No more tree grinding near Hilton Head neighborhood? Town to rezone Arbor Nature site
Indigo Run neighbors may be happy: Arbor Nature’s old location on Leg O Mutton Road will likely never again be used for tree grinding.
Approval from Hilton Head Island’s planning commission Wednesday means the property — once used for noisy tree grinding that spurred complaints to the town and eventually a lawsuit — could be re-zoned to prohibit all future tree grinding and logging.
The council will vote on the matter at its Aug. 18 meeting.
Last year, Arbor Nature’s tree grinding operations were moved to Summit Drive near Port Royal Plantation as part of a 2017 settlement agreement with the town. The settlement stemmed from a suit brought by Arbor Nature after town staff told the company it could no longer do tree grinding on its property.
The rezoning will allow the property to be used for a wholesale nursery and contractor’s office or residential development at eight units per acre.
Planning Commission member Lavon Stevens said Wednesday that there were rumors the land would be used for a workforce housing development at 12 units per acre. If a developer buys the land and wants that density, he or she will have to apply to the town for another rezoning request, according to development review administrator Nicole Dixon.
The legal counsel representing Arbor Nature contested Wednesday’s public hearing on the rezoning. Chester Williams said the hearing was not properly accessible to the public and felt the process was rushed. The town’s attorney replied that the hearing was properly announced to the public, although there was only one public comment submitted on the matter.
Meanwhile, tree grinding operations at Arbor Nature’s new location near the Hilton Head Airport have upset neighbors in Port Royal Plantation who say the business is too loud to be near residential development.
How’d we get here?
The Arbor Nature dispute began around 2016 when then town LMO official Teri Lewis sent a letter to the company stating that it was out of compliance with the town’s land-use rules following noise complaints from neighbors in Indigo Run.
The argument by nearby residents is that Arbor Nature misrepresented itself as a wholesale nursery only to become a solid waste management/tree-grinding operation that created noise concerns.
Arbor Nature appealed Lewis’ letter to the town’s board of zoning appeals, which stood by Lewis’ decision. When the company appealed in circuit court, the town reached a settlement, which was approved in June 2017.
That settlement includes the following points:
- The town leased a 4-acre portion in the Summit Drive area to Arbor Nature for one year for $1 in April 2019.
- Arbor Nature had the option to purchase the Summit Drive property for $300,000 and did so in 2020. Resident and town council candidate Alex Brown said at the time that the town owes the public an “explanation” for how it sold the land for the seemingly low price of $75,000 per acre.
- Arbor Nature is not required to meet minimum tree-planting requirements and buffer regulations on the site “as long as the property is used for grinding.”
- The grinding can take place only between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
- The town will rezone the old Arbor Nature site on Leg O Mutton Road to allow retail or residential development, making it possible for the company to sell the old property.
Not everyone was happy with those terms.
“The settlement agreement is extraordinarily one-sided,” Port Royal resident Risa Prince told The Island Packet in 2019. “The town was not well-represented in that negotiation and the taxpayers are now paying the consequences.”
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 12:15 PM.
