Long-stalled Bluffton Parkway realignment firing up residents

The long-stalled realignment of Bluffton Parkway's intersections with Buckwalter Parkway is firing up area residents, despite the lack of cash to actually complete the project.

Last week, more than 150 angry Bluffton residents and officials met at the Bluffton library to oppose the Bluffton Parkway 5B realignment project. The meeting also has stirred up a fractured County Council, with some members calling the meeting illegal.

During the meeting, a boisterous crowd bombarded council members Cynthia Bensch and Tabor Vaux of Bluffton and Rick Caporale and Steve Fobes of Hilton Head with questions and accusations about the project that would eventually consolidate Bluffton Parkway's two intersections with Buckwalter Parkway into a single one.

The plan was approved years ago by the county, town of Bluffton and voters as part of the 2006 capital sales tax referendum. That was the same referendum that included major improvements like widening U.S. 278, the still-incomplete S.C. 170 widening project and the Bluffton Parkway flyover connection.

The realignment ultimately fell victim to the recession, when fees on new development in Bluffton came up well short of projections.

But the plan has re-emerged in the past year as another hot-button issue for some residents in the area.

At the meeting last week, they worried the plan is too expensive, would harm nearby neighborhoods and would put taxpayers on the hook for improvements that nearby developers would profit from.

The project is expected to cost more than $30 million, according to town estimates created last year. It is not currently funded, although applications to pay for the project are pending with the State Infrastructure Bank. But that money is unlikely to arrive any time soon, and the county and town do not want to foot the bill, leaders have said.

That makes the argument moot for now, Vaux and County Councilman Jerry Stewart argue. They both support the realignment conditionally, but only if state or federal funds are used, not local taxes, they said.

"We have no funds to do it, ... and whatever happens, it's going to be a ways off before any money ever becomes available," Stewart said Monday. "If it does become available, it'll be state or federal money, and we have a choice then whether we want to accept those funds or not."

Regardless of funding, though, opponents at last week's meeting are calling on the County Council to rescind the project.

They believe they haven't had a fair say on whether the 2006 project should still be completed, and their arguments often led to shouting during the chaotic meeting. Nine years after its initial approval, circumstances have changed enough to reconsider the project, they argue.

Bensch, Caporale and Fobes, however, have no immediate plans to ask the council to vote again, they said.

FRACTURED COUNCIL

Last week's meeting and the realignment debate are the latest issues to widen the fissure between County Council factions.

Bensch called for the meeting earlier this month after council Chairman Paul Sommerville refused to put the realignment issue on a council meeting agenda, she said. Instead, she wanted to host her own public forum to give opponents a chance to air grievances, and she invited the council's Hilton Head, Bluffton and Sun City representatives.

Bensch notified newspapers of the meeting, satisfying the state's requirement to publicly advertise meetings of elected officials, she said.

For a few minutes on Wednesday night, however, the council had a quorum, with Bensch, Caporale, Fobes, Stewart, Vaux and Brian Flewelling present. There was also a quorum of the council's Public Facilities, Governmental, Finance and Community Services committees. A quorum of Bluffton Town Council also was present, with Mayor Lisa Sulka, Councilman Ted Huffman and Councilwoman Karen Lavery in attendance.

Stewart disagreed that proper notice was given, and he left only two minutes into the meeting.

"We could get in a world of trouble here," he said that night.

"Especially when Brian Flewelling showed up, that made it a quorum of council," Stewart said Monday. "It absolutely was an inappropriate or illegal council meeting, so somebody had to leave. That was me."

Later, Caporale criticized Stewart, who represents Sun City, in Facebook comments on an Island Packet story about the meeting.

"His only purpose for coming was to scold and embarrass his colleagues, who organized the meeting," Caporale wrote. "Sun City must be hard-pressed for marketable candidates. Let's hope they smarten up next time around."

In the past year, the council has descended into gridlock on everything from its economic-development policies to appointments to its advisory boards. The trouble began during the downfall of the Lowcountry Economic Alliance last fall and has persisted since, culminating this month in the decision not to purchase the Pepper Hall property along U.S. 278.

All of the council members have said that members need to steer the council back on a productive, civil path, but Fobes, Stewart and Vaux said last week's meeting was a step in the wrong direction.

"We've got too much damn controversy," Stewart said Monday. "We're looking like a bunch of idiots, and the public is saying that. We've got to stop this and act like we're intelligent adults up there."

Follow reporter Zach Murdock on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Zach and on Facebook at facebook.com/IPBGZach.

Related content:

• Funding, future of Bluffton Parkway Phase 5B unclear , Aug. 30, 2014
• Bluffton Parkway realignment leads list of road-improvement proposals , April 29, 2014
• County committee backs Bluffton's version of parkway realignment , Aug. 25, 2013

This story was originally published June 22, 2015 at 5:51 PM with the headline "Long-stalled Bluffton Parkway realignment firing up residents."