The joint municipal Beaufort-Port Royal Metropolitan Planning Commission will discuss the growth boundary between the city of Beaufort and the town of Port Royal at a 5:30 p.m. work session today at Port Royal Town Hall, 700 Paris Ave.
The growth boundary is a line that defines where Port Royal and Beaufort can annex land. The line could be redrawn to accommodate a property owners on the Beaufort side who has asked to be annexed into Port Royal.
Craig Freeman, general manager of Barrier Island Marine, has decided to open a boat repair and sales business at 599 Robert Smalls Parkway, which is currently in an unincorporated area of Beaufort County.
Current county zoning prohibits the sale of boats on that property.
Freeman’s landlord, Frances Rabon, has requested it be annexed into Port Royal to allow for the business, even though it is on Beaufort’s side of the growth boundary.
In addition to new growth boundaries, the annexation would also require that Forest Lawn Cemetery be brought into Port Royal, as well, so that Rabon’s land is contiguous to the town’s boundaries. The cemetery’s owner has requested annexation and is already on the Port Royal side of the growth boundary.
City and town planners have been working on a proposal to redraw the growth boundary in that area to allow the annexation. Any change in the boundary would have to be approved by Beaufort and Port Royal councils.
For more, check back with the Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet later today, and follow reporter Erin Moody at twitter.com/IPBG_Erin.
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