Hilton Head design review board sounds the alarm: Island development is out of control
The buildings going up on Hilton Head Island are getting too tall, and the island’s board in charge of reviewing the plans for new projects can’t do anything about it.
That’s the frustration of the design review board, a volunteer committee that spends hours each month reviewing qualifying development plans for island businesses. In a March letter addressed to the town’s planning commission chair and to newly minted Town Manager Marc Orlando, the board said its “hands are tied” on big development projects.
“The DRB (has) no true authority to limit the overall height or the scale of the structures,” board chairman Michael Gentemann wrote.
He pointed to four- and five-story buildings traditionally reserved for more densely developed areas. The design review board reviews only commercial development, including apartment and condo complexes, and has no jurisdiction over what Gentemann called the private “McMansions” that are being criticized in beachfront areas on the island.
The design review board, often viewed as exhaustive in its defense of “island character,” is known to spend hours discussing individual lighting fixtures, dumpster placement, awning shapes and textures of new development on the island — most recently displayed in its encyclopedic review of Sea Pines’ new plan for the Quarterdeck restaurant in Harbour Town.
In a meeting Tuesday, Gentemann and others shared their concerns about their waning ability to be a check on island development.
As the island focuses on creating workforce housing opportunities, island leaders have stressed the importance of keeping the buildings in character with the quiet and highly landscaped neighborhoods around them.
But recent housing development, both workforce and luxury, is shirking long-held island design standards like nature-blending colors and resort-like architecture, the board said.
Developers are building closer to lines that divide property in an attempt to get the most square footage out of their investments.
“At that point we can dictate colors, try to make it look nice… (ask for) more trees to hide it. That kind of thing,” Gentemann said. “If there is a way to bring down the scale,” the board would like to do it, he added.
Since the design review board has to approve projects that comply with the island’s land management ordinance and can merely make suggestions on design aspects, Gentemann said his board had no choice but to approve three specific projects it feels are obtrusive to surrounding neighborhoods:
- Apartments planned for the former Hilton Head Christian Academy site (55 Gardner Road)
- Apartments planned for Mitchelville’s beachfront
- A 132-condo development on Wimbledon Court (15 Wimbledon Court)
Upon review, Planning Commission and Land Management Ordinance Committee chair Leslie McGowan said the projects display “more of an urban character instead of an island character.”
What’s next?
As Hilton Head tries to balance its development need with the character that makes it so beloved, the design review board has a careful niche to occupy in the process.
Gentemann said his solution, although unpopular, is to bring all development on the island down by one story to make it blend in more.
In reality, the committee will need to be more diplomatic than that so as to not scare away future development so desperately needed by the island’s workforce and employers, he said.
Enough projects exist that the design review board was forced to approve, the LMO committee said, that a broader study of the issue is warranted.
The committee hopes to make recommendations for how to strengthen both the LMO and the ability of the design review board to do its job: Maintain the island’s character by approving thoughtful development.
