Planning commission postpones decision on proposal for Old Town inn

Supporters of old town Bluffton, the one-square-mile historic district, have long sought to make the area a draw for visitors.

The district's points of interest include churches, Civil War-era structures, the scenic May River and merchants along Calhoun Street. What it doesn't have, according to some Blufftonians, is a place for guests to stay overnight.

Old town developer Thomas Viljac is trying to change that.

Viljac appeared before the Bluffton Planning Commission on Wednesday to request a zoning change that would allow Seven Oaks, a two-story antebellum house he restored to its original glory last year, to become a bed-and-breakfast. The home, built in 1850, once served as a boarding house for weary travelers on the May River. Viljac has been working to turn it into a Civil War museum.

"A bed-and-breakfast fits in with its historical purpose," planning commission chairman Josh Tiller said Thursday. "Now if you want to come to Calhoun, you've got to drive in from somewhere else. It would help build up the core of old town."

Planning commission members Don Blair and Emmett McCracken agreed.

"It's interesting historically since it used to be a boarding house," Blair said.

McCracken said a bed-and-breakfast, which he said can have a maximumof six guest rooms, "wouldn't do a whole lot of violence to Calhoun Street."

Some Blufftonians, though, were not initially enthusiastic about increased activity in what they called a tranquil and delicate area. Land owners along Calhoun south of Bridge Street are not permitted to have commercial uses on their properties. A zoning change for this area could make it open to offices, day care centers and restaurants, among other things.

"To commercialize our beloved town to death, especially with all the vacant commercial space available in the original square mile ... only cheapens her and dilutes her unique character," Lawrence Street resident J. Mitchell Brown wrote in a letter submitted to the commission Wednesday. "This is not about denying any particular person an economic opportunity or limiting any potential use of any specific property. ...This is about ending the madness in our town and protecting the sanctity of the original square mile (of Bluffton)..."

The planning commission members, including Viljac's supporters, also took issue with making a decision without extensive public inputon a zoning change that Tiller said "could have a domino effect" in the neighborhood. He said the commission might consider a conditional zoning change that would apply only to Seven Oaks.

The commission voted to delay a decision until they could discuss the issue with input from the town council at a public hearing.

The commission asked Viljac to bring details about his intentions for Seven Oaks to the meeting, which planning director Laura Morgan said could take place in the next two weeks. The issue would come before the planning commission again in late July at the earliest, she said.