islandpacket.com - The Island Packet Online

• Archive Search

Search Everything in the Lowcountry and the Coastal Empire.

Tanger 1 rebuilding plan sent to County Council

Comment on this | | | | | | | |

Despite concerns that its proposed design still needs a great deal of work, plans to knock down and rebuild Tanger Outlet Center 1 on U.S. 278 are moving on to Beaufort County Council.

Six members of the council's Land Management Committee voted Monday night to recommend a requested zoning change for the 20-year-old outlet mall to the full council. The committee's seventh member, Steven Baer, was not at the meeting.

Tanger requested the zoning change on its 25-acre parcel in greater Bluffton to allow it more flexibility when the outlet mall is knocked down in phases and rebuilt.

Tanger 1 originally was built in 1988, before the 1994 adoption of county architectural, landscaping and sign standards.

Tanger Outlet Centers wants to retain some of the current features that don't meet county requirements, among them those dealing with the number and size of trees and the property's buffer, the space between the mall and the roadway.

But the mall won't get everything it's asking for.

Committee chairman Skeet Von Harten, vice chairman Paul Sommerville and County Council Chairman Weston Newton will meet with Tanger officials to draft a developer agreement and work out remaining site plan issues. Plans currently call for retail buildings to form a box around a large, central parking area.

County planning director Tony Criscitiello called the current site plan functionally and aesthetically flawed, said it isn't pedestrian friendly and predicted it will create internal traffic circulation issues.

When asked by the committee about the chances for a compromise, he said, "I'm always the optimist."

Walter Nester, the attorney representing Tanger, said the current site plan is appropriate for an outlet center.

"It's not a shopping center; it's an outlet mall," Nester said after the meeting. "The outlet mall presents a different dynamic."

Tanger officials will continue to work with the county, he said.

Nester said the rezoning and a developer agreement should be before County Council within the next 45 days.

Tanger's plans call for knocking down the 191,000-square-foot center in phases and building a 222,000-square-foot center.

The new center would be built to strict "green" building standards as put forward by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Tanger publicly announced plans last November to rebuild the center.

An initial set of plans was so poorly received by county planning staff that Tanger withdrew them in January.

The plans were resubmitted in May.

| | | | | | |