Public soon will have easier access to Whitehall Park on Lady’s Island. Here are plans
Paul Butare is standing on the edge of the salt marsh in Whitehall Park on Lady’s Island looking across the Beaufort River toward Beaufort. From here, he can see the city’s iconic Woods Memorial swing bridge and its downtown waterfront.
At sunset, Butare said, the water lights up with pink and purple reflections.
“There isn’t a vista around here that is anything like this,” said Butare, as a bald eagle perched on a dock post nearby.
By next year, this birds-eye view from Lady’s Island will be easily and safely accessible to pedestrians and cyclists via a new $500,000 boardwalk that a contractor hired by the city of Beaufort will begin constructing within a few weeks. The boardwalk is just one of several improvements in the works by the city, Beaufort County and the Beaufort County Land Trust to preserve and improve public access to an untouched and unnoticed oasis off the Sea Island Parkway called Whitehall Park.
But the boardwalk is a major component because it also will tie Beaufort’s downtown Waterfront Park to the less-developed Beaufort County-owned Whitehall Park across the river. With easy access to the Lady’s Island shoreline and the park, residents and visitors who cross the bridge will be offered an alternative vantage point that Butare said can’t be beat.
“So you have a great combination of the city park and the natural park, and complementary views,” Butare said.
As it stands now, there’s no direct or easy access to Whitehall Park from U.S. 21, or Sea Island Parkway, especially for those who are walking or cycling. Getting to it requires traveling past the waterfront then backtracking.
The 280-foot-long, 10-foot-wide timber boardwalk or bridge is planned on the Lady’s Island side of Woods Memorial Bridge. It will connect the sidewalk parallel to the Sea Island Parkway with the marshy shoreline where Butare enjoyed the panoramic views Wednesday.
The spot along the river offers unrivaled views of Beaufort’s cityscape and surrounding landmarks. An observation platform at the location will be considered in the future, Butare said.
The boardwalk, Butare said, will be the gateway to Whitehall Park, which features 200-year-old live oak trees, nesting bald eagles and great fishing along with the expansive scenery.
“The idea was, ‘Let’s make it easier for people to come here,’” said Butare, chairman of Friends of Whitehall Park. “It’s going to be a special place.”
On Sept. 14, the Beaufort City Council awarded a contract to construct the boardwalk to Beaufort-based O’Quinn Marine, which bid $473,592 for the job. The work is being funded by an accommodations and hospitality tax grant the city received.
Neal Pugliese, a senior project coordinator for the city of Beaufort, said a pre-construction meeting is planned in the next two weeks, with construction beginning soon after.
The job must be completed in six months. Pugliese said it will provide safe passage for pedestrians and cyclists, along with residents of an adjacent housing and commercial development that’s planned next door, from Sea Island Parkway to the Whitehall Park.
Many residents, Butare said, are not even aware that 10 acres of natural land immediately across the river from downtown Beaufort has been preserved as Whitehall Park.
In 2018, Beaufort County bought 10 acres from Whitehall Development, which had been planning high-density housing on 19 acres, for $5.45 million. Of the total, $4.4 million came from County Rural and Critical Program funds and $1.1 from a combination of the Beaufort County Open Land Trust, grants and donations.
Butare’s Friends of Whitehall Park group formed a few years ago to preserve the land.
Whitehall Development, which still owns 10 acres, is now planning a smaller mixed-used development adjacent to the park, said Michael Mark, a Realtor representing Whitehall Development.
“We’re trying to be cognizant of the residents and park users,” he said.
Plans call for 21 single-family homes, eight townhouses with views of the water and five mixed-use properties that could end up being retail, office or some type of commercial development, Mark said. A small restaurant or coffee shop is possible, Mark said, but not a larger restaurant because it would generate too much traffic.
Development of roads and water and sewer associated with the mixed-use development is scheduled to begin before the end of September, Mark said. The entrance to the park along Sea Island Parkway will be moved a few hundred feet from its current location.
Beaufort County owns the park, but the city of Beaufort will maintain it. Beaufort County has hired Wood and Partners to complete a conceptual plan for the park. The firm is now working on a second phase of planning, which includes the architectural or engineering construction documents, said Chris Ophardt, a spokesman for the county.
The county also is finalizing a construction estimate and plans to bid the work in January 2022. Due to the bald eagle nest on the park property, major construction will be limited to May-September 2022, Ophardt said.
“It’s going to be a huge asset to the city,” Butare said.
