Sun City to build ‘public toilet’ on wooded lot next to homes. Neighbors feel ‘lied to’
When Rich Gawrysiak purchased his dream retirement spot in Sun City Hilton Head, he paid extra for the lot that sits on the edge of the neighborhood, surrounded by wetlands and wooded views on the side and back of the home.
He flipped the entire layout of his home so that more windows faced the peaceful wooded lot that he was told would stay a community space/common area and remain empty.
“We were pouring the concrete in my driveway when we found out they were planning to build a public toilet just 30 feet from my house,” Gawrysiak said. “My wife was just beside herself. Our house won’t be worth what we paid for it if that goes in.”
Gawrysiak soon banded together with several of his neighbors and, after more than a year of meetings, letters, and back-and-forth with the Sun City Community Association, Sun City Board of Directors, Golf Advisory Committee, and now the City of Hardeeville — homeowners on Kings Creek Drive will make their final pleas against the proposed $100,000 comfort station at a Hardeeville Board of Zoning Appeals hearing next week.
“We really felt like we were lied to,” Gawrysiak said, noting that developers at Pulte Homes didn’t make this plan public until after a majority of the homes on the road were purchased. Sun City Hilton Head is a Dell Webb community, which is owned by developer Pulte Homes.
Board of Directors secretary Anna Maria Tabernik said the residents wouldn’t feel deceived had they read Sun City’s rules.
“If they read our covenant and restrictions, we have the right to build on common area property,” she said. “The association owns it, and we have the right to build on it. When you buy a home, there is no guarantee that the view will stay the same. We, as the association, have the right to build there.”
She said that because she doesn’t work for Pulte, she couldn’t confirm when developers disclosed the plans to homeowners. Pulte representatives did not respond to multiple phone calls and emails from the Island Packet on Friday and Monday.
The issue caught the attention of Hardeeville mayor Harry Williams, who emailed the Board of Directors in 2018 to express his concerns both as a politician and a resident of Sun City.
“I have no doubt that the wooded lots on a cul-de-sac command a high premium and a restroom would undoubtedly diminish the value of these homes,” Williams wrote. “The overriding consideration for each of you is the question ‘would you want a restroom for your next door neighbor?’”
The plans
The proposed comfort station — including a water fountain and restrooms — would be built for the Argent Lakes golfers, but it wouldn’t be on the golf course.
Instead, the facility — 13 feet wide, 17 feet long and 10 feet tall — would be built on a residential street, adjacent to the cart path that connects the 12th and 13 holes, and across the cul-de-sac from David Disney’s home and next door to Gawrysiak’s home.
“When I built my house, I was told it would face an empty lot that was community space, not an outhouse,” Disney said.
With comfort stations located near holes 1, 6, and 10, Tabernik said golfers expressed the need for another on the back 9 of the course.
“Pulte looked into every option and with electricity and plumbing. The location (next to Gawrysiak’s home) was the most logical,” Tabernik said.
In January 2018, soon after Kings Creek Drive homeowners found out about the restroom plans, 19 families showed up at the meeting and “expressed strong opinion against” the proposal to the Board of Directors, according to resident Larry Mattingly. The board then passed the issue to the Golf Advisory Committee.
In February 2018, the Golf Advisory Committee emailed a survey to Sun City residents. Nearly 80 percent of the 1,661 residents who responded favored building a comfort station between the 12th and 13th holes on the Argent Lakes Golf Course, according to emails from the committee.
However, residents on Kings Creek Drive disagreed with the findings of that survey. Gawrysiak, Mattingly and Disney pointed out that residents were given only five days to respond. They said many neighborhoods didn’t receive the survey, and the language used in the survey didn’t reflect the entirety of the issue.
“There were so many problems with that survey,” Mattingly said. “They didn’t mention that the proposed public toilet would be in a neighborhood, not on the course, and essentially next to someone’s home. They didn’t mention it could bring down property values.”
In March, 2018, the board agreed to accept Pulte’s offer to build the comfort station at the location on Kings Creek Drive.
What’s next?
On May 1, 2019, the City of Hardeeville issued a development permit to the Sun City Community Association to build a comfort station at the end of King’s Creek Drive.
Gawrysiak, Disney and others submitted a nine-page appeal to the Hardeeville Board of Zoning, which agreed May 30 to hear it.
On June 21, the Sun City Golf Advisory Committee emailed residents and neighbors asking to support the proposed restroom.
“If this permit is rescinded, the community will lose the Pulte funds of $100,000 to build the comfort station, and the community association will then bear the cost in the future to build a comfort station,” the committee wrote. “The financial burden is not all that will be lost, as the comfort station is also a critical necessity as a storm shelter, for AED availability, water for hydration and rest rooms for our nearly 3,000 golfers.”
Tabernik added that the restrooms would be accessible only for those golfers with a swipe card, and his organization would be willing to add more trees to hide the building.
“It’s a tough decision, and sometimes you have to make decisions for the community as a whole,” Tabernik said, supporting the plan. “I speak for 16,000 residents.”
Hardeeville has scheduled a public Board of Zoning Appeals hearing on the comfort station at 4 p.m. July 9 Hardeeville City Hall. Gawrysiak doesn’t know what he’ll do if the appeal is denied next week.
“I can’t wait to tell my family and friends who come over why I built my house next to a public toilet,” he said sarcastically.
This story was originally published July 2, 2019 at 11:41 AM.
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