Beaufort County's new transportation advisory committee hears sales-tax history, project priorities and sets schedule for referendum

Beaufort County Administrator Mike Moore opened the Transportation Advisory Committee's first meeting on Feb. 4, saying the citizen-led panel will recommend a prioritized list of transportation projects, the sales-tax amount and its duration for County Council to consider for a potential referendum.

The committee, made up of 15 residents representing the county's 11 council districts and four municipalities, heard a legal briefing from County Attorney Brian Hobert outlining public meeting and records rules under the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, limits on executive sessions, conflict-of-interest reporting, and the county's adopted parliamentary guidance (the South Carolina Association of Counties rules, with Robert's Rules as secondary).

“This is your duty and responsibility,” Hobert told members, emphasizing that emails among members about committee business may create FOIA obligations and advising members to avoid serial discussions outside properly noticed meetings.

Assistant County staff Jared (introduced in the meeting packet as Jared Freilix) gave a detailed history of Beaufort County's local-option transportation sales-tax programs, noting successful referenda in 1998, 2006 and 2018 and the projects they funded, including the SC 170 widening, Broad River/Lehi Island bridge work, the Bluffton Parkway flyover and multiple pedestrian pathways.

Jared said the county collected more than the originally projected $120 million during the 2018 program (reporting roughly $146.5 million in total receipts), but that inflation and COVID-era construction cost increases created large funding gaps for major projects. He cited one bridge project that rose from about $300 million to about $488 million during design, a roughly 67% increase, and said that hyperinflation was a principal reason the county pursued a new referendum in 2024 that ultimately failed.

“Because the sales tax did not pass, we had to reprioritize and decide what we can build with the money we have,” Jared said, outlining a narrowed set of projects staff now recommend. Those priorities include targeted intersection and safety improvements at the Ladies Island corridor (notably the 21/802 intersection), some right-of-way paving to connect behind Publix (Hazel Farm and Gate), limited widening near the Walmart corridor, and a reworked middle-school entrance to improve ingress and egress. He also said the county will prioritize a subset of the original 24 pathway projects because of right-of-way acquisition complexity.

Jared stressed the 278 bridge program has been re-scoped to fit available funds and be phased: the current plan is to advance eastbound replacement work now (designed for three lanes but initially striped as two) and preserve future capacity to add the westbound span later if additional funding becomes available. He said DOT is finishing environmental work and targeted construction would be 2028 with completion by 2030, and cautioned that no construction activity would be visible before November 2026.

Committee members pressed staff on several issues: whether dirt-road paving would qualify, how projects on regional corridors (such as SC 462 and the US 278 corridor) would be coordinated with Jasper County and the SCDOT, where detailed traffic and pavement studies would be found, and how other funding sources (impact fees, MPO/TIP funds, federal match) might be combined with local sales tax. Staff said existing studies from the Lowcountry Area Transportation Study (LATS) and other corridor analyses are available and that two on-call engineering firms will provide refined scopes and cost estimates to reduce uncertainty.

On governance, the panel considered officer nominations and elected Lisa Solca (first referenced in the meeting as Lisa Solca) as chair; the meeting record shows one opposed vote during that election. Glenn Stanford was elected vice chair unanimously and Joy Coe was elected secretary. The committee also moved, without recorded opposition, to adopt the county's parliamentary guidance (South Carolina Association of Counties rules, with Robert's Rules as fallback).

Staff presented a backward schedule the committee will follow to get a recommendation to Council and to meet state filing deadlines: a committee recommendation target of May 11, 2026; consideration by the county's facilities/public committee on May 25; a required ordinance with three readings and a public hearing to be submitted to the state board of voter registration by Aug. 15 to appear on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot. Staff proposed either a seven-meeting, biweekly cadence or a weekly series of shorter meetings; members favored fewer, longer meetings.

The meeting closed with staff reiterating available materials (posted to the project website beufordcountypenny.com as presented), an encouragement to prioritize projects that will be clear and compelling to voters, and a call for the committee to coordinate public outreach. The committee set its next meeting for Feb. 18 and adjourned.

What happens next: staff will distribute the presentation materials and available studies, engineering firms will develop refined scopes and cost estimates, and the TAC will work through a prioritized list and an amount/duration recommendation according to the timeline discussed.

Sources: Meeting presentation and spoken remarks at the Transportation Advisory Committee, Beaufort County, Feb. 4, 2026. All quotes and attributions are taken from the committee transcript and recorded meeting.