Beaufort endorses a plan to lure artists downtown, but will they come?

The city of Beaufort has endorsed the idea of its troubled Northwest Quadrant neighborhood becoming a hub for artists, a plan designed to bring vibrancy to a currently bleak area.

But will the artists come?

The welcome sign is out.

“What we’re proposing is that we tell artists interested in coming to Beaufort that this is an area that welcomes them and that there are houses and vacant lots available to accommodate them,” Beaufort Arts Council board chairman Dick Stewart said in April.

City Council endorsed the idea in April as a way to bring more development and people to the largely vacant neighborhood.

A series of small building designs to be used as homes, studios or galleries will eventually go before the city’s historic review panel for pre-approval. In endorsing the plan, council told the city to include provisions for the plan in its new code currently under review.

The issues facing the Northwest Quadrant aren’t new.

Various volunteer efforts have targeted the neighborhood. Operation Good Neighbor, formed in the 1990s, was a group of churches that cleaned dozens of blocks and offered Bible classes.

A committee formed to study the neighborhood several years ago recommended pre-approving building plans to make it easier for residents to build.

Though city process might have improved in recent years, the perception is that even a basic renovation of a historic property is too cumbersome, city manager Bill Prokop said.

“If we can show those people it’s not as hard as you thought, that’s what we have to do,” Prokop said. “But we have to prove ourselves.”

The city and Arts Council will market the area to artists as a so-called “art overlay district.” Some questioned the need for the name, since much of what is being proposed in the area is already allowed under current rules and because of potential confusion with the city’s designation as a state Cultural District.

But the name stuck on the city resolution, supporters saying it adds a buzz to the idea.

Beaufort builder Mike Sutton, a member of the city’s Redevelopment Commission and past council member, said pre-approved plans are the right step for the neighborhood.

“We’ve done a lot of good things the past 25 years; it doesn’t mean they’re all working correctly or 100 percent,” he said. “There there may be a piece we don’t like, but anything is better than doing the same thing and expecting different results.”

One of the questions has been what constitutes acceptable displays of art, and if art is to be shown and sold outside homes and studios in the neighborhood. What might be considered art to some might be offensive to others, some have argued.

Stewart says he envisions elementary school classes walking the neighborhood and watching how sweetgrass baskets are made or a demonstration on indigo. Art could mean a painter, a glassmaker or someone who produces digital art inside their home, he said.

“The interaction of all those folks together is important,” he said.

This story was originally published May 5, 2016 at 10:22 AM with the headline "Beaufort endorses a plan to lure artists downtown, but will they come?."