More tourists are coming. Earlier. Here’s what an island complex is doing about it

With tourist season just around the corner, a condominium complex on the south end of Hilton Head Island is preparing to accommodate more people.

Oceanwalk, a complex on Lemoyne Avenue, met with town staff Monday to discuss turning unused tennis courts into parking spaces.

“Oceanwalk has struggled with a need for additional parking with the renewed interest in our property’s area,” Tom Oldham, Oceanwalk board president, said in a project narrative submitted to the town. “Our tennis courts have been used temporarily to help handle peak times of the year to accommodate these parking needs.”

But with those “peak times” growing each year, a more permanent solution is needed, Oldham said.

The plan as presented — Oldham said it was in the preliminary stages and could still change — would add about 28 parking spaces where the two tennis courts are. A third tennis court will remain, and will not be converted to parking.

Currently, there are 79 units in Oceanwalk. Owners can choose to rent out their unit on a short- or long-term basis, Oldham said.

Oldham was unsure of how many parking spaces Oceanwalk currently has when asked Monday.

He said before the tennis courts can be converted to parking, Oceanwalk owners must approve the change.

Handling the number of tourists who visit Hilton Head will likely continue to be an obstacle for vacation rentals, businesses and others on the island.

According to the town’s annual traffic report, prepared by the town’s traffic and transportation engineer Darrin Shoemaker, more tourists are coming and they’re coming earlier in the year.

“For a number of years, we’ve seen trends indicating volume demand — for reasons I’m not sure I can necessarily explain — are shifting earlier and earlier in the year,” Shoemaker told the Planning Commission on Feb. 7. “We can draw from this that our visitor season peak traffic is seemingly arriving earlier and earlier each year and perhaps leaving earlier each year as well.”

Shoemaker said that the Friday before Memorial Day 2017 was the first time in the eight years an annual traffic report has been created that traffic entering and leaving the island exceeded 70,000 vehicles.

“That was a new all-time high in terms of daily demand,” Shoemaker said.

According to the traffic report, when compared June 2016 and June 2017, the number of vehicles traveling the island increased by nearly 4,000.

This story was originally published February 12, 2018 at 1:18 PM with the headline "More tourists are coming. Earlier. Here’s what an island complex is doing about it."