A disc golf course is one of several proposed additions to Buckwalter Recreation Center’s master plan.
Bluffton and Beaufort County are seeking city approval to amend the plan with the following changes:
• Reduce the number of new football fields on the north side of the center from three to two.
• Remove plans for a sports pavilion near the existing football fields.
• Replacement of three proposed baseball fields, a press box and concession facilities with two new football fields.
• Adding a new maintenance building.
• Adding a disc golf course along Buckwalter Parkway, north of Barton’s Run Crossing.
The City Council will vote on the changes at its next meeting. The Bluffton Planning Commission last month recommended that the council approve them.
The disc golf course would be the first in Bluffton, according to the UDisc app’s course database. Other Lowcountry courses include one in Hardeeville’s Sergeant Jasper Park, two on Hilton Head Island, and one in Beaufort.
The Buckwalter course would be nine holes and include a shade pavilion, according to the proposed master plan.
According to city documents, the football complex on the north side of the leisure center currently has three football fields, a toilet block and a covered seating area. The existing master plan includes three more adjacent fields and a sports pavilion. The amended plan would reduce that to two new fields with a larger parking lot.
Officials are looking for soccer fields in lieu of a baseball complex south of the recreation center’s indoor facility. The current master plan calls for three baseball fields and associated facilities. According to the amended plan, part of that land would be used for two football fields and a toilet block.
Buckwalter Recreation Center, located across from the Bluffton school complex on Buckwalter Parkway, is owned by the city and operated by the county. Formerly called Buckwalter Community Park, it currently includes a football complex, an outdoor skate park, and an indoor facility with a gym, track, and basketball and racquetball courts.
The existing master plan includes a planned tennis center on the south side of the property. The layout of the center would be reconfigured under the amended plan.
The tennis center would have 16 floodlit courts, shaded seating areas, an 8,000 square meter building, an event field and 104 parking spaces. The other proposed parking lot at the football complex would add 231 spaces.