Island relaxes land management rules

Stuart Campagna and his wife, Brecken, bought an old cinder-block Hilton Head Island dog kennel last year with hopes they could level it and start anew with vacant land, a fresh canvass.

Had they bought Lowcountry Kennels on Fish Haul Road just a year before, their plans of building the more-upscale Southpaw Pet Resort would have hit a major snag.

Much of the island already was developed by the time the Town of Hilton Head Island was incorporated in 1983, and even more was built by 1987, when the town first adopted its planning code, the land management ordinance.

Many island structures pre-dating the town's formation don't comply with those planning standards. In the case of the 36-year-old kennel, the building infringed upon buffers between it and its neighbors, a vet clinic and a driveway.

If the Campagnas had wanted to put up a new building, much of their property would have been off-limits. They'd have ended up with a narrower building and not even enough room for dog runs.

"It would have been impossible," said Stuart Campagna.

Over the past two years, Hilton Head has injected some flexibility into its planning code through a series of changes to the land management ordinance. The intent is to encourage people such as the Campagnas to replace out-dated structures without requiring them to make sacrifices on building sizes and configurations.

Some of the changes apply only to specific areas of the island, like Coligny and Dunnagans Alley, where the town wants walkable districts of shops and cafes.

However, most changes are island-wide, and they mark a significant shift in town policy.

The goal had been to make all new buildings in total compliance with the planning code. Now, the goal is to push for incremental improvements -- so many aspects of properties are in compliance -- but not making the owner go all the way, which some argue is an unrealistic hurdle.

"If we want people to improve their properties, we need to be flexible and not require them to change everything," said Teri Lewis, the town's land management ordinance official.

Unfortunately, there have been few takers so far.

"We're not seeing them come in right now," Lewis said. "Part of that reason is the economy, but we think it's partially because people don't know about the changes we've made."

Town Council has set redevelopment as a major priority, but it's difficult to shake the image of a government founded to reign in growth that only recently changed course.

The new system allows "sensible discourse" between Hilton Head's planners and land owners instead of just getting a "cursory 'no,'" said Ed Evans, a co-founder and principal of Wood+Partners, an island land-planning and landscape architecture firm.

"Without some flexibility in the LMO, people who have very valuable property, some of the most visible and highly-traveled properties on Hilton Head, would not improve," Evans said. "People were sitting on their properties and not bringing them up to code because of the sacrifices to parking and the amount of lease-able space."

Among his many clients, Evans represents Plantation Center, a shopping center near the gates of Palmetto Dunes. The center recently got permission to demolish an abandoned building, so more parking could be added, something desperately needed during the lunch and dinner rushes at some of its popular restaurants, including Santa Fe Cafe.

The Campagnas hope to break ground on Southpaw Pet Resort and open the 31 kennels and 16 cat condominiums within the year.

Despite the town's changes, it wasn't easy to get the project approved, Campagna said.

"The town was helpful, but it was still a long, arduous process," he said. "There are a lot of properties on the island that just need some leniency. This is a new system, and hopefully some other building owners will take advantage of it."