Controversial Port Royal property in Okatie shielded from development

A Port Royal property in Okatie once at the center of an annexation and development dispute will be shielded from development.

The 95-acre Mobley tract near the Chechessee River will be bought and managed by the Beaufort County Rural and Critical Lands program and Port Royal Sound Foundation. The county is paying $2.5 million and the foundation is contributing $800,000 to buy the property from Charleston developer Lyttleton Partners.

The county will have a 75 percent interest and the foundation a 25 percent interest in the property, Rural and Critical Lands administrator Lisa Lord said Thursday. The property is directly across S.C. 170 from the Port Royal Sound Foundation Maritime Center and can be used for foundation research, she said.

In 2006, the Coastal Conservation League sued the town of Port Royal, the developers and property owners over the property’s annexation and zoning. In the resulting settlement, the property was annexed but the density chopped from 250 homes to 125.

“This has been a very controversial piece of land for a long time,” Lord said.

The purchase has the support of the town, which, since annexing Mobley and nearby Rose Island, has agreed to follow a northern Beaufort County growth plan with “more sensible boundaries,” town manager Van Willis said.

Conservationists lauded the purchase for protecting the Port Royal Sound and Chechessee River. Homebuilding giant D.R. Horton was thought to be interested in the property, Lord said.

“This was one of those last-chance opportunities,” Lord said. “With the partnership, it made sense for us to move forward.

“Development all over the county is picking up.”

The county’s land preservation program will also buy 24 acres nearby on 170, property known as the Jeter tract. The purchase, approved by County Council for $350,000, will make 725 acres protected in the Chechessee River area.

The Mobley purchase takes out another property with a planned-unit development in place. County land preservationists are targeting other properties with similar agreements, though the development plans means buying the property can be cost-prohibitive, Lord said.

“We wait for opportunity like this when they’re willing to sell at a reasonable price, and we have a partner and municipality on board,” she said. “We’d love to buy it all, but it’s obviously too expensive.”

This story was originally published May 12, 2016 at 12:14 PM with the headline "Controversial Port Royal property in Okatie shielded from development."