News Release

Hilton Head Island Town Council Adopts New Strategic Action Plan

June 7, 2023

The Hilton Head Island Town Council on Tuesday adopted a new Strategic Action Plan, an ambitious, community-focused blueprint celebrating the Island’s history, culture, environment, and social-economic diversity while addressing its most pressing needs and services for residents.

“Along with our priority-based Town Consolidated Budget, our new Strategic Action Plan defines our vision for the community over the next two fiscal years. It is purposefully aligned with the goals identified in Our Plan, the Town’s comprehensive plan, and articulates what we believe should be achieved to realize our vision for the Island,” said Town Manager Marc Orlando.

The Strategic Action Plan reaffirms the Town’s commitment to its core values and is organized around those ideals that serve as a foundation for Town initiatives. Those core values consist of the following:

• Relentless Pursuit of Excellence
• Redefining Environmental Sustainability
• Revitalizing and Modernizing the Economy
• Fostering an Inclusive Multi-dimensional Community
• Building a Connected and Collaborative Community Fabric
• Expanding to Embrace an Integrated Regional Focus
• Creating “Right-Sized” Infrastructure

“As a Town, it is essential that we move in a positive direction to enