The City’s Historic District Review Board (HDRB) today eliminated consideration of final approval of the proposed oversize parking garage and proposed oversize convention hotel in the historic downtown commercial district from its upcoming 2:00 p.m. Wednesday meeting via Zoom. The Board also added an executive session to receive a legal briefing about the recent lawsuit filed against the City and 303 Associates/The Beaufort Inn alleging failure to obtain zoning variances explicitly required by the City Code.

The Tribune published the original agenda last week, click here, which included 250 pages of plans and other information about the proposed hotel and parking garage. Below is the revised agenda with the City’s email notice to the HDRB members of these changes. Continue reading →

Dear Editor,

For several generations, my family has been involved in the tourist attraction business in South Carolina. It has recently come to my attention that there is a newcomer to our business in Beaufort. I wish to welcome Mr. Dick Stewart. Continue reading →

Dear members of Beaufort’s HDRB [Historic District Review Board],

My name is Westley Byrne.  I’m a downtown homeowner, and I’m writing to express my deep concern regarding the hotel, parking garage, and apartment complex that comprise the subject of a lawsuit filed today [Monday, April 5].

I’ve reviewed the Beaufort Code, Preservation Manual, and HDRB and ZBOA [Zoning Board of Appeals] meeting minutes going back several years.  I have to agree with the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that there are code and manual violations that must be addressed before any further actions can be taken. Continue reading →

The quotations at the beginning of each paragraph below are the words of local downtown developer Dick Stewart as written by him to Beaufort resident Graham Kerr in response to Mr. Kerr’s opinion piece in The Beaufort Tribune. The comments following the quotations are by the editor of The Beaufort Tribune. Continue reading →

Mr Kerr,

I graduated from Beaufort High in 1967. I recall some people saying the waterfront park shouldn’t be built. Many of the businesses in the buildings you describe have gone. There is no department store, no hardware store, no shoe store, no auto supply store, no gas station. In recent years four Continue reading →

In early 1966, I drove my black 1962 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 convertible into Beaufort to join Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 312. I was immediately struck with how beautiful it was. I have never changed my mind!

Yesterday on a fine spring afternoon I walked to the center of the Woods Bridge and took the picture of that same downtown below. Continue reading →

Above: Abandoned city parking garage in Meridian, Mississippi.

According to city planners nationwide, downtown parking garages are headed for extinction in cities and towns all over our fair land, to be replaced by ride-hailing services, autonomous cars, golf carts, and conversion of existing garages and planned garages into indoor tennis courts, apartments, etc. Here are articles that explain this trend: Continue reading →

March 30, 2021

Dear Editor,

Please inform me and the general public what we can do to stop Historic Downtown Beaufort from being converted to the Dick Stewart Convention Center.

Bob Woodman
Beaufort, SC

Editor’s comment:

If you are concerned about the direction the City of Beaufort is taking, especially in its Historic District, you are automatically a member of the Beautiful Beaufort Alliance, sponsored by The Beaufort Tribune. Click here to see the goals of the Beautiful Beaufort Alliance and what you can do to help.

Call to Beaufortonians: “Step up to the plate”

By: Deborah Gray

The recent city of Beaufort retreat (March 22nd and 23rd) brought to the forefront multiple concerns, questions and considerations as Beaufort officials continue to grapple with the updating of the community’s strategic plan. Continue reading →

34 Existing Buildings on Bay Street
700 Block 71,295 sq ft
800 Block 77,888
900 Block 91,914
Total 241,097 sq ft

5 Proposed Buildings Along Port Republic Street
in 700 and 800 Blocks
A- Parking Garage 175,000 sq ft
B-Event Center 5,500
C-Small Hotel 11,000
D-72-Room Hotel 55,000
E-Apartments 29,400
Total 275,900 sq ft

The reason is that the huge proposed buildings along Port Republic Street are as high as four stories and as long as 300 feet in contrast to the existing one- and two-story dramatically smaller buildings on Bay Street, as well as in contrast to the existing buildings on the surrounding Port Republic, Charles, West, Scott, Carteret, and Craven Streets. In other words, the proposed buildings are grossly oversized and out of scale with all existing buildings in the historic downtown core commercial district.

Sources:
Beaufort County GIS map
City of Beaufort

March 22, 2021

Dear Editor,

So “reasonable people” can form opinions? Right, sounds like they have already made up their minds. General Sherman would have burned Beaufort if that planned hotel building had been in your beautiful town when he rampaged through South Carolina in 1865.

Barbara Brittain
Boca Grande, Florida

Yesterday, March 21, Dick Stewart sent a one-sentence email message to a local Beaufort resident as his comment on The Beaufort Tribune‘s most recent news article (see below) about his proposed five downtown commercial structures including three massive ones. Mr. Stewart’s message states in its entirety:

“We look forward to sharing the facts with everyone so that reasonable people can develop informed opinions.”

Editor’s comment: Mr. Stewart also sent the above message to 112 cc recipients of his email. They included a number of residents in the Historic District including the editor/publisher of The Beaufort Tribune, but Mr. Stewart did not include the members of City Council nor of the Historic District Review Board. He also did not give any details of how he intends to share “the facts”. The Beaufort Tribune in cooperation with a group of concerned citizens including local architects has undertaken to ascertain “the facts” by studying and analyzing the public records and permits of City Council, the Historic District Review Board, and the Zoning Board of Appeals. Information will be forthcoming in the Tribune including Mr. Stewart’s information if he will share with the Tribune “so that reasonable people can develop informed opinions”.

The following is a letter sent yesterday, March 19, by Douglas Storrs, President of The Point Neighborhood Association, to the five members of Beaufort City Council and the five members of the Historic District Review Board. The Point is a large historic residential neighborhood of more than 200 residents immediately to the right of Beaufort’s downtown historic core commercial district shown on the map above. Port Republic Street extends three blocks into The Point. Continue reading →

In a sharply worded, verbose tirade worthy of a spurned suitor, Dick Stewart, owner of 303 Associates, the developer of five massive proposed new structures in Downtown Beaufort including a 50,000 sq ft hotel (see scale model above) and a 175,000 sq ft parking garage, attacked Historic Beaufort Foundation (HBF) in an “Open Letter” published yesterday, March 18, as a paid advertisement in The Island News, a local weekly printed newspaper.

Stewart accused John Troutman, HBF’s chairman, of embarking “on a campaign of misinformation and deceit…to cast doubt on the propriety of our investments in the core commercial area of Downtown Beaufort. This is shameful, immoral and demeans HBF,” according to Stewart. Stewart proceeded to accuse “a few elitists” of being behind the rising alarm of local citizens expressing concerns about 303 Associates’ plans and the City’s purported approval of them as being in compliance with the City’s Code. Continue reading →