Bluffton Town Council shuts door on housing development in prized cultural area
For years, multiple developers have had their eye on constructing apartment and townhouse structures near a culturally significant neighborhood at Buck Island Road and Bluffton Parkway. On Tuesday evening the Bluffton Town Council sent a clear message: It’s not happening and unanimously approved a resolution to take the property off the market by purchasing the 15.5 acre parcel for $2.5 million.
“I cannot think of a project that is more opposite of what was intended for an area than this project is,” Planning Commission member Charlie Wetmore said in 2021 when a developer proposed using the land to build 188 apartments. “You have a cultural neighborhood there that you’re talking about plopping a huge project with massive buildings in the middle of an area where the traffic is already stressed and strained. I just don’t see anyway anything close to this can come to fruition.”
More recently, 61 townhomes were proposed for the parcel and with the Tuesday evening decision by the council, that effort is ended.
Town Manager Stephen Steese stated that the property would be included in Bluffton’s Buck Island-Simmonsville neighborhood plan. The town plans to hold public meeting for local residents, many of them Black, to voice what they’d like to see done with the property. “They could say they want to see it completely left wooded,” or the construction of a community center or a park, he said. We will have them help us guide what the future of the property looks like besides just making that decision on behalf of the community.
Councilman Fred Hamilton said, “I am 100% in favor of us purchasing this property for a number of reasons. Definitely to stop development, especially on that road, which I think is detrimental to that community.” He added, “The town has shown very good leadership and stewardship as far as trying to maintain the culture of that community.”
The town has a just a little under $5 million in their budget set aside for land acquisition, meaning this purchase would take nearly half of that allocation. The deadline for the town to close on the property is March 4, but could be as soon as Feb. 1.
