‘We have a problem:’ Clear-cutting for Hilton Head subdivision prompts stricter rules
Hilton Head Island Town Council member Glenn Stanford projected a photo taken in 2008 of a site on the island’s north end. It showed a tree canopy made of towering pines and dense underbrush.
Stanford then replaced the photo on the screen with one he’d taken on Thursday of the same property.
The land was barren — clear-cut down to the soil.
The public at the committee meeting gasped.
“That is the same site,” Stanford said. “How in the world did this happen?”
Located off Fish Haul Road, the site will soon become 34 homes in a gated community called The Estuary. The developer, Village Park Homes, has built seven other communities on Hilton Head Island.
This development, however, is upending the way Hilton Head leaders are looking at tree protections in the land management ordinance — which town staff say have been increasingly lax in recent years.
“If you are thinking environmentally, you’re making different decisions than that,” Ward 3 representative David Ames said, pointing at Stanford’s photo. “In this picture, I see that we have a problem.”
The committee directed town staff to revisit the land management ordinance, as well as the loopholes that at times allow clear-cutting for an entire development.
Nicole Dixon, development review administrator for the town, said the review process had been more “flexible” for developers in recent years.
“The LMO was rewritten years ago to be more flexible on tree standards,” Dixon said. “We’re finally seeing the effects of that.”
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But on Thursday, the clear-cutting looked to council members like something out of a horror movie. They said Hilton Head’s reputation for environmental stewardship was at risk due to “tract builders.”
Dixon said the environmental review process will be stricter from now on.
“We’ve started to take a more proactive approach ... it’s all because of this type of subdivision,” she said.
Four calls and two emails Friday to the land planner and regional director of Village Park Homes were not returned.
In an email sent Monday, regional director Richard Schwartz said “The site was planned and permitted complying with all the current Town of Hilton Head’s development ordinances, the majority of trees had been significantly destroyed or damaged by Hurricane Matthew.”
He said there were groups of trees spared in clear-cutting, and that the site will have more green space later in the process.
“The town ordinances require significant buffer landscaping, including trees and understory plantings, be installed around the perimeter of the community before completion,” according to his written statement.
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Tree removal rules on Hilton Head Island
What The Estuary developers have done off Fish Haul Road is completely legal — as their tree removal plan was reviewed and approved by the town for their development permit, Dixon said.
The land management ordinance requires developments to maintain a buffer from the road and keep significant stands of trees, but even that requirement is vague — developers are simply “encouraged to make all reasonable efforts” to preserve trees.
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“When you have a large development like this, we don’t really have the teeth to prevent everything from being cleared,” Dixon said.
However, specimen trees such as live oaks and hickories over a certain size must be protected. Although she did not review the plan, Dixon said it’s possible there wasn’t a specimen tree on the property.
“They kept their buffer,” Dixon said. “Even though they’ve clear-cut it, there may not have been significant stands of trees.”
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But significant or not, council members saw clear-cutting as the easy way out.
“If you’re a developer, it’s a whole lot easier if you don’t have to fool with the trees,” Stanford said.
Tract builders on Hilton Head?
As the island continues to grapple with a lack of affordable housing options, developers are looking to buy land and subdivide it.
“I don’t believe they understand the Hilton Head brand,” Ames said Thursday. “They’re looking at subdividing the lots for profit.”
And those lots aren’t necessarily priced to solve the island’s housing issues.
The new homes will be priced in the mid-$300,000s, marketing director for Village Park Homes Leslie Ehlers told The Island Packet in March.
In April, a housing consultant defined “affordable” home ownership for the island’s employees as homes that range between $145,950 and $359,513 — depending on the industry.
This story was originally published July 29, 2019 at 4:30 AM.
