SC parks department asks for $186M in ‘generational’ upgrades to keep up with demand

COLUMBIA — The state parks department is asking legislators for nearly $186 million to fund sprawling upgrades and renovations in what the agency’s director described as “a generational move.”

The request is the largest in agency history, agency director Duane Parrish said Wednesday.

With it, the parks department could upgrade its campgrounds, buy new furniture for lodges, improve trail systems and build welcome centers for upcoming parks, among other projects, he said.

“People will look back 40, 50 years from now and say, ‘I’m really glad we did this,’” Parrish told the SC Daily Gazette.

The parks department’s ask, which it listed as its top priority for the year, would sum up more routine requests for maintenance, upgrades and new projects, Parrish said. Instead of coming to legislators for each project separately, that would allow the agency to get started on renovations statewide.

In recent years, construction costs have risen so quickly that projects broke their initial budgets before even making it to the end of the state’s lengthy approval process, said agency lobbyist Emily Frierson. The agency is also asking legislators to help speed up those approvals, according to the budget request.

“These projects have just skyrocketed with inflation, and then we have to go back to the Legislature two years after that” to ask for more money to finish the same project, Frierson said.

An overhaul of the sort the agency is requesting could allow the department to keep up with increasing demand for years to come, while also drawing in more visitors and more revenue, Parrish said. Although taxpayer money funds major projects at state parks, day-to-day operations are paid for through revenue the agency generates from store sales, as well as fees to get into parks and stay overnight.

The state’s parks are “some of the most natural and beautiful places we have throughout the state for the public to see and enjoy,” Parrish said.

Since he started leading the agency in 2011, more people than ever want to see those places, he said.

The COVID-19 pandemic sent more people outside, causing a boom in the popularity of hiking, biking, boating and other outdoor activities. Local, state and national parks, including South Carolina’s Congaree National Park, all reported record numbers of visitors in the ensuing years.

“Looking back, it wasn’t just a fad,” Parrish said. “It stuck, and outdoor recreation is at an all-time high.”

Combine that with a growing state population, and the parks department has seen “the wear and tear of 10 to 12 million people a year going through the parks,” Parrish said.

The park system doesn’t track exact visitor numbers, but a rough estimate would put the number of visitors a decade ago at around 6 or 7 million each year, he said.

Roads, water systems and lodges where campers can stay overnight need upgrades or repairs, Parrish said. Nearly $7.5 million of the requested cost would go toward those sorts of repairs, according to the agency budget request.

The biggest part of the request, just over $96 million, would help built visitor centers at six upcoming state parks expected to open over the next five years, along with installing and updating water and sewer systems and laying cables for internet access at new and existing parks, Parrish said.

Another $59 million would upgrade cabins, campgrounds, shops and golf courses. That could mean updating old furniture in the state’s cabins, renovating the interiors of park stores and upgrading RV hookups to supply more power, Parrish said.

Most of the state’s RV hookups don’t provide enough energy to run a dishwasher, which is a modern standard. That keeps some people from staying overnight, Parrish said. Other campgrounds lack sewer systems, another inconvenience for visitors.

The funding could also pay for new and improved trails and more parking lots, Parrish said.

SC parks department seeks $18M to open 4 new state parks

At some parks, guests have to reserve a parking spot before visiting because the demand is so high. At Jones Gap State Park in Greenville County, all 50 or so reserved parking spots might fill up before 9 a.m. during the fall season, when people flock to see the leaves turn colors in the mountains, Parrish said.

The department owns a stretch of land across the highway from the park where it could build a new parking lot, but it would need money for paving and to create a trail from the park to the new lot, he said.

“I think there’s an opportunity for us to take this money, maximize the usage of it and modernize state parks to the point where we have one of the finest modern state parks in the country,” Parrish said.

The final $23 million of the request would go toward restoring and preserving structures built as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. President Franklin Roosevelt created the program in 1933 in an effort to kickstart the economy by creating jobs for tens of thousands of young men. It ended in 1942 after the United States entered World War II.

South Carolina’s approximately 49,000 corps members built structures in 16 state parks, and evidence of their work remains in still-standing lodges and cabins. The parks department has restored some, such as Gaines Lodge at Table Rock State Park, but the agency could restore other, smaller cabins to the way they looked 80 years ago, Parrish said.

Whether the department gets what it requested is another story.

Every agency must contend for a finite amount of funding, and Parrish acknowledged state parks are not usually at the front of the line.

Still, Parrish said he’s hopeful legislators will agree to fund the request, even if they do so over a number of years instead of all at once. Parrish proposed pulling from the state’s unspent surpluses to fund the request.

The state ended up collecting $411 million more than expected in the fiscal year that ended June 30, according to the state’s Board of Economic Advisors. The board’s latest revenue estimates, which include the higher-than-expected revenues and prior years’ unspent surpluses, give the Legislature an additional $2.4 billion to spend in the 2026-27 budget. Of that, $1.7 billion is meant for one-time expenses.

“I thought it was a good time to ask for that $186 million to say, ‘OK, this is a critical product for the people, the public of South Carolina,’” Parrish said.