Sexual orientation, port property occupy Port Royal Town Council
By Lolita Huckaby
PORT ROYAL
While the Beaufort City Council has been on vacation until this week and the Beaufort County Council has been on pins and needles after firing their top administrator, watching the second in command walk out the door and waiting for a prosecutorial investigation that who knows what … or when … will be produced, most of the “action” in local political circles happened last week in Port Royal.
It was probably only a matter of time until the issue of Gay Pride surfaced publicly in this growing municipality of about 14,000.
Not that the town doesn’t have probably its share of LBGTQIA+ (that’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual … plus) residents but recent plans to schedule a public event in the town’s Live Oaks Park has sparked a conversation that’s being heard all over the country.
This particular debate started at the July town council meeting when two representatives of the Lowcountry Pride organization attended and thanked the town council for the opportunity to schedule their November 18 annual festival in the Live Oaks Park. The permit paperwork has been filed with the town clerk and the organizers are preparing for the Saturday event.
A week later, at the Town Council workshop, a contingent of folks who didn’t think it was such a good idea to have LBGT supporters gathering in the public park with food vendors, music and face-painting activities, showed up and said so. They asked the Council to reject the permit and have since started an on-line petition against it.
At the August 2 meeting, a group of folks who liked the idea of a Gay Pride event in Port Royal, thought it showed a progressive spirit, turned out to again address the council.
Last week at the August 9 meeting, the opponents were back again, with larger numbers, to re-assert their objections and to promise if the event was held, they would be there to express their opposition.
Thus far, the public comments have been civil with each side expressing their concerns, many citing Biblical scripture to support their opposing positions.
It’s sad for some, to consider why citizens can’t just get along. But Port Royal, indeed the country, is still a democracy with freedom to speak one’s opinions.
The freedom to have a fun day in the town park should continue to be one of those freedoms upheld. But tell that to the county school board, which has been dealing with the issue of literary freedom for almost a year.
Port development still to come
PORT ROYAL – Last week’s Town Council meeting wasn’t all just about the pros and cons of Gay Pride. The agenda called for an update on the Port of Port Royal development, and a number of residents were present to hear about it.
For four decades, at least, town leaders and residents have been anticipating the development growth expected to accompany the sale of the 300-plus acres of Battery Creek waterfront property at one time owned by the State Ports Authority.
When the Authority finally got around to divesting itself of the property to private developers, the expectations of what could come next were exciting. With the purchase of the property by the international marina development company Safe Harbor in 2021, the development agreement with the town included things like a 300- slip marina for “mega-yachts,” a hotel and retail space plus residential development.
In the past year, town officials have been asking Safe Harbor representatives for an update on those plans. In just the past month, the company has demolished the former port storage warehouse building and several of the outlying structures so folks could see something was happening.
Tuesday night’s presentation by Safe Harbor reminded the audience – the ones there for port updates and not necessarily the Gay Pride event – that permits have been filed with the state and federal officials for construction of the marina.
The residential component of the project has been handed over to the Beach Company of Charleston, and it was their representatives who brought the news that things weren’t progressing as fast as they wished.
In fact, the representative who kept stressing his presentation was the result of hours of deliberation by various experts but still very much a work in progress, threw what one observer called a “bomb shell” when he reported the site had significant “environmental challenges,” aka contaminated soils from when the waterfront property was used for various industrial efforts including phosphate mining and the former railroad spur that goes right through the property.
The elevation change of 12 feet through the property also provides “significant challenges” for the development where “making sure the numbers pencil” is also a major issue, the representative noted.
To meet some of those “challenges,” the company is now considering a “built for rent” program for the future homes, rather than outright sales of lot. The BFR is apparently an increasingly popular real estate practice particularly in new developments.
The current plans, which are being designed locally by Allison Ramsey Architects, call for approximately half of the 575 residences originally proposed in the “Bluff Village” and “Ribaut Village’ developments, the Beach rep said. There will be a variety of sizes, from one-bedroom townhouses up to 5-bedroom single family homes.
If you’d like to see their presentations, visit https://www.portroyal.org/200/Port.
In addition to talking about the port development, residents got an opportunity, before the meeting, to review proposed plans for the redesign of Paris Avenue. The streetscape plan calls for removal of the center planted medians, redesigned on-street parking and underground power lines.
While the planners wanted to hear comments about landscaping and park benches, many comments focused on the removal of the planted medians, with some in favor of the idea, others opposed.
The removal of the medians is going to happen, according to the planners, because they’re no longer considered “traffic calming” devices. (That’s apparently not the word the city of Beaufort traffic planners used when they had at least a mile of planted medians installed along the Boundary Street corridor.)
Be that as it may, forget about the planted medians; they’ll be gone within the next decade once the town raises the money to pay for this redesign. In the meantime, just drive safely down Paris Avenue, keep your eyes open but enjoy the view.
Loggerhead update
HUNTING ISLAND – The mama loggerhead sea turtles are continuing to do their thing, when a new record for the number of nests for the year was set two weeks ago at 176. As of Monday, the number had reached 194 as the hatchlings emerge.
Numbers are high this year down the coast at Fripp, where volunteers have counted 116 nests and Pritchards/Little Capers where 150 nests have been identified. Across Port Royal Sound, on Hilton Head Island’s 14 miles of beach, 342 nests have been reported.
No one knows when that last nest will be laid. It’s kinda like the redevelopment of the Port of Port Royal.
Lolita Huckaby Watson is a community volunteer and newspaper columnist. In her former role as a reporter with The Beaufort Gazette, The Savannah Morning News, Bluffton Today and Beaufort Today, she prided herself in trying to stay neutral and unbiased. As a columnist, these are her opinions. Her goal is to be factual but opinionated, based on her own observations. Feel free to contact her at bftbay@gmail.com.
