Board of Zoning Appeals - Regular Meeting

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Microphone 7. Deis microphone 7. Deis. Microphone 6. Chair mic five microphone five vice chair microphone four confirming four thank you microphone 3 confirming three deis mic two mic two last one deis microphone on.

2:00 and we'll call this meeting to order. If you could join me in a pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Uh adopt an adoption of the agenda. Um does staff have any changes to the agenda that was passed out this week?

No changes. Uh commissioners, everybody good with the agenda? All right. agendas um as presented. Um next, may I have a motion to approve the minutes of the September 17th uh planning commission meeting? Second and second. Uh any discussion? Everything good? All in favor? Raise your right hand. Okay, the minutes are approved. Okay, we are at unfinished business. And this will be a text amendment. Uh this item requires that the planning commission make a recommendation to town council. Uh this is item 5A on your agenda. It's a public hearing for consideration of an ordinance of the town of Hilton Head Island to amend title 16 of the municipal code, the land management ordinance to amend section 163 105H, 164 102A6, 164105, and 16-4-102 B1 to allow residential workforce housing within the medical zoning district. At this point, we'll open it to a public hearing and invite Michelle Mueller, community planning manager for a presentation.

Yes. Uh, good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, planning commissioners. Thank you so much for having me today and for the opportunity to present this text amendment. Can everybody hear me? Okay.

Okay. Fantastic. Um to kick things off, I will be presenting the first of two related items. The first item is a public hearing which will initiate the text amendment as it is currently read. The workforce housing is only allowed in the medical district when it's a commercial conversion. In order to allow for the construction of new workforce housing within the medical district, we must present an amendment to the text. Following my presentation, there will be another public hearing which initiates the request for a zoning map amendment um to modify and to update the PD2 master plan. This presentation will be given by my colleague Michael Connelly. These two applications are interdependent. The text amendment must be considered first and then the zoning map amendment is contingent upon its adoption. The purpose of the text amendment today um is to allow for the construction of new workforce housing in the medical district. The applicant in this case, Abode Development, is partnering with Novant Health and the Coastal Community Development Corporation or the CCDC um to construct workforce housing on previously developed land. The land is currently owned by the hospital, Novant Health, and is immediately adjacent to the hospital where these properties and proposed development will take place. This newly constructed workforce housing would serve healthcare staff, first responders, and other essential workers on Hilton Head Island. All right, here's a map of the properties we are discussing today, indicated by the red arrows um on the map. And to further orient you to the properties in question, the proposed development is highlighted by the green star. Uh we have the hospital to the northeast, Main Street to the south, Hilton Head Plantation to the west, and Hospital Center Boulevard to the east. For the coffee lovers in the room, I

have also indicated Origin Coffee with the yellow star. Uh and for those who have been there along with the Hilton Head Island Library with the blue star, I found it helpful. Um, here's a picture of the subject properties that we are discussing today. As you can see, the existing buildings are old, vacant, neglected, and uh, vegetation and mold are growing all over the structural elements. On this slide, we are going to begin to review the specific sections of the text that will be updated by this amendment. To kick things off, we have 163105 section H. Under the current LMO, as mentioned earlier, workforce housing is only allowed in the medical district when it is part of the commercial conversion project. As you can see here, the updated or amended text is reflected on the shot the slide shown. More specifically, the proposed text amendment language would amend the medical district standards to allow for workforce housing as a permitted residential use, establish qualification standards, and apply workforce housing program requirements such as no short-term rentals, affordability covenants, deeds and restrictions along with maintenance agreements. This is also section 163105 H where the text amendment speaks to the newly allowable density which would be 10 dwelling you dwelling units per acre. Here's another section of the text which will be amended. Um section 164102 establishing multif family as an allowable use in the medical district. This slide illustrates in section 164102

um changes to workforce housing in the medical district. And furthermore, this slide illustrates where in the code changes will be made to section 4 section section 164102B. Here we have an additional update to the text where we are changing the code to allow for workforce housing in the medical district. And apologies for the graininess of this slide, but it is highlighting the workforce housing section of the text um that discusses workforce housing in the medical district. Okay. This slide outlines the review standards that the planning commission's recommendation shall be based upon. Section 162103B3 goes over the text amendment review standards. Based upon these findings, planning commission has the following options when considering a text amendment. To recommend approval to town council, recommend denial to t town town council. and to recommend approval with conditions to town council. And depending on the modification or request change from the commission, if there is one, the applicant is here and can speak to those as needed. Town staff has found that the proposed text amendment aligns with the review criteria as they support the economic growth and housing goals of the comprehensive plan. They respond to changing conditions by aligning development requirements with strategic objectives. They address a demonstrated community need for workforce housing. They uphold the intent of zoning regulations by allowing reasonable limited increases in residential density when consistent with town goals. And they ensure workforce housing

development in the medical district is appropriate with compatible locations. Here's another look at the location map once more. Um, just to revisit it, I thought it would be a good idea to take another look at its proximity to the hospital. Um, in total, the properties we are talking about today cover a little over 12 and a half acres. They are located along Bethea Drive and Lamont Drive. Currently, these parcels share the same zoning. They all have the same base zoning district, the medical use district. They are also within the PD2 overlay. To clarify for the public, the PD2 overlay simply refers to an additional layer of restrictions or requirements for the subject properties. These parcels were originally planned for medical related uses under the 1988 PD2 master plan. Several on-site buildings are now vacant or deteriorated, as you saw, and the hospital campus no longer utilizes them. In July 2025, the applicant requested a text amendment to allow for newly constructed workforce housing in the medical district to support the essential workers and healthcare employees. That request was unanimously approved by you all. Therefore, both a text amendment and a zoning map amendment are needed. I believe this slide helps to not only set the table for item 6A on the agenda, the first item for new business, but it also gives you a good idea of how close in proximity this proposed development um would put potential workforce to the hospital, to the surrounding medical facilities along Main Street, and on Hospital Center Boulevard, not to mention the countless other employers within the area who stand to benefit from housing their workforce at this location.

Land Management Ordinance Section 162 10382D states that the planning commission's recommendation shall be based on the standards in section in the section I just mentioned. Text amendment review standards. The planning commission has the following options when considering this text amendment. To recommend approval to town council, recommend denial to town council. Recommend approval with conditions to town council. or postpone action until a specific date and time. Staff recommends that the planning commission review the application and forward a recommendation to town council based on the findings of fact. Are there any questions that I can help answer before a vote is taken?

Yes. Michelle, just just to clarify, the text amendment would apply across the med district or just to these is this change global to the med district zoning for other locations on this campus or is it specific to these three parcels? I believe this is uh changing the medical district zoning. It's a global change to the Z, not the map, but the language relative to zoning for the entire med district to allow new construction of workforce housing. That is correct.

The only caveat is that it must be part of a plan development to district, which the subject property is here in the medical district. There are no other plan to developments currently. Thank you.

Um, since this is unfinished business, I'm going to ask if the applicants might hold off their presentation, if any, for the zoning amendment. So, at this time, I'd like to invite the public comment uh for this for this section of the agenda. Is there anyone from the public that would like to talk to this? No. hearing. None. I'll close the public hearing and I'll bring it back up here. Oh, I didn't see uh is this the only discussion about this project?

There'll be uh in new business uh section 6A. We'll be talking about the zoning map amendment. This is just the uh text amendment to the LMO. Would you like to just wait for that? I'll wait. Okay. Any any Peter would you like to talk to the text amendment?

State your name.

Yeah. For the record, Peter Christian, general manager of Hilton Head Plantation. Besides me is Margie Legoy is the president of the Hilton Head Plantation board of directors. And just a couple of comments. I'm I'm may be in in the wrong place, but I wanted to get these on on the on the record. Um I've been in your place. Um I spent seven years on the on the planning commission and you know know that these are are tough decisions. We have a need for workforce housing on the island and fortunately and unfortunately many of the places where this is appropriate or maybe not appropriate are next to already established neighborhoods. So it's it's difficult because people are going to get uneasy about new development or changes that may affect their neighborhood. The developer for this project has been very very open, has met with our board of directors, our executive committee, and members of the community in a in public meetings to get feedback from the community. And I know the design is not on the agenda today, but the design is what is important to the people that live adjacent to this proposed change. and they have made many many changes to their original plans and scaled it down, scaled it back, adjusted parking, adjusted lighting um to accommodate and allay a lot of the concerns that the local community had. Workforce housing, transportation improvements, as well as wages are all part of a three-legged stool that we need to attract folks to work here. I'm an employer. I employ over a hundred

people. And just last week, I had someone come to me and say, "Peter, I can't do it anymore. I can't come over the bridge." And I'm I love working here. I enjoy the people, but I just can't afford to spend two hours on the bridge to come over to work. And that has been a concern of mine. It has been a concern of many of the employers on the island. And this is an opportunity to help alleviate that. This is targeting that very, very population. The hospital right now, I understand, has an entire floor that is not in service. simply because they don't have enough nurses to staff it. And this would go a long way to bring that about. People often talk about the care that we have for medical on the island. And one of the reasons we don't have the care that people want to expect is because we just can't afford to have the folks here. you know, I was treated um for a medical condition and the doctors rotated every every week because they couldn't get a full-time physician um to to live here. And you know, these are all aspects of this. So, um it's very very important. Our board voted unanimously to support this with the proposed concessions that have been made by the developer. So, please when you listen to the developer, keep in mind and I think he'll bring to to your attention all the various things that he has done to help alleviate some of the concerns um of the property owners adjacent to the property. But that this workforce housing is a much needed addition to our island. And I thank you for your time and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank Thank you both very much. Thank you. Any other public comments? Seeing none, we will uh again close the public hearing and and bring it back up to the disas uh commissioners. Do you have any questions, comments? Commissioner Whe

Thank you, Chairman. Um, so in followup to the question that was posed earlier, can you bring up the map and of all the medical district and show I'm still not clear in my head what is affected by workforce this workforce housing text amendment and what is excluded from it in the medical district. So if you could bring up a map and walk us through that because I'm not visualizing that. I will have to fast forward to my colleagueu's section of presentation because his map shows the zoning district. Um or we can just wait until his vote on this unless I understand that.

So if we pull up, sorry to dip into your presentation. Um so we have a zoning map in front of us right here. You have the islandwide on the left. The medical district is indicated by the brown little pie shape here. Uh and then we also have the PD2 master plan which is indicated by the orange pie shape on the right hand map. Uh we have a enlarged section here and Michael you can probably speak to these maps a little bit better than I can. Um, but here are the current uses that are allowed on the uh PDG master plan. And does this answer your question or are you

Yeah. So my question is now now that I've seen the map and that's very helpful. I appreciate that. Thank you. Um, the salmon color is where Novant is proposing the building. Correct. Correct. Okay. Is it also true to say that anything else in this triangle PD2 could become workforce housing in the future or is there a minimum acreage that's required because the no vent lot is a good size? I think Shay's touched on that. Go ahead.

Good afternoon. Uh for the record, I'm Michael Thomas, senior planner. I'll be speaking to you a little bit later on about uh these illustrations and how they relate to the zoning map amendment. Um so to answer your your initial question, it sounded like you wanted to know about the text amendment and how that applies to um your question with a global perspective. So um Michelle had that image up. Where was it? It was before

before. Okay. So on the right hand side you will see the PD2 overlays. The zones those uh orange blocks are the PD2s. This text amendment enables um workforce housing multif family in the PD2 overlays. So I hope that helps give you a global perspective. Now again this is just with the medical district the medical district zones that are underneath those PD2 overlays. So the overlays go on top of the zones and we can see on the left hand side the town's zoning map. Uh the medical is where is it?

The only Yeah. So it's the brown color. So when you put these two maps together with the PD2 overlay on top of the medical zoning, those would be the only parcels affected. Those will be the only areas. So if you can go back to the PD2 map, please. No, the one you showed before. Yeah, you were going the right way. Okay, this one. So again, my question is

aside from where the proposed Novant multif family housing is, as indicated by the salmon color, it looks salmon to me. My question is, so anywhere in this PD2 footprint, is the underlying land eligible to have another developer or even Novant come back and and suggest workforce housing within this footprint regardless of what's there now because there is stuff there now. So the answer is no. And and that's why we're here today is because the overlay restricts that. So, when we talk more about the zoning, okay,

um, every PD2 overlay is broken up into individual segments. Okay, I'm trying to stay away from the word parcel, but it looks kind of similar to this. And each of those segments areas have allowable uses that were approved in the master plan. So, this overlay does not fit the multif family workforce housing use, which is why we're going to be talking about the zoning map. So, we're going to update the overlay to allow these uses to parallel to work with your text amendment so it all fits together harmoniously. Does that just I'm going to repeat back to you so I make sure I understand what I

so when I look at this map and then I look at the zoning hi and I look at the zoning later the only footprint that will permit workforce housing when we take the first decision the second decision together is the salmon colored footprint. Is that a correct statement? That is correct. Okay. So the zoning map amendment which we will hear later or right after this one will so the PD2 overlay right now as it sits does not permit any residential uses in that uh like you say little pie shape for the head palmeta headlands PD2 overlay. The zoning map amendment will allow residential uses only on the salmon colored parcels.

Can I add to that? Sure. Schaefer Schaefer R um in the medical zoning district, the amendment is targeting the full district. If a PD2 is in the district, it qualifies for new multif family housing. There is only one PD2 currently in the medical district, which is what you see on the screen. If an applicant were to come in and request a new PD2 and that were to be approved through a resoning process, there could be additional multif family housing in the medical district.

Okay. So again, let me just repeat back so I understand. The only way for any other multifamily housing to be put in this footprint is through zoning, a zoning amendment. Is that correct? Absolutely. Thank you. I appreciate that. I know it was I just could not visualize. I'm sorry. Thank you.

So, what we're doing is we're focusing on a text amendment to change uh the LMO so that uh workforce housing is permitted in the salmon. Anything else? All right. Uh can I have a motion to approve that text amendment? Yes, sir. forward to make this change.

Uh there's a motion by Commissioner Lil. Do I have a second? Commissioner Seabold. Any further discussion? All right. All in favor, raise your right hand. Opposed. That's unanimous. Okay. Off to new business. Uh item 6A is a zoning map amendment. This item requires that planning commission make a recommendation to town council as well. And I will read that amendment request. It's uh ZA000010072025. a public hearing for consideration of an ordinance of the town of Hilton Head Island to amend the official zoning map with respect to the real property located at Beth Drive to amend the plan to Palmetto headlands HH hospital master plan within the plan development overlay district for Bufort County tax map parcels R5108 8 0337A 0000 and R510 00800 0337 000000 and finally R510 008 000045200 0 0 to change the allocated uses from commercial use to commercial or residential use and to provide for severability and an effective date. All right, we're going to open a public

hearing for this item and I'll invite Michael Connelly, senior planner for a presentation.

