James Island Town Council voted to move forward with two major quality-of-life projects for island residents at its meeting Thursday night.
The first project is a new James Island family park on six acres of waterfront land at 1259 Mill Point Road, which the town is purchasing with a combination of Charleston County greenbelt and hospitality funds. Over the coming weeks, town officials will announce the details of a public-input process that will allow residents to help shape the park and ensure it serves the surrounding neighborhood and community before any plans or decisions are made.
In the meantime, town officials said they’re pleased the land will now be preserved and protected from future development, a key priority as the town fights flooding and traffic issues on the island.
“Providing recreation and greenspace is one of the most important things we can do to protect our residents’ quality of life,” Mayor Brook Lyon said. “I want to thank Charleston County, members of Town Council and everyone else who came together to make this new park project possible.”
The second project council advanced Thursday is a plan to create a new Arts and Cultural Center on the Town’s Hillman Lot property next to Town Hall.
The decision came after Town leaders learned that the existing Arts and Cultural Center building on Camp Road would require extensive repairs, including a new roof and exterior waterproofing, in order to remain open to the public. Despite not owning the building, town taxpayers would have been responsible for these repair costs of $250,000 to $400,000 under the lease agreement, along with significantly higher parking costs for even a limited number of spaces at the site.
While the new cultural center is being planned and constructed, current Arts and Cultural Center programming will continue without interruption at James Island Town Hall.
“The old library building has served us well, but it just doesn’t make sense to keep pouring taxpayer dollars into a building the town doesn’t own,” Mayor Lyon said. “The new Arts and Cultural Center will give our residents the great facilities and programming they deserve, without the exorbitant repair and maintenance costs at the current location.”