By Delayna Earley and Mike McCombs
The Island News
A decision from the South Carolina Supreme Court has ended a years-long legal battle over development in downtown Beaufort.
The state Supreme Court sided with the City of Beaufort and denied petitions for a writ of certiorari that were filed by the plaintiffs West Street Farms, LLC and Mix Farms, LLC, both owned by developer Graham Trask, and the Historic Beaufort Foundation.
A writ of certiorari is a legal request to the Supreme Court to have them review a lower court’s decisions and is a common way for the Supreme Court to decide which cases to hear.
The court’s decision, issued on Wednesday, April 2, leaves in place the decisions of the South Carolina Court of Appeals and the Circuit court in two cases involving the City of Beaufort: Historic Beaufort Foundation v. City of Beaufort, et al. and West Street Farms, LLC and Mix Farms, LLC v. City of Beaufort, et al.
“We are just relieved that it has come to a conclusion,” said Scott Marshall, City Manager for Beaufort. “We are looking forward to not having to deal with the cases anymore.”
The lawsuits were filed by the plaintiffs asserting that the proper processes were not followed while approving the construction of a hotel and parking structure and that the original approval by the Historic District Review Board is invalid.
“It’s unfortunately very disappointing,” said Trask. “I think it’s not good for historic Beaufort. There was no rationale given by the Supreme Court. You lose faith in our judicial system. But it is what it is, and that’s what we have to deal with, and we’ll see what happens.”
Beaufort developer Dick Stewart stated that he was happy, but not surprised to see the Supreme Court’s response and said that Trask does not live here and does not truly understand the issues here but tries to create problems for Beaufort and the city.
“We are not surprised, but we are gratified that the Supreme Court, by rejecting this frivolous appeal, has confirmed that our company and the city of Beaufort conducted business in a lawful fashion as we have in the two and a half decades since I have returned home to Beaufort,” Stewart said.
Trask said about the development of the hotel and parking garage that the bottom line in all of this is that Stewart has all of his approvals but has chosen not to move forward and blames others for this decision.
“This decision by the Supreme Court, in my opinion, basically allows our city to ignore their own laws and, in so doing, expose our city to overdevelopment by allowing this huge hotel and this parking garage,” said Trask. “We’re seeing all this pressure on our town coming to the forefront now, whether it’s this project downtown, or where all the clear cutting is out on Robert Smalls, to Cat Island … it exposes a broken city code.”
The other plaintiff in the cases, the Historic Beaufort Foundation, said that they were disappointed with the outcome.
“We are obviously disappointed in the Supreme Court decision not to hear the appeal,” Cynthia Jenkins, Executive Director of the Historic Beaufort Foundation, said in a text message. “This brings to an end our litigation with the city.”
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
