By Delayna Earley
The Island News
More than 100 residents of Port Royal gathered at Port Royal Elementary School on Monday, Oct. 16, to hear the mayoral candidates answer questions about challenges that they believe face the town.
Incumbent Mayor Joe DeVito and Port Royal Town Council member Kevin Phillips answered questions about development and preserving the town and environment.
DeVito has been Port Royal’s Mayor for four years and is running for his second term and Phillips was elected to the Town Council four years ago and is now running for mayor.
During his opening statement, Phillips talked about how he decided to run because during his time on Port Royal’s Town Council he has made himself accessible to the people of the town and he “hear[s] people are concerned, they are worried about the type of town that [they] are building, the type of town that [they] are losing” and that there needs to be more transparency and community engagement as they plan the town moving forward.
DeVito responded by talking about the more than 30 years that he has spent in the Town of Port Royal learning about the people, “how municipalities work, what leadership is and how to get things done, and it was time to give back to this community.”
Both candidates talked about their track record and commitment to participating in local government – DeVito focused on his very long tenure as an involved citizen in the community, and Phillips focused on his intense and consistent involvement over the past four years.
Port Development
One of the big questions of the night was involving the development of the port of Port Royal.
Phillips answered first by saying that he does not agree with the direction that the developer, Safe Harbor Marinas, is taking with the waterfront redevelopment.
Safe Harbor Marinas purchased the land almost two years ago and is developing roughly 50 acres of waterfront property on Battery Creek.
The plans include a marina and housing and is in negations with The Beach Company to sell land that will allow The Beach Company to build 200 rental townhomes and single-family dwellings, and this has caused some residents to speak out about how the waterfront looks.
“I do not like how this developer has been treating the town,” Phillips said. “The town has been nothing but a good partner to them, nothing but accommodating to them, and you can see how we’ve been treated.”
Phillips is particularly worried about the build to rental properties that have been proposed by The Beach Company because he does not believe that they will listen or respect the Town of Port Royal and will only listen to their financer.
DeVito agreed that nobody in Port Royal likes the information that is coming forward about the direction of the housing plans and the important question to answer is, how is the town going to go about making a change to the plans.
“I’m a fan of we need to sit down and have a negotiation,” DeVito said. “We need to be ready to get stricter and firmer when necessary.”
Jobs, Affordable Housing and Military
There were multiple questions asked of the candidates regarding affordable housing, job creation and the military.
“You cannot think of Port Royal and not think of the military,” Phillips said. “Protecting those installations, protecting these jobs is critical.”
Phillips agrees that while ensuring that affordable housing is available for Port Royal residents, working with local colleges and educational establishments to provide opportunities for training for higher paying jobs is vital to ensuring that people can not only live in Port Royal but can thrive as well.
Both candidates agreed that they don’t believe that Parris Island Marine Corps Training Depot is going anywhere anytime soon, but they put a priority on staying informed so that if something of that nature is ever in the works, they can plan for it.
DeVito added on to what Phillips said by talking about the important things that Port Royal needs to provide to make this a viable community that can continue to sustain a military instillation such as Parris Island Marine Corps Training Depot.
“The things that they are asking for to make this a viable community for the military are better schools,” DeVito said. “You cannot talk to them without them saying we need better schools, and I think Beaufort County is absolutely on the track to make that happen.”
He also said that the military has expressed that they need jobs for military spouses.
“We have to bring more jobs to this community,” DeVito said. “We have to bring the jobs closer [to avoid traffic congestion from people travelling to their jobs].
Phillips said that we need to try and not only provide jobs within the community but attract people who work remotely and can choose to live wherever they want in addition to attracting and supporting small businesses.
“Why wouldn’t they want to live here,” Phillips said.
Moratorium on Development
The panel asked a question about an op-ed that Phillips wrote that ran in The Island News on October 12.
In the op-ed, Phillips calls for a moratorium on all new, large scale, impactful residential and commercial development.
Phillips believes that we have enough apartment complexes, storage units, large sale commercial developments like those we are seeing up on Robert Smalls [Parkway] and clear cutting.
He continued to say that single family homes and small business owners would not be affected by that.
“It’s our job as the town and you the citizens have a say in that, to set the table for the development that want,” Phillips said.
While the incumbent mayor and the council member tended to agree on many policies and answers throughout the event, they disagreed about this topic.
DeVito said that a “moratorium on construction is a slippery slope.”
He said that he would not be voting for a moratorium under the current scenario and then continued to say that a moratorium would affect each person in the town as more than 30% of the budget does not come from resident taxes, it comes from the people moving into this area and construction.
He said a moratorium would potentially scare off developers who would be able to provide something positive to the Town of Port Royal and maybe never return as it sends the message that Port Royal is “picking and choosing what can and cannot be built.”
Election
Both candidates agreed that they want to help Port Royal to stop being overlooked within Beaufort County.
DeVito and Phillips also agreed that preservation of the town’s natural beauty and environment is a top priority.
“Over building is something we all have to watch for and keep a close eye on what’s happening,” said DeVito. “The more building that’s done, then the more cars that you have, and the cars is a part of affecting that.”
DeVito closed out the evening by pointing out the similarities between himself and Phillips.
He said that they have been aligned in their voting record with everything except for one vote, but where DeVito beats Phillips is in experience.
Phillips said that his decision to run against the incumbent mayor is not personal and he pointed out that the one time he and DeVito voted differently from one another was about an apartment complex.
“This is about the town; this is a job interview. You are the boss,” Phillips said.
He said that he felt the time was right for him to run for mayor after speaking and listening to Port Royal residents.
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.
