Will Beaufort Co. change this busy Bluffton intersection? Not if residents have their way
A plan to realign a bustling Bluffton intersection doesn’t sit well with the neighbors.
About 150 Bluffton residents packed Buckwalter Recreation Center last week, and most of them had the same idea: They don’t want any changes to Bluffton Parkway at Buckwalter Parkway near Buckwalter Place.
The realignment has been in the works for years, and would correct the road between the intersection stoplight and the stoplights near Parker’s and Publix to ease traffic.
A Beaufort County committee plans to discuss the project Monday afternoon.
On Thursday, Beaufort County Assistant Administrator Jared Fralix presented five options for the realignment. They vary in cost from $2.5 million to $10 million, and each has a different impact on turning lanes out of the Townes at Buckwalter.
All five options have something in common: Each would complete a portion of the controversial Bluffton Parkway Phase 5B project, which was approved by voters in 2006 and would straighten and extend Bluffton Parkway to Buck Island Road, cutting through undeveloped land behind the Townes at Buckwalter, Woodbridge and Rose Hill neighborhoods.
The intersection project is separate from Phase 5B, something Fralix and Logan Cunningham, the Beaufort County Council member who organized the meeting, repeated over the course of the night.
However, the fifth option for realignment, developed in conjunction with Bluffton Town Council a month ago, would jumpstart a five-phase process to build the entire Phase 5B project.
Phase 5B has been called a “zombie road” by residents, many of whom worry that it could ease commercial development into their backyards, destroy wetlands from the May River and drive down property values.
Cunningham said several times that he was opposed to Phase 5B. He also added that no commercial zoning would be added under any of the realignment plans, though several roadways would cut through undeveloped, commercially zoned land.
“It’s our job now, my job, to make sure that if this stuff can be built now, what’s the best situation for us?” he said.
But that didn’t stop residents — about 90% of the crowd raised their hands to note that they lived in one of the neighborhoods that would be affected by realignment — from making sure he knew they were opposed.
Over the course of the two-hour meeting, those who spoke up against any realignment were applauded, and any mention of 5B was booed.
“I was satisfied with how the meeting went,” said Tony LaMartina, a Rose Hill resident. “I am not satisfied with any of 5B. The county has to push back and say, ‘no, constituents don’t want this.’”
He had spoken earlier about his concerns that property values would drop and deaths at the Rose Hill intersection would increase with more growth and connector roads.
Beaufort County’s public facilities committee is meeting Monday afternoon after the finance committee adjourns — no earlier than 3 p.m. — to discuss the realignment project. The committee could vote to recommend the project to Beaufort County Council, which could then vote to begin work.
“This is a multi-step process,” Cunningham said. “Even to go through County Council and get approved, you’re talking a 2, 2 1/2-month discussion before it even gets to that point.”
The public can attend the meeting via Zoom or in person at 100 Ribaut Road in Beaufort, and will be able to submit public comments online.