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The owners established a conservation easement with the Beaufort County Open Land Trust, which prevents the land's development in exchange for tax breaks. The owners also want to donate the land to the Town of Hilton Head Island so it will maintain the roads and prevent future beach parking.
The land, which includes rare maritime forest between houses and the beach from Alder Lane to the edge of the Sea Pines Resort, was purchased by South Forest Beach property owners at a bankruptcy sale in 1989, said Forest Beach Property Owners Association president Jack Daly. The owners pooled their money to buy the land so they could prevent its development, Daly said.
The conditions of that purchase made it difficult, but not impossible, to develop the land, he said. A similar area in North Forest Beach has been developed, Daly added.
More than 20 years later, the owners formed Lawton Beach Holdings LLC created the conservation easement to forever extinguish the possibility of development, said Daly.
Lawton Beach Holdings donated the development rights of the land to the Beaufort County Open Land Trust, a nonprofit organization set up to protect environmentally sensitive land and open space, but it still owns the property."This is a very big deal," said Anne Bluntzer, the land trust's executive director.
It is the first conservation easement for the trust on the island, she said, noting that the trust currently protects more than 13,858 acres of open land, as well as 50 parcels of private property in Beaufort County. The trust will visit the property annually to make sure it hasn't been changed, she said.
Owners now hope to donate the land to the town, which owns parcels around the island that are protected from development. Daly estimated the property at South Forest Beach would be worth "tens of millions of dollars" if it were developed.
Property owners hope that by granting the land to the town, it will assume control of road maintenance without turning roads or dirt walkways into beach parking.
Negotiations with the town hinge on discussions of man-made aspects of the land, such as porches and yards that extend into the forest, said town attorney Curtis Coltrane. He declined further comment on the negotiations.
The town's decision is still months away, according to both Bluntzer and Coltrane.
Protecting maritime forest is a priority for the town, said Coltrane. Hilton Head owns maritime forest property at several locations, including Driessen Beach, Fish Haul Creek and Mitchelville Beach Park.
The South Forest Beach forest helps prevent erosion and is home to native plants and wildlife such as sparkleberry and bald eagles.
