Trial over size of buildings in downtown Beaufort centers on hotel, parking garage
Construction of a large new hotel and parking garage in Beaufort’s quaint historic district is at the center of a civil trial that began Thursday before Circuit Court Judge R. Scott Sprouse.
Graham Trask, the owner of West Street Farms LLC and Mix Farms LLC and a property owner with land abutting the proposed projects, is suing the city and 303 Associates, the developer.
Trask alleges the mass and scale of the buildings will tower over the historic homes and businesses and hurt the feel of the district, which is a big tourist draw as well as home to residents and business. Developer 303 says it’s investing $45 million in the two projects and is sensitive to the city’s history, having worked on many projects in Beaufort, including in historic areas.
The Historic District Review Board OK’d the hotel in October 2018 and the parking garage in June 2021. The hotel is planned at the corner of Scott and Port Republic streets, while the three-story parking garage is on the block bordered by Charles, Craven and West streets.
Trask’s legal argument is, in effect, that the city botched the approval. The city and 303 Associates counter that the projects have received all kinds of review and public input during an approval process that spanned several years.
Trask’s attorney, Andrew Gowder, claimed in his opening argument that the Historic District Review Board approval was illegal because the projects were reviewed under an old code rather than a new code that had been approved.
Also, a provision in the new code requires that so-called large footprint buildings, with frontages wider than 100 feet, get exceptions from the Zoning Board of Adjustment. That never happened, Gowder said.
Gowder read from minutes that he claimed showed that city planning staff informed the Historic District Review Board that the projects were being reviewed under the new code — the Beaufort Code. If the Beaufort Code applies, said Gowder, then both the hotel and parking garage are large footprint buildings that are permitted by special exception only.
Also, said Gowder, there is a time limit on approvals from Historic District Review Board. The preliminary approvals of both projects, Gowder argued, expired before the final certificates of approval were issued, making them illegal.
Once, Gowder said, the city’s former head of Economic and Community Development issued an extension for a certificate of approval that had yet to be issued.
“The project at that point was at the preliminary approval stage,” Gowder said.
But Bill Harvey, the attorney for the city, said Trask was trying to get another “bite at the apple” on the same issues but before a new judge after a different judge shot down his arguments last year.
In January 2022, Judge Bentley Price upheld the Historic District Review Board’s approval of the hotel and parking garage, rejecting appeals brought in July 2021 by Trask and the Historic Beaufort Foundation. Trask also filed a separate lawsuit in April 2021 that’s now being heard by Sprouse.
Trask also is appealing Price’s January decision in South Carolina Court of Appeals.
Sprouse should abide by Price’s ruling and shouldn’t even entertain another action by the same parties, Harvey argued.
The large footprint requirement does not apply to the hotel and garage projects, Harvey said, because they were grandfathered in before the new code went into effect.
Harvey noted that the projects are substantial for the downtown area and that permits already have been issued for demolishing and moving buildings to make way for them.
Benjamin Nicholson, attorney for 303 Associates, pointed to Dick and Sharon Stewart, owners of 303 Associates, seated in the audience, when he said, “The point is, these are local folks who have been working with the city for years and years.”
The case, said Nicholson, referring to Price’s previous ruling, has already been tried. “We believe we already won this case,” Nicholson said.
But Sprouse rejected a motion from Nicholson and and the city’s Harvey for a directed verdict, which is a ruling saying there is no legally sufficient evidence to proceed.
One witness was expected to be called for the defense, 303 Associates co-CEO Courtney Worrell. Gowder said he wasn’t planning to call any witness other than possibly Trask.
The start of the trial was filled with dry discussion of codes and timelines, but the debate over the size of buildings in Beaufort’s downtown has been passionate. Those affiliated with the Historic Beaufort Foundation, which has brought its own legal challenge, sat on one side of the courtroom, calling themselves the “peanut gallery.”
On the other side was Beaufort’s Deputy City Manager Reece Bertholf and the Stewarts of 303 Associates.
“Are you here for personal injury,” Dick Stewart jokingly asked his wife, Sharon, when she arrived in the courtroom.
“Maybe,” Sharon Stewart said with a laugh.
This story was originally published May 11, 2023 at 2:52 PM.