All right, thank you sir. Um, I know some of this is going to be a little redundant, but uh just for the sake of the public, uh, the applicant is asking to add multif family and workforce housing as allowable uses on about 12 and a half acres on Bethea Drive. And the PD2 master plan that we were discussing earlier only allows medical uses. The proposed development is called Night and Gale Commons. It includes 114 mixed income town homes in 12 two-story buildings. So the mix includes one, two, and threetory bedroom units. And the project also includes a pavilion, community wellness, amenity center, and a pool. Um, excuse me. So, I'd like to take a moment, if it's okay, uh, with you, chair, just to briefly explain what a PB2 overlay is. Um, especially for members of the public who are watching online. Um, just as a refresher, so zoning comes from the town's land management ordinance or what's affectionately known as the LMO. And the LMO is based on the town's comprehensive plan. So, every property in the town has a base zoning district. In this case, the parcels that we're talking about today are all located in the medicalbased district, which is intended for related medical services and hospitals. And that's that's out of the LMO based on the comprehensive plan. So on top of base zoning, we have overlay districts, also known as PD2s, PD2 overlay district. They add additional rules and regulations on top of the base zoning. And this helps guide development in a coordinated way that allows flexibility when conditions change over time. So we can see on the right hand side the PD2 map. um that we we briefly discussed earlier, but these are PD2

overlays and some of them go over multiple zones, but the restrictions apply to everything underneath. So again, it's an overlay on top of the base zoning district. So the request today u before you from the applicant is is not to uh ask for a a change of the zoning per se but to update to amend the overlay restrictions that would uh allow workforce h workforce housing and multif family uses. Thank you. So again the three subject parcels are located off Bethea Drive. Um they're across the street from Hilton Head Hospital. They're adjacent to the Crooked Pond area of Hilton Head Plantation. And these three parcels are a part of the approved PD2 overlay plan. When the PD2 plan was approved, we will see that um at the time they were designated just for medical related uses. So that additional restriction of not allowing residential uh prevented them from doing residential there. It was it was developed um and we can see that here on this slide. So those three parcels were developed with medical uses and since then they have come to a deteriorated state and cannot be converted to residential uses. So, the applicant is proposing to demolish them and redevelop the site under the PD2 master plan. Uh, just want to make a quick note. Utilities are on the site. Obviously, with buildings, you're providing water, sewer, electricity, things like that. So, the site already has um infrastructure in place.

Though again, the applicant is requesting to add residential uses while keeping medical uses as an option in the future. So what would this amendment allow? This amendment would only change the land by allowing residential uses including multif family and workforce housing. Currently medical related uses are allowed. The applicant is proposing to keep those medical related uses in the master plan in that overlay and then to add residential uses including multif family and workforce housing. What this zoning map amendment does not do. First, this request does not approve a design or construction plans. If this amendment moves forward, the applicant must still submit a major development plan review where all engineering, drainage, tree protection, buffers, traffic, and environmental standards will be fully reviewed. Uh, this amendment does not remove the medical uses that would still be allowed in the future. This amendment simply adds residential uses. Third, the request does not change any zoning boundaries outside of specific parcels. It does not affect any zoning inside Hilton Plantation or any neighboring properties. Um, this is specific to modifying the overlay district uses, not the adjacent uses. So the applicant proposed a 114 mixed income unit master plan called Night andale Commons where 30% of the units would be reserved for households earning 80% AMI or below and the remaining units the 70% would be

serving um people between 80 to 150 AMI. Long-term affordability would be preserved through deed restrictions. And just for orientation purposes, uh, Hilton Head Hospitals on the north, so that would be on the upper right using the the compass on the bottom right. And then surrounding the wetland area, we still have medical related uses. And the upper left is the Hilton Head Plantation residential area. So this is the the master plan. And uh we can see by the amended master plan in the bottom leftand corner. Excuse me. Wrong way. If you look in the legend uh number G, letter G, development parcels, it's G1 and G2. So what that would do is that would allow parcels labeled G1 and G2 on the top to be developed with workforce housing, multif family. And no other area in that overlay would be allowed to do workforce housing or multif family. So it would just be that section up there and that's what the applicant is requesting. Staff is recommending that the planning commission review the application and forward a recommendation to town council. Um staff does have a recommendation that if you do choose to recommend it to town council to include the following condition of approval. All storm water generated on site shall be retained and managed within the project limits. No discharge shall be directed toward Hilton Head Plantation and any existing drainage issues along the common property line with Hilton Head Plantation will be resolved to the greatest extent possible.

Thank you. Okay. Um at this time, does the applicant want to add anything to that? I would like to. We would like to. I'm just going to go to the desktop. Thanks.

That's you. Perfect. Thank you, sir.

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Joel Taylor. I have the honor uh to serve as the market president for the Novant Health Hilton Head Market. And uh that really encompasses Hilton Head Hospital, Donad Medical Center, Coastal Carolina Medical Center, uh several outpatient facilities as well. Um thank you for the opportunity to speak with you all uh again on this project. I'm excited about what we have to share, but I wanted to share just a little bit about the why of this project and also appreciate what you all do and what the town staff has done. As we just heard, it's a very complex issue. what started as an idea, you know, over a year ago now has taken a lot of work and so just appreciate the investment of the the partners of this, but also the investment of town staff and you all. So, thank you very much. As you all know, workforce housing has been a persistent topic of conversation for Hilton Island for as for many years, certainly as long as I've lived in the area. Uh it is a critical challenge and with the collaboration of Novant Health, the Coastal Community Development Corporation and Abode Development, I'm proud to say we've developed a project that meets a portion of that need here on Hilton Head and specifically and especially for hospital staff. What is driving my posit my passion for this is not just a business need, but a commitment to the people who serve this island every day. Novant Health in the structure of our arrangement will secure 30% of the units that are developed, but these units are also targeting other essential workforce on the island. And my team, the team will talk more about that, but I wanted to provide some context of all of our other efforts underway to recruit and retain the best staff for your hospital. Non Health employs over

1,200 team members within our market. Approximately 550 of those individuals are dedicated to Hilton Head Medical Center and another 80 are dedicated to our urgent care on island as well as the uh numerous medical uh medical practices. Since Novant Health purchased the hospital in February of 2024, we have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to our workforce. This is really phase two of our workforce housing initiative. But inside the walls of the hospital, we've adjusted our minimum wage to $17 an hour. We have increased signon bonuses. We have further invested in our partnerships with TCL and USCB. In the last 10 months alone, we've hired over 30 new grads. Our team members received their largest merit adjustment this year in plus a 2% bonus. In short, we have never paid more to attract and retain talent than we are right now. And I recognize we're still going to have to pay more to attract and retain talent and bring people onto the island. This effort is one more piece of that three-legged stool that Peter referenced. The reality is stark right now. We have 200 open posted positions, full and part-time posted positions for the Hilton Head facilities I listed bel above. The staffing gap that we have requires an investment in and contract labor on any given day. It's 30 plus nurses, support staff to open the OS to care for people on the floors. Those people aren't members of our community. They're paid at a premium. They come and go. It is far from ideal, but we are we are focused on caring for this community in every way. But without addressing the housing issue, staffing the hospital

becomes more and more challenging. Investing in the hospital and growing the services becomes more and more challenging. So today is one more critical initiative initiative to attract and retain that staff. I mentioned that we're in phase two. I should call out that we donated $1 million to CCDC in 2024, specifically focused on their efforts around workforce housing. Several months ago, we we presented uh this idea. We listened intently to the input from the commission, town staff, and certainly the community, in particular, Hilton Head Plantation. I'm proud of the end product. Uh, we heard the feedback. We've adjusted the plan. Josh Tiller and and Alan Wolf will provide additional details there. But my last opening or closing comment is this is an investment in our hospital, but it goes beyond that as well. Um, I'm proud of this project. I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you all very much, Josh.

Thank you.

