Plan for storage units at Hilton Head’s old Sam’s Club withdrawn after criticism
This story was updated Feb. 16, when the town announced the rezoning application had been withdrawn.
A developer with plans to create storage units in Hilton Head Island’s former Sam’s Club building has withdrawn his plan for the property after criticism from the community and its leaders.
The island’s Town Council was to vote on Josh Tiller of J.K. Tiller Associates’ rezoning request Tuesday evening.
Instead, Interim Town Manager Josh Gruber announced Tiller’s request for new zoning had been withdrawn.
There was no discussion on the rezoning proposal, which was unanimously approved by the town’s planning commission on Jan. 20.
Based on their public statements, most members of the Town Council opposed the plan for the 70,729-square-foot building in Port Royal Plaza.
“I think it is literally a disgrace to convert Sam’s into a storage unit,” Ward 2 representative Bill Harkins said Jan. 29 at the annual town council workshop. “Why can’t we create incentives for that to be converted into affordable housing?”
The developer for the storage units was seeking a rezoning of the property from Community Commercial to Light Commercial, which the Town Council would have had to approve twice.
News of the potential development sparked much discussion by council members at their annual workshop, where the group parsed through the town’s comprehensive plan and considered the island’s future.
“I was shocked when I saw the idea of storage sites being put into Sam’s, but that decision is going to be easy for me now because I am focusing on the concept of excellence and that falls way, way short of excellence,” Ward 6 representative Glenn Stanford said. “That’s just filling up a space.”
Stanford said the town council can’t prevent private property owners from using their land how they want, but the decision of whether to approve the zoning change to allow the storage units “seems pretty easy” for him.
Mayor John McCann, who shared his thoughts on the island’s future in an opening statement that ran as an Op-Ed in The Island Packet, said he was concerned about the deterioration of the commercial areas around the town’s planned park at the former Planter’s Row golf course.
“The commercial area in center island is crashing much bigger than we think. When we lost Stein Mart, everybody was shocked, and we couldn’t get a major tenant for Sea Turtle Marketplace. And now we hear that Sam’s is going to become a multi-storage place,” McCann said.
Other council members were more explicit in their disdain for the storage units.
Storage “does nothing for our island brand, it does nothing for our economy, and it does nothing to continue our quality of life on this island. There are certainly ... higher and better uses for that property,” Ward 4 representative Tamara Becker said.
“Just because it’s ‘OK’ by the ordinance, and it gets by the planning commission doesn’t mean it should get through this council. This council needs to be smarter than that.”
Alex Brown, who represents Ward 1, said he worried that the planning commission’s decision on the rezoning wasn’t in line with the island’s comprehensive plan. He’s been vocal about using the plan to guide policy decisions and creating workforce housing on the island.
Tax breaks for Hilton Head development?
Sam’s Club closed its Hilton Head location in January 2017, two days before it opened a store about twice as large in Bluffton Gateway next to Walmart at U.S. 278 and S.C. 46.
Although some — including members of the town’s planning commission — said anything is better than an empty commercial building on the island, the Go Store It storage facility would have been just a half-mile south of a Public Storage facility and a half-mile north of Mathews Drive Mini-Storage.
Had it been approved and opened, Go Store It would have joined nearly half a dozen storage facilities in a low-income census tract designated as an opportunity zone — a community where investors can get tax breaks for projects designed to create jobs.
Opportunity zones, legislation written by U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and adopted in 2017, are intended to bring investment and jobs to low-income communities. Storage facilities require little staffing, have a short construction timeline and therefore represent a low-risk investment opportunity.
This makes them popular in opportunity zones, even though they fuel little community revitalization.
On Hilton Head, where island character is practically required of new development, residents have already suggested other routes for the central location.
“(I) would love to see creative mixed-use affordable housing and retail space. We need to think smarter and long term. Infuse the area and breathe some life into it,” Jennifer Ericksen wrote about the project on Facebook in January. “Looks industrial & cold. We already have enough storage going in. We can do so much better!!!!”
Madison Capital Group, the investor, would not have to publicly report whether it’s taking advantage of opportunity zone tax credits.
This story was originally published February 16, 2021 at 6:04 PM.
