West Ashley Park is the largest
municipal
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
park in
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...
. It is located in the
West Ashley
West Ashley, or more formally, west of the Ashley, is one of the six distinct areas of the city proper of Charleston, South Carolina. As of July 2022, its estimated population was 83,996. Its name is derived from the fact that the land is west of ...
area of the city.
The city originally bought a 99.8-acre parcel, including a lake created from an old
phosphate mine
In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid .
The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phospho ...
, in 1985. In 1997, a neighboring property owner, Ross Development Corp., offered to deed the city six adjoining parcels in exchange for the city's constructing a road from the Glenn McConnell Parkway to the park. The estimated cost of the road was $421,100, and the appraised value of the new 161 acres being offered (a 95-acre park addition and a 66-acre wetland preserve) was $429,590.
Work on the park began in 1998 after the city was permitted to remove several large trees at the site. In 1998, Anson Construction Co. was awarded a $2.3 million contract for the park's initial development.
The park opened on April 8, 2000 to the public, but progress on new features at the park continued. By 2001, the park included four baseball fields and four soccer fields. Bicycle and pedestrian trails crisscrossed the property down to Church Creek. Although the public had been given access to the park as features were added, the formal opening of the park did not occur until 2001.
On Sundays adult recreation soccer games are held at West Ashley Park during both the Spring and the Fall seasons of the CSL.
In 2007, a
disc golf
Disc golf, also known as frisbee golf, is a flying disc sport in which players throw a disc at a target; it is played using rules similar to golf. Most disc golf discs are made out of polypropylene plastic, otherwise known as polypropene, which ...
course was planned, the only free course within an hour of Charleston.
[{{cite news, title=City to build disc golf course in West Ashley Park, url=http://archives.postandcourier.com/archive/arch07/0607/arc06214656585.shtml, accessdate=Nov 20, 2012, newspaper=Charleston Post & Courier, date=June 21, 2007, author=Kristen Hankla]
Notes
Parks in Charleston, South Carolina