goes through the heart of so many neighborhoods, as the greenway winds its way in from nearly Johns Island to its terminus at the Ashley River, and the how the bikeway ends similarly at a different spot on the river.
Savannah Highway and St. Andrews Boulevard skirt neighborhoods, whereas the greenway and the bikeway go through the heart of the matter, to Lesesne’s eye.
Lesesne says that West Ashley, and Charleston, has the unique opportunity to recast the two ‘Ways into a linear park in the same way that the High Line has excited New Yorkers, transforming an abandoned raised railway into an urban park.
Or, he says, like Atlanta’s award-winning BeltLine Park that connects 45 smaller parks and greenspaces through walking trails, biking opportunities, and rail.
To pull all that off, though, the city would need a plan. And money.
The Speedwell Foundation just laid down some seed money, pledging up to $200,000 for the creation of that master plan. The foundation has two major homes, South Carolina and Pennsylvania, and focuses on sending kids abroad for school and advocating for public greenspace.
Lesesne says the conservancy’s vision is going to take more than $200,000, so he said once the plan is completed, the second phase would be entreat City Hall, where he worked for years as a senior advisor to former Mayor Joe Riley, and begin private fund-raising efforts.
So far, City Hall is already on board. Municipal planning czar Jacob Lindsey gushed over the nascent proposal.
“The greenway-bikeway connection into the West Ashley bridges and into downtown is perfect from a transportation perspective; it literally doesn’t get any better,” says Lindsey. “It would connect the region by bicycle and walking.”
Lindsey sees a near future where locals and visitors could ride or walk from Mt. Pleasant over the Ravenel Bridge, through downtown, and then out to Johns Island.
“It is so unbelievably perfect.”
Lindsey says the city would focus on doing two things in the planning phase. First, it would strive to enhance the experience of the two former light rail lines, as it already serves a good purpose admirably.
Second, it would work on making roads crossings safer. “The bugaboo both face is the inability for those taking the greenway or bikeway to cross major roads like U.S. 17, or Highway 61, or Folly Road safely.”
“One of the things we’d do is upgrade and implement safe crossings,” says Lindsey, which would make a beautiful park-like setting fit into a suburban paradigm.
Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments is currently compiling a study of the most dangerous intersections in the area for walkers and bikers.
But all that is going to take a big money buy-in from the city, of course. And City Councilman Bill Moody says he likes the idea, and has heard from other fellow West Ashley councilman that they’re in, too.
Moody praises the scope, saying the conservancy’s proposal would touch and benefit every council district in West Ashley.
“When my kids played ball on Playground Road, I’d get on my bike, ride it down the bikeway to watch them compete, and then ride myself home again,” says Moody of a bygone era.
Moody says that where the two ‘Ways intersect near the memorial park for the fallen Sofa Super Store firefighters could become a “center of activity,” that could include a short track for fun runs and races.
Moody says a transformation of the ‘Ways could be expensive but that city funds could be tapped.
“What’s wrong with getting some of the city’s accommodations tax spent in West Ashley, or other stuff?”
But the money is already under threat. The $200,000 seed money from Speedwell may soon be cut in half, as half of the amount was contingent on there being a bike lane installed on the bridge connecting West Ashley to the peninsula.
And County Council, whose chair Elliot Summey has spoken out against the bike lane, is threatening to scuttle that project.