Some in Bluffton not happy about ‘gray wall’ at site of new Walmart

Beaufort County administrator Gary Kubic hears a version of the same complaint when residents call about the sparse vegetation on the perimeter of the Walmart Supercenter and Sam’s Club under construction at the intersection of U.S. 278 and S.C. 46.

“‘Have you seen the wall? Have you seen the wall?’

“‘Yes, I have.’

“‘What are you going to do about it?’”

The complaints, he said, have mostly come from residents of The Crescent, the neighborhood located directly across from Bluffton Gateway, the 66-acre site where the stores are being built.

The “wall” they are referring to is the massive and close-to-the-road section of gray brick building visible through a thin line of widely spaced trees that border the property. Because the project is unfinished, though, there is not much the county can do right now, Kubic said.

“Bottom line, it’s going up and I guess what we’re going to have to do is try to accommodate the viewpoints of several folks,” he said.

When construction is finished, the county said it will work with the developers and the community to find a solution to any unresolved issues at that time.

“So I would do two things, I would look to what the contract calls for with redevelopment and the landscaping,” he said. “(And) I would encourage the community to work with the county and the developer as time unfolds to suggest modifications and to create opportunities that may not be part of it now.”

The criticism comes as Walmart seeks to increase the size of its previously approved fuel center from a 192-square-foot kiosk to a 1,440-square-foot convenience store.

Since beginning construction at the site earlier this year, Walmart has decided to add the convenience store, rotate the structure 90 degrees counter-clockwise and create more parking spaces for the building.

On May 5, the consulting firm Kimley-Horn and RHA Architects met with the Beaufort County Design Review Board to present the proposed changes to the development agreement, which was approved by County Council in April 2014.

The board did not approve the amended plan at the time, citing a lack of trees and shrubs as well as the building’s appearance, which they said did not adhere to the Lowcountry aesthetic.

The plans were resubmitted to the board on June 2, and the board gave Walmart conditional approval to proceed, according to board member James Atkins.

County Councilman Brian Flewelling said he expected the Design Review Board to hold Walmart to its “tight development plan” as the complex would serve as the gateway to downtown Bluffton.

“One of the things that I always like to think about is that a person or a company or people involved in making a development really don’t want to make an ugly development,” he said.

Tony Criscitiello, planning director for the county, said it is typical for developers to hold off on planting vegetation until the end of construction. Their mixed landscaping plan is unusual, though, and their agreement is “different” from that of other developments in the county, he said.

The 2014 development agreement states that the developers of Bluffton Gateway are responsible for landscaping a 25-foot portion of the property’s perimeter buffer with vegetation of their choosing, which could include manicured grass. Walmart must then add another 25 feet of natural vegetation to establish the 50-foot perimeter buffer that is required by Beaufort County’s Zoning and Development Standards Ordinance.

Kubic said that complaints about a project’s landscaping while it’s still under construction are not uncommon.

“(The building is) close. I mean, 50 feet, it’s like a putt on the green,” he said. “Maybe (this is) something that we can learn from and modify our legislation. What I would like to do is take a look at what the vegetation that they’re talking about putting there will do (for the visibility of the building).”

This story was originally published June 15, 2016 at 6:25 PM with the headline "Some in Bluffton not happy about ‘gray wall’ at site of new Walmart."