The Metro Planning Commission, representing Beaufort County, the Town of Port Royal and the City of Beaufort, will hear details of the Lady’s Island Plan at its Dec. 17 meeting at 6 p.m. at Beaufort City Hall.

This is the second official body to hear the plan. It was reviewed with the Northern Plan Implementation Committee on Nov. 30 to generally positive reviews.

The plan will subsequently be reviewed by the Beaufort County Planning Commission, the Natural Resources Committee of Beaufort Council Council, Beaufort County Council itself and the Beaufort City Council en route to adoption.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>

The plan steering committee hopes to have reviews completed and an adoption of the plan by early 2019.

In the Dec. 5 edition of his weekly newsletter, Beaufort Mayor Billy Keyserling commented on the Lady's Island Plan as presented to the Northern Plan Implementation Committee, saying, "I like the direction, believe it is generally consistent with the City's Civic Master Plan, and look forward to digging in ... and moving forward as quickly and responsibly as possible."

The Mayor did raise two issues regarding the plan. One was what he saw as another layer of regulatory review by a Lady's Island Implementation Committee. Steering committee members, however, said they were conscious of the administrative overhead, and intended that only an expanded and strengthened Lady's Island Preservation Committee — a body already in place — would have responsibility for monitoring the plan.

His second issue had to do specifically with the City of Beaufort, with the Mayor asking rhetorically, "Where does the city grow in the future?"<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>

Agreeing with the plan that the city need not grow north on Lady's Island, Keyserling expressed concern about boundaries, and how the city might grow west and north around MCAS to Whale Branch, and the Town of Port Royal west to the Broad River Bridge. This was an issue never considered in the plan, which was focused on managing growth and its impacts specifically on Lady's Island.<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>