Lady’s Island has a traffic problem. Here’s a possible solution.

Lady’s Island’s traffic problem can be lessened by building new connecting roads and turn lanes, widening certain areas and utilizing wider sidewalks and landscaping.

Traffic consultants offered the suggested projects to residents and community leaders during a public meeting at Lady’s Island Middle School on Thursday. Plans followed a traffic study commissioned by the city of Beaufort last year.

Some of the dozens of residents who came to hear the report and see the plans said the ideas weren’t a comprehensive solution, but a start.

“I get the conundrum,” said Carol Ruff, who lives on Sunset Boulevard where plans call for more traffic to be diverted from the main roadways. “... They’re speaking about good ideas.”

While not all the ideas were new and had been identified by earlier studies, the suggested improvements received a fresh look.

Bret Gillis, of consulting firm Stantec, said some ideas were avoided as too costly or logistically difficult, such as a new bridge to Lady’s Island, a raised interchange and widening key thoroughfares. Gillis showed traffic models of cars backed up at the key intersection at Lady’s Island Drive, Sams Point Road and Sea Island Parkway and how flow improved after implementing certain changes.

Among the suggested improvements are:

▪  Creating new connecting roads and traffic signals to relieve main thoroughfares. Landscaping and sidewalks would help slow cars on the connecting roads.

A traffic light at Sunset Boulevard would direct cars to Sams Point Road via Miller Drive, with a proposed small roundabout connecting Sunset and Miller. Hazel Farm Road off of Lady’s Island Drive would be paved and connect to Gay Drive with a traffic light at Sea Island Parkway. A new access road on the other side of the intersection would serve traffic at Lady’s Island Middle School.

Residents of Little Creek Road and Lost Island Road would get a new road near a planned Taco Bell to access the Airport Circle traffic light and a safe left turn at the new Wal-Mart on Sea Island Parkway.

▪  Right-turn lanes would be added from Sea Island Parkway onto Sams Point Road and from Sams Point Road turning right onto Sea Island Parkway. The right turn onto Sams Point Road is already planned as part of the Harris Teeter development coming to the corner.

▪  Sea Island Parkway heading east would be widened to remain two lanes through Airport Circle.

The plans don’t have cost estimates or a way to pay for the projects. City and county officials said the plans could be placed on the county’s list of capital improvement projects, where they would be eligible for impact fees.

The work could also be contingent on receiving federal money.

Lady’s Island resident Gordon Fritz said big businesses like Wal-Mart and Harris Teeter should be on the hook for higher impact fees to help pay for necessary road projects.

Beaufort planning director Libby Anderson said there might be an opportunity in the future to update the impact-fee formula, which is set by the county and determines how much developers pay local governments to mitigate the project’s effect on surrounding areas.

The plans presented this week aren’t final. Residents filled out public comment cards Thursday and Mayor Billy Keyserling encouraged more planning before more concrete and asphalt.

Another meeting next week will consider the future of Lady’s Island with members of the grassroots Sea Island Corridor Coalition and Coastal Conservation League.

“This is the start of a lengthy planning process,” Beaufort City Councilman Stephen Murray said.

“It’s got to be the state, the county and the city (working together),” city manager Bill Prokop said.

This story was originally published February 17, 2017 at 12:42 PM with the headline "Lady’s Island has a traffic problem. Here’s a possible solution.."