Hilton Head trailer park to shutter, displacing dozens of families. ‘This is a big deal’
Dozens of families at a trailer park on Hilton Head Island soon will be searching for a new, affordable place to live, local advocates say.
Rollers Trailer Park located off Marshland Road is expected to close, town staff confirmed Wednesday.
The owner of the trailer park, Harinderjit Singh, is no longer renewing or approving leases and wants to redevelop the 7.2-acre property, which borders Broad Creek.
A developer wants to use the area to build a new apartment community, but has offered to include only about eight units of workforce housing.
And given the high land value of waterfront property, it’s “not financially feasible” to include the parcel in Hilton Head’s workforce housing program, the developer has argued.
“This is a big deal,” said Sandy Gillis, executive director of the Deep Well Project, an island nonprofit that assists people who are facing financial emergencies.
There are 45 mobile homes on the property, Gillis said. The total number of residents was not immediately available.
The pending displacement will have a major impact on Hilton Head’s economy, said Luana Graves Sellars, a leader in the island’s Gullah community.
Many of the residents, Graves Sellars said, are young, Spanish-speaking members of the workforce.
Graves Sellars is trying to connect the families with native islanders who may have space for them to stay.
But she’s also worried that the mobile home residents will ultimately relocate toward Jasper County, given the shortage of affordable housing on Hilton Head.
“I wish there was an easy answer,” Gillis said. “It’s a very complex issue.”
That was made clear during an hours-long Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday, as members questioned the town’s progress in addressing its workforce housing crisis.
What happened at the meeting?
A developer wants to build a 164-unit apartment community on the Rollers Trailer Park parcel and nine other adjacent properties, which total about 13.7 acres.
Roughly 60 mobile homes are located on the parcels, Gillis said, including those in the trailer park.
The proposed waterfront development previously drew the ire of nearby Indigo Run residents. And town staff members on Wednesday argued that the Planning Commission should recommend that the Town Council deny a request from the developer to rezone the 10 properties to allow for an increased density of 12 units per acre. (The land is currently zoned for eight units per acre.)
Nicole Dixon, the town’s development review administrator, said the proposed apartment buildings would not offer workforce housing units and would have a maximum height of 55 feet, which is “out of character with the surrounding developments.”
Dixon also raised concerns about the developer, Charlotte-based DPJ Residential LLC, possibly converting the apartments into vacation condos after 10 years.
Mark Baker, president of Wood & Partners Inc., an island-based land planning firm working on the project, said in response that the developer would be willing to offer 5% of the 164 units as workforce housing. That’s about eight units in total, with monthly rents of 60% to 80% of the area’s median income.
Baker said DPJ Residential LLC also would be open to permanent restrictions on short-term rental conversions and would offer financial assistance to trailer park residents relocating off the property.
He added that, regardless of the commission’s decision on the rezoning request, Singh plans to shutter the mobile home park. Singh did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. It’s unclear when exactly the trailer park will close.
So, Baker argued, the developer would help mobile home residents move out and would help alleviate some of the demand for “market-rate housing” on Hilton Head.
One-bedroom apartments would go for $1,400 a month, two-bedroom apartments would be $2,500 a month and three-bedroom apartments would be $3,500 a month, he said.
“The only way, everybody recognizes, for true workforce housing to happen at this site is for significant public contribution to occur,” Baker said.
The town previously identified Rollers Trailer Park as a possible site for redevelopment as part of its workforce housing program, which was approved last year. But DPJ Residential LLC has been skeptical of that idea’s practicality, given the high land value of waterfront property.
‘They just can’t afford the $1,400’
Baker’s arguments ultimately did not sway town staff members and the Planning Commission, which voted 8-0 to recommend that elected officials deny the rezoning request.
“Your average teacher here, they just can’t afford the $1,400,” said at-large commission member John Campbell.
The Planning Commission agreed that they should discuss the island’s affordable housing crisis in greater detail at a future meeting.
Chairman Mike Scanlon asked staff members to provide a briefing on town-owned parcels that are available for workforce housing and what incentives, including “free land” or “discounted land,” could “get this ball rolling a lot quicker than it is.”
“I think that the lack of clarity in our priorities on workforce housing,” said at-large commission member Mark O’Neil, “certainly contributes to not knowing what to do in each individual case.”
What’s next?
Gillis, of the Deep Well Project, said the situation at the Rollers Trailer Park, 201 Marshland Road, is not an isolated issue as the island continues to gentrify.
But as town leaders grapple with the lack of affordable housing, she stressed that there’s an immediate need to assist those in limbo at the property.
It could easily cost a family $20,000 to relocate their trailer, she said.
Gillis now wonders: Will someone step up and offer space for the residents on Hilton Head?
