Lady’s Island needs new planning now

I am so very disappointed in the Beaufort County Open Land Trust having determined to sell the property on Lady’s Island where the Walmart will be built.

Lady’s Island is about to be the worst of suburbia with inappropriate development (Oyster Bluff) and cemented over with stores and parking lots (Walmart, Harris Teeter, Taco Bell and the permitted unknown). Walmart’s study even said the road could not take the traffic.

Why should the money from the sale of the land trust property go to other areas when the need on Lady’s Island is at a critical point?

Where can we go to save our trees and natural environment and change the outdated vision for our island?

We need the Open Land Trust. We need the Beaufort County Rural and Critical Lands Preservation program, the Coastal Conservation League, the county, and our city to update comprehensive plans, codes, and density permits.

Have we not learned about being “green” even as land is developed? When property previously permitted is sold, why is re-permitting not required that reflects new codes?

There are many possibilities for saving the beauty of this area.

Please, Mayor Billy Keyserling and Beaufort City Council, make sure that a bridge does not seperate us. Paul Sommerville and County Council, include residents in the process of deciding on our future. Lady’s Island Business and Professional Association, take a leadership role in bringing the players together. Coastal Conservation League, keep working with us. Open Land Trust and Rural and Critical Lands committee, seek land to preserve. Residents of Lady’s Island, find your voices, take action.

This story was originally published February 9, 2016 at 11:27 AM with the headline "Lady’s Island needs new planning now."