Beaufort residents call for ‘smart growth’ as more development looms. ‘Too pretty to destroy’
Residents are gearing up to question two major housing developments planned for Cane Island near Beaufort even though the high-end residential units on the picturesque sea island can technically proceed, if approved by city planners, without a public hearing because of special agreements put in place decades ago.
About 80 people filled a meeting room at the Cat Island Club golf course — on a Sunday afternoon — to hear the details of these two big housing proposals and learn what they could do in response. One of the projects is located on Upper Cane Island; the other on Lower Cane Island. If fully developed, 700 new residential housing units could potentially be built across nearly 400 acres of the two areas.
Residents are worried that the sensitive sea island on the shores of the Beaufort River and several creeks will be unable to withstand the scale of the construction. Cane Island is part of an enclave of tiny islands on the larger Lady’s Island located just east of Port Royal and the Beaufort River and south of Beaufort. Access comes via a narrow causeway that snakes through pockets of marsh and piney and palmy forests that overlook the water.
“It’s too pretty of an area to destroy,” says Dennis Ross, a former Marine, retired Air Force and FedEx pilot and Cat Island resident who organized Sunday’s meeting on the plans for Cane Island, one of the last largely undeveloped sea islands north of the Broad River.
The pending explosion of houses and condominiums is an example of what Ross views as a broader problem facing Beaufort, Port Royal and northern Beaufort County: Uncontrolled growth. Areas north of the Broad River may be comparatively less developed today, says Ross, but that won’t last if somebody doesn’t pump the brakes and fast.
“Look at the development around here,” he says, “it’s massive.”
Ross, a member of the Beaufort County Planning Commission, thinks the city of Beaufort and Beaufort County should consider development moratoriums because of the pace of development across northern Beaufort County.
Infrastructure like roads needs to be addressed first before any more housing is developed on busy area roads like Boundary Street and Ribaut Road, he says.
“You have to have smart growth,” Ross said. “You have to have responsible growth.”
The Beaufort City Council is, in fact, planning to talk about a development moratorium at a work session on Tuesday.
The town of Port Royal approved a 1-year moratorium on new apartments in 2024 that will expire in April.
Local concerns about the pace of development also comes as a bill has been introduced in the South Carolina legislature addressing the infrastructure that is necessary to handle it. The legislation would allow local governments to create public facility programs in which approval of land development is conditioned on adequate public facilities and services being in place.
Ross also encouraged residents to support that legislation.
“We have have to do something,” Ross added. If “you keep cramming this many people into this small area without proper infrastructure,” Ross says, the area will end up looking like Bluffton or Myrtle Beach.
“It will be gone and you won’t get it back,” he said.
Ross and others are trying to raise awareness about Cane Island housing proposals and growth in general and sent some 400 fliers out about last Sunday’s meeting and around 80 showed up with questions and seeking information about what they could do.
“Too often now a days, things happen where these developments come up and everybody in the surrounding areas say, “how the heck did this happen,’” Ross says.
Both the Upper and Low Cane Island developments, which have not been approved by the city of Beaufort, are part of “legacy” planned unit development (PUD) agreements approved in the early 2000s that locked in residential and commercial density standards that are less strict than today’s rules, Curt Freese, the city’s Community Development Department director, said previously.
A PUD is a group of single-family homes, condos or townhouses where homeowners belong to a homeowners association (HOA), according to the National Association of Realtors.
The uniqueness of a PUD is that it does not have to adhere to current zoning regulations, so developers have more flexibility in how they use the land. PUDs are governed by legal agreements between the developer and local authorities rather than traditional zoning restrictions.
As a result of the prior approval of the PUDs, administrative approval only is required for the specific Cane Island proposals. Developers will still need to meet the requirements in the PUD, but public hearings before a city panel such as the Planning Commission, where counter arguments could be presented, will not be required.
Nonetheless, residents who already live on Cat, Cane, Gibbs islands were urged at the Sunday meeting to speak out about the proposals to their city and state representatives — even Gov. Henry McMaster.
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“This bypasses all of this so if you don’t reach out individually, you will have no opportunity to be heard,” said Randy Mikals, another Cat Island resident helping to organize residents.
Rules that were applicable to development 30 years ago no longer hold relevance today as Beaufort County experiences fast-paced growth, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, Ross says. Yet the legacy PUDS on Cane Island rely on agreements between the city and developers and exclude the public.
“Go up and speak your piece,” Ross told a crowd seated several rows deep, urging them to attend City Council and Planning Commission meetings even if the projects will be approved by planners. “Get it on public record.”
Development is farthest along at a 230-acre former daffodil farm on Upper Cane Island. The original planned unit development for the entire area allows up to 495 dwelling units and 285,000 square feet of commercial. However, the 16 single-family homes being proposed on 126 acres in the first phase are situated on large lots and well below the density of the previously approved agreements, the city’s Freese said.
A housing plan for Lower Cane Island is larger but less certain. Thrivemore Advisors LLC, which hopes to buy the land from Mary Trask, submitted a preliminary sketch to the city showing 240 residential units on 164 acres and 130,000 square feet of commercial property including a hotel and marina facing the Beaufort River. Thrivemore Advisors LLC has the land under contract.
Traffic is a big concern of residents who already live on Gibson, Cane and Cat islands and they worry about the addition of hundreds of more homes.
The main way to get to the string of islands, which is also home to the popular Secession Golf Course and located south of Ladys Island Drive, is the Islands Causeway. It’s located just past the base of the busy Lady’s Island Bridge.
Besides traffic worries, residents wonder how the population influx will affect water and sewer and storm water systems and the delicate marsh environment. The loss of trees and fire protection are other concerns.
“I think it’s safe to say the people around here are very concerned about it,” said Michael Barrett, a Cat Island resident. “Just the density. Just the loss of vistas and the impact on infrastructure.”
A third smaller development of about 40 houses also is planned on Gibbs Island, across the Islands Causeway from the Secession Golf Club, but Beaufort County has jurisdiction over that project.
This story was originally published April 4, 2025 at 8:17 AM.
