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Neighbors object to Bull Street building
(The Beaufort Gazette, S.C. Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jul. 6--Years of fruitless struggle against the development of two sites on Bull Street have prompted one neighborhood resident to consider a lawsuit against the city, but planning officials say the threat is based on misreadings of a city ordinance.
Beaufort Engineering Services, headquartered in Fairhope, Ala., bought two adjoining lots on Bull Street in 2001 and sought zoning to allow office space and affordable housing. At the urging of neighborhood residents, however, the change was rejected, and the zoning remained residential on one lot and limited industrial on the other.
Walt Bolton, owner of Beaufort Engineering Services, built a home on one lot, which he said is his private residence, and has nearly completed a two-story, 10,000-square-foot, silver metal office building with red and black trim on the other. Twelve Beaufort Engineering Services employees will occupy 3,000 square feet of the building, and the remainder is available for lease.
Though the office development is permissible under the site's zoning, residents claim it is ugly, clashes with the neighborhood, creates a traffic hazard and was approved without proper input from the public.
"Man, it's ugly. Some people say it looks like a football stadium, one person said it looks like a cracker box, another said it looks like a train station," said Dartha Pierce, who lives next door. "I don't know what it looks like, but I know it doesn't fit our neighborhood."
She and some of her neighbors say they would have voiced those complaints to the Beaufort Design Review Board, but they weren't notified in advance of the board's meetings.
The city's failure to notify nearby residents and its failure to demand that the building fit with the neighborhood prompted Bull Street resident Lisa Bryan to say Monday that she might sue to compel the city to block access to Bull Street from Bolton's property and to require him to erect a 7-foot fence that would shield the neighborhood's view of the new building. But Beaufort planning director Libby Anderson said the city did everything by the book.
"Any DRB meeting is a public meeting, and we notify the media, but we don't notify adjoining property owners (unless) a property is being rezoned," she said, adding that the city's ordinance does not require notification in that case, but the city does it "as a courtesy."
For lots zoned for industrial uses, the city does not conduct an architectural review, except for those on arterial roads: A developer must submit a landscaping plan and conform to building codes such as a 50-foot height limit, but building materials, colors and other design aspects are not subject to review.
Bolton said the office building was designed to bridge the residential neighborhood to the north and east of his property with the industrial area south and west of it. He added that the neighbors who have fought him every step of the way would do more good by concentrating on the rest of the area.
"If this neighborhood would spend half of their time that they worry about a brand-new, beautiful, million-dollar building trying to clean out the burned out, dilapidated buildings and junkyards, they'd be a lot better off," he said. "We are trying to do something good for Beaufort."
His company's driveway, which provides access at the east and south ends of the lot, is also causing concern from neighbors who say drivers are treating it as a road.
"They haven't even opened the building yet, and traffic has already increased," Bryan said. "It totally is a safety hazard ... for little kids walking over to that playground (across the street from the office building). It's not conducive to the neighborhood to have cars flying through there."
Anderson, however, said the city can do no more than suggest that the company put up a stop sign or otherwise attempt to slow traffic, and Bolton said the neighbors should take matters into their own hands.
"If they're concerned about traffic trespassing across my property, maybe they should just call the police," he said.
"No Trespassing" signs are posted on the property.
Residents also have complained that Bolton's residence is being used "like a motel" by Beaufort Engineering Services employees during completion of the office building next door. That constitutes commercial use of a property that is zoned for residential use only, they claim.
But Bolton insists the house is simply a house.
"The last time I checked, this was still America," he said, "and I could have whoever I would like in my house."
To see more of The Beaufort Gazette or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.beaufortgazette.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, The Beaufort Gazette, S.C.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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