Thank you, Joel. Uh, I'm going to try to move this to a slideshow. Screen. There it goes. Chairman Hens, rest of the commission. Thanks for having us. My name is Josh Tiller with JK Tiller Associates. We're land planners out of Bluffton. Grew up on Hilton Head, so I know the area well. Um, like Joel said, we've been through a number of plans. Brian, I think it might be into the mid teens. Um we've um like uh Peter mentioned earlier, we've worked closely with the POA at Hilad Plantation um with the team and with town staff and we've we've settled on a plan I think that really um works both with what Novant needs and with what um the adjacent property owners would be happy with. And there's four highlights we'd like to mention that we've done that I guess kind of scale back the development and impact on the site. Um, one we've done, we've gone with smaller scale buildings. All those those units that you'd see that you will see along the property line with uh HNAB Plantation will be smaller in scale, no more than two stories. Um, we've got stronger buffers. a portion of the uh Hilton Head Plantation boundary buffer. We're actually going to imple have to implement a uh type C buffer which will require more enhanced buffers for anything within 50 ft of one of the existing properties over there. Um we've got enhanced buffers on the wetlands. Um at a minimum we have to meet a 35 ft average and no less than 20 ft. Um the the closest we've got with those units

is at just over 40 ft and some of them are as as high as 60 to 67 ft. So we we more than ex exceed that average and minimum buffer requirement on the um on the on the property. Um, and I think going back to uh, Commissioner Wallen's question, the highlighted area, those are the two parcels that are that will get this workforce housing. Um, so I think if if there's any future applicants, they'll they will have to come back to the commission for an amendment to this U PD2 plan. So, we're only considering these two parcels, which if you see on this slide, G is currently um G1 through9 is just the Hilton Head Hospital properties. We're only considering G1 and two for the workforce multif family component. This is the plan that's in your packet. We've done a more enhanced kind of soften color plan as part of this presentation. Um, as you'll see, these units along the PD or the Hilton Head Plantation, um, these will be the those twotory units, um, that that meet that buffer requirement. Um, this parcel here is the closest one and within 50 foot of that buff that property, we've got that enhanced type-C buffer, which will include a solid panel fence um, as part of that. And once we get a survey property line, um we'll make sure we meet that that standard along that portion of the property. Um these remaining buildings um are in keeping with the same townhouse buildings. We're all the previous plan showed some multif family buildings.

We're no longer considering that. All of these units will be townhouse units. Um, but we're not going to exceed 114 total units for the property. And we al also meet the parking requirements of 175 spaces for the property. We're also showing a an amenity site here with a swimming pool. Um, and that all backs up to this wetland area. Um, and going back to the this plan, this is that wetland area you see within the PD2 plan. Um, well, like I said, here's a table over here to the right that show shows those where we meet those uh buffer requirements off this wetland boundary, which runs right along in here. um storm water for the site will meet or exceed the uh town's requirements. And we've got our civil engineer here from W Edwards, Mr. Heath Duncan. He'd be happy to answer any questions regarding that if you have any. Um and that I think is about it. Um you all have any questions for me? I'll pass it along to Mr. Alan Wolf. um is CCDC.

Thank you.

Hello, commissioners. Alan Wolf, chairman of the board of the Coastal Community Development Corporation. Uh the CCDC has spent a few minutes in this room and happy to be back with a big project like this to talk about. Just over three years ago, uh, the CCDC was formed. And in that time, we purchased 41 units across Hilton Head and Bluffton and preserved them with a 99-year deed restriction for affordable workforce housing for our community. And during that same time period, we've received cross community support as well as cross business support. And most notably, as Joel Taylor pointed out, from Novon Health with a million-doll donation, which helped us do our work in Bluffton in buying uh 23 units out there. What was so striking in our relationship with Novon from day one is when they came to the market, they had the same long range vision that the CCDC had. We're looking 99 years and more down the pike uh with how we want to address our worked in this community. And that shared vision has allowed us to bring this opportunity uh to a sustainable workforce housing development here on Hilton Island. The unit mixes which have been spoken to by Michael earlier are listed there on the screen. Uh notably this would deliver 35 units of affordable housing meeting a max of 79.99% of area median income. So that's a rental threshold that we have to deliver 35 of the 114 units at for eternity. And then additionally there's the 30% of or excuse me onethird of the units that will be prioritized for Novon Health. I'd like to focus on that on the next slide before answering any questions. Um this is our priority list which we had blessed by fair housing law standards when we put the CCDC mission together and that was to ensure that we can prioritize workers in our work to running to residents of our our units. So in this case there's a project specific priority for Novon Health staff in which one-third of the units will be dedicated exclusively to their use whether nursing or otherwise. And then the CCDC mission priorities which are

listed on our website and have been in use since day one of our work uh follow through which is that first priority given to working households who are voluntarily or involuntarily displaced. That's really the genesis of where this idea for the CCTC came from when the Chimney Cove crisis popped up 3 years ago. And then we worked down uh for our second priority which is for workers who work at a local business where the units are located. the workers on Hilton Head that currently live on Hilton Head and want to live there will be the first priority in that case followed by workers who have a job here but don't currently live here. That's the strategy that we've deployed from the CCDC standpoint that will work so nicely here to attract new talent for healthcare and other complimentary services across the island. Uh the biggest part for the CCDC in this is that shared vision that we have with Novon Health. The fact that we're a nonprofit, we have nothing to benefit from this other than delivering units to the community is what led us to starting the housing impact fund. We're following the work of a fund in Charlotte and Charleston who have raised independent funds to own workforce housing. So, the CCDC has begun fundraising of $10 million in equity, which will allow us to be the sole owners of this project. Novon Health is donating the land to the housing impact fund as part of our part of that $10 million investment. What that means for CCDC is these units for 99 years and longer will be serving the community and there's no option for anybody else to use them for for alternate purposes. We would also act as a property management partner and happy to answer any questions uh from our team if you'all have them at this point.

Questions turn it over to the public for me or them. I Yes. Okay. Great. Um, thank you for that presentation. So, I'm a little confused. So, the CCDC rental preferences, um, how do they align with or exceed the deed restrictions, and what would be the deed restrictions?

The deed restrictions are a 99-year covenant of affordability in which the units can only be rented between 50 to 150% of area median income. That's the CCDC mission. In this project specific instance, we've got a cap of 35 units or 30% of the units being delivered at 80% max AMI. So we would have to provide for that preference as part of the town agreement for workforce housing. And beyond that, we just ensure that we we make sure workers are living in each one of these units. Okay. So when you say workers, are you um because I know when we went through North Point, that's the only frame of reference.

Sure. We focused on people who were Hilton Head employees. Now in this Novant is saying they are going to subscribe to 30% of the units. They'll have the ability to fill up to 30% meaning 70% will be filled by people who work on Hilton Head period. Not in counties, not no only to the extent that there are applicants who work on Hilton Head that are applying. They would have a priority over somebody who is an applicant from Atlanta wanting to move here. So workers on Hilton Head would have the priority in that case. And that's a a matter of fair housing law that we've worked through to make sure that we're not violating any fair housing law. I'm not sure how North Point's doing that exactly uh to avoid that, but we've been very cautious.

Okay. Could could I just ask the town attorney a question about that?

Thanks. So, a statement was just made, you know, kind of new to me, but so if we put in a deed restriction and they have this order of priority, we can't restrict it to just people who work for the hospital or people who are employed on Hilton Head. We are compelled by federal housing laws to extend it beyond Hilton Head. I have never had, excuse me, never had to get my head reeled down deep in federal housing law on this. I know that we had a lot of um as Mr. Wolf said, a lot of lot of um deep dive into that with regard to North Point. So, it worked. I mean what the covenants will do as other covenants that have already been recorded are to limit occupancy of the unit to individuals who or households whose total income does not exceed a certain level. Um beyond that and I'm deferring to Mr. Wolf on his comments about what federal housing law requires, then you would have to have to have to follow that. But um if if the intention is that an individual from some other part of the world wishes to come to Hilton Head Island and work at Novant.

