Gathering about downtown Beaufort nightlife, parking covers familiar ground

A conversation about how Beaufort should balance providing fun for visitors and the wishes of those who live downtown traced a familiar path Monday, but more concrete solutions could be coming.

A panel discussion moderated by Main Street Beaufort sought to continue a conversation about nighttime entertainment downtown and address questions about two separate initiatives to build a parking garage downtown.

Main Street, an organization representing downtown businesses and under the Beaufort Regional Chamber of Commerce, will follow up with a survey to gather more input from those who live and work downtown.

What was said was largely familiar to those who have followed similar discussions in past years.

Developer Dick Stewart said there eventually will be a need to take noise from Bay Street bars and restaurants off the waterfront and behind closed doors after a certain hour, citing again the impending development of Whitehall across the Beaufort River and more visitors to the Beaufort Downtown Marina. Graham Trask, who owns property on Bay Street and plans a commercial and residential building on nearby West Street, said property owners bear the responsibility for policing their tenants.

“It really got down to simply being reasonable as to what time you have events outside and what time those events go inside,” Trask said.

At the event at Best Western Sea Island Inn on Bay Street, Stewart and Trask were joined by Linda Roper with the city of Beaufort and Anchorage 1770 owner Frank Lesesne on the panel about nighttime entertainment.

Lesesne said the Bay Street inn’s customers don’t complain about noise, need shops to be open and want something to do when they arrive in town on the weekend.

“I do think we need to come up with some consensus as to how we want the growth and development downtown to go,” he said. “I’m not looking for Beaufort to become a late-night bar district with loud music. I don’t think that fits the profile of the city.”

A second panel on parking also included William Barnwell, with Structured Parking Solutions.

The company is Stewart’s contractor for a proposed private parking garage a block off Bay Street. The city also has asked a consultant to assess potential property to build a public parking garage, Roper noted.

A city parking panel in 2015 identified the need for hundreds more spaces downtown.

Stewart’s garage would net about 400 parking spaces after existing surface lots are used by a new hotel and cottage planned nearby.

During the forum, panelists fielded questions submitted in writing about whether downtown property owners should disclose to potential residents the level of noise at night, how a garage would be paid for and whether parking fees would continue after the cost of the structure was paid off.

Someone wrote that the marina parking lot is one of the most valuable pieces of property in the city and asked why it wasn’t developed and on the tax rolls.

“Our civic master plan supports it to be a park for all of us to enjoy,” said Roper, the city’s newly named director of downtown operations and community services. “The parking lot will not turn into a park without additional parking somewhere else.”

This story was originally published May 15, 2017 at 8:15 PM with the headline "Gathering about downtown Beaufort nightlife, parking covers familiar ground."