New shopping center will mean these Bluffton neighborhoods will finally get a grocery store

Residents of New Riverside and Palmetto Bluff who have eagerly been awaiting the day a supermarket gets built nearby will soon have reason to celebrate.

Though Bluffton Town Council delayed approval for May River Crossing, a shopping center proposed in the northeast corner of the S.C. 46 and S.C. 170 traffic circle, staff and Town Council revealed that the development’s central tenant will be Publix.

Kevin Icard, Bluffton’s planning and community development manager, said Thursday it makes sense for the area to have such a development, especially since more homes are being built in western Bluffton than in any other part of town.

“Developers are not going to build where it’s not convenient,” he said. “You see residents come in, and commercial will follow.”

New Riverside and Palmetto Bluff residents currently have to drive roughly 20 minutes to get to the closest grocery store, which is Publix at Buckwalter Place.

Should Publix be approved at May River Crossing, it would cut driving time in half for some residents — especially for those in Palmetto Bluff.

Requests for comment from Publix’s corporate office were not returned Thursday.

May River Crossing was originally approved as Towne Center at New Riverside before it took on its current name, according to town records. If approved, it will eventually see Publix joined by four restaurants, along with four other properties that could end up as either restaurants or retail destinations, according to development plans.

There would also be a park in the center of the development, adjacent to one of the proposed retail facilities, according to the proposal.

For the most part, Town Council reacted positively to the center, which has been in the works for several years. The permit to construct on the 25-acre site dates to 2007, when the permit was initially approved, according to town records.

That permit led to the construction of the Parker’s and Wendy’s off S.C. 170 just up the road from the traffic circle, but construction on the rest of the site was left untouched.

However, plans hit a snag during Tuesday night’s council meeting. Mayor Lisa Sulka recused herself from official discussions and voting, citing a “possible conflict of interest.”

Councilman and Mayor Pro Tempore Larry Toomer spearheaded a discussion at the meeting that ultimately led to postponing May River Crossing’s approval.

“I had no problems with 90 percent of it,” he said in a Thursday phone call. “But there are so many significant trees that we want to preserve if we can. That’s what Bluffton is. We don’t want to become an urban place.”

Toomer added he didn’t feel the developers had taken Bluffton’s identity into account when it planned to demolish roughly 80 trees it deemed “in distress or in decline” on the site.

“I know we can’t save all of the trees,” Toomer said, “but I want to see a major effort by the developers to consider that.”

Town Council will likely vote next month on an amended May River Crossing plan that reflects the desire to preserve more trees at the site.

Sulka said Thursday she’s glad to see residents in areas underserved by supermarkets finally getting their due.

“We all love Publix,” she said. “It’s great that Publix loves being in our town.”

This story was originally published August 16, 2018 at 5:00 PM.