Surprise! More talk about the trees
By Lolita Huckaby
BEAUFORT
As expected, the Beaufort City Council talked about trees in last week’s workshop. But they’ve still got a way to go.
The council is in the process of updating the city’s development code and landscaping requirements were on the agenda for last week’s discussion.
Information that prompted part of their conversation was data showing the accumulative impact of three of the city’s most recent large developments – roughly 4,000 trees removed for the Beaufort Station commercial center and two apartment complexes in exchange for writing checks to the city totaling $183,000 in removal fees.
The importance of this tree protection business is even more critical, considering a report in The Beaufort Gazette reminding us at least five new apartment complexes totaling some 1,600 new apartments are in the works just in the Burton area alone.
One of those, the Preserve at Hanover Park with 280 units, has been approved but clearing not begun on that wooded area right across Robert Smalls Parkway from Harbor Freight. Those numbers don’t include the 2.7 acre tract on Harding Road which is being annexed by the city, with plans for 37 new homes.
The council, at their meeting last week, after discussing things like desirable tree canopy, long-term maintenance for new trees, commercial parking requirements and conflicting arborist’s reports, got around to talking about the cost to protect the trees.
While the city’s ordinance currently charges $100 per caliper inch for removal of a “landmark” tree, it only charges $50 per caliper inch for “specimen” trees (rather than the straight $100 per tree which was information provided by the city and used in this column last week). In other words, to remove a 12” specimen live oak would cost $600 in fees while a 24” live oak, $2,400.
(Likewise, information coming from the city’s presentation: the county’s fee of $250 is per caliper inch for “specimen” trees, not per tree.)
The elected officials know the ordinance must discern between large commercial developments, which would include apartment complexes, and the individual homeowner who has a tree that needs to be removed because it’s hanging over their roof.
But it’s discussion of fees that always seems to be the sticky part when tree ordinances are discussed. Elected officials generally express support for protecting the trees but also generally come back and quibble over how much to charge for protection.
That was certainly the case in the town of Port Royal when a year ago, there was lively debate over the fees, which then-Mayor Joe DeVito feared would limit impact economic development, if they remained as some as the highest in the state.
Port Royal Town Council went ahead and passed an ordinance which increased the fees from $100 per caliper inch for “landmark” trees to $750 per caliper inch. For “specimen” trees, the fee was increased from $50 to $500 per caliper inch. Now they’re thinking about changing those fees.
All these ordinances include different requirements for mitigation and even credits for “saved” trees but the bottom line – when the developers will step up and protest new regulations – is the fee.
Beaufort’s City Planning Director Kurt Freese worked mightily to keep the discussion focused, and some “ballpark” figures of $250 per caliper “landmark” trees, $150 per caliper for “specimen” were put on the table.
The council’s going to have further discussion at the April code work session with input from the city’s Parks and Trees Advisory Committee which has been working on its own change recommendations. The proposed changes will go to the City planning Commission before coming back to the Council for formal adoption.
It’s not a simple process but protecting things that need protecting, never are. It’s not unlike “nailing Jello to a tree,” as City Manager Scott Marshall pointed out.
When you can’t win for losing: The saga of Russ Point
BEAUFORT – The county planners and administrators probably thought they were doing a good thing back in 2021-2022 when they hired consultants to draft a 500-plus-page study of public boat landings
The consultants came back with a list of the 26 landings and a capital improvement wish list costing millions of dollars.
The now-controversial Russ Point Boat Landing at the foot of the Fripp Island Bridge was not on the list because it turns out then-County Administrator Eric Greenway, as a result of the survey alerting them to the fact, notified the S.C. Department of Parks and Recreation that they instead owned the landing. And “they,” being the folks in Columbia, when it was pointed out that the landing was eroding decided it needed to be closed, thus the public hue and cry.
Former County Attorney Lad Howell, from back in the day when things seemed a lot more simple, even came to the County Council meeting in May 2022 and suggested they tread lightly on the issue of public boat landing ownership since many relied on agreements made with basically a handshake years earlier.
Alas, his words were not heeded and the county legal staff took action to clear up the ownership issues.
For example, Town of Port Royal officials were notified the week before July 4 that the county didn’t actually own the popular Sands boat landing and planned to close it. The town eventually went into negotiations with Safe Harbor Marinas, which apparently did own the surrounding property, and got a clear title.
With the also popular Pigeon Point public boat dock (which is owned by the city) out of order for the summer, pressure on local opportunities for the growing number of boaters is increasing everywhere. Just like pressure on our roads.
State officials all the way to the Governor’s office are being lobbied, and the elected delegation is getting a chance to show their clout by getting the Russ Point landing renourished and back open.
Going back to Howell’s advice, maybe, … maybe, just maybe … they should have left it alone.
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.
