By Scott Graber
It is Wednesday, Dec. 10, and I’m sitting in the Yvonne C. Butler Council Chambers at the Port Royal Town Hall just off Paris Avenue. Yvonne’s meeting room is full of town folk, some wearing their Bean-brand cold-weather fleece, and most happy with what they see on the charts that sit on the floor.
Tonight there are four 2-foot-by-4-foot styrofoam-mounted exhibits lined up against the wall. These graphics show future improvements consistent with the Town’s Feb. 12, 2025, Settlement Agreement with Safe Harbor.
They show, in particular, the locations of the yet to be built docks; the “pedestrian promenade;” a waterside park; a half block devoted to restaurants and retail; a parking lot; and a roundabout at the foot of Paris Avenue.
The charts do not include the residential areas — the Bluff and Ribaut villages — nor do they show any proposed “industrial” activities atop the concrete slab that once supported the Ports Authority Transit Shed — a huge structure that handled Kaolin clay, frozen chicken parts and prefabricated houses.
What we are shown tonight is area somewhat South of the Fish Camp restaurant; and East of Battery Creek; and just West of where we are now gathered in Town Hall.
Dan Keefer — a young, earnest land planner — was hired to fill-in the “improvements” and he took to the podium speaking his way through Phase One. This process — actually more of a conversation between Mayor Kevin Phillips and Keefer — did not include any renderings of what the promenade or the buildings would actually look like. There were no stylized drawings of children kicking soccer balls in the park; or old folks sipping margaritas under red and blue Cinzano umbrellas. But Phillips and Keefer took time to emphasize connectivity and access.
Mayor Phillips said there will be no gates — there would be no segregation of this recreational area from the Town. The Mayor said that town folk could walk or drive their golf carts into this area and share the view of Battery Creek and Parris Island in the distance.
The proposed park and the waterfront will be connected to Paris Avenue by westward extensions of 7th and 8th Streets. The park will also be connected by a walking promenade that will follow the shoreline in a Southerly direction from the Fish Camp restaurant.
The promenade comes to an end at a huge, billiard table-smooth slab of concrete. It is not clear what this slab area will eventually look like, but Mayor Phillips said that the “multi-million dollar sailboats” anticipated by Safe Harbor are accompanied by their own equipment containers or “Conex boxes,” and the Feb. 7, 2025, Settlement Agreement (with Safe Harbor) does allow “up to eight portable storage/shipping containers or Conex boxes on the ground and unstacked.”
Parts of The Settlement Agreement were also presented to the public and that Agreement allows for an 18-month long period of “dock manufacturing” on (or near) the slab site.
At one point, Councilman Jerry Ashmore reminded those present that the promenade would be built on solid ground and would not, presumably, have the piling problems now emerging at the Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park.
The Spanish Moss Trail — now being constructed across Ribaut Road and into the Town proper — will also descend through the Fish Camp property. However, the bike path is currently slated to turn easterly at 8th Street and it would not merge into the walking promenade.
Phase One also features a half (city) block devoted to “mixed use retail.” This parcel is bordered by Windhorse Gallery on the North, the new waterfront park on the West, and appears located just across the Paris Avenue from Town Hall. The graphic of this “mixed use retail” area has the outline of four buildings and one assumes these are shops, bars and restaurants that, when built, will become the heart of a revitalized, reimagined downtown.
Phase One also comes with an 80-space parking lot that will be used by Marina customers and, apparently, by the public as well. The parking lot is bounded by several Safe Harbor administrative buildings that appear to mark the entrance to the slips.
The Marina slips are outlined in white; extending northerly into the immediate view of those who may be recreating in the park. However, in one of the four renderings the proposed outline (of the slips) extends northward into the vicinity of Fish Camp parking lot. This means one’s water view from the promenade may be circumscribed by masts, rigging and the sound of stainless steel stays.
Another graphic presented tonight shows an extension of the existing Henry Robinson Boardwalk that meanders from its current (tower) terminus through the marsh to the new London Avenue park. When this extension is built it will create a circular, hikeable route that will introduce many to the fat, lush Salicornia; to fiddler crabs and to a multitude of birds that feed in this South Carolina high marsh.
This boardwalk extension, together with the promenade and bike trail, will bring a host of new folks into a once-slumbering village that was the home to hard-scrabble shrimpers; crabbers who took shots and each other; and retired Gunnery Sergeants — some of whom spent their evenings at the Last Chance Saloon.
The Settlement Agreement provides Safe Harbor with a five-year extension that began on Feb. 12, 2025. During the presentation it was stated that the first three years of this period would involve construction of the docks and improvements in the Port Village — presumably 7th and 8th Streets, the waterside park, drainage and other infrastructure connected to Phase One. After that would come the improvements in the area between the new park and Fish Camp and that area seaward of the dry stack building.
In terms of residential development, the Settlement Agreement provides that “build to rent” construction will be limited to 15 percent of the residential units in the residential areas and that “multi-level apartments or condominium developments shall be prohibited in the Residential Areas.”
The plan presented earlier tonight — though it gives only a partial picture of what’s in store for the Town — represents determination and creativity by Mayor Kevin Phillips, Town Administrator Van Willis as well as Council-members Ashmore, Heyward, Guerrero and Owens.
It has been a long, difficult road, but I think Yvonne Butler would be beaming with pride if she could see what is slated to happen in the next five years.
Scott Graber is a lawyer, novelist, veteran columnist and longtime resident of Port Royal. He can be reached at cscottgraber@gmail.com.
