After hours of debate, Hilton Head Plantation gets $300,000

Hilton Head Town Council and members of the public engaged in a heated, hours-long debate Tuesday before council agreed to give $300,000 to restore a beach.

At issue is an eroding section of beach on Pine Island behind the gates of Hilton Head Plantation. Neighborhood leaders have asked the town to help pay for a renourishment project there — even though the beach is used primarily by those who live in the neighborhood. The general public cannot enter Hilton Head Plantation.

Neighborhood leaders have said town dollars should help pay for the work to protect the town’s stormwater system.

But the town has never studied whether the town’s stormwater system is actually in jeopardy. A motion to do so, presented by council member David Ames during Tuesday’s meeting, was shot down. Only Mayor David Bennett supported it.

“I think I am disturbed by the lack of process we have in this decision,” Bennett said. “We don’t have a never-ending source of funds to extend to the stormwater problems around the island.”

Ames agreed and implied that lobbying by a motivated group was swaying the discussion rather than a scientific assessment of the risk to the town’s stormwater system.

“Today, we have 10,000 people and two important town people lobbying for this issue,” he said referring to the residents of Hilton Head Plantation and council members Bill Harkins, who lives in the neighborhood and formerly served on its property owners association, and John McCann, whose district includes part of the neighborhood.

The comment riled McCann.

“I take offense that you are accusing us of being biased and not looking out for the interest of the community,” MCCann responded. “I fully appreciate where you stand on this. We have all addressed our concerns. I think we need to have a vote.”

Yet, a vote did not immediately come. An engaged audience, often clapping for one side of the debate or the other, took an opportunity to speak on the issue as well.

Thomas Hoppin, a Hilton Head Plantation resident, said it is the town’s duty to spend funds on the project.

“I have heard some things today that just baffle me,” Hoppin said. “The first thing I hear is about the policy change. This changed in 2006 when our town decided to enter into a storm management agreement with multiple communities including Hilton Head Plantation. That is when you assumed responsibility for a town. This is a question about using stormwater utility money to address an urgent need. It is your responsibility.”

Others in the audience said town dollars should be spent fixing other urgent needs first.

Hilton Head resident Rochelle Williams said areas on the north-end of the island flood because of the lack of a stormwater system.

“The people living in the plantation choose that ocean view and knew that they would someday have a problem,” Williams said. “They should have saved for that.”

Hilton Head Plantation officials have said an immediate renourishment project is needed before a major storm pushes the ocean into the town’s stormwater system.

Peter Kristian, Hilton Head Plantation’s general manager, said flooding in recent months have already destroyed more than an acre of marsh after ocean surges breached a dune on the beach.

“When you visit the site and when you see what is going on there, the picture is very clear,” said Bill Harkins. “Having an intrusion through these stormwater systems could in fact create damage. And if that takes place, it is on (the town’s) nickle.”

This story was originally published June 22, 2016 at 5:11 PM with the headline "After hours of debate, Hilton Head Plantation gets $300,000."