Meggett preserves over 160 acres of land with Harrell Family Park (2024)

MEGGETT — A recently approved public park is set to be the latest addition to hundreds acres of land preserved in this town southwest of Charleston.

Meggett will soon acquire 161 acres of land at the convergence of Oyster House Creek and Wadmalaw Sound to develop into a park named after the Harrell family, its previous owners.

The late Bob Harrell Sr., a former state transportation commissioner, first bought the land in 1980s. Since then, the Harrell family property has functioned as a cattle operation, vegetable farm and pecan farm.

Bobby Harrell —Bob Harrell Sr.’s son and a former speaker of the S.C. House of Representatives —said he still remembers how his family and those who worked the site planted all the pecan trees themselves. Or at least, the adults did.

Harrell laughed as he recalled his son — who was 4 years old at the time — jumping and playing in the holes that were meant for planting pecan trees.

The family decided to sell the property because Harrell and his siblings had no plans of living at the farm, he said, and neither did any of their children.

Developers reached out to Harrell and his father multiple times over the years. Harrell said he once let an interested developer take a tour before he concluded that selling the land to a developer was not the path they should take.

“When we realized that the property actually could have been developed into a subdivision, we thought it was just so much more important to protect the beauty of that land for families to enjoy,” said Harrell, who following a long Statehouse career resigned from politics in 2014 after pleading guilty to misusing campaign cash.

"We saw the opportunity to preserve that beautiful piece of land for generations," he added. "We took it.”

When Meggett Mayor Buster Herringtonfound out the land was on the market last fall, he said his goal was to see if the town had a chance to preserve another piece of property. The Harrell family was willing to work with the town on a timeline, he said, despite developers' prior interest.

Nate Berry, chief land protection officer at Open Space Institute, said the town contacted OSI to see if the organization could step in and buy the property before a developer stepped in. OSI tends to move faster than a public agency or municipality, so the group is often called on behalf of those entities, he said.

OSI purchased the property on May 8.Berry said the organization will passively manage the property until they sell it to the town, which should happen in the next couple of months.

The property was purchased from the Harrell family by OSI for $7 million, Berry said, and will be sold to the town for the same price. He added the town has acquired$2.5 million from the S.C. Conservation Bank and $4.5 million from Charleston County to fund the purchase.

Eric Davis, Charleston County’s greenbelt program director, said the Harrell Family Park seemed like a great project to the county. It checked a lot of boxes that he considered to be greenbelt priorities: a combination of both passive and active recreation.

According to Meggett Planning Commissioner John Brandon, some of the amenities the park will include are walking trails and a kayak launch. He also said there’s a possibility for equestrian riding.

Brandon said the park will provide great opportunities to students for class field trips.

Herrington said with the addition of Harrell Family Park, the town will have preserved close to 500 acres.

“Our philosophy is ‘once it’s gone, it’s gone,’” Herrington said. “Thankfully, I have a council and residents of our community that support protecting all we can because we see what’s going on around us, and it’s scary.”

Town Councilman Tom Hutto said the town’s effort to preserve the land as a park is beneficial to not only Meggett residents, but county residents as well.

“There’s very few waterfront properties like this remaining to have it in the public realm for public benefit, rather than having this particular piece of property developed as another subdivision,” Hutto said.

Harrell said his father would be incredibly happy to see the land being preserved and see so many other families enjoy what they had for over 40 years.

After his father passed in 2010, Harrell said he took a photographer out to the property to take pictures of the sunset, a view the Harrell family cherished throughout their time on the farm. He gave copies of the pictures to his siblings. He even has one hanging in his office at Harrell Square.

"We were able to see this sunset many, many times over the years," Harrell said. "Now families from all over the Lowcountry will be able to see it, too."

Hutto said the town aims to open Harrell Family Park to the public in early 2025.