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Last week, the town unveiled a series of maps extending a Dune Accretion and Critical Storm Protection Area island-wide, from Land's End in Sea Pines to Fish Haul Creek.
The idea is to stave off dense, Myrtle Beach-style developmentand maintain the layers of sand dunes that help protect the coastline during storms.
If approved by Town Council in the next few months, the plan would essentially set in stone the state's 1999 development baseline, which marks the farthest point toward the beach that a structure can be built. Beachfront property owners would not be allowed to rebuildtheir homes closer to the shoreline, even if the state says it's OK.
The state Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, which falls under the umbrella of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, revises its baseline every eight to 10 years, based on a number of factors, including the beach's health, high-water mark and erosion rate.
Those revisions don't bode well for Hilton Head, which pumps sand on the beach every few years as part of a renourishment program, effectively moving the high-water mark toward the ocean.
In January, the state revised the baseline. In some places, the line that acts as a stop sign for development was moved toward the water because beach renourishment and forces of nature had pushed the high-water mark farther away from houses. The town opposed moving the line any closer to the water.
For instance, the state's line in Shipyard was moved 75 feet closer to the surf, according to OCRM spokesman Dan Burger Thatline would become moot if the town proceeds with its plan, which is permissible under state law because it is more restrictive than the state's line.
Town Council has made expanding the protection zone island-wide a top priority for two years. To its members, deciding how far development can encroach toward the dunes should be a local decision.
"We've come to realize that we can't rely on the state and DHEC to share our philosophy about the protection of the dunes and the beaches," said Councilman John Safay. "DHEC, if left alone, could do on Hilton Head what they've done in Myrtle Beach, and that is to move the development line even closer to the water, particularly after we've renourished the beach.
"What could be more absurd than the taxpayers of the island spending $20 million to renourish the beach and then have DHEC come in and move the development line closer to the water?"
A similar protection area has been in place in South and Central Forest Beach since 2006.
Initially, it was a response to the proposed redevelopment of the Adventure Inn in South Forest Beach. The hotel's owners wanted to tear down the buildingand build all the way to the OCRM line, which would have been the farthest protrusion onto the beach in that area.
The town's idea is bound to roil some beachfront property owners -- particularly those who haven't built a structure yet -- because the protection area will cut into the amount of buildable land on their lots.
However, Safay and others argue the protection area actually will increase property values because it provides a sense of stability by holding development to its current position.
"If anything, it will enhance property values because people can come to this island and be convinced that what they see now is still going to be here in five or 10 years," Safay said. "Without controls in place, people will encroach further and further."