I I'm not sure and they're otherwise and they're otherwise income qualified. I'm not sure why that's a problem for us. Well, it's not a I don't know if it's a problem. It's just the concept was presented to the community that we had a workforce housing problem on Hilton Head and then employ we we're trying to attract employees to Hilton Head, whether it's for Novant or for Hilton Head Plantation. And I guess it raises a concern with me about over what period of time do you apply these priorities? Do you wait until it's marketed to a certain extent in Hilton Head or are you required to market it to the broader community because of these federal housing laws which I was never aware of but

in our case we take every single application that comes through and run through this priority list. So that would be our service here for these 114 units. It's my bet as a business uh as the president of the Serge restaurant group along with fellow businesses as you just referenced that there's more than 114 uh units of demand for workforce housing. So my assumption would be that the priorities which focus on workers living on Hilton Head or workers who want to live on Hilton Head would fulfill those 114 units uh for the foreseeable future in over 99 years. I can't imagine we're going to have to work our way too far down the priority list based on the need that we see in this community. Appreciate that. Thank you. Any other before we turn? Yes, sir. Mr. Terminal.

Yeah. What what is the AMI number and is that for the county or for the island? The AMI number is $112,400 I believe and that's for a family of four in Buer County. So, it is not hyper local by municipality. It's only done by county and it's in the top 2% of AMIs in um in the United States of America. And the the lowest percentage is what 80% 60%. Well, that's actually a max. Um, the units could only be rented to a family who can afford it if their area median income is 79.99%. So, we'd have a limit on the rent that could be offered on those 30% of the units. All right. Thank you.

So, it could be rented to somebody who's earning 30% AMI, but it couldn't the rent could not exceed 80%.

At this point, I'd like to open it up to um public comment. We can come back. We can come back after public comment if that's all right. Is there anyone in the public that would like to comment? Yes, sir. Thanks for giving me the opportunity. Um, we were once again subject earlier presentation when they said there's a house that's 50 feet from the edge of the property. I'm pretty sure that's our house. um understand the greater good here. Uh we agree with probably 95 to 99% of what we heard here. It's good for the island. Makes perfect sense. We're just trying to balance that with our house and our neighborhood. We have our life savings tied up into our house. Uh we want to be this is our forever house. We want to be lifetime residents of Hilton Head. So, I'm hoping I don't think we're going to be able to do anything to keep this from happening. And it's probably again a a better thing for the entire island, but we're hoping whatever happens that they'll be good neighbors. We're getting very positive signs. I've met with folks and this new design is light years ahead of the first design. We saw the townhouse concept, the way they position the parking, uh the storm water drainage, etc. Everything is looks much more positive than we've seen before. But we're just hoping that continues forward. So, I'm hoping things simple things like when will the demo in construction begin in the morning? is am I going to wake up

to, you know, jackhammering and cranes and whatever and when's it going to finish at the end of the day? Who's going to provide security for the complex? We've talked a little bit about that and hopefully there'll be coordination with the Hilton Head Plantation security. Uh anticipated future services. We used to be years ago uh woken up by a dumpster Tuesday morning at 6:00 a.m. and we'd hear the clang clang and a beep beep of the backing up. Um it sounds like they're already looking at that too and trying to position those things further back away from Edgewood. Um and will there be a point of contact? So if there are issues, uh drainage, noise, light, etc. that we'll be able to work through or do we go through our own POA? Just some things to work out. Uh we'd like to see, you know, stay engaged to the extent possible, see their plans for additional vegetation in the buffer zone. We like that buffer zone. Uh there's quite a bit there now, uh that's already there. Uh but we'd like to see it hopefully enhanced. We'd like to still petition. I know everybody keeps saying we can't do an 8ft fence. I'd love to see an 8ft fence at least along Edgewood and there's a couple houses that back to the property. Even if you just did it in those areas, I don't know what's involved with that. If you need a letter from me or me to appear somewhere, I'm happy to do that. Um, and simple, you know, other simple things like, uh, you know, we're thinking of storm water drainage, but is there going to be insect control, etc. We don't want obviously a breeding ground right across the street. Um so again it's just we want to stay engaged. I'm a little frustrated because our it was said

earlier our POA approved but they never spoke to us. So our board I guess I need to talk to them too but and we will do so but I'm just hoping we'll stay engaged. But I'm liking I'm really liking what I'm hearing so far and just hope that it continues to be a partnership and appreciate uh everything they've done for us so far. And again, thank you. Thank you for your comments. Are there other comments from the community? Yes, sir.

Real real quick on a couple of followups for the record. Peter Christian, general manager of Hilton Implantation. The developer has agreed to work with our ARB through the plan planning phase and I know this is just to allow the zoning but they have agreed to work through our ARB on their final plans and as a gentleman indicated the developer lives in Hilton Head Plantation and I'm sure that I will have a beline from the property owners right over to Keith if there's an issue. And just to point out that everyone had their house built and during that period of time, their builder created noise. And yes, inevitably during the construction period, there will be some noise and disruption, but it will be over and it will be done. And the hardest part of this whole process is getting to this point. The construction should be easy if it's approve. It's approved. The other thing I wanted to mention is this is a a private venture. The only thing the town is contributing to this is the zoning and other areas of the country and in other projects. Local government is making a monetary donation either in land or some type of of of accommodation. In this instance, all these folks are asking for is the zoning and they're going to take it privately and build workforce housing that's going to accommodate and help the island. Thank you.

Other comments? Yes, ma'am.

Um, my name is Sue Graph. I live in Hilton Head Plantation. I live in Crooked Pond, which is the area that is most greatly going to be impacted potentially with this build. Um, I don't live on Edgewood, but I have friends throughout the whole plantation. I ride my bike. I play pickle ball. I do a lot of things, and I've just heard, I guess, just comments from people about everything that's going on on the island. So, I'm taking just a big picture viewpoint. Um, one and these things jump around, but the map I just didn't see anywhere where it showed I think there's a funeral home, Lo's funeral home that is just on the other side of the fence line of Hilton Head Plantation. Um, Crooked Ponds Recreation Area is right up against the fence line. And I've these pictures are great except I don't see a laser pointer and I've not seen anything that shows the fence line. crooked pond community and the homes that are impacted. I I have pretty good vision with my glasses, but I can't see anything that really drills down to that because that's what we need to be talking about in my in my opinion. Um I think we all agree we need workforce housing. Um but not to the detriment of the existing homes that have been there for most of them 40 years. They're some of the original homes in the plantation. Um, I think we need to be very careful as an island, all of us together, that we think that this development is going to solve all of the hiring issues because there are far bigger issues than just where to live. Um, those of you that have seen Jonesville and Spanish Wells Road, development is happening every square inch of this island. And so I think a lot of people that are nervous to come here, I'm sorry, but I think if I were a young person coming to work here, I would say when I'm off work, am I going to be able to get in restaurants? The island is really

becoming at capacity. So that's more of a big picture thinking. Um, and I think we agree that the rains, the unprecedented rains that we've been having have really impacted not just Crooked Pond, not just um, Edgewood, but the plantation as a whole. A lot of us are sort of weary of adopt a great, you know, we've we've all got flooding on a lot of the roads in the plantation, not on a hurricane occasion, but once a week in the summer when it rained, heavy rains, not so heavy rains. The grates are filling up. And I've been down um Edgewood. I live on a street that floods. I ride my bike around the plantation and the debris that's in the yard is way up in people's yards because the drainage issue is a concern. And so one thing that I feel like we need to do is make sure we leave along the fence line. And I didn't see the pictures, but we need that tall tree vegetation buffer 20 ft, 15 ft. I don't know what's reasonable, but that needs to remain so that we don't I know everybody says, "Oh, we'll take care of it." If you've got a solution, we need it in HHP. And I'm sorry, Peter, but somebody needs to invent something to help with the flooding that's going on because it's getting worse and worse with with the rains. And that is not going to go away unless we solve, you know, global warming or whatever we want to call it. Um, so I think I've talked enough, but I just wanted to kind of look at a big picture viewpoint because we're all for the same thing, but let's not destroy one little section of HHP to try to solve this and then we go, oh, well, only 20 people that work, you know, at the hospital are are living there. So, thank you.

