By Delayna Earley
The Island News
Beaufort City Council passed the first reading Tuesday, Aug. 22, to amend the city’s ordinance that gives the Historic Beaufort Foundation (HBF) the ability to recommend one of the five members of the Historical District Review Board (HRB).
The motion to strike the sentence from the city’s Code of Ordinances 10.7.3(a) carried 3-2 with Beaufort Mayor Stephen Murray, Councilman Josh Scallate and Mayor Pro Tem Mike McFee voting to remove the sentence and Councilman Neil Lipsitz and Councilman Mitch Mitchell voting against.
“Striking the sentence puts us closer to everyone getting a fair shake,” said Mayor Murray, “regardless of your background, last name or deep pockets.”
The ordinance addresses the number and make-up of the HRB board members.
The HRB shall consist of 5 members with an interest, competence, or knowledge in historic preservation. All HRB members shall be residents of the city, own property in the city, or own or operate a business in the city. To the extent that such is available in the community, 2 members shall, be professionals in the disciplines of historic preservation, architecture, landscape architecture, history, architectural history, planning, archaeology, or related disciplines. Three of the members shall either live or own property in the Historic District. One of the 5 members [of] the Historic Review Board shall be recommended by the Historic Beaufort Foundation.
The sentence in question is the last sentence of the ordinance.
Discussion regarding the first reading of the motion, including the public comment session and comments from members of the council, took roughly an hour and a half with a dozen people standing up to give their opinion on if the sentence should be removed.
Most of the public speakers were against removing the sentence, saying that it is necessary for the HRB to be able to weigh in on matters of preservation in downtown Beaufort to preserve the integrity of the historical district and buildings that are important to Beaufort’s history, tourism and status as a national historic landmark.
Former City of Beaufort council member Phil Cromer spoke about how he is worried that there won’t be a preservation person on the board if council goes forward with removing the sentence.
Councilman Josh Scallate disagreed, saying that he does not believe that removing the sentence will change anything.
“Even with the striking of this line, I still believe that this city has said that preservation is a necessary and required responsibility on the Historic Review Board by how we’ve left in the ordinance,” Scallate said.
According to HBF executive director Cynthia Jenkins, the non-profit organization has been around since the 1940s and has been involved in helping to advise local governmental bodies and committees in matters of preservation since the first zoning ordinance in 1972.
“I believe HBF has done a lot,” Councilman Lipsitz said before casting his vote against removing the sentence. “What they are doing now, I can’t really say. I don’t totally agree with everything going on, but I do believe that they have earned the seat.”
Several of the public speakers and Jenkins raised the question as to why council is trying to strike the sentence from the ordinance now and if it is retaliation for the HBF’s involvement in the lawsuits that have been brought against the City of Beaufort regarding the approval to build a parking garage, hotel and apartments in downtown Beaufort.
Jenkins said that they sent a list of 80 or so changes that the HBF wanted to see made to the city’s Code of Ordinances, but it was during the process that the question of them having the right to nominate a member to the board came up.
“What was going to be text amendments [to the code] was blown into a full rewrite, basically, of the ordinance, and the issue of our seat came up again,” Jenkins said. “We don’t know why… it’s worked for 50-plus years, so what’s changed?”
All three of the council members who voted for the motion said that the question about removing the sentence from the ordinance is not a new one and is in no way retaliation for the lawsuits.
“When discussion of this came up on council several years ago, we were not in lawsuits with HBF,” Mayor Pro Tem McFee said. McFee has been sitting on council the longest out of all the members and was on council when the issue came up in 2020. “There was no retaliation at that point, there is currently, on my part, no retaliation against HBF.”
Supporters of the motion all shared similar sentiments; it is not fair for one group to receive preferential treatment when there are so many other organizations that partner with the City of Beaufort who are not given the same opportunity.
“I really, truly believe that the underlying reason for this even being on the table right now is to open up a fair opportunity for everyone involved that wants to be on that board,” Scallate said. “Opposed to giving any special interest organizations privilege over any other.”
Mayor Murray agreed with Scallate and said that striking the sentence from the ordinance sends a message to any other group that the city is serious about fairness and objectivity.
The motion must have two readings and votes before the sentence can be removed.
The second reading will take place during the regularly scheduled city council meeting on September 12 in Council Chambers in City Hall.
Delayna Earley lives in Beaufort with her husband, two children and Jack Russell. She formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She joined The Island News in 2022. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
