Comprehensive Plan 2021

What is our Comprehensive Plan?

The Comprehensive Plan is the document that guides all decisions related to planning, zoning, and development in the City of Beaufort, as required by South Carolina law. The Comprehensive Plan’s various components include land use, housing, community facilities, cultural resources, natural resources, transportation, and resiliency. The 2021 Comprehensive Plan was adopted by City Council in March 2022. It replaced the previous plan, which had been in effect since 2009.

The process of updating it was extensive and thorough.

Our process

The Community & Economic Development Department presented the working outline of an updated Comprehensive Plan to City Council at its July 13, 2021, Work Session. This initial document incorporated relevant goals and objectives from the previous comprehensive plan, the Civic Master Plan, and the Strategic Plan as well as the Beaufort 2030 Vision Exercise. 

In the months after, extensive input was solicited from a variety of stakeholders, from the general public to diverse organizations such as USCB, Beaufort Jasper Water Sewer Authority, Historic Beaufort Foundation, Sea Island Corridor Coalition, Coastal Conservation League, the Marine Corps Air Station, our various chambers, neighborhood associations, and many others.

We also set up a community engagement platform, and received several hundred comments through that. All of our planning and zoning boards, and in particular the Metropolitan Planning Commission, provided input on the plan.

Methodology used in Comprehensive Plan

Principles

The overarching principles that guided the creation of this document are:

1. Provide background information that will help inform future decisions and the formulation of goals and objectives going forward.
2. Keep the document lean without compromising essential information.
3. Make it easy to update.

Final plan

The final plan can be found here. It is divided into subject matter so that each element can be reviewed more easily.