University Park: Off Base Neighborhood/Subdivision

"Don't be fooled by pretty buildings"

Don't be fooled by online pictures and the sweet talking of real estate agents looking to rent you a home in this community!! University Park looks nice and sparkly on the outside but is actually not a safe place for military families to live. Especially for families where the spouse will be deploying regularly.

After moving in we found that the biggest problem with University Park is it's proximity to USCB (University of South Carolina Beaufort). That proximity makes UP into a defacto college housing complex rife with parties, drunk co-eds and constant parking problems because of the college flop houses with multiple cars and round the clock parties at all times.

There is not a single weekend in the summer where you can take your family to the pool and enjoy yourself without half naked co-eds, loud music and free flowing alcohol. When you try to ask people to turn down the music to a lower roar they are often belligerent, so it's just easier to go home and avoid conflict.

The parking by the way is awful. When you have 4-6 students living in one house and multiples of cars there is literally nowhere to park. The HOA has tried to get parking under control but ended up being too heavy handed and single families who actually own their homes in the community couldn't even have a BBQ without getting harassed by security about the parking of their guests. We were basically told that if our guests cannot park in our garage or on the driveway then we would get a parking violation and their cars would be towed.

After moving in we heard from neighbors about the constant car break ins and even a couple instances of "peeping toms". One neighbor told us that there was even a fatal shooting in the neighborhood which I did look up on the web and it did in fact happen in 2016. Ultimately, I just didn't want to live in a neighborhood where actual home owners were desperate to sell their homes and get out... which is never a good sign.

We lived in University Park for 5 months before we got help from the base to help get us out of University Park. I just simply didn't feel safe being there by myself with small children while my husband deployed.

We ended up moving to Laurel Bay near the air station and while the housing is not as new and pretty as University Park is it is quiet and people are infinitely more respectful of those around them.

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