Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
Residents press board over Ladies Island flooding; county outlines buyout pilot and project timelines
Loading...
Summary
A Ladies Island resident urged immediate fixes for recurring flooding; board members and staff discussed buyout options, district-based reporting and multiple local projects including AllJoy and Bay Pines.
A resident from Ladies Island pressed Beaufort County’s Stormwater Utility Advisory Board on Feb. 11 over two years of repeated flooding, saying engineers identified a low-cost fix that was not implemented and urging the board to take stronger action.
“Kurt Chapman, I own property with my wife on 6 Turtle Lane,” the resident told the board, describing 31 inches of rain between July and Labor Day and saying, according to consultants, “an under $100,000 fix” could have lowered inundation at his property and nearby addresses. He alleged private negotiations by the limited partnership that owns a local golf course while county negotiations continued.
Board members, council liaisons and staff responded by outlining on‑the‑ground and programmatic steps. Taylor Brewer, the county stormwater manager, said staff is preparing more specific project updates tied to GIS and will post interactive maintenance reports once the county’s website refresh and Smartsheet implementation are complete. Brewer also outlined an early-stage buyout program: legal provided verbal sign-off to begin program development, staff proposed a $1.5 million land-acquisition line for initial buyouts and said the program would evaluate applications individually rather than require all affected properties to sell.
Brewer described the buyout approach as modeled in part on Greenville County’s ‘‘stormwater mini park’’ program, allowing parcels acquired through buyouts to be returned to natural state or converted to stormwater best-management practices. She said staff will use inundation records as qualification standards and will develop program rules before public rollout.
The board and council liaisons also highlighted near-term projects intended to reduce flooding: a current-conditions model and upcoming AllJoy community meeting (tentatively March 12 at Bluffton Library) to validate modeled inundation; fence and pipe upsizing work at Bay Pines with an invitation for bids to be posted; and the Arthur Horn Wetlands Restoration (contracted to Black & Veatch) intended to provide flood relief and habitat benefits in Port Royal.
After public comment and discussion, the board asked staff to provide district-level progress reports and clearer timelines to help liaisons respond to constituents. The board also emphasized that while some fixes may be executable quickly, many require procurement and funding decisions that take months. The board closed the public-comment period and moved to remaining agenda items.
