Done deal: County approves buying 10 acres for waterfront park on Lady’s Island

What supporters say is an opportunity of a lifetime for a waterfront park on Lady’s Island is all but a done deal.

Beaufort County will spend up to $4,371,000 to buy and preserve 9.72 acres of Whitehall. County Council approved the purchase in a unanimous vote Monday.

The deal with a private developer shields about half of the property from development and would forever leave open a vista walking, biking and fishing across the Beaufort River from downtown.

“It’s been an interesting run,” said Paul Butare, who helped organize a Friends of Whitehall Park group. “It speaks to what can happen with a dedicated group of people supplemented by social media.”

Beaufort developer Sam Levin and his partners plan to buy Whitehall from Savannah-based First Chatham Bank and build an independent living facility with a pool, commercial space, homes and condos on the 19-acre property bordered by Sea Island Parkway to the north and Meridian Road to the east.

The park would remove about 70 townhome and condo units from development plans, leaving the independent living facility, commercial space and some cottage sites.

Since the park proposal became a possibility this summer, the volunteer Friends of Whitehall garnered 6,000 supporters on an online petition and held a Saturday morning open-house event at Whitehall.

The majority of the purchase is expected to come from county money reserved for land preservation through the Rural and Critical Lands Program, administered by the Beaufort County Open Land Trust.

The city of Beaufort approved an agreement earlier this month to provide ongoing maintenance for the park. At least one public meeting will be held to develop a master plan for the park, which would be passive and limited to low-activity uses like walking and bird watching.

Beaufort County Council vice chairman Jerry Stewart said before the vote Monday he had reservations about the deal because of the high cost and because the property didn’t score as well as some others using criteria the Rural and Critical Lands uses to help guide purchasing decisions. But the broad public support at Monday’s meeting changed his mind, he said.

The county had previously approved building a walkway from Richard V. Woods Memorial Bridge connecting the property, allowing people to more easily walk over from downtown Beaufort.

“I just foresee something in the future that would benefit my grandchildren for years to come and this community for years to come,” County Councilman York Glover said.

This story was originally published September 25, 2018 at 2:12 PM.