Should buffer be required at O.C. Welch building being revamped for BMW dealership?

Should the former O.C. Welch dealership on U.S. 278 be required to have trees and other plants as a buffer when the building becomes a BMW dealership?

Beaufort County officials are at odds over the issue, which hangs on the question of whether the new dealership is subject to rules requiring projects along busy highways to put in buffers between the buildings and the road. The purpose of buffers is to preserve a natural look along the county's highways.

County administrator Gary Kubic has given the building's new owner, Hilton Head BMW, the go-ahead to rebuild the former Ford-Lincoln-Mercury dealership without a buffer and without approval from the county's Southern Corridor Review Board, which typically checks projects along heavily traveled highways to make sure they will be unobtrusive.

The board insists there should be a buffer, saying it is clearly required under the county's zoning rules.

The old dealership, built in 1984, was constructed before those rules were enacted. But board chairman Steve Wilson said the board should review the project, and if it does, it will require a buffer.

"The first thing someone sees when they come to our area on a vacation or a golf outing is our commercial corridors," he said. "It's the all-important first impression. One of the things that makes this place different from anywhere else is the vegetation, the beauty of the trees."

Kubic said he's all for buffers, but a provision in the zoning ordinance allows developers to bypass the board when building improvements are "minor."

According to Kubic, the latest plans for the new BMW building are very similar to the old design of the O.C. Welch building. Therefore, the project is actually a restoration, so a buffer isn't required, Kubic said.

"I kind of agree with the board," Kubic said. "We want buffers on 278 and don't want to see parking lots when we drive by. ..."

But Kubic said he has to let the project move forward based on his interpretation of the rules.

"I've given this guy the OK because he's not expanding the footprint of the building ... and it looks essentially like it did before," Kubic said.

Wilson said the work being done on the property is far from minor, and the county is setting a bad precedent.

"The changes proposed are not minor by any reasonable definition. They effectively produce a new and larger building," states an Aug. 29 letter written by the review board to county officials.

But unless the zoning ordinance is changed, Kubic said he must let the project proceed -- and without the review board's approval. "I can't deny a taxpayer the right to proceed just because the corridor review board wants to have a say."

Wilson has said the board will fight Kubic's decision. He also said the county's ordinance should be rewritten to prevent similar situations from occurring.