Neighbors are vocal against Redevelopment of Pinecrest Golf Club in Bluffton

Talks of building multifamily housing on part of the Pinecrest Golf Club are mobilizing residents of the subdivision next door in opposition.

Last year, the owner of the 60-acre golf course property met with Bluffton officials to discuss the possibility of building apartments on the site of the property’s driving range, town manager Stephen Steese said. The golf course and homes are located south of Bluffton Parkway and east of Masters Way, across from Hilton Head Christian Academy and Bluffton High School.

Residents said they’re concerned about congestion and impacts on their quality of life and property values. Traffic, they said, is already bad along H.E. McCracken Circle and Masters Way during peak hours. MUSC Health said it will open a new 54,000-square-foot medical office building nearby at 700 Buckwalter Town Boulevard in early 2026. Novant Health is also currently building a 40,000-square foot medical office building and a 10,000-square-foot emergency room nearby.

“Roads are beyond capacity, and unusable for residents during school days during the early mornings and late afternoons,” resident Andrea Pressley told the town council during its July 8 meeting.

At this point, no documents for the potential apartment project have been filed with the town, director of growth management Kevin Icard said. Steese said the town hasn’t had contact with the owner since the original meeting. But rumors that the course itself will close have been gaining traction throughout the community. The on-site pub is closing at the end of the month, according to an Aug. 7 Facebook post from Pinecrest.

An email sent to its general mailbox bounced back. A phone message left with the golf course’s management group, GreatLIFE Golf Management, was not returned. Pinecrest is still listed on GreatLIFE’s website.

Since its meeting with the town, ownership has tried to garner community support, including at a meeting earlier this year. Those efforts, neighbors said, have not been successful; resident David Cowart told the town council that the overwhelming majority of residents are opposed to the project, as are homeowners in the nearby Shell Hall community.

“It will change a 480-plus single-family development into apartments, and change the character of the development forever. It’s not what we bought into. I wouldn’t have moved from Atlanta to here to move next door to apartments,” Cowart told the Bluffton town council in July.

Residents said they were told by Mayor Larry Toomer earlier this year that the town would not support the project, and town council members affirmed that at the July meeting.

If plans were to be filed with the town, Steese said the owner would have to clear several regulatory hurdles, including amending the current master plan. The development agreement covering the area around Pinecrest has already built out all of its rights, he said, and any changes would require council approval.

“Anything they would want to do, they’d have to build additional development rights from the council or build to have rights within the development agreement,” Steese said. “And just because they have the rights does not mean the council would approve the amendment.”

The owner of the course is listed as 1 Pinecrest Way Bluffton LLC. Emails and phone calls to people associated with the property owner were not returned, and the Pinecrest Property Owners Association declined to comment.

This story was originally published August 12, 2025 at 8:00 AM.