Project resumes on Lady's Island clear-cut site following stop-work order

Lady's Island residents upset by the clear-cutting of trees that made way for a housing development on Sams Point Road could be getting some relief.

Builder D.R. Horton is working on a landscaping plan to screen views of its community along Sams Point Road and Sunset Boulevard. Beaufort County halted work on the project for a day last week after officials said the clearing had gone beyond established guidelines.

The work encroached on a mandated 50-foot buffer on Sams Point and another buffer on Sunset, Beaufort County Councilman Paul Sommerville said. But the company preparing the site for D.R. Horton said the buffers weren't encroached upon and that the additional planting is a courtesy to area residents.

Some Lady's Island residents, including Sommerville, had expressed dismay at the barren land along the four-lane thoroughfare.

Beaufort County delivered a stop-work order on Jan. 19 and met with D.R. Horton and site prep officials the following day. The order was temporarily lifted following the meeting, allowing site work to continue pending the county receiving a satisfactory landscaping plan, deputy county administrator Josh Gruber said.

Only a few trees were downed in the buffers, Gruber said, but the county wants the restoration plan to soften affected views along Sams Point Road and Sunset Boulevard.

"I think the community as a whole would feel better about this project if we can work with the developer ... so that the site as a whole is not so transparent," Gruber said Wednesday.

Shawn Lather, whose Lather Construction company is doing the site work, said trees felled in the buffer were probably already down when the project began and that they are being replaced along with planting many new trees. The landscaping will bulk up what was already a thinly wooded area, he said.

Lather, who lives on Lady's Island, said D.R. Horton has taken care with past projects to re-establish greenery and that the project is good for the local economy.

"They do a really good job of planting trees and making sure the environment is not too impacted," Lather said.

Attempts to reach a D.R. Horton representative were unsuccessful Wednesday. Bennett McNeal, who owned the property before selling to D.R. Horton, said he is no longer involved in the project.

The county's order came after several residents came forward to complain about the look of the opened site.

"I wish we could have acted faster but realistically, county staff can't be everywhere," Sommerville said Tuesday.

The development agreement for the property includes plans for 114 homes, a gas station, 10,000 feet of office space and 29,000 feet of self-storage.

The document was the result of almost two decades of planning. The original planned unit development agreement was approved in 1996 and included more houses.

During a Lady's Island Community Preservation Committee meeting this month, concerned residents were told developers complied with Beaufort County's tree ordinance and conducted a tree survey and paid the required fee for some of the trees removed from the site.

Sommerville said earlier this month he was disgusted by the scale of the clear-cutting and asked council's natural resources committee to review the tree ordinance.

Follow reporter Stephen Fastenau on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Stephen.

Related content:

• Clear-cut land a shock to some Lady's Island residents, Jan. 17, 2016
• Letter: Clear-cut land bad sign for Beaufort, Jan. 14, 2016
• Harris Teeter proposed for Lady's Island in former Publix building, Sept. 14, 2015

This story was originally published January 27, 2016 at 6:31 PM with the headline "Project resumes on Lady's Island clear-cut site following stop-work order."