‘Dude, what’s your beef?’: Taco Bell talk sizzles

Plans for a Lady’s Island Taco Bell require too much dirt and could compound traffic problems along Sea Island Parkway, a Beaufort design panel and members of the public said Thursday.

Taco Bell wants to move forward with plans to build a new restaurant on Lady’s Island at 226 Sea Island Parkway.

The fast-food chain would be built across Sea Island Parkway from a new Walmart shopping center currently under construction. Plans for the building were tabled by the city of Beaufort’s design review panel over the concerns about traffic and the amount of dirt needed to raise the site to satisfy flood requirements.

Architect Jane Frederick, a design board member, read a section from Beaufort’s Civic Master Plan about the need to protect natural resources.

“I think if we start off with 7 feet of fill, we’re not adhering to that principle,” she said.

The Taco Bell, at the intersection of Lost Island Road and Sea Island Parkway, would be 2,500 square feet with a drive through. The building would be on an L-shaped lot at Sea Island Parkway and Lost Island Road and similar in design to a new Taco Bell on Robert Smalls Parkway.

Beaufort annexed and zoned the property earlier this year to make way for Taco Bell, raising concerns from nearby residents about traffic in the area. The city recently began a traffic study on the road from Richard V. Woods Memorial Bridge past where the new Walmart will go up.

That study is ongoing, with traffic counts being collected, Beaufort planning director Libby Anderson said. A public meeting about the traffic study is tentatively scheduled for Sept. 29 at Lady’s Island Elementary School, she said.

Taco Bell will have to conduct its own traffic analysis of the site.

The traffic issue sparked a tense exchange between nearby resident John Holden and project consultant David Karlyk, with Carolina Engineering.

Holden detailed concerns with how cars would enter and leave the site and how delivery trucks might block traffic on Lost Island Road. Karlyk told him necessary measures would be identified and addressed by the required traffic study.

“Are you blowing smoke?” Holden asked, standing in front of a projector screen of the plans.

“Dude, what’s your beef?” Karlyk responded.

After the plans were tabled, Karlyk pointed out that the developers had provided what was required for initial approval and that traffic and stormwater plans weren’t needed until later.

“It’s tabled,” Frederick said.

This story was originally published September 8, 2016 at 8:57 AM with the headline "‘Dude, what’s your beef?’: Taco Bell talk sizzles."