How Hilton Head residents succeeded in curbing development in their neighborhood
The fight to protect one Hilton Head neighborhood from overdevelopment is over.
The Hilton Head Island Town Council gave the final OK to new restrictions on the size and scale of homes in the Holiday Homes neighborhood, a 57-lot subdivision near Folly Field Road.
The neighborhood was established in 1957, consisting of mostly ranch-style homes. Residents began mobilizing last year to limit the size of new developments after a man from West Virginia purchased the last three undeveloped lots and began constructing three new three-story, seven-bedroom homes in the neighborhood.
Residents’ attempts to stop construction failed, but the new zoning amendments will limit the size and scale of future development.
“I’m excited,” said Gay Propst, a resident of Holiday Homes. “I’m proud to say that our neighborhood’s worked hard to get this far.”
The new changes, now baked into town code, stem from a protective covenant filed by the neighborhood’s founders in 1957 that the town had not previously considered when it approved the building permits. It is unclear why these nearly 70-year-old protections didn’t turn up during the permit process.
Small Hilton Head neighborhoods need town’s protection
Peter Kristian, general manager of Hilton Head Plantation who said he was speaking only as a resident of Hilton Head Island, stepped forward to voice his support of the changes.
Holiday Homes is one of many small communities on Hilton Head Island that has no property owners’ association or architectural review board to enforce its covenants, leaving the town as its only protection, Kristian said.
“Being the manager of the largest residential community that has a staff of 50 to do exactly what you’re trying to do here, I feel their pain,” Kristian said.
He added that he hopes other communities “take advantage of this situation” and come forward to the town with their own requests to protect the character of their neighborhoods.
What are the restrictions?
The town council approved changes to Holiday Homes’ character overlay — a special kind of zoning ordinance that applies only to a specific neighborhood. Folly Field and Forest Beach also have character overlays, according to the town’s land management ordinance.
The new rules limit the size and scale of new homes that get built in the neighborhood. They stem from a 1957 protective covenant that hadn’t been considered when the town approved building permits for new developments.
All 57 lots in Holiday Homes have already been built on, so the new restrictions would only apply if someone purchases an existing home and wants to demolish it and build something new in its place.
Homes are now capped at two-and-a-half stories and no more than 30 feet in height. Each home can have no more than two garage parking spaces and can not exceed 3,200 square feet, among other restrictions.
Previously, there were no restrictions on the number of stories or garage parking spaces in Holiday Homes, and residences were allowed to be up to 35 feet tall and 4,000 square feet.
Existing homes won’t be affected unless homeowners seek to redevelop or expand their homes.
The owner of a home that’s already larger than 3,200 square feet may not be allowed to build an addition, for example. Someone with a two-car garage may be blocked from constructing a detached garage with additional space.
If a catastrophic event, like a hurricane or a fire, destroys more than 50% of their home, homeowners may have to comply with the new restrictions when rebuilding their home, town officials previously said.
Typically, when the town council approves an ordinance, it’s only effective upon second reading. However, the council agreed to approve a “pending ordinance doctrine,” which would make the new rules effective as of the town council vote Tuesday.
One council member dissents
The town council voted 5-1 to pass the amendments, with Ward 1 Council Member Alex Brown as the sole dissenting vote. Brown raised concerns about the town council siding with the “majority” of homeowners.
The new amendments are supported by 44 lot owners in the community, out of 53 total private owners, according to comments from Matt Lewis, a resident of Holiday Homes, at the meeting. Nine lot owners refused to sign on, of which four misunderstood the request and thought the neighbors were trying to create a POA.
Those who don’t agree with the changes might not be looking to be “protected,” Brown said.
“I’m very concerned about a certain precedent here with smaller neighborhoods that don’t have POAs, and they’ve got a split as far as the desires of that community, and now the town steps in and makes a call based on majority” Brown said.
Mayor Alan Perry disagreed that allowing the changes would “open the door for a lot” in terms of other neighborhoods trying to get similar character overlays.
“The covenants are 70 years old on this property, and I think it deserves the clarity for the people that have bought in that property for decades,” Perry said.
How did we get here?
For Holiday Homes residents, the fight has been going on since early last year, when building permits were approved for three, three-story homes on Oleander Street.
Residents say the new homes disrupt the character of Holiday Homes, which consists of mostly ranch-style homes with some two- and three- story homes in the mix.
Residents came before the Town of Hilton Head Island Board of Zoning Appeals in July in an attempt to stop the construction of the new three-story homes.
To back up their case, residents pointed to a character overlay — a special kind of zoning ordinance — that the town granted Holiday Homes in 2005 aimed at protecting the neighborhood’s “residential character” by limiting the size and scale of homes. They also presented a decades-old restrictive covenant, filed by the founders of their neighborhood in 1957, that prohibited any homes larger than two-and-a-half stories.
The restrictive covenant, filed with the Beaufort County Clerk of the Court, did not come up during the permitting process. When residents brought it up, town officials were unable to locate it or confirm its existence. A resident finally located a copy of the document in her father’s filing cabinet days before the hearing.
The Board of Zoning Appeals sided with town officials, ruling that the new homes complied with zoning rules. The board explained that they could only rule on if the town officials had made an error, and that because town officials didn’t have access to the restrictive covenant when they issued the permits, they could not rule that an error was made.
Town rules place the onus on the applicant to find and notify town staff of any restrictive covenants, Assistant Town Manager Shawn Leininger said at the July 28 hearing. When filling out the application for the Holiday Homes building permits, builder Cameron Hackett of Hackett Homes & Construction indicated that there were no restrictive covenants that would apply to the request.
After speaking with residents, Leininger said town staff attempted to look for the protective covenant, but were unsuccessful.
That led residents to push for an update to the neighborhood’s character overlay that would bake those restrictions into the town code.
The proposal first came before the Community Development and Public Services Committee at a Dec. 15 meeting.
At the meeting, Holiday Homes residents like Matt Lewis pled the town to pass the new restrictions forward.
At the Dec. 15, meeting, Lewis said that Holiday Homes is “one of the last neighborhoods on this beautiful island that has not been overrun yet by developers and investors.”
This story was originally published April 10, 2026 at 11:16 AM.
