Hilton Head starts tearing down buildings on US 278 this week. What will replace them?
Drivers on U.S. 278 on Hilton Head Island will notice demolition this week.
The Town of Hilton Head Island is tearing down buildings on the highway just west of Spanish Wells Road, according to a news release. The property, which includes a former auto shop and a small building that once housed Wesley Campbell’s roadside Carolina Seafood stand, was bought by the town last fall.
The land at 166 William Hilton Parkway will be kept empty as the town prepares for the biggest infrastructure project in its history: The widening and reconstruction of the Hilton Head bridges and the highway itself.
Although crews will be demolishing the buildings this week, the public still doesn’t know the plan for the new U.S. 278 corridor.
The S.C. Department of Transportation is responsible for the project and has developed nine potential alternatives, but will not release the final preferred alternative until a public meeting that’s tentatively set for July 22.
Meanwhile, all of SCDOT’s alternatives threaten landowners, mostly native islanders, who live and work at the base of the bridge. The town and Beaufort County have hired an independent engineering firm to review those plans, and the town has hired a land planning firm to mitigate effects and honor the historic Stoney community as the highway paves over more of the area.
Hilton Head US 278 fruit stand
One native islander with significant ties to the land is Campbell, who operated a seafood, fruit and vegetable stand on the property for eight years. He was evicted when the town bought the property last year.
Campbell has relocated east to another building on U.S. 278, although his new shop is just ten feet from the roadway that is likely to be widened.
As Hilton Head prepares for the highway project, the people who live in and care about the historic Stoney community are frustrated by the lack of concern over the coming disruption.
“I’ve never seen the town or the county come through and disturb a McDonald’s, a Burger King, [or] say, a Hyatt hotel. I’ve never seen that happen,” he said in November. “So if they’re not being disturbed, why disturb Mid-island Garage and Carolina Seafood?”
Last year, then-Town Manager Steve Riley acknowledged that the town has strategically purchased land in the community to make way for the highway. The town is now the biggest landowner on either side of the road.
Between Jenkins Road and the entrance to the Cross Island Parkway, the town owns 26 plots of land that abut the highway.
Combined, all other landowners have 22.
“The town owns Stoney,” Hilton Head resident Luana Sellars said in 2020. “At some point there may have been a conscious desire to own the gateway to the island. But whether it was conscious or unconscious, it’s robbery.”
This story was originally published May 11, 2021 at 9:17 AM.
