Updated Lady’s Island Harris Teeter plan saves trees

New plans for a proposed Lady’s Island Harris Teeter better match the current design of the former Publix site, saving trees and creating a more walkable design, a city panel said Wednesday.

In presenting the plans to a Beaufort design panel, developers also said an upper-floor wine bar could join the 56,000-square-foot building above a planned Starbucks. The store would be built at the intersection of Sams Point Road and Sea Island Parkway.

The new layout was well-received Wednesday by a Beaufort design panel, which granted conceptual approval with certain conditions. Original plans called for the back of the grocery store to front Sea Island Parkway with parking on the other side, wiping out the existing trees.

“We’re pleased with the parking lot layout,” Ted Barnes, of Barnes Development Co., told Beaufort’s Design Review Board. “It really wound up working pretty good.”

The development also includes a gas station and convenience store. Commercial buildings will now front part of the property along Sea Island Parkway.

The corner of the Harris Teeter would include Starbucks with outdoor seating and what is hoped will be a wine bar with balcony seating, Barnes said.

Beaufort planners and the design panel pushed back against the first design, saying it didn’t fit the longterm plan for the site.

The city wants commercial buildings to make up 50 percent of the length of the property along Sea Island Parkway, with the idea that store entrances and windows will create an inviting, vibrant area. City planner Lauren Kelly asked that the development have a pedestrian-friendly layout, similar to the new Publix site with a pizza parlor and hair and nail salons within a short walk to the grocery store.

Kelly asked developers for a timeline for building the commercial space. Barnes said pinpointing a date would be difficult and will be based on the market.

The city wants ensure the property along Sea Island Parkway isn’t used for site drainage or parking and is actively marketed to potential businesses, Kelly said.

“We want to make sure there is a logical, reasonable path forward for them to be constructed,” she said.

Kelly noted the community’s effort to save the trees when Publix was first built on the site. The developers said they are now working to save the site’s larger trees, ones lost in the first design.

Beaufort architect Jane Frederick, a member of the design panel, walked the site and noted several more of the larger trees she hopes will be saved with some further adjustments to the parking lot design.

“We worked really hard 25 years ago or so to save a lot of those trees,” Frederick said. “So they’re working that way, and if they change the (plans) like I was talking about, we’ll be able to save a couple more of the really important ones.”

One of the lots slated for development has already been annexed into the city. The other lot is in the process.

The new grocery store will become one of several in the area.

Publix opened a new store across Sea Island Parkway in 2014. A Food Lion is adjacent to where the new Harris Teeter would be built.

And Walmart is in the process of building a store a little farther down Sea Island Parkway.

This story was originally published March 23, 2016 at 9:06 AM with the headline "Updated Lady’s Island Harris Teeter plan saves trees."