A plan is afoot to realign a busy Bluffton intersection. Some want more transparency
The bustling intersection of Bluffton Parkway at Buckwalter Parkway is being considered for an estimated $2.5 million realignment that would, in effect, kick off a portion of the decade-old and controversial Bluffton Parkway Phase 5B project.
Over the past three months, Beaufort County, under the direction of the county’s public facilities committee, has been working behind the scenes to determine the scope of engineering for the project that would completely redo the intersection near Buckwalter Place and a planned micro hospital.
While the plan is still in its infancy (no specific plans have been presented publicly, and the timeline is still unclear), county officials have tried to distance the intersection realignment from the long-delayed Phase 5B project that would straighten and extend Bluffton Parkway.
“This is a very, very sensitive project,” then-Council member Mike Covert told the public facilities committee in November. “When you use the word ‘5B update,’ that begins to make people very upset.”
Approved in 2006, Bluffton Parkway Phase 5B would run 2.5 miles from Buck Island Road to Buckwalter Parkway, eliminating the “dogleg” around Pinecrest. The project has fueled citizen opposition and divided a long-fractured county council for years. Critics argue the plan would be too expensive, would harm nearby neighborhoods and would put taxpayers on the hook for improvements that nearby developers would profit from.
The county is now calling the new intersection project “the intersection realignment at Buckwalter and Bluffton Parkway,” Assistant Administrator Jared Fralix said Thursday.
However, some in the community are concerned about potential motives behind the project. They say the proposed intersection realignment is unnecessary and worry that it’s a behind-the-scenes way of reigniting the massive 5B project.
“It’s all underhanded,” said Julie Morringello, a Bluffton resident and member of Rose Hill’s public affairs committee. “There has been no publicity about this at all. The only people who are going to benefit will be the developer who owns the land and, in theory, the Town of Bluffton, which will get more development fees and more taxes.”
Morringello called the potential realignment a “ripoff.” She worries it will cause accidents near the Townes at Buckwalter neighborhood and would be “very detrimental” to residents in the area.
Beaufort County Council Vice Chair Paul Sommerville, who said he’s against the full 5B project, said he agreed that a proposed intersection realignment needs “as much public input as we can get” and that it would likely come before full council for a vote before it’s approved.
In September, the county’s public facilities committee moved to send the proposed project (which did not have specific site plans) to the full County Council for approval. The project has yet to move forward publicly.
Council Chair Joe Passiment said Friday that the county is still working on environmental studies and “other considerations” related to the project and, once those are complete, it will be forwarded to a council committee and the full county council for public votes.
He reiterated that the proposed intersection project is “not 5B in its entirety.”
“It’s the little section of that intersection that’s going to be realigned,” he said.
Potential motives behind the realignment
The recent movement on the project comes about a year after outgoing Bluffton Town Manager Marc Orlando wrote to county officials, urging them to move forward with the construction of a two-phase portion of Bluffton Parkway Phase 5B.
“We understand funds are not available to complete construction of the entire ... project, however, we also understand that there may be funds available to support a portion of this project,” the letter said.
Orlando, in his letter, gave two reasons for the request: Voters approved the project in the 2006 Penny Sales Tax referendum, and the road would support the “economic growth” tied to the planned 65,000 square-foot Beaufort Memorial Hospital and Medical University of South Carolina micro-hospital near Bluffton Parkway, Innovation Drive and Buckwalter Parkway.
Construction and opening dates for the micro-hospital, the state’s first, are still unclear, hospital spokesperson Courtney McDermott said Friday.
Asked whether the hospital had requested the intersection realignment, McDermott said, “we did not initiate any conversations about the intersection.”
With the timeline of the hospital unclear, some residents are worried about other motivations behind the intersection realignment.
Morringello referred to the project’s planned realignment of Bluffton Parkway through undeveloped property owned by John Reed, the CEO of REED Group, the prominent developer of local communities such as Hampton Lake, Hampton Hall and Berkeley Hall.
Beaufort County’s public GIS mapping site shows the realignment would pass through property owned by “University Investments, LLC.” John P. Reed is listed as the registered agent of that company, according to the S.C. Secretary of State’s website. A call to Reed’s office was not returned Friday afternoon.
Vice Chair Sommerville appeared to share Morringello’s concerns.
“The only advantage I could see to this realignment is to a private property owner, and we don’t spend public money to advantage private property owners,” he said. “In my view, this is not needed.”
Council Chair Passiment said he’s heard the “rumor and innuendo” about potential motives behind the project and said the county needs “all of the facts” before it makes a decision.
“There are valid concerns,” he said. “That it’s been done this way to enhance a developer. Does the hospital actually need that actual property to build the micro-hospital? All good questions that have not been answered. Before we move forward, we need to answer those questions. What is the true motivation behind all of this?”
Called Friday, Bluffton Mayor Lisa Sulka said she supports the intersection realignment because Beaufort Memorial Hospital needs it and because it was approved by voters — and it could help alleviate congestion on Buckwalter Parkway, a road she described as “on the way to failing.”
As for the accusation that realignment could benefit developers, Sulka said she doesn’t “care who owns the land.
“I don’t even want to respond. That’s all pettiness about who owns it,” she said. “I’m not doing it for a developer. I’m doing it for economic development. I don’t work for [Reed]. I know, I’m a Realtor. I’ve heard it year after year. I can’t answer why the Parkway was designed the way it was. I’m on that road multiple times a day, and we’ve got to do something.”
Sulka said she just wants Beaufort Memorial to be able to put a stake in the town.
“That is my sole, 100% support.”
Bluffton Parkway Phase 5B
Known as Bluffton Parkway Phase 5B, the project’s history is long and convoluted. Some elected officials say the full road may never be built.
Originally approved in 2006, the project would eliminate a “dogleg” where Buckwalter Parkway divides the road, interrupting its flow to S.C. 170. But scarce funding for the 2.5 mile Phase 5B has left it in limbo.
In the past, county and town leaders have said Phase 5B is needed so Bluffton Parkway can eventually extend, without interruption, to Interstate 95. Such an extension would open up development along the corridor and create an alternative hurricane evacuation route for southern Beaufort County.
It’s still listed on some online government maps as “Future Bluffton Parkway.”
Due to lack of funding, County Council member Stu Rodman said, if the full project were ever to happen, it would require another transportation tax referendum.
As for the intersection realignment, Rodman said the project could come up at a council meeting in the near future.
“The town had asked that we proceed with that portion,” he said, “and there seemed to be a consensus to do it.”
This story was originally published January 11, 2021 at 4:40 AM.
