Land purchase moves forward for law enforcement center

At the mid-February meeting of the Beaufort County Community Services and Land Use Committee, committee members held an Executive Session and decided to move forward with negotiations regarding the purchase of land known locally as the Cooler tract – for the County’s proposed consolidated law enforcement center.

The purchase of the roughly 97 acres, currently owned by the Cooler family, for law enforcement purposes would leave a proud family legacy, as they share four generations of family members who have dedicated their lives to law enforcement and emergency response services.

“This facility has been envisioned for almost two decades,” said Eric Greenway, county administrator. “When the land became available, the County saw this as a great opportunity to consolidate the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office departments in a central location that can be built with minimal environmental and traffic impact.”

The committee’s decision moves the discussion of negotiations forward, allowing the County to continue their due diligence while developing a conceptual site plan, creating a facility that will bring many law enforcement departments under one roof.

Departments at this point include the DNA lab, Sheriff’s administration, the evidence locker, and Emergency Management. When completed, it’s estimated to house more than 250 employees in almost 200,000 square feet of office space.

“This is an outstanding opportunity for County Council to do what is necessary to keep the quality of life that we enjoy in this county,” said Council Chairman Joe Passiment. “What residents need to know is this plan will also spare the property from being developed for housing in an already extremely congested area. It will satisfy the needs of all of our citizens for the quickest response to public safety from law enforcement. It also satisfies the desire of the Greenspace program to control development where possible and will allow the consolidation of many law enforcement departments into one location. That, in turn, will better serve residents and free up additional facilities to be used by the County for other purposes.”

At the Feb. 27 meeting of County Council, the first reading was given. The timeline moving forward on this project includes second reading and public hearing at the March 13 Council meeting; and a third and final reading and public hearing at the March 27 meeting.

“I am excited to hear the recent news and wanted to thank County Council for their foresight in choosing to move forward with the purchase of the tract of land located in Beaufort County, on Hwy. 170, commonly known as Cooler’s Corner,” said Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner. “It may interest you to know that this property was considered more than 20 years ago as an excellent and prime location to build a Sheriff’s Office Law Enforcement Headquarters and public safety training facility.” Tanner said the location will offer “easy and efficient deployment of resources and personnel and is convenient and accessible to our other law enforcement partners throughout Beaufort County, and the public we serve.”

In the future, a public meeting will be held so the stakeholders and members of the public can review the conceptual site plan and overall project and ask questions.