There’s a boom in big building projects in Beaufort. Help is on the way for review board
A Beaufort advisory board that reviews development projects, weighing a developer’s preference against a broader community vision, has operated short-handed during a spate of high-profile building proposals. Now, the board is at full strength.
The Beaufort City Council on Tuesday appointed Erik Petersen and William Suter to open positions on the Design Review Board. Every seat on the five-member DRB is now filled.
Peterson and Suter will join Chairman Benjie Morillo and members Kimberly McFann and Witt Cox. Their next meeting is Wednesday.
“ASAP,” Mayor Stephen Murray said when asked when Peterson and Suter will begin their duties.
The 4-0 vote on the appointments came after City Council members discussed the candidates in closed session. Discussing appointments to advisory boards is one exemption to the state’s open meeting law. Murray said four people applied for the two DRB jobs.
The appointments come during a busy time for the city’s Community and Economic Development Department, which is dealing with a spate of building applications, some of which require hours of review. City Manager Bill Prokop said earlier this fall that the city’s September building permit revenue was the highest in five years.
“Do either of you have a hard time disagreeing with people?” Murray asked Peterson and Suter when council members interviewed them.
On Nov. 18, concerns about the vacant seats on the board during this busy time for development prompted DRB members to go into closed session without publicly announcing beforehand the reason, or legal exemption from the law. The purpose of that closed meeting, it turned out, was to discuss whether it was appropriate for the three members to deliberate without a full five-member board, especially since three major apartment complexes were on the agenda.
During that same meeting, the Coastal Conservation League and Libby Anderson, the city’s former director of Planning and Development Services, asked the board to refrain from voting on the apartment proposals until additional Design Review Board members were seated. But the board can legally meet with three members and voted 2-1 to give conceptual approval to the projects.
Suter, who has lived in Beaufort for three years, said he worked in “design-build” for 30 years before retiring and teaching construction management at Western Illinois University. Peterson is an architectural associate with Moser Design Group in Beaufort.
The DRB board is composed of an architect, a landscape architect, a civil engineer, a local business owner and an at-large representative. The members, who are appointed for three-year terms, review development applications.
Murray, the mayor, noted that serving on advisory boards is often thankless but also a critical job. One of the challenges for DRB members is balancing the private property rights of applicants with the community’s vision for development proposals. In those discussions, he said, economics and physical place matter. “Big oak trees really matter a lot in this town,” too, he added.
Peterson and Suter, Murray said, were “overly qualified” for the job.
