Beaufort County OKs shortened Daufuskie ferry contract after neighborhood sues county
The Daufuskie Island ferry will operate out of Bluffton’s Buckingham Landing for at least one more year despite a new lawsuit against Beaufort County, council members decided Monday night.
The council’s 9-2 vote to continue the county’s ferry services contract with Haig Point Ferry Co. came three days after 22 Buckingham Landing residents filed a lawsuit against the county.
The plaintiffs are claiming the ferry operation is in violation of the neighborhood’s zoning and has caused traffic and parking problems that lower property values.
Originally, the proposed contract was for a five-year term. But Mark Lawson, who represents Daufuskie Island along with parts of Bluffton and Pritchardville in District 9, proposed a compromise with a shorter contract term and parking restrictions.
After Hurricane Matthew damaged the ferry’s former home at Palmetto Bay Marina on Hilton Head Island in 2016, the county moved ferry operations to Buckingham Landing on Mackay Creek on a “temporary” basis under a month-to-month contract with Haig Point Ferry Co.
Originally, the county rented the dock on that property, which includes the old Sea Trawler restaurant, for $10,000 per month. In 2018, it purchased the property for $2.2 million.
There are 85 parking spaces for ferry riders at Buckingham Landing that cost $10 for overnight parking and $100 for monthly parking, and additional parking is four miles away at the county’s Bluffton Parkway government center.
What was approved?
The council will have the option to renew the contract, worth $259,000 annually, for a second and third year.
Under the new contract, tourists will have to park remotely and be shuttled in to the ferry, while residents can continue to use the 85 parking spaces at Buckingham Landing designated for the ferry.
Haig Point Ferry Co. will have to enforce remote parking for tourists as a result of the vote, County Administrator Eric Greenway said Monday.
Leanne Coulter, the chairperson of the Daufuskie Island Council, said during public comment that the number of permanent residents using the ferry every day was “minimal” and that she didn’t “think it would be a huge imposition on the residents” of Buckingham Landing.
“The residents of Daufuskie would like more than a one-year contract,” she said. “But after what was stated tonight, I think a one-year contract (where we) see how it moves forward, with the option to renew several more, would show good faith on everyone’s part.”
Councilmembers Chris Hervochon — who represents Buckingham Landing along with parts of Hilton Head and Bluffton in District 8 — and Logan Cunningham voted no on Lawson’s amendment and the contract.
They respectively made and seconded another motion that would have moved all ferry parking to a remote location, prohibited the rezoning of Buckingham Landing, placed “clear info” on the ferry company’s website regarding parking and made the contract nonrenewable after one year. They were the lone “yes” votes on their proposed amendment.
‘Damaged on a daily basis’
Dozens of residents from Daufuskie Island and Buckingham Landing showed up at Monday’s council meeting to weigh in on the debate.
Buckingham Landing residents say traffic to and from the ferry, which leaves the landing at 7 a.m., 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. every day, means they “are being damaged on a daily basis,” according to their lawsuit.
“This community has paid the price for 4 1/2 years,” said attorney Thomas Taylor, who is representing the Buckingham Landing plaintiffs, during public comment. “And now what everybody can feel circling here is the new excuse that we can’t do anything until the bridges. And that’s just wrong.”
Several council members argued that the county plans on moving ferry operations to Pinckney Island in the long-term but needs more time to do so while officials finalize plans for the $300 million project to rebuild U.S. 278 and the Hilton Head bridges.
The preferred alternative will be released by the S.C. Department of Transportation in late July. The alternative likely will recommend realigning the bridges over Pinckney Island.
“The bridges are delineated some time this year,” council chairperson Joe Passiment said Monday. “It is going to take several months before contracts are let and the final pinpoint area of where those piers are going to go (is determined). So I do not see that we can definitively tell these people one year from today we’re out of there.”