Reimagine Ribaut Road? How about 20K fewer cars
By Lolita Huckaby
BEAUFORT
Lord, people love to talk about traffic in this part of the Lowcountry.
And now Beaufort County planners, working with planners from the City of Beaufort and Town of Port Royal, have ganged up with traffic consultants to focus on Ribaut Road and the approximate 31,800 vehicles which travel that stretch daily.
The first of a promised series of meetings to plan and design the 5.5-mile four-lane stretch from Boundary Street in the city to Russell Bell Bridge in the Town of Port Royal was held last week. The crowd of about 50, mostly city of Beaufort residents with a handful of business owners from both municipalities, sat down with colored pens and table-size maps to identify problem areas.
Some had come expecting the consultants from Stantec Consulting in North Charleston, to lay out some proposals. But nope, the paid professionals wanted to hear what the citizens had to say.
Suggestions ranged from buried utility lines to improved sidewalks to slower speed limits/more enforcement. There was even one cool question: what would you do if you were Mayor?
The session narrowed down on traffic improvements at the intersection of Ribaut and the Sea Island Parkway, aka, the McTeer Bridge, aka, the Sea Island Speedway. The pros and cons of a traffic circle were debated as was, at one point, considered, but abandoned, for the Ribaut Road-Boundary Street intersection.
If you’re truly interested and want to add your two-cents to the process, the survey is still on-line at Beaufort County’s website or https://bit.ly/3L4y6zA.
If you want to read more about the process, that’s on the county’s website, too or
https://www.reimagineribautroad.com.
If something about this process seems familiar and you’ve been focused on Lady’s Island traffic issues for the past decade, you might recognize the name Stantec as the consulting firm which conducted similar planning sessions with the county staffs back in the mid-2010’s and came up with the Lady’s Island Corridor Study, Another road situation subjected to much discussion yet limited by lack of funding.
Since the County Council is already considering another sales tax referendum for traffic improvements, the Lady’s Island projects and Ribaut Road improvements will probably be on that referendum list.
There’s already estimates out there this Ribaut Road project will be in the range of $140 million, compared to the 1.5 mile project on Boundary Street which was completed in 2018.
Until then, just keep on dreaming about tree-canopied roads with minimum traffic congestion, no line-ups at a drive-through coffee shop or biscuit joint, no 18-wheelers headed to Walmart breathing down your neck as you drive the speed limit.
Better yet, think of pre-1930’s when Ribaut was a two-lane dirt road connecting Beaufort and Port Royal. Maybe that’s why history lectures in this community are so popular – newcomers want to hear what it “was like” and those who have been here for awhile like to “remember when.”
City Council continues work on development code
BEAUFORT – While focus last week was on the future of Ribaut Road, Beaufort Mayor Stephen Murray and his council continued their efforts to “re-imagine” the planning process within the city limits.
Their second meeting to update the city’s 2017 Redevelopment Code was held with attention on development review boards, specifically the Municipal Planning Commission.
Not to get too far into the weeds on this one, the majority of Council seemed to agree that six members of the MPC (which includes city, Port Royal and county appointees) are being taxed with having to be familiar with three different development codes. The discussion went a step further and suggested the development review system might work better if each municipality has its own Planning Commission. (The County has its own Planning Commission to give initial review of major proposed projects).
The devil, as they say, is in the details and a number of issues will have to be reviewed by the city’s new Planning Director Curt Freese, City Manager Scott Marshall and City Attorney Bill Harvey. A major detail is whether the town of Port Royal wants to go “out on its own” with a planning commission
Developer Graham Trask was one who spoke in favor of a separate city planning commission, suggesting the fewer committees the better, making it more difficult for “politics” to influence decisions … to avoid “rule by mob.”
The development codes should determine what buildings “come out of the ground,” not citizen review boards, was another defense for review and strengthening the design process.
Ironically a similar argument was made last week during the annual meeting of the Historic Beaufort Foundation, when Director Cynthia Jenkins and Board Chairman Wayne Vance pointed out recent legal challenges by HBF had been based on procedure and support of zoning laws.
Zoning may not be perfect but it’s what keeps Beaufort, Beaufort; that was their statement.
And that’s what City Council members, with interested citizens watching and offering suggestions, say they’re trying to do.
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.
