‘Just the beginning’: Port Royal residents blast 45-unit affordable housing plan
Developers have proposed a 45-unit affordable housing complex in Port Royal, a complex the regional planning commission blessed this week to the dismay of some neighbors.
The 3.34-acre Village of Morrall Circle would be built on New Horizon Drive off Johnny Morrall Circle and would include two three-story buildings, one two-story building, a playground, a community building, a pavilion and 92 parking spots.
It would be financed using state and federal housing credits and would therefore have rent and income restrictions, Landbridge Development principal Gary Hammond said. Residents would not get a rental subsidy and would be required to have a source of income to pay rent. Additionally, they would have to pass credit and criminal background checks and have a good rental history, he said.
Development is slated to cost $11.5 million.
On Monday, the joint Port Royal and Beaufort planning commission voted unanimously to recommend to the town council that the development area be rezoned to allow multi-family housing. Currently, it’s zoned to allow only single-family homes. Rezoning the area is the first step in getting the development off the ground.
If all goes according to plan, Hammond said, rezoning would be final April 14, and the company would apply for credits from the state’s housing development authority in May. They would then apply for a building permit. Construction would begin by June 2022, and units would be available for lease in June 2023.
Several residents of an adjacent neighborhood, Port Royal Landing, are concerned about the proposal, saying it would cause traffic congestion and disturb their privacy. The complex would back up to the neighborhood, which sits on the other side of Johnny Morrall Circle.
At the meeting, developers agreed to drop one floor of units from one of the buildings to gain the commission’s approval.
The conversation surrounding the project reflects a dilemma that Port Royal has been forced to face in recent years: how to preserve its identity as a close-knit, waterfront town with a strong military community while also growing its economy in step with the rest of Beaufort County. Complicating this dilemma is the county’s overall lack of affordable housing and the decay of the current offerings, including several in Port Royal and Beaufort.
The parcels of land that make up the property were sold to the Beaufort-based New Horizon Group in 2004 for a total of $168,000, according to public records.
At the meeting, planning commission chair Mike Tomy outlined three central concerns with the development: whether emergency vehicles would have enough space to enter and exit the property, which would only have one entrance; whether Johnny Morrall Circle was wide enough (or could be widened) to accommodate dozens more vehicles; and whether the property cut into an adjacent private road. He still recommended that the rezoning proposal move forward.
Four Port Royal Landing residents spoke against the development, with concerns ranging from residents peering into their yards, to the removal of trees, to traffic becoming unbearable.
“We are an established neighborhood, and this would have a negative impact on many of us,” said Gary Noble, a Port Royal Landing resident who lives on Shipwright Drive.
Haden Yelin, whose Shipwright Drive home is adjacent to Johnny Morrall Circle, said she didn’t understand why developers would choose to build here instead of other open space in Beaufort County. She said she worried that the complex would attract crime and drugs.
“I don’t want 92 cars coming up and down this quiet street behind me, plus their visitors, and their service providers, and whatever other traffic may be encouraged by this kind of development,” Yelin said. “Why in the Sam Hill would anybody want to build an apartment building in this particularly strange little place?”
Yelin said she had spoken to six of her neighbors who were concerned about the development. She said it sets a tone for future growth in Port Royal.
“Once you establish the zoning for this lot, it’s going to be the same for the lots behind it,” she said. “They’re comparable, they’re all landlocked, they’re all backed in there, with nothing to recommend them. This is just the beginning.”
Responding to these concerns, Hammond said density was important, and that Port Royal Landing residents have their own neighborhood entrance, which is not Johnny Morrall Circle.
“To have any sort of economic development,” he said, “you’ve got to have projects like this.”
This story was originally published February 11, 2021 at 4:32 AM.
