City seeking more input on parks and rec needs for Cainhoy Peninsula

What are your top three priorities when it comes to parks and recreation in your local community? How important are convenience, quality, and variety of programming when it comes to selecting where you will go? And what’s keeping you from using a particular park or facility?

The City of Charleston is hoping you can help provide the answers to these questions and a host of others as part of a new online survey aimed at residents of the Cainhoy Peninsula and Daniel Island. Earlier this year, a public input gathering session was held on Daniel Island to assess the island community’s recreational needs. A survey was also conducted as part of that effort. In the end, the city gleaned a plethora of information, including the community’s strong desire for an indoor recreation complex/community center to serve Daniel Island, as well as for new programming such as pickle ball and bocce ball.

This latest initiative, led by SGA Architecture on behalf of the city, is the second phase in an attempt to create a master plan for the entire Cainhoy Peninsula when it comes to parks and recreational needs. The survey can be accessed at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YKQ5TCX.

“When I started this program earlier this year, we always knew it would go this way,” said City Councilman Gary White, a Daniel Island resident. “We were going to start with Daniel Island and then go to Cainhoy. It was always the intent to have a full master plan for all…The (new) survey is not targeted specifically just to Cainhoy, but we do want to get as much data as we can from that community.”

There are currently no city parks or recreational offerings serving the residents of the Cainhoy Peninsula, said White, other than those on Daniel Island. Their input is very important to the process, he said.

“It’s not just what the community wants,” White added. “It’s also needs based…We’re building a 15 to 20 year master plan and roadmap with this.”

In addition to Cainhoy area residents, Daniel Island residents who did not take the initial survey last Spring are encouraged to participate in the new questionnaire.

“We are basically picking up where the last public involvement left off,” said Natasha Sexton, Principal at SGA Architecture. “Everything that was done before is still very valid, and we are utilizing that for this effort. We’re really trying to make sure that as many voices as we can get are heard…This is not a duplication of efforts. It’s just the next step.”

Sexton described the process as very analytical and objective.

“We’re trying to give the city tools for planning for both short term and longer term recreational needs and getting a very good handle on both what the community needs and wants, and what’s currently being served and what is not, as well as looking at a national and state perspective of what is expected for this size community.”

Additionally, White said the city plans to host a public meeting for Cainhoy residents similar to the one held on Daniel Island last May. The date for that event has not been finalized, but it is expected to take place in late January. SGA Architects plans to have a draft of their report for the city soon after that session, with a public release in February.

Since the session in May on Daniel Island, White said he has been working diligently to keep the project on course. As a result of initial public input, both pickle ball and bocce ball are now being offered to island residents through the City of Charleston Recreation Department.

“The first week that they put the pickle ball offering together, we had 16 people sign up,” said White. “That’s huge, and much more than we anticipated.”

Additionally, a new shuffleboard course will be installed along with new restroom facilities at Freedom Park behind the Daniel Island School.

“Less than four months later, we have already knocked out all of our short term goals,” added White. “Now we’re moving on to the bigger stuff.”

Input Needed!

Cainhoy Peninsula and Daniel Island residents are encouraged to take part in a new online survey being conducted by the City of Charleston to assess recreational needs. Access the survey at the link below: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YKQ5TCX