On growing Lady’s Island, plans test new guidelines meant to keep development in check
Christy Warner bought her home 20 years ago as a place where her sons could roam on Lady’s Island.
The home lots in her neighborhood are large — typically 1/2 acre or bigger — and nearby undeveloped woods provided a place to explore.
“I bought the property because it’s a family neighborhood,” Warner said Monday. “It’s my boys’ play area; it’s why I live here.”
The longtime elementary school teacher was speaking Monday to a northern Beaufort County planning committee charged with looking at proposals that would test a recent community-wide planning effort to manage growth on Lady’s Island.
The recently completed Lady’s’ Island Plan was the result of a months-long process to collect input from residents, city and county officials and local environmental and citizen groups amid concerns about unchecked development and traffic. The final document offers guidelines for how the community of about 15,000 residents can balance growth of new businesses and housing developments with numerous longstanding neighborhoods and more rural areas.
Residents are still smarting over a project that clear-cut a large tract of land for a housing development known as Oyster Bluff and the arrival of a Walmart shopping center, they told the panel at City Hall this week.
Now the city of Beaufort is considering multiple annexation and zoning requests on Lady’s Island that could lead to more commercial development near residential areas.
Established boundaries allow the city to annex much of Lady’s Island if the land already borders city property. Property owners can ask to come into the city to take advantage of city services or more favorable zoning.
In addition to the increased tax revenue, city officials say annexation is important to fill so-called “doughnut holes” — unincorporated areas between city properties — so that services like trash pickup and police protection are more efficient.
Of two annexation requests on Lady’s Island considered by the Metropolitan Planning Commission on Monday, one is a 20-acre waterfront property on Miller Drive East, with Lady’s Island Middle School to the south and homes to the north.
Warner recently saw a sign appear near her home, notifying residents of a public hearing in August related to plans for the property for sale across the street. Some residents had already received anonymously circulated fliers detailing a previous proposal for an RV park on the property.
Now the two property owners have asked to be annexed by the city of Beaufort. Their real estate broker has requested new zoning that would allow more residential units and limited commercial uses, making the parcel more marketable.
The area north of Sea Island Parkway is where a bustling district of shopping centers and restaurants transitions into Lady’s Island’s numerous neighborhoods.
Most of the land north of the Miller Drive property is a zoning district unique to Lady’s Island that allows two homes per acre. Planning officials estimated developers could build five or six houses per acre under the requested city zoning.
Broker Michael Mark told the commission on Monday that the owners felt they had previously been treated unfairly by the county. When asked by a member of the crowd why the property had not sold, Mark said there was no sewer on the land and that the allowed building density is too low.
The property includes a 5-acre fishing pond and deepwater access and marsh views via the neighboring tidal river.
City planning officials said they have not received any development plans related to the property.
Apartment buildings would be among the allowed uses under the requested zoning, the prospect of which drove opposition to the zoning during the meeting this week.
“Could the eventual developer do something consistent with the Lady’s Island Plan? Absolutely,” said Rikki Parker, head of the Beaufort office of the Coastal Conservation League. “But they could also do a lot more than that.”
A second annexation proposal considered by commissioners Monday included multiple vacant properties and a rental home not far from the Miller Drive property. A developer talked to city planners about the prospect of a storage facility there.
“Can we tear down a storage unit and put up woods instead?” Lady’s Island resident Steve Holland asked commissioners.
The Metropolitan Planning Commission includes representatives from the city of Beaufort, town of Port Royal and unincorporated Beaufort County who consider issues such as annexation and zoning requests and make recommendations to local government policy makers.
City Council will ultimately decide on the Lady’s Island requests, starting with a public hearing and likely first vote on Aug. 27.
David Prichard, the city’s community and economic development director, told the commission that both requests are consistent with city master plans for the area.
In both requests, the commission recommended approving the annexations but denying the requested zoning in favor of uses that better blended with the homes nearby.
Commissioner Bob Semmler, who had also served on a committee guiding the Lady’s Island Plan, said under the plan developers should have met with a committee of community members before moving forward with annexation requests.
“That wasn’t done,” he said. “It was bypassed completely.”
