Settled at last: Beaufort County, Berkeley Hall end frontage road fight

The seven-year fight over a 1,000-foot stretch of frontage road in greater Bluffton is over.

Berkeley Hall residents voted 315-4 to drop their legal challenges to Beaufort County's planned access road that will connect the community to the neighboring St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church and a Bluffton fire station on U.S. 278.

The result should be safer entances and exits for church parishioners and for parents dropping off and picking up their students at the church's school. Currently, churchgoers and parents rely on just one driveway, which causes dangerous traffic jams before and after school and around church services.

"We're overjoyed," said Monsignor Ronald Cellini, the church's priest. "The biggest hurdle is done as a result of a lot of people coming together. We told people at Mass this Sunday and everyone cheered. It's a big safety win for everyone who uses the road."

Under the new agreement:

• A new frontage road will connect the church's existing driveway to the traffic signal at Berkeley Hall's entrance.

Berkeley Hall leaders had opposed routing church traffic to the traffic signal at their entrance, fearing it would overload the signal and cause even bigger traffic problems.

But splitting church traffic between the Berkeley Hall entrance and the new fire station light is a good compromise, they say.

"All of that traffic pressed in on one light signal at Berkeley Hall would have been a disaster not only for us, but for St. Gregory's parishioners, too," said Berkeley Hall general manager Adrian Morris. "Getting that signal at the fire station is what clinched the deal."

While there's no timeline on when the lights will be installed and the frontage road constructed (the project must be approved by state officials) it's a county priority to get it down quickly.

"We're going to put this on the fast track now because it's a safety issue," county administrator Gary Kubic said. "It's been a long process, but now we're able to proceed and I believe we're going to produce a good product that will work for Berkeley Hall and the church and all the drivers out there."

The final settlement comes almost a year after county officials, Berkeley Hall leaders and the local legislative delegation crafted an agreement to adjust the long-held frontage road plans and add a new traffic signal at the fire station.

Under the agreement, the county, community and church will split the cost of the $450,000 new traffic light.

The church's contribution will be covered when it builds part of the road as part of its planned campus improvements, deputy county attorney Josh Gruber said.

Berkeley Hall will pay only $25,000 for the signal in exchange for donating the right of way for the road on Berkeley Hall property near its entrance, Gruber and Morris said.

The community also will drop its two pending legal challenges to the county's condemnation and permitting effort for the road, which have dogged the plans for almost seven years, they said. Over the course of that, Berkeley Hall has spent more than $500,000 in legal fees and the county has spent more $300,000, they added.

Berkeley Hall's vote to approve the settlement received the most ballots cast of any resident vote held in the community, Morris added.

"The good thing about it is Berkeley Hall is obviously very happy with it (given the vote). It's not like it's a grudging thing," said state Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, who helped craft the settlement last year. "This is the definition of a win-win."

Follow reporter Zach Murdock on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Zach and on Facebook at facebook.com/IPBGZach.

Related content:

• Legislators seek stoplight to halt Berkeley Hall, Beaufort County dispute , Sept. 15, 2014
• Catholic church breaks silence on Berkeley Hall frontage road plans , May 21, 2014
• Berkeley Hall, Beaufort County poised to go to court over frontage road , Feb. 22, 2014

This story was originally published August 17, 2015 at 5:55 PM with the headline "Settled at last: Beaufort County, Berkeley Hall end frontage road fight."