Suits seek to reverse city approvals of hotel, apartment building, parking garage
By Mike McCombs
The Island News
The legal process continues for opponents of the City of Beaufort’s approval of 303 Associates’ construction of a new downtown hotel, apartment building, and parking garage in the Historic District of downtown Beaufort with another round of appeals likely.
Judge Edward W. Miller, of the Beaufort County Court of Common Pleas, rendered decisions on Aug. 29 in three lawsuits naming the City of Beaufort and 303 Associates as a defendant. The three lawsuits – two brought by Graham Trask’s companies West Street Farms, LLC and Mix Farms, LLC, and one brought by the Historic Beaufort Foundation – appealed decisions made by the City’s Historic District Review Board and Zoning Board of Appeals regarding development of property in the City of Beaufort’s Historic District. Judge Miller denied all three appeals.
The plaintiffs filed Requests For Reconsideration, dated September 8, in all three cases, a prerequisite for any further appeals.
In all three cases, the City of Beaufort and 303 Associates, LLC filed a joint memorandum Tuesday, Sept. 12, in opposition of the Requests For Reconsideration.
The first case was West Street Farms, LLC and Mix Farms, LLC vs. the City of Beaufort, the City’s Historic District Review Board, and 303 Associates, LLC. Plaintiffs challenged the Historic District Review Board’s decision made on Dec. 8, 2021, which granted preliminary approval of an apartment building at 211 Charles Street.
The second case was Historic Beaufort Foundation vs. the City of Beaufort, the City’s Zoning Board of Appeals, and 303 Associates, LLC. Plaintiff challenged the Aug. 9, 2021, Zoning Board of Appeals decision that granted a special exception to allow development of a building with frontage in excess of 100 feet in Beaufort’s Historic District.
The third case was West Street Farms, LLC and Mix Farms, LLC vs. the City of Beaufort, the City’s Zoning Board of Appeals, and 303 Associates, LLC. Like the second case, the plaintiffs challenged the Aug. 9, 2021, Zoning Board of Appeals decision granting a special exception to allow the development of a building with frontage in excess of 100 feet in the Historic District.
“We have filed a Request For Reconsideration, and we await a response to that,” Historic Beaufort Foundation (HBF) Executive Director Cynthia Jenkins said last week. “We don’t know what the judge looked at. All he did was check a box. If you think you might appeal, you have to have filed this.”
Though an appeal is likely, Jenkins wouldn’t say it was set in stone.
“We haven’t crossed that bridge yet,” she said. “We’d like to see what the judge’s reasoning was. I think it’s only fair that anybody who files suit against a public body deserves to know the basis for the decision.”
Trask agreed and made it clear he’d appeal.
“Judge Miller, as Judge (R. Scott) Sprouse, did not rule on the merits of the case,” Trask said in an email. “In fact, Judge Miller provided no reasons in his ruling as to why he ruled against the Historic Beaufort Foundation and my companies’ appeal of the city’s Historic District Review Board’s misplaced and potentially illegal approval of the apartment building’s certificate of appropriateness. What is clear is that the city continues to approve applications and building permits for 303 Associates and the Beaufort Inn, allowing the applicants to move forward despite the continued lawsuits.
“And as Judge Miller did not rule on the merits, my entities are left no choice but to appeal in order to get a ruling on the merits of the case.”
These decisions come on the heels of a decision by Judge Sprouse on June 8, denying a request by plaintiffs West Street Farms, LLC and Mix Farms, LLC to overturn the City of Beaufort’s approvals of 303 Associates, LLC projects in the City’s Historic District.
The approvals were granted by the City’s Historic District Review Board. The three projects were publicly considered more than 13 times. Judge Sprouse, in his decision, said that the request was improper given that a similar challenge had already been decided on by the Circuit Court in January 2022 in the City’s favor, and was currently pending appeal. The pending appeal was a component of the decisions rendered on Aug. 29, by Judge Miller.
When reached, City of Beaufort Mayor Stephen Murray declined to comment on the decisions. This was prior to his resignation last week, as well as prior to the September 12 City Council meeting where council voted to amend the city ordinance that gave the Historic Beaufort Foundation (HBF) the ability to recommend one of the five members of the Historical District Review Board (HRB).
By a 3-2 vote, council voted to strike the sentence from the city’s Code of Ordinances 10.7.3(a), “One of the 5 members [of] the Historic Review Board shall be recommended by the Historic Beaufort Foundation.”
To be clear, HBF can still recommend potential members, but that candidate is no longer guaranteed a seat on the board.
While Murray offered no comment, Dick Stewart of 303 Associates, the other defendant in the suits, did.
“The recent decision by the court builds on a pattern of successive decisions by multiple courts confirming that the lawsuits and appeals are without merit, frivolous and are intended to delay these important projects,” Stewart said. “And while we are gratified by the judges decisions, we are not surprised by any delays or appeals or any other techniques employed to delay, intimidate, discourage, and undermine our confidence in continuing to invest in the well-being and prosperity of downtown Beaufort, as we have been doing for 25 years.”
Mike McCombs is the editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.
