Mt. Pleasant residents push to preserve park following recreational plans

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC) - Rifle Range Road Park in Mount Pleasant is known for its vast greenspaces, walking trails and a perfect place to walk your dog, but some people who live there say they’re concerned that it’s going to be taken away from them.

This concern comes from the town of Mount Pleasant planning for a large recreational complex to go on 45 acres of the town’s land.

In a matter of years, some of the space will be a gymnasium, performance stages and even Mount Pleasant’s first-ever courts dedicated to pickleball.

This project was first designed back in 2016 and was re-evaluated and approved last year once the town got the funding from the last bond referendum that was passed to pay for this $40 million facility.

Some neighbors, like Patti Royall, say their main concerns are the destruction of greenspace, saving wildlife and making sure their tax money is going toward the right places.

“We need the trees, we need the air, we need the oxygen,” Royall said. “We need the space to decompress.”

The town says all 240 acres are split between them and Charleston County Parks and Recreation. The Rifle Range Road Park will only take up about 22% of that.

For more information on what will be included in this project, click here for the master plan. The town says this plan could be slightly altered once they finish meeting with the design team, which just started this month.

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