What’s happening with Hilton Head’s plan to turn a mid-island golf course into a park?
Turnover at the Town of Hilton Head Island and state regulatory agency review have created design and permitting hangups for the Mid-Island Tract Park, according to the town, pushing back plans to turn a former Hilton Head Island golf course into a community park.
The 103-acre tract was formerly the Planters Row Golf Course and borders William Hilton Parkway, Union Cemetery Road and Dillion Road. It’s been over 10 years since the town bought the property for $5 million in 2013 and three years since it hired consulting firm MKSK to draw up development plans in 2021.
The town council formally approved the first of five phases of the project in November 2022, meant to serve as the park’s “framework,” covering a small portion of land and including mostly outdoor areas. From there, the town predicted design and permitting would start in 2022 for construction to begin in 2023, according to the town’s 2023 fiscal year budget. Two years later, the town hasn’t finished designing and permitting, stalling the process and impacting when residents and visitors will have access to its amenities.
The 2023 fiscal budget timeline is outdated, according to Deputy Town Manager Josh Gruber. He said the new timeline is for permitting to be finished by July 2025. Despite the delay, walkers and bikers can access old golf cart paths. The town has also temporarily improved a parking area with gravel, according to Gruber.
Gruber said two to four employees recently left the five-to-six-person Capital Improvement Projects team, creating about a three-month delay from where they would have been without the turnover. On top of staffing turnover, the town must go through state regulatory agency review, causing design and permitting delays.
“Nobody’s sitting on their thumbs, everybody’s out doing something, there’s only so much capacity to go around,” Gruber said. “When we send something to the state and they’ve only got so many staff members to be able to review it, we take our place in line, just like any other member of the public does.”
The town must get approval from agencies such as Ocean & Coastal Resource Management to move forward. Town Manager Marc Orlando said in a May budget meeting that “what’s taken a lot of time is the inspections on the front end, trying to identify that stormwater system through there.”
Whether the next four phases of the plan, which detail indoor event spaces, recreational facilities, and cultural landmarks, move forward is up to the town council. There isn’t voting slated on upcoming town council agendas to decide the future phases.
In the meantime, the town is looking after the property, according to Gruber. He said the town mows the grass and cuts down potentially dangerous trees.
“There’s been some maintenance done of the property to make sure that the public is safe when they’re out walking around,” he said.
The town is set to spend $2.5 million towards the park in the 2025 fiscal year, according to the budget. The park will cost between $48 million and $71 million, according to figures in the master plan. There is $5.2 million allocated for the park’s preliminary surveys, planning and design, $4.6 million of which was collected through the island’s hospitality tax.
When the park’s designs were released Jennifer Ray, the town’s former capital program manager, said the town didn’t know exactly how the park would be funded. She said the town was considering private donations, government grants and taxpayer funds.
This story was originally published June 14, 2024 at 5:53 PM.
