Will Beaufort mayor’s exit cool fiery development debate? What’s next for historic city?

Beaufort Mayor Stephen Murray shocked the city when he announced last week he was resigning.

Councilman Mitch Mitchell, for one, who did not see Murray’s resignation coming, says the city has lost an important voice. He’d like to see the political temperature lowered going forward.

“Hopefully, this shakeup with Stephen’s departure will be something of a new beginning,” Mitchell said Tuesday, “so we can sit in rooms and have conversations as opposed to [having] will imposed by lawsuits.”

Bad blood over the future of development in the city’s treasured 300-acre historic district, simmering for years, boiled over with Murray’s resignation. His announcement came three days after the City Council voted 3-2 to strip a dedicated seat for the Historic Beaufort Foundation (HBF), a historic preservation group, on the city’s Historic District Review Board (HDRB), which reviews building plans in the city’s historic district. Murray argued for it.

On this particular issue, Mitchell parted ways with Murray and voted against the proposal to eliminate the HBF-seat.

“To me it’s almost cosmetic,” Mitchell said of the change. “I really think in a year or a couple years from no one will be talking about this.”

The change doesn’t stop HBF from proposing candidates for the HDRB, acting Mayor McFee noted, “it just doesn’t require us to have to accept it.”

“I think HBF will continue to try to influence and push their perspective on how the historic district should be preserved and protected, and that’s OK,” Mitchell said.

Murray’s voice, youth and history in the city will be missed, Mitchell says. Whether it was his work on the council or promoting the Commerce Park or Digital Corridor, Mitchell said, Murray was “all in.” That’s why his resignation struck him as “totally uncharacteristic.”

“It just never crossed my mind that he would do that,” Mitchell said.

Murray’s departure leaves “huge shoes to fill,” McFee says, citing his investment of time, enthusiasm and engagement. Many residents, he said, “are shell shocked.”

“Stephen brought a great deal of strength and involvement to the game,” McFee said.

In July, Murrary was named president of the Association of South Carolina Mayors.

A special election is scheduled Dec. 12 to fill the remainder of Murray’s term, which ends in November 2024.

The challenge going forward, for both the city and HBF, Mitchell said, is ensuring the development review process is transparent and not too burdensome on residents while preserving historic structures.

Mitchell noted the city is paying a lot of money to defend itself in lawsuits against city-approved projects in the historic district. He asks, “Why can’t we sit down and talk this out instead of going to war.”

Appealed lawsuits dismissed

Regarding lawsuits, Judge R. Scott Sprouse of the Beaufort County Court of Common Plea dismissed three appeals against the city of Beaufort and 303 Associates. In late August the lawsuits challenged approvals by the city’s Historic District Review Board and Zoning Board of Appeals regarding development of a hotel, parking garage and apartment. Those appeals were brought by HBF and Graham Trask, a real estate investor, developer. He also runs an online opinion site.

On the political front, a key decision is pending. Maxine Lutz is HBF’s current nominee on the board. She’s up for reappointment. But the City Council withheld a decision on appointments until after its final decision whether to end the required appointment of an HBF candidate.

The city, McFee says, will move forward seamlessly because the city manager runs the day-to-day operations and City Council members are on the same page as far as the city’s strategic goals.

The long-running rift in a city has pitted the city against preservation interests who oppose approvals of bigger projects in the historic district. But builders and residents also have complained that onerous rules and review are preventing investment in improvements. The debate, which has played out time and again before city approval boards and sometimes in court, is rearing its head with renewed vigor as the city updates and improves its codes and regulatory approval processes.

While the dedicated HBF seat on the HDRB is getting a lot of attention, officials said other changes being considered in the zoning update will likely have more impact. McFee cited a proposal to make zoning changes that will allow construction of more “missing middle” housing in residential areas. That’s a range of multi-family or clustered housing types that are compatible with single-family neighborhoods.

No wallflower, Murray gave as well as he received in public discourse on the issues. But in the end, he cited, in part, a “daily barrage of uncivil and rude people accusing me of impropriety without a shred of proof” for leaving the post more than a year before his term expired. The toll of the mayor’s duties, he also said, were taking a toll on his health, family and reputation.

It’s unclear whether Murray’s departure will lower the temperature of the development-versus-preservation debate.

Trask, a Murray critic, called his resignation “a good thing.” To him, Murray seemed to have a vendetta against HBF. Others, he said, saw Murray as defending development in historic Beaufort.

“I know it’s hard and it’s sad and he’s written this emotional farewell letter but this is politics and this is business and now we need to get on with rebuilding Beaufort,” Trask said.

But former Mayor Billy Keyserling said the move was no attack on HBF as some have suggested. The question, he said, is whether a special interest should be involved in selection of the people they are going to be lobbying. The issue, he added, is as much about the Beaufort Area Chamber of Commerce and area builders or other special interests as it is about HBF.

“It’s just frustrating to get beat upon day after day with misinformation from unreliable sources that have essentially been demonizing him,” Keyserling said of Murray’s resignation. “It’s unfortunate Beaufort is not strong enough to resist being like the rest of the country where we call people names, we point fingers at each other rather than working out differences.”

Murray declined to comment. But before the vote last Tuesday, at a meeting that turned out to be his last, Murray addressed a packed house and tried to explain his position. The vote to eliminate the designated HBF seat on the HDRB, he said, was just one piece in a host of regulatory changes that the city is considering in its code and regulatory processes, he said. Those changes, Murray added, are designed to make government processes and codes more fair and objective and “something that includes everybody, regardless of your last name, your deep pockets or your organizational affiliation.”

“I hate this has become perceived as a battle against HBF and the city of Beaufort,” said Murray, adding that he considered HBF a critical partner with the city, just like other organizations with a particular expertise, such as the Coastal Conservation League.

HBF had been providing nominations for one seat on the HDRB since 1972 and the move to change that process became a flashpoint.

HBF supporters maintained that having a person with a preservation background on the city panel that reviews building plans in an area that is central to the city’s identity was a no-brainer.

“We are the recognized organization, or people with knowledge and professional expertise on historic preservation, and we have one vote,” said Cynthia Jenkins, the HBF’s executive director. “What’s the deal?”

With just one vote, she added, HBF-nominated members serving on the HDRB did not sway many decisions.

She called the City Council’s decision short-sighted.

Nothing prevents HBF from continuing to put forth candidates for consideration, says Jenkins. And the nominations issue, she added, is not necessarily settled.

“City Council changed it,” Jenkins said, “and it can always be changed back.”