Proposed Lady’s Island Dunkin’ Donuts has residents fuming over traffic. Changes afoot?
A proposed Dunkin’ Donuts on Lady’s Island has been delayed for a third time as residents continue to question building a coffee restaurant with a drive-through off of a busy stretch of Sea Island Parkway, which already has traffic congestion problems.
The project also has prompted Beaufort County to investigate changes to rules for drive-through commercial businesses to prevent future flareups between residents and developers.
The developer, Graham Trask, argues the coffee shop will, in fact, cut down on the number of vehicles making trips off the island for services, but residents say cars will back up in the drive-through queue like they do in Beaufort and spill out onto busy Sea Island Parkway.
Just more than 14,000 residents now live in the three census tracts that make up the most of Lady’s Island, up from 12,572, an 11.7% increase, according to the latest census figures, which has caused traffic congestion particularly at the intersection of Sea Island Parkway and Lady’s Island Drive and Sams Point Road. The Dunkin’ Donuts proposal is just west of that intersection.
Robert Merchant, Beaufort County’s Planning and Zoning Department Director, said Trask’s project has prompted Beaufort County to begin drafting new drive-through rules to minimize neighborhood and traffic impacts. It won’t affect the Dunkin’ Donuts project. However, if approved, the changes would affect future projects.
Trask’s request for a special-use permit has been before the Beaufort County Zoning Board of Appeals for months, where it has faced opposition from residents and questions from board members.
Once again Thursday, the board failed to reach a consensus on the controversial development across the Sea Island Parkway from Grayco Hardware and Home.
Trask has funded a traffic study that’s been reviewed by a county consultant but board members were hesitant to vote because the site plan had not been updated showing the current drive-through exits and entrances and how they would handle traffic.
Merchant, the planning and zoning director, said county planning members want to view the revised plan to see how cars would leave the site and affect parking, and whether internal congestion would cause off-site traffic problems.
Board members will take up the project again Feb. 24.
Commissioner Jane Frederick had heard enough. She made a motion to kill the project. Reading from principles cited in the county’s comprehensive plan, she referred to one that says residents of local communities should define their own future growth.
“According to our comprehensive plan, we should be listening to the local community for their vision for Lady’s Island,” Frederick said.
Her motion to deny the special permit failed 3-2.
Board member Chester Williams, who voted no, said board members had not heard from everybody on Lady’s Island including those who favor the project. “We’ve heard from a handful,” said Williams.
Beaufort Mayor Stephen Murray — speaking for himself, not for the city — has joined a chorus of opposition, arguing the drive-through traffic from the Dunkin’ Donuts will increase the danger for motorists traveling on the Parkway.
National chain franchises in Beaufort, Murray said, have caused traffic safety issues because long lines of cars each morning back up onto Boundary Street.
It is routine to have more than 20 cars stacked up in drive-throughs, says Murray, adding he calls police at least once a month to deal with traffic problems. He predicted that a Dunkin’ Donuts on Sea Island Parkway in Lady’s Island would create an even more dangerous situation because it is across from Grayco, near the location where the westbound lanes of Sea Island Parkway narrow from two to one.
“I ask sincerely that you don’t create the condition we’re working diligently to fix in Beaufort,” Murray said.
Developer Trask has led criticism of development projects in downtown Beaufort that opponents argue are not the right fit for the historic character of the area. Now he’s facing criticism that Sea Island Parkway across the river on Lady’s Island isn’t the right place for a coffee drive-through.
“This whole process is about getting 10 pounds of sugar in a 5-pound bag,” says Chuck Newton of the Sea Island Corridor Coalition, which monitors development.
Trask, however, argues the Dunkin’ Donuts at 131 Sea Island Parkway, which would be the island’s first drive-through coffee restaurant, will help to satisfy a dearth of amenities that force residents to drive off the island, clogging traffic.
“I believe we’ve met all the objective code requirements for the approval of a special use permit,” Trask told board members Thursday.
The traffic analysis says as many as seven cars could be cued up in the drive-through at its peak, which would make for long wait times as vehicles attempt to turn toward left or east, against traffic, toward St. Helena Island. The biggest concern, Merchant says, has to do with the internal configuration of lanes “because it’s a very tight site.”
Because a drive-through is a special use in the zoning district, Trask’s project is undergoing a higher degree of scrutiny, Merchant said. “So the question about whether it is too much congestion for this location,that’s ultimately a question the board needs to make,” he said.
These types of businesses, Merchant said, will mean fewer trips off the island, and won’t necessarily increase traffic volume. A bigger concern, Merchant said, is the type of congestion they create due to their locations. “The things we are concerned about is the congestion it would produce at the intersections that access that development,” he said.
This story was originally published January 31, 2022 at 11:29 AM.
