By Lolita Huckaby
BEAUFORT
Please consider this a column about “catching up.”
Sometimes the summer heat combined with a focus on national news events can be just too much and one may opt to “drop out and catch one’s breath.”
For those who haven’t retreated to a remote mountain top with no Wi-Fi, we know Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner, despite objections from a number of citizens, has signed an agreement to work with ICE to round-up “illegal” citizens (many who are paying income taxes but still don’t have their citizenship papers so they’re subject to deportation.)
We know for certain Beaufort County Council is still thinking about isolated Pine Island and the development requests of Elvio Tropeano and his unidentified partners interested in building a golf course and homes. Earlier this month the council agreed to hire an “outside” attorney to help them review the proposed development agreement from Tropeano which would remove the 400-acre sea island from the Cultural Protection Overlay zoning district.
Last Wednesday the Council met behind closed doors with their outside attorney and came out with a 5-4 vote to continue negotiations with Tropeano about the possibility of removing Pine Island from the CPO. Voting to continue negotiations were Council members Tab Tabernik, Logan Cunningham, Tom Reitz, Pamala Brown — all from south of the Broad River — and David Batholmew who represents Lady’s Island and made the motion to proceed.
Opposed to continuing discussions on the development agreement were Chairwoman Alice Howard, Gerald Dawson, Larry McElynn and York Glover, in whose district Pine Island lies and whose citizens, in mass, have shown up consistently for meetings to oppose the development.
Readers may, or may not know that the two ethic charges brought in 2023 by whistle blower Kim Morgan against former County Administrator Eric Greenway have been dropped after Morgan, a Beaufort native and professional researcher, notified the state Ethics Commission she was withdrawing her complaints because of harassment and intimidation against herself and her family.
In a letter distributed July 8 to the County Council and the media Morgan said her efforts to publicize allegations she had uncovered in her two years of research had taken its toll.
“I STRONGLY discourage anyone from filing an Ethics Complaint, filing a FOIA request and/or getting involved with trying to make their community a better place.
“Take it from me: it’s not worth it. In fact, it’s completely pointless.
“Corruption will always win, and if you try to fight it you’ll just be out thousands of dollars and hours of your own time plus you’ll be left to fend for yourself with the legal system.”
Greenway, who was fired by the County Council in July 2023, is still the subject of investigations by State Law Enforcement Division, SLED, and S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson (who wants to be the next Republican governor) involving allegations of misconduct while on the job.
Then there’s the news present County Administrator Michael Moore shared last week with Council that the county owes 5,000-plus property owners an estimated $1.6 million in interest on property tax returns.
All this while the Council works on revisions of the 2024 transportation sales tax referendum project list in hopes the voters would be more acceptable to a sales tax increase if it’s on the ballot in 2026. Top of the needs list continues to be the U.S. 278 bridge to Hilton Head Island replacement project which the State Infrastructure Bank recently agreed to commit $120 million for the estimated $300 million project.
The County Council has pledged to put in $101 million for the new bridge and state Sen. Tom Davis is still crossing his fingers that it all comes together.
Speaking of “coming together,” the state Department of Transportation representatives along with a gaggle of politicians earlier this month celebrated “groundbreaking” on a 10-mile stretch of I-95 to be widened from the Georgia-South Carolina line (that would be the Savannah River) to Hardeeville (which will coincide with a new Buc-ee’s at Exit 8). The long-awaited estimated $825 million project will see the four lanes expanded to six and include a new bridge over the Savannah River.
The DOT has warned of pending “intermittent delays” during the estimated five-year construction period.
Whew, at least we didn’t have Hurricane Erin to contend with.
All is NOT necessarily calm at City Hall
BEAUFORT — Over at City Hall, things have been lively in the past month, with the accidental release of 9,000 pages of largely unredacted emails a local couple, furious with the police department’s handling of their “runaway” daughter’s case, had received under a Freedom of Information request.
The Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park still has an eroding seawall that is in danger of collapsing while officials are still waiting for an engineering repair proposal and estimated price tag.
Now the City Council, starting with the Planning Commission, as part of the ongoing update of the development code, is taking a look at short-term rental and accessory dwelling units (once called “mother-in-law apartments”), a housing option that always generates considerable discussion.
In the past, pressure against more and more short-term rentals included the argument they decrease the number of long-term rentals and impact the availability of affordable housing. But planners and the Council have tried to balance the regulations for those who buy properties to use as short-term rentals for economic reasons.
The number of STR’s has increased to almost 250, a steady increase since the city started monitoring them with license requirements eight years ago. The current ordinance limits STR licenses to a 6 percent cap of the houses in residential zones with Pigeon Point and the Old Commons neighborhoods at, or reaching compacity.
Citizen calls for changes intensified after Port Royal Town council last year enacted a seven-month moratorium on additional STR’s until the 2020 ordinance which established a 6 percent cap on the units allowable. Port Royal tightened their enforcement, and the moratorium got lifted.
The Hilton Head Island Town Council, feeling pressure from calls for a moratorium on STR’s, is also considering tightened enforcement of their ordinance which regulates the presence of as many as 10,000 STR’s on the island.
“Everyone talks about ‘responsible growth’ but what exactly does that mean? It means protection of the neighborhood,” said one Pigeon Point property owner who addressed the Planning Commission and City Council at their meetings last week.
The matter is under consideration so stay tuned, if STR’s and ADU’s are part of your vocabulary.
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.
