Parks Conservancy Wins Grant for West Ashley Project

With a $20,000 Lowe's/Keep America Beautiful Community Improvement Grant in hand the Charleston Parks Conservancy is now half-way to raising all the money it needs for the first phase of it Urban Environmental and Horticulture Center.

Phase I will be the Magnolia-Sycamore Community Vegetable Garden, which will consist of a total of 62 planting beds (48 of which will be leased out and 14 will serve as community beds) and a pavilion and storage spaces constructed by Clemson School of Architecture students. 

The pavilion and an initial set of beds should be completed by Dec. 1, according to a Parks Conservancy statement.

The grant, along with donations already pledged to the project, accounts for more than half of the $40,000 price tag of Phase I. The Conservancy and the Magnolia-Sycamore volunteer committee must still raise approximately $15,500 by Oct. 1 for the vegetable garden. Donations can be made online or by contacting Brittany Wallace in the Conservancy’s development office at bwallace@charlestonparksconsevancy.org or call 843-724-5003.

The Parks Conservancy acquired the land for the Urban Environmental and Horticulture Center with the help of the Mount Pleasant Land Conservancy, which secured a Charleston County Greenbelt grant of $410,500 to purchase the land in 2011.