Mount Pleasant council members question park plans

MOUNT PLEASANT — Town Council members Gary Santos and Joe Bustos are questioning a recent Council vote that they said could lead to four acres of Memorial Waterfront Park becoming something other than public green space.

Santos and Bustos opposed excluding four acres at the rear of the park from an agreement with the state Department of Transportation that gave the town 22 acres for use as a park only. The rest of Council voted in favor of the measure.

Council is exploring buying the four acres from DOT so that it can use the land any way it wants. Ideas such as a corporate meeting center or a performance venue have been floated but nothing has been decided. Supporters have stressed that if the land is purchased it could still be used for green space.

But the move concerned Santos, who said that Council approved the measure under "old business" at its last meeting when it should have been considered as a new public issue. Santos noted that if the four acres are to be used for green space then the land could be acquired for free through the quit-claim deed used to obtain rights to the other 18 acres.

Because of his concerns, Santos has scheduled a public meeting at 7 p.m. June 9 at the old Wando High School at Mathis Ferry and Whipple roads. The meeting in the school cafeteria will be for the purpose of receiving community input on the issue of how to develop the four-acre second phase of the park. "If we're going to change the (park) plan we need to bring the public back in. They should be the ones to tell us what we're going to do," Santos said.

The first phase of the park includes a 1,200-foot pier, a war memorial, a visitors center, a sweetgrass center, a playground and parking on 18 acres. It's scheduled to open on Memorial Day weekend 2009.

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier.