Beaufort Co. balks at Bluffton Parkway intersection realignment, shifts responsibility
Beaufort County this week decided not to take action on a multimillion-dollar realignment planned for the intersection of Bluffton Parkway at Buckwalter Parkway near Buckwalter Place.
The committee did not vote on the project; it reached a consensus not to move forward — for now.
By declining to forward the intersection plan to the full County Council for funding approval, the county’s public facilities committee indicated that responsibility for the project rests with the town of Bluffton.
At this week’s public facilities meeting, several county council members spoke broadly about the need for the county and town to cooperate more fully before either side pursues the intersection realignment. The intersection would, in effect, kick off the first phase of the controversial Bluffton Parkway Phase 5B project.
On the table was a plan to choose among five different options for the intersection, varying in cost from $2.5 million to $10 million.
“This whole project is a mess,” said council member Logan Cunningham, citing historical, transportation and congestion problems surrounding the intersection.
County Administrator Eric Greenway, however, said the council members were “dancing around” what they wanted to say about the project.
“We know what Bluffton wants to do,” Greenway said Monday evening. “They want us to spend money to build a road to extend 5B to the backside of Rose Hill Plantation.”
Greenway said the town wants the county to build the road, which would trigger a provision that would require the developer of Willow Run to build the long-delayed north-south connector road between U.S. 278 and Bluffton Parkway.
“That’s what they want out of the deal,” he said. “Until we do that, it’s not going away.”
The administrator recommended that the committee not take any action and send a message to Bluffton that the county would not dedicate any more resources to the project until Bluffton does its own engineering.
The committee seemed to agree and took no action.
Beaufort County’s decision came just days after roughly 150 residents packed Buckwalter Recreation Center to speak against the project. Many called it a “zombie road” and worried that it would send commercial development into their backyards, destroy wetlands from the May River and drive down property values.
Called Wednesday, Bluffton Mayor Lisa Sulka and town council member Dan Wood said they had not heard Greenway’s comments.
Sulka said the county has always taken the lead on intersection projects, and she was confused about why the responsibility should be on the town.
Wood said opponents of the intersection project are overlooking the fact that the Willow Run tract will eventually be developed and, without a connecting road, that future traffic will “dump into 278.”
“I think we need to think longer term. We need to think about 10 to 20 years out,” he said. “Every road project has had opposition.”