Thank you. Other comments? Seeing none, let's turn it back to the dis here commissioners. Commissioner Deborah,

sure who might be able to answer this question, but I'm curious what the anticipated could say yearly rental income would be off of these units. Second question would be who what entity receives that rental income? uh the C the CCDC is going to be the owner through the housing impact fund uh that we've developed. So the rent will come to that special purpose entity which serves for a nonprofit purpose. Um the rental units you said the annual income I don't know off the top of my head. If you're asking for the total property annual income I can't come up with that off the top of my head. I do have a range of rents that I can speak to. 112 units. I'm just I'm curious what type of yearly rental revenue this will generate and you said CCDC is the recipient of that income.

That's exactly right. And then you have an approximate amount. You know how many units and you know how many Yeah. 114. What's the two and three bedrooms and I'm guessing what the total aggregate amount is that we're talking Yeah. So we have a a target of $325,000 of monthly rent. So, if we just took that times 12, that would give us an opportunity to come up with an annual rent, a revenue number, 8.9 million. I I'll take your word for it if you've got the calculator. Thank you. Yeah. And then we have our operating costs, financing cost, and everything else that washes out. That's exactly right. What do you anticipate CCDC would do with that

$3.9 million? And besides upkeep, obviously upkeep of the property as the landlord, that would be

the operating costs are certainly substantial in terms of security um in terms of maintenance, property maintenance, landscaping, etc. The bulk of it unfortunately gets paid to a bank who likes to collect interest because this is going to be funded like every other workforce housing or regular development project. We'll have about um 30% of of the down payment done in cash equity through our housing impact fund and then we'll have a bank note for about 70%. So the point of what's left is we hope to return a minimum of 6% as an altruistic investment payback through that housing impact fund and that's it. The rest is for keeping the rents low. There's no profit motive whatsoever for the CCDC. Never has been, never will be. Other questions?

Yeah. In terms of storm water management, u obviously you're going to create retention basins, everything else on site. Where does the rest of the runoff go? Is it heading towards North Points? Is it heading towards Great question and we spent a lot of time with Ward Edwards and I think they're here to address that today for you in particular.

Good afternoon. Heath Duncan with Ward Edwards Engineering, civil engineer um helping with the project. We've not gotten um very far into drainage design at this point, but what I can tell you is that just looking at topographic maps and GIS maps, it appears that runoff runs sort of um toward the towards the wetland area that we looked at earlier, the site that you see there today, the medical office buildings all slope. Um okay. Yeah, they al um everything that's there today slopes towards that wetland area which is towards the bottom of the page. We would um envision keeping that flow pattern the same. We would intercept it in detention ponds or some kind of storage reservoir before it goes to that wetland. And the reason we store it is we we we store the difference between what um flows off that property today and then what will flow off after we add some rooftops and paving. We have to hold that difference because we have to we can't discharge any more towards that well and then goes there today. So we we basically store the difference but that is the direction we anticipate that it will go. And then where does that end up going downstream? Is that heading into Otter Creek?

Um, I'm not sure that I know the qu the answer to that question right off hand. That that will be it it will be wherever it goes current presently and it will be at the same rate of flow that it is presently. Um, we wouldn't be altering that. Not looking for additional volume going towards No sir. We we are limited by by ordinance and by state law to discharging only at the um pre-develop or the existing rate of runoff from the property. Thank you. You're welcome.

So my concerns are not with the concept but with the execution in the sense that you have uh per the application 12 1/2 acres that you're using for your density requirements. When we changed this to a PD2, you can do 10 units per acre. The adjacent Hilton Head Plantation is three units per acre for residential, but the effective building footprint, a term we use in design and construction, is more like 5.7 acres. At 5.7 acres, you're at over 20 units per acre. You're more than double. And so my issue is not with the design, the concept, the idea of workforce housing. It's it's how dense this is in that particular piece of the parcel or property. Um I would also challenge that within the buildable footprint, you're at or above 60% impervious, certainly not over the entire parcel. Um, and so my challenge would be, is there any way to reduce the density in our proposal moving forward for this zoning change? Because to me, this this feels just way too dense for that piece of property.

Yes.

Couple thoughts from that. the original um market that you saw back in August or September was at a higher density levels at 12 units an acre. So that there has been a pullback from that. When we first started crunching the numbers, we started at 14 units per acre. Um and that's been all work with the town staff and with the community to be able to pull that scope back. I spoke to a member of the team of administration here and he pointed out that if in 1960 somebody said they wanted to build 35 units an acre and dig a hole in in the island and turn it into harbor town, they all would have looked at him like he was crazy. And I we're following that approach where there can be the right size density snuck into the island and this is a quiet corner in terms of the hospital access. It's a good fit for the island. Waterwalk is far in excess of that density. So is Aquaterara and we can find another other example. So we've we've taken meaningful steps but at some point Novant Health knows this hospital uh housing project has to be financed and we are at the floor in terms of what we believe we can do to get this thing built at 10 units an acre.

Other comments

yeah I have a comment and then I'll make a motion. Um, first of all, I want to just commend everyone. Uh, this project has been going on for a bit of time and it's been pushed back. We saw it before and we've seen it change dramatically and I think this is, uh, affordable housing or workforce housing in this case is something that is so critical for the island right now. and to see the staff, the the town, the developer, Novant, the uh principal, the community work together and make radical changes to the development to try to accommodate everybody is exactly the way these need these projects need to be uh thought through, worked through, and the extra time taken to to make it work. So, I commend everybody uh and and the CDC as well uh on on your part you played in bringing this to where it is. Um, as far as the motion, I would like to make a motion that we um approve this for submission to council uh with the uh condition and language that the staff had proposed. Um could you could you um that second part of your motion staff the staff had proposed some language of uh to be a condition uh that was uh in relation to storm water drainage.

So I was just uh upholding that uh we would include that condition uh and recommendation. That was it. I think.

Thank you. Okay, got it. All right. Is there a second of that motion? Commissioner Seabold seconds first and second. Any further discussion? Yes, Commissioner.

Um, again, it's a legal question. So, in that condition of approval, there are one, two, three, four words. I'm not sure what protections that gives to a third parties to the greatest extent possible. Could you explain that please? without repeating the words to the greatest extent possible. No. Um but what it does is means that the applicant applicant and the staff are going to work together to reduce the impact that is described in this text as as much as can be done in the context of the of the development plan. So to the satisfaction of the developer and the um owner of the property not necessarily to abing interest. Is that correct?

Well satisfaction of the applicant applicant in the town. Okay. So then I guess the question would be directed to the town. How does the town handle um any engineering? I guess with this particular condition, any engineering disagreements with respect to the storm order?

I don't think that changes at all. Most of the question, not the entire question. So, what was the remainder of the question? Well, I think the attorney sort of answered the general question, but my question was if it's to the greatest extent possible working with the town, did I get that correct, attorney? Yes.

