Planning commission tables CVS Highway Corridor design review, asks for clearer HVAC, landscaping and facade details

Beaufort County Planning Commission commissioners tabled a Certificate of Appropriateness (COFA) application for a proposed 11,286-square-foot CVS with a drive-through in the May River Crossing master plan, saying key design and technical details were missing from the submission.

Staff presenter Charlotte summarized the COFA request and said staff had identified several items for the commission to decide, including rooftop equipment screening, lighting cutoff fixtures, approval from the master-plan declarant for covenants and restrictions, roof form, window panel configurations (including a fiber-cement 'X' pattern) and whether the Highway 170-facing elevation should resemble the building’s primary frontage. She noted four conditions staff recommended the commission consider.

Brian Morris, the civil engineer for the project, said the team revised roof lines, materials and the color scheme after earlier comments and offered to work through the list of outstanding items during the meeting. Architect Richard Walker said he believed rooftop HVAC units would be fully screened by the parapet shown on the plans: "These RTUs are fully screened by the existing parapet lines shown." Commissioners and staff responded that the submitted plans lacked required dimensions and a building section that would confirm that assertion.

Commissioners repeatedly requested a building section and clearer RTU information. Chair Amanda Denmark and others explained that the Unified Development Ordinance requires rooftop units not exceed the height of screening elements and that the commission must see technical documentation before granting final approval. Commissioner Lydia DePauw urged greater consistency in window and fenestration patterns and suggested Bahama-style shutters instead of the proposed fixed decorative shutters.

The commission also pressed the applicant on the Highway 170 elevation, which several members said reads like a rear facade rather than a street-facing front. Commissioners asked that the elevation be made to look more like a front of building, possibly by increasing the brick base, adding window/lintel detail or otherwise varying the facade to better achieve a human scale.

Landscaping and site circulation were central to the discussion. Staff and several commissioners told the applicant they have not been granting exceptions to the town’s 8-foot planting strip and asked the team to either secure CVS’s operational agreement to reduce or reconfigure the drive-through lanes or to shrink building area so the required buffer can be met. Applicants proposed an alternative 3.5-foot planting bed directly adjacent to the building plus additional island plantings and pointed to tree root-zone constraints for some planting locations.

Commissioners also required heavy screening of dumpsters and utility meters so those features would not be visible from Highway 170. The applicant agreed to consult its landscape team and to provide alternative planting palettes that match the elevations and screen utilities.

Given the number of unresolved architectural and civil items — parapet/RTU sections and dimensions, the brick base and fenestration details, shutter options, dumpster/meter screening and the planting-strip question — the applicant asked that the commission table the COFA so they could revise materials and return. The commission agreed and recommended an interim review by one or two commissioners with staff to help speed final review prior to the February resubmittal deadline.

Next steps: the applicant will revise plans to include a building section showing parapet heights and screening, clarify HVAC dimensions or provide model assumptions, modify elevations and material treatments per commission guidance, and update landscape plans to address planting-strip requirements and dumpster/meter screening. The COFA is tabled pending resubmittal.