Pond Place Apartments designs rejected for second time

A Beaufort board rejected plans for a four-story senior living facility on Battery Creek Road on Thursday, but Design Review Board members seemed resigned to the fact that at least 36 residential units will be built on the 3.3-acre site.

The board rejected plans for Pond Place Apartments in April, saying the mass and scale of the building did not fit with the neighborhood's character. Greenville-based architectural firm Miller/Player & Associates and Columbia-based developer The Apartment Store presented two new designs Thursday.

One plan called for a four-story building that was similar to the original plan but was sited differently on the lot. The other option called for a pair of two-story buildings.

The four board members present roundly rejected the concept of a four-story building.

"I still have a problem with (the four-story building) being out of scale with the rest of the neighborhood," board member Andrew Reece said. "You may have to accept that getting 36 units out of this property may not be possible."

Jack Davis of The Apartment Store, however, said the development must have 36 units because the State Housing Finance and Development Authority has approved the project for tax credits as an affordable housing development. Pond Place Apartments would only house adults who were at least 62 and whose incomes were less than 60 percent of the county's median income.

If Pond Place Apartments were built with fewer than 36 units, Davis said, the development would lose its tax credits and The Apartment Store would be ineligible for tax credits for two years.

A spokeswoman for the housing authority could not be reached Thursday.

Davis added that the tax credit application was submitted to the housing authority after a Beaufort planning department staff member told The Apartment Store that 36 units would comply with zoning for that property. Pond Place Apartments is slated for six one-bedroom units and 30 two-bedroom units.

The property's zoning, "general residential," allows up to 25 units per acre. The board members stressed, however, that their purview supersedes zoning requirements.

"Our task is to be good stewards to the environment and good stewards for the community," board member Jerry Ashmore said. "We live here, so we have to look at (the development) all the time, and we just want to make sure it works for the community."

Thirty-five residents signed a petition opposing the development and about 20 residents showed up to Thursday's meeting to object to the project because it will increase traffic and hurt the environment.

"Many of the people who live in the community ... live on fixed incomes and won't be able to move when the quality-of-life is degraded in our neighborhood," said Lloyd Fox, who lives on nearby Riverside Drive. "(The Pond Place residents) are going to come and go, there are going to be emergency vehicles going down there ... and when they start (constructing) those buildings, the egrets and deer are going to leave."

The board members said they cannot reject the project altogether because it complies with the site's zoning. Their comments, therefore, focused on design aspects.

They voted unanimously that a four-story structure is inappropriate for the neighborhood. However, they also said the two-building plan presented Thursday would cover too much of the 3.3-acre lot, which would require many trees to be torn down.

The board therefore instructed Miller/Player & Associates to devise a new two-building plan that would cover less ground. That plan could comprise a three-story building and a small one-story building.

"(We need) a compromise so that the building fits within the neighborhood but doesn't totally destroy the (natural) beauty of the site," Ashmore said.