Um, how does the town work with abudding properties or affected possibly affected properties if they disagree on the engineering solution? So, I'm I do not myself review the storm water management portion of the plan. However, there are easements and agreements that go along, especially when you're discharging into someone else's system that would have to go coincide with that review. So, if they were to determine that that uh for example, we've had a a development that proposed to tie into someone's uh system, they would not grant that easement. So they had to find another way to discharge. So there are controls in place that uh have to be reviewed with the obviously as the engineer mentioned they have to retain a certain their portion on site. They can't create any more than what's already there uh when they put the rooftop on. And then where it already flows to if it's already a system that's installed and in place obviously you would want to maintain that as where it was. Um, this one has a storm water management plan in place that was part of the overall master plan. It was not shown in this presentation. Uh, and it does show some of that directional flow. Uh, as the engineer alluded to from what I've seen, it does flow towards that uh, wetland and then into Palmeta Headlands or what was used to be Palmeta Headlands. It's Palmeta Hall now and then discharges. I don't know where it goes from there. Um, but I don't know of any that any impact on Hilton Head Plantation. That would be part of the greater overall uh plan and that's why the language is in there because right now we don't know what that looks like. There may be some connection that exists that we don't know about.

No, I I get the engineering piece. What I'm saying is if there's a disagreement over engineering, the way the attorney explained those four words to me were that the the resolution would be decided at the town level with the applicant and developer, not necessarily with a budding property owners. We would we would involve the adjacent property owner. Okay? Unless there was an ex existing easement agreement that gave them the right to go ahead and and do that then we would definitely work with that property owner to make sure that everyone so you're you qualified that now you said unless there is an existing agreement are there existing agreements with

I'm not that I'm aware of at this at the moment if there's existing agreements we can't super you know we can okay make a decision on that but you're you're stating you're not aware of any I'm not aware of I have not seen the medical property and properties. Okay. Thank you. Correct. Anyone else? Okay. Uh um

all all in favor uh raise your right hand, please. Opposed. Right. It passes 7 to two. Thank you very much. All right. Next item of new business is a public project review. So this item requires the planning commission to make a final decision on an application. So this is PPR 001 0352025 public hearing request from Neil Ike of the town of Hilton Head Island for an application for public project review for the property identified on Bufort County tax maps as parcel R550 014 0000763 0000 also identified as 30 Arrow Road for the development of a new pickle ball facility on a townowned parcel.

At this point, I'd like to uh open the public hearing and invite uh Shay Ferrar, principal planner for the presentation. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Can you hear me? Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um, today I'm presenting an application from the town of Hilton Head Island for a public project review. I Let me hold them one second until the noise clears down.

Okay,

good. Okay, thank you. um for a public project review from the town of Hilton Head Island for a new pickle ball complex located along Arrow Road. Perthing land management ordinance 162103 Q4 public project reviews are required for public projects uh to determine if the location, character, and extent of the projects are consistent with or conflicts with the plans um of the comprehensive plan for the town. The purpose of the pickle ball project is to improve recreational opportunities on Hilton Island to better align our pickle ball offerings with the current recreational trends and needs that have been expressed here on the island. Um, and to address the need for additional courts that are best-in-class facilities. Just to speak a little bit to the pickle ball uh need on the island. Um, I've taken a couple of snapshots here just from plans that are feeding into our comprehensive plan. So, in 2019, we performed a parks and recreation survey as well as in 2022. And you can see here in the Wordle, pickle ball is large, and that's because that word came up so many times in the surveys. You can see on the right side of the screen just a snapshot. It's not all of the uses, but according to users and and visitors to the island, um pickle ball ranks high above the the activities that families are engaging in here on the island. Across the island currently, this is an estimate. We have over 80 courts. Um there are only, however, 12 courts that are public courts. Six are owned by the town at the old schoolhouse park location and the other six are owned by

the island recreation center. The location of this project is along Arrow Road. So you can see here Arrow Road and Palmetto Bay Road and this is the locations of Crossings Park. So this property is part of our Crossings Park um area. Uh the particular project uh proposes a clubhouse with a players lounge and five small shelters throughout the site, 20 total courts, 105 parking spaces, storm water improvements, and a pathway connection that goes down to the Bristol Sports Arena. So for staff's review of the location, character, and extent of the project for compliance with the comprehensive plan, um the comprehensive plan supports the addition of pickle ball of a pickle ball complex on the island, um as well as the expansion of the town's pathway network. As stated here and highlighted and underlined, the town does not have a specific complex sufficient to meet the demands for the sport. So in conclusion, um relative to the location of the project, the site was identified as the best best location available uh for this opportunity based on a detailed analysis across the island. This does not exclude the construction of additional pickle ball courts in other locations. Based on staff's review of the character, the plans for this facility are on par with the other fac quality of facilities that we have and it's been designed based on the recommendations from our recreation plan. The extent of the project includes the amenities and the number of courts

that are recommended generally by our comprehensive plan. So staff believes that the application is in compliance with our comprehensive plan and recommends approval of PPR1035-2025. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have.

Let me before we uh talk amongst ourselves, let me u invite public comment on on this um proposal. Is there anyone from the public that would like to speak? Yes. Good afternoon and thank you. My name is Alex Cruden, C R Ude. I live in Se Pines and I'm speaking on behalf of the pickle ball players of Hilton Head Island. I've been president of the uh Hilton Knight Island Pickle Ball Club which had went from a little over 100 members to now over a thousand. That thousand is just made up of people who play on the few public courts administered by the Island Recre Association. It was mentioned there are 12 such courts. It should be pointed out that six of them are also basketball courts and are available only approximately 3 hours to four hours a day. So there's definitely a need for pickle ball public courts. Uh I'd be happy to answer questions from you. I can tell you that uh my colleagues and I have been working with the town various officials for uh many years now and we're extremely happy to see the design of that's currently being offered. We're happy with the location or if this comes true this would uh be the result of a a long time of dreams. So I thank you uh for your attention to this and we really commend this uh arrangement. Hope you approve it. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Yes, ma'am.

Good afternoon. I'm Beth Pro. I live at 53 Dander Court, which is the property right behind where these pickle ball courts will be adjacent to. Um just a couple quick housekeeping things. As a resident, um I've none of us received any um mailing or notification of this public hearing today. I've spoken to at least 10 people since 1:00 this afternoon when I realized it was on the agenda, and none of them had received anything. I do understand there's a billboard on Arrow Road with a QR code. However, where it's located is on a side of a road that does not have a walking path. And in order to stop, slow down, you would be doing so right on the bend of an extremely dangerous road that would cause an accident to try to get the proper information that was on that billboard. Um, we're not against the pickle ball court. We I actually we invite it. We just want to make sure that as residents of Palmetto Bay Villas that there's some consideration for the buffer and the vegetation. Currently, where these pickle ball courts are going to end is directly behind building six of our complex and it's to the pictures that appear to be in the packet. It looks like it's coming right up next to them. So, our concerns are obviously light pollution, uh, noise pollution, and access, public access that will be now coming into our property from this. um the plan did not really show any kind of fencing or if it's going to be vegetation. So, uh I guess my big point is one, there are residents that are right behind this and have the similar concerns to we just heard with the the housing and many more of us would have been here had we known that the public hearing was happening uh more so than just a few hours. So, we're also here to give our we don't want to we do want the project. We do like the idea of having pickle ball and we understand that that's land that we can't do anything with, but we would ask for some consideration for the people that are living right there. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Other public comment. Okay, I'll bring it back up to the dis commissioners. Commissioner Bo, I'm curious about the proximity to the nearest resident and the noise and the hours that this pickle ball facility would plan to be open as it affects those nearby residents and the noise. Can you address that? Um we have our uh project manager for the project here with us from our um you come up and Sure.

