Is it ‘a time of change?’ What’s new after 6 months on the job for Hilton Head mayor
Six months into his term as Hilton Head Island mayor, John McCann has accelerated the pace of town meetings and worked more effectively with the town manager than his predecessor. His abrupt style has changed the tone and mood in council chambers.
But progress has been slow on the issues he and the Town Council outlined as priorities.
At the start of the year after setting its goals, the council posted its list to the wall of Town Hall. Among the priorities: the future of the only bridge to Hilton Head Island, the dearth of affordable housing for island workers and long-term plans to manage development.
Those objectives address some of the biggest issues modern Hilton Head Island faces. They cannot be solved during McCann’s four-year term, much less in the six months he’s been at the helm.
But a look at what has been done since January to move forward — and for McCann, 78, to keep his campaign promises — reveals style changes but little headway on substance.
U.S. 278 corridor project
Improving the U.S. 278 corridor so that it will curb congestion and fix structural deficiencies in the Hilton Head bridges is his biggest success so far in office, McCann said.
While most people on Hilton Head Island seem to know about the corridor project, few seem to know where it stands. All the public knows so far is that one span of the four bridges connecting Hilton Head Island with the mainland will have to be replaced.
The project is managed at the state level through the S.C. Department of Transportation, which has notified residents that the environmental study of the area from Moss Creek in Bluffton to Squire Pope Road is nearly complete.
That doesn’t help native islanders who live in the Stoney community on the island side of the bridge.
They have told The Island Packet the uncertainty leaves them anxious about their historic land, which would be swallowed whole by additional highway lanes.
McCann said those residents are at the forefront of his mind.
“We’re making progress towards the (U.S.) 278 corridor as to what we can do to make life better for the native islanders,” he said June 26. “The (U.S.) 278 committee is doing very well.”
Town Council appointed 13 islanders to the U.S. 278 gateway corridor committee in January to help SCDOT understand how alternatives would affect islanders.
Although the group has met over a dozen times, some members say they have too little information to help.
“Having no idea what they’re going to show us in September puts us in an awkward position where we’re trying to prepare for it,” committee member Alex Brown said about the public meeting this fall in which SCDOT will present bridge alternatives.
Workforce housing and affordability
During McCann’s first six months in office, a workforce housing consultant reported the island desperately needed affordable housing options.
The report showed that 16,000 workers, many of whom work in the hospitality industry, come over the bridges each day to keep the island’s economy running.
The consultants found that affordable housing on Hilton Head should be under $850 per person per month, although the average listed rental rate on the island is $1,114 per month.
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McCann said he does not believe town government should be involved in building workforce housing, and has often said the private sector will take care of bringing affordable housing to Hilton Head.
He said terms like affordable housing evoke an expectation of government subsidies to developers.
“We shouldn’t be using our money or our land,” McCann said.
Developers and workers are “two separate worlds ... and you have to work with both,” he said.
The Town of Hilton Head Island has never given a financial subsidy to a workforce housing developer, according to Town Manager Steve Riley.
In April, a developer withdrew an application to build apartments at the Hilton Head Christian Academy site, at a density of 22 units per acre, after neighbors lambasted the possibility of four-story buildings in their backyard.
The group returned in June to reapply for the rezoning.
After being prodded on anticipated rental rates in the neighborhood of $1,500 a month, developers said they’d reserve 5 percent of the 300 units for workforce housing — about 13 apartments.
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Managing development and the future
The town is working on a comprehensive plan for the years 2020 through 2040.
Before creating that plan, former Mayor David Bennett in 2017 established a three-year visioning process to get 3,000 islanders’ opinions about what will be important in Hilton Head’s future.
The visioning process, which cost the town $165,000, was regarded as the first initiative to focus on Hilton Head’s ethnic diversity and multilingualism, according to previous reporting by The Island Packet.
But in October, during his campaign, McCann called the controversial visioning process a mistake and said there was no real “end game.” He said it left a lot of people feeling alienated.
Now, as small committees work on the comprehensive plan, council members worry about not having an up-to-date, large-scale plan when deciding on major issues such as zoning and density.
“We do not have a current land use plan, and in an ideal world we’d love to march through the comprehensive plan and let that lead to a land plan,” Ward 2 representative Bill Harkins said at a May 21 Town Council meeting. “My plea is that we get serious about land use planning and find room in this budget to make it happen.”
McCann said he hopes to have the comprehensive plan “halfway done” by the council’s workshop in December, and a land plan to come from that.
Meanwhile, McCann has directed town staff to start a parks and recreation master plan, which will require hiring a consultant.
As a project McCann mentioned during his campaign, that plan will determine which parks could be maintained by the town and what town-owned land could be converted to a park.
Moving efficiently
McCann’s style at town meetings starkly contrasts that of former mayor Bennett and, at times, other council members. It’s abrupt and efficient — but sometimes rude.
He got into hot water in March when he walked out on a resident who was speaking to council. McCann said the man had exceeded the 3-minute time limit.
He has worked to streamline council meetings. “People come here to listen to town government at work,” He said. “There’s no reason for a meeting to last three hours when it can last two.”
But efficiency has at times come at the cost of debate.
Council members refused to take a vote at a June 4 meeting because several said they didn’t have enough time or information to vote on how federal funds will be spent on projects on Hilton Head.
McCann said that soon he would talk to council members about limiting the amount of time they can comment on issues before voting, saying some members tend to filibuster.
Buying land
Although it’s not one of the council’s identified priorities for the year, the town’s land acquisition has been active in the last six months.
After years of fighting relocation for the Hilton Head Island airport, the St. James Baptist Church on Beach City Road will be moved to a new building on town-owned land and at the town’s expense.
The church was first built in 1886, but it lies too close to the newly expanded airport runway to be safe, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The town also purchased a 4.65-acre plot of land off U.S. 278 in April that was once home to Modern Classic Motors.
At the time, assistant town manager Josh Gruber said part of the $3.6 million purchase would be preserved as green space, but that “it is certainly the intent that (part of it) it will be put back on the market.”
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But McCann said June 26 he doesn’t “believe in buying property just to sell it again. It’s buying for better opportunities for the town.”
Asked what those opportunities may be with that specific property, McCann said the site should be kept green and not developed for retail.
Aging on the island
McCann said his biggest challenge in the coming months will be maintaining high quality development on the aging island without becoming the “fashion police.”
“I think it’s a time of change more than anything else,” he said. “What do you do about getting old?”
As buildings age on Hilton Head, the infrastructure that connects them shows its cracks. Town officials asked some property owners to sign “hold harmless” statements earlier this year when it was revealed that their properties were too far from a fire hydrant.
Over 330 properties are also targeted for septic tank improvements because the waste disposal is inadequate.
McCann worries about quality of life for residents, too.
He pointed out Hilton Head Plantation as an example of a community that has redone amenities like its pool and “done well at getting old.”
“We’ve got to be careful we don’t get old,” McCann said.
What’s next?
McCann and the council have much work to do on their priorities, but he said he’s looking forward to the next six months.
“I hope we get some direction as to where the U.S. 278 project will go. The comprehensive plan has to be more than halfway done by our retreat,” he said. “And the master plan on parks should be halfway done in that time.”
This story was originally published July 5, 2019 at 5:28 PM.
