Safe Harbor has new idea for Beaufort’s marina. How will the public react this time?

Will the third try be the charm for Safe Harbor Marina’s contentious plan to overhaul Beaufort’s downtown marina, the city’s front door via the Beaufort River?

Twice before, residents have complained that the estimated $27 million expansion and replacement of the docks would interfere with the scenic views of the Beaufort River from Bay Street, while taking up vehicle parking pace at Waterfront Park, which is scarce. Others have noted the marina owner and operator’s investment in the aging infrastructure at the city-owned marina since it took over management in 2019 and its commitment to future work.

A third meeting on the marina plans will be hosted by Safe Harbor and the city from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Thursday (Sept. 5) at the Waterfront Park pavilion. In the event of rain, the feedback forum will be moved to City Hall.

Safe Harbor manages one of the city’s best-known public amenities. Here’s what to look for at the meeting, what the meeting won’t cover, the events leading up to it and what comes next:

1. Marina feedback is the focus

A revised layout of the marina will be presented at the meeting.

The revisions, according to the city, take into account input from City Council members and previous criticism from the public to an earlier design. On June 3-4, council members met individually and in pairs with Safe Harbor officials about a potential redesign.

Safe Harbor, which owns and operates 130 some marinas, most of them located in the United States, operates the Beaufort marina under a lease that can be approved in 10-year increments up to 40 years.

The city says the meeting was called for Safe Harbor to get feedback from the public to its revised marina design.

2. What comes next

Safe Harbor needs the city’s OK to proceed with the expansion plans and permits also would be needed from the state Department of Environmental Health and Control and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Following Thursday’s public input session for the revised design of the marina, Safe Harbor will bring a design for the city’s consideration to a future work session, the city says.

3. How city got here

In March, Safe Harbor proposed a $27 million project that would double the dock’s capacity from 76 to 146 boats and increase the linear dock footage from 2880 to 4263 feet while arranging the entire marina to better align with the prevailing tides. It first presented a draft of the plan at an August 2022. Complaints about the large foot print of the marina expansion were first raised at those meetings.

4. The lease is not the focus

The downtown marina, located midway between Charleston and Savannah, has long been a popular destination for boaters traveling the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway as well as place local boaters can tie up their vessels.

Safe Harbor Marinas took over management and operations of the city‐owned marina in the summer of 2019. At the time, the city had a backlog of deferred maintenance.

That lease has recently become controversial after it was discovered that the City Council made a mistake in its procedures by failing to pass an ordinance and conducting two required public readings before voting to approve the lease in May 2019. In light of that mistake, some critics of the marina expansion, who also don’t like the idea of a private party running the public amenity, want the city to renegotiate or break ties with the company.

City Manager Scott Marshall has said previously that the lease, which was signed by the city and Safe Harbor, remains valid. He’s asked the City Council to “legitimize what’s already there” by approving the required two public “readings” of the ordinance/lease. Last month, the City Council postponed a decision on a first reading.

However, the city says, Thursday evening’s meeting at Waterfront Park is about the marina plans only and is not intended as a forum to discuss Safe Harbor’s lease agreement with the city.

5. Changing course

The revised marina plan for Beaufort is the second time in recent months that Safe Harbor has changed course in response to criticism from the public to its waterfront building plans in Beaufort and Port Royal. The company said recently that it was now talking to a new developer about its housing plans at the Port of Port Royal after residents there complained about a previous proposal to build rental town houses. The housing is part of a bigger project that involves construction of a new marina in Port Royal.