Good afternoon everyone. I'm Neily, senior project manager with the town's capital projects department. Uh to your point about the the nearest uh unit. So, the court one, which is the the farthest, we'll say uh west of the layout, is a little over 100 ft from the unit that this resident pointed out that was the the closest to the complex. So, our calculations that the the decibel level there will be between 45 and 70. Um, most estimates for Pokeball courts have a max decibel level of 70, which is somewhere in the neighborhood of a vacuum cleaner, traffic, a loud restaurant. I mean, we know the noise will will be an issue, but u that singular court roughly 100 ft. The majority of the courts 150 plus feet and moving, you know, farther away closer to Arrow Road as we move across the complex. What of the what of the hours of use is that in the works or has that been determined or what?

So, that's still being determined and sorry for cutting you off. That's still being determined with Island Rec who will be actually doing the programming for the space. Uh the space will have uh overhead lighting. So, um it'll probably run after sundown. That that will be their intention. Uh but that is something that we'll have to work out in partnership with the community to figure out how to best balance the playing hours for the participants and the surrounding community to not have it be too ownorous after hours. Is there anything in consideration to abate the noise? Perhaps a wall or some other noise abatement?

Yes. So, we have looked at, you know, there is a fence that encircles the entire property and um there are some options for sound attenuation blankets, things that you can sort of hang along the fence line to help capture some of that sound the same way that you would in a in a building or a space where sound dampening is an issue. Um, again, the cost of that versus the amount that it's able to actually attenuate the sound. U, that's something that we'd have have to look at is, uh, what kind of ROI we would get back on that cuz, um, it's not a confined space, so it's difficult to actually capture the sound, but we can investigate that further if we need to.

Commissioner Ker, what what's the cost of the project? So our uh engineers opinion of cost currently is somewhere between eight and $9 million. Mr. Wheeling,

this is going to be a bit so location, character, and extent. Um, this was something I didn't understand. I went back to the comprehensive master plan. So, let me just read out a couple of things, and if I'm wrong or if you've changed it, let me know. So in the master plan, it refers to the geographic placement of development within the island's districts to ensure compatibility with surrounding uses, infrastructure, and natural fe features. Location dictates allowable intensities and mitigation requirements. Does that sound familiar? Yeah. Okay. So from the comprehensive plan, goal one land use policy 1.2, two, it says developments must be located to minimize impacts on adjacent sensitive areas such as residential neighborhoods. And I understand there's 60 condo units over there or wetlands through appropriate setbacks and buffers. So I don't have enough information on the size of the setbacks or the buffers here. I have no issue with pickle ball courts. It may be the density of the pickle ball courts um uh given what's in your own plan. Um, so right now it looks like you're going with a type B buffer possibly. Probably needs to be a type A. That's a residential neighborhood back there. Uh, character again from the plan central to Hilton Head's identity. Character encompasses visual, architectural, and experential qualities that maintain the island's resort-like natural ambiance. I like that word. It is a criterion for design review, buffer adjustments, and variances. So from vision statement goal three, character means the distinctive aesthetic, cultural and environmental identity of Hilton Head characterized by low country landscapes, maritime forest buffers, which not an issue here, and harmonious development scales. All projects must enhance or

preserve the character through native plantings, contextual architecture, minimal visual intrusion. And it was emphasized in the district plans that future development shall reflect the existing character of the neighborhood with emphasis on open spaces and large tree canopies. The LMO tie-in says for buffer reductions, it's permitted only if consistent with the character of the site and surrounding areas. And this has again a residential area. So, uh character here probably justifies denser landscaping in the buffers. Um I don't know. Um and then the extent Extent describes the scale, scope, or reach of the development's impacts, including physical footprint, noise propagation right out of the plan, and visual envelope used to limit sprawl and ensure the buffer covers the full extent of any potential disturbances. Um, goal two, environment policy.22.4, impact mitigation. The measurable scope of the project's influence on adjacent properties. Resources or view sheds include the full area affected by lighting. I don't have enough information on that yet. Storm order, don't have any information on that yet. Activity levels, and we don't have any information on that. We don't know what the hours are going to be. So, mitigation must address the full extent of the impacts through proportional buffers and screenings. Since we don't have any of the information, we don't know where you guys are going with this. And since this is the place we're making the decision, I don't think right now we have enough information. Also in district planning, buffered standards purpose shall extend along the full property lines to the extent necessary to screen incompatible uses the residential back there with planting scaled to the extent of visual and auditory intrusion. Again, noise. uh the integrated concept that was put into the plan said to evaluate it based on location, compatibility, character,

the aesthetic fit and the extent where the impact radius is. Um so while I have no problem with pickle ball courts there, I don't think we have enough information personally. I'll be voting against it not because I don't want a pickle ball court there, but I don't think we have enough information to know if it uh allows it to be compatible with the adjacent use location, character, and stent. So, from findings and facts of law, um right now I don't think you've satisfied location, character, extent. Okay. Other commissioners comments.

Hi, Lisa. Sorry, who's who's going?

Commissioner Renman. Um I I don't think we should underestimate the sound. Um having done a little bit of background work on noise. Um 70 dB in a quiet neighborhood is still pretty annoying. Um even though 60 is probably human voice. So correct. Um, unless you're changing the setbacks, uh, which I don't know what options you have there. I think that that noise reduction, mitigation, whether it's a wall, whether it's screening, comes with a price, but I I I do believe that they're pretty invasive uh, at the shorter distances. Commissioner,

I share Commissioner Whe and Commissioner Redmond's thoughts. Okay. Um, I I um I I think that the key to success is is community engagement and and I'm concerned that uh Palmetto Bay Villas uh according to to one source wasn't wasn't um appraised of of this situation. It's it's really important. Um you know, sound levels are one thing, but pickle ball sound level is is altogether different. It's a pop and it's it's it's not a it's not a vacuum cleaner. It's a pop pop pop. And it's so so um it can be it can be intrusive that way. and and I feel like if if we don't engage uh Palmetto Bay Villas upfront to let them know about this project, I I feel like there could potentially be a lot of uh back-end issues. So, um I I don't know if if we um I'm I'm sure we we did the the proper notification, but it it with with only one member here and this such a a big project, I would be reticent to to support it unless I heard from I I don't know. Do they have a POA? Do we know?

Yes, sir. I can answer. I'm the POA president and I found about I I found out about this today around your time. Okay. All right. Any other discussion? I may have a motion. I'll make a motion. I make a motion we table this to another meeting till we have more information and you've had a chance to reach out to the community and give us that feedback. All right. Do I have a second? Okay. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor of that motion, raise your right hand. Opposed. All right, that motion is unanimous. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you.

All right, next up is public comment on non-aggenda items. Does anyone here in the public have have comments on non-aggenda items today? All right. Um, commission business. Uh, we have, uh, in our packet the proposed, uh, meeting schedule for 2026. Is everybody had a chance to review that? If so, I' I'd like somebody I don't know if this needs a motion or not. Does everybody good to go?

Yeah. Make a motion to adopt the proposed motion. There's a second discussion. All in favor? All right. Great. Uh, chairman's report, none. Staff reports, none. But I would like to introduce to you our new secretary, um, Lisa Swain. Thank you very much. She's the, uh, planning administrative assistant and and she's joining us as our our secretary. We're so happy to have you. Thank you very much.

And also, I don't know if uh, Zachary Gordon is is in the room. Yes, he is. Uh, please meet our new planning director for the town of Hilton Head Island, Mr. Zach Gordon. Thank you. Looking forward to working with you as well. All right. If there's no further business, I'll This is adjourned.