Someone recently asked me, “If Bluffton were a person, in what life stage would it be?”
I replied that, just like me, Bluffton would be in the third quarter of our career level, still growing, still ambitious, but with enough experience behind us to know that what we do today matters to our future.
Bluffton spent decades planning for growth, and much of what we see being built today was envisioned and approved years ago. A bulldozer may arrive today, but the decision that allowed that development might have been made 20 years ago.
We are not finished growing, but we are entering a new chapter. Our focus is shifting from simply building a town to taking care of the community we have built.
The numbers help tell that story. Based on development already approved, Bluffton is approximately 80% built out residentially, but only about 32% built out commercially. We will continue to see homes built, particularly in the Buckwalter and New Riverside areas, but increasingly, we will also see the other pieces of a community catch up – jobs, businesses, health care, restaurants, and services.
Health care is one of the clearest examples. Major investments by Novant Health, Beaufort Memorial, and MUSC are helping transform the Buckwalter area into a regional health care hub. Increasingly, Bluffton is not simply where people live. It is becoming a place where people work and receive services.
But managing growth also means knowing when not to build.
The town is working to preserve nearly 500 acres in the Buckwalter area, representing an investment of approximately $18 million. Without these conservation efforts, that land potentially could have accommodated approximately 1.2 million square feet of commercial development or nearly 1,000 homes.
Those are development units that can permanently come off the books.
That is an important part of Bluffton’s next chapter. Sometimes the most consequential development decision we make is deciding that something will not be developed.
Our responsibility now is increasingly about stewardship – investing in infrastructure, protecting our natural resources, preserving land, creating housing opportunities, supporting public safety, and making sure Bluffton remains the special and unique place we are proud to call home.
We cannot do it in isolation. Transportation, housing, our workforce, health care and the environment are regional issues. What happens in Bluffton affects our neighbors, and what happens beyond our boundaries affects us.
For years, we asked: How do we accommodate growth?
And increasingly, the question will be: How do we sustain what we have built?
Bluffton’s story is still being written. The next chapter might look different from the last, but our goal remains the same: Leave Bluffton better than we found it.
Thank you for being part of the Bluffton story.