A community’s pool pass policy is riling one Hilton Head single mom

Even with school letting out for the summer, Danielle Hollman’s two boys are still learning new math.

One parent plus two children equals three, which leaves just two extra guest passes to their Hilton Head Plantation pool.

Two parents plus two children? That equals four. And yet this family would have six extra guest passes to the pool.

This equation is inexplicable to Hollman, a plantation resident angered this month when she realized married couples and other multiple-adult households can bring more guests to the community’s new, $2.2 million Spring Lake Pool than she can as a single mother.

And they all pay the same property owner’s association fees of about $1,066 per home.

“I would have expected the board to have given more thought to their homeowners being treating equally and take all the different types of families that reside in their community into consideration,” Hollman said Wednesday. “... Don’t proclaim that you are a family-friendly neighborhood who cares about family values when you clearly do not.”

In past years, the distribution of one homeowner’s photo ID pool card per adult wasn’t a problem because each household also received two houseguest cards, good for three guests apiece. Combined, the cards would have allowed Hollman to bring her two children and eight other people to the pool — and households with two or three adults could bring even more.

To avoid a crush of people at the new pool, the association decided earlier this year to suspend houseguest passes from its May 27 opening to Aug. 1.

But Hollman maintains she should be able to bring the same number of guests as most other households, so her children can invite the same number of guests as friends who live with two parents in the plantation.

“We can’t invite a family with three boys to the pool even though the next door neighbors can,” she said. “ ‘Because mommy doesn’t have a husband anymore, you can’t invite them to the pool.’ How do you explain that?”

No one else has come forward with the same concerns about the pool policy, according to association general manager Peter Kristian, but he said she has a valid argument.

Hollman was granted one exception to the temporary pool rules after she complained to the association June 1.

According to the rules, only adult owners and long-term renters can obtain a non-transferable, photo ID for the pool. But after Hollman submitted a letter, the association granted pool access to her children’s father, who watches the boys while she’s at work.

Initially, the pool attendant turned Hollman’s ex-husband away and said the kids would have to wait until Hollman was home after 5 p.m. to use the pool.

The greater issue — which Hollman calls discrimination against single parents — may see a resolution soon, Kristian said. The association is considering making a change before Aug. 1, though it wants to back the decision with more data on the use of the new pool, he said.

“I’m very sympathetic to the gentlewoman’s circumstances, and we’re going to do our best to accommodate her,” the general manager said.

But the board’s main concern is ensuring property owners aren’t turned away from the pool in its first months of use because it’s inundated with outside guests, he said. On Saturday, for instance, the pool was packed with about 400 people.

“It’s a fantastic facility, and we’re really, really happy the only concern is people can’t bring enough guests,” Kristian said.

This story was originally published June 8, 2016 at 1:35 PM with the headline "A community’s pool pass policy is riling one Hilton Head single mom."