By Delayna Earley
The Island News
The Town of Port Royal is looking to put in a park near Sands Beach and they are currently accepting applications from interested citizens to participate in a task force to help design it.
The task force will work with staff and a contracted architect to come up with a plan for the scope and use of the passive park adjacent to Sands Beach Road.
“It doesn’t have anything to do with the Sands Beach directly,” said Town Manager Van Willis. “But the park will be adjacent to the road going into Sands Beach.”
The property was given to the Town of Port Royal by Safe Harbor in a swap for a parcel of property located across the street because the town didn’t want to see any development on the side of the street where Sands Beach is located.
“We thought it would be the perfect location for a passive park,” Willis said.
Willis said that even though the initial thought from the town is to put in a passive park, that decision would be left to those on the task force to decide what type of park would be best for the selected parcel of land.
“We’ll see what the concepts come back as, but I imagine some walking paths and taking advantage of the vistas, maybe some picnic tables, things like that,” said Willis.
The piece of land is estimated to be three acres, according to Willis.
The task force is expected to be made up of five individuals who really want to get involved with the town, but Willis said that they would also love to see people apply who have some experience working with parks and planners.
“I’m retaining a landscape architect, what I’m really primarily concerned with is finding people that understand what we are contemplating and will help guide decisions that will best utilize this property,” said Willis.
Willis said that the Town of Port Royal has a contract with J.K. Tiller Associates, Inc. who will likely be the landscape firm that they go with.
The deadline to apply to be considered for the task force is Wednesday, Sept. 4, and Willis said that the task force will likely be appointed during the Wednesday, Sept. 11 Town Council Meeting.
“We’ll hopefully put them to work pretty quickly,” said Willis.
Those selected to join the task force will likely meet once a month for a couple of hours each meeting and they will continue to meet until they feel that their job in helping the landscape architect to come up with a conceptual plan is complete.
“We think this is a pretty exciting opportunity,” Willis said. “Obviously, the Sands Beach is utilized quite a bit, and I think we have an opportunity here to make something that compliments Sands Beach and hopefully provides additional ways to meander through town and get down to the beach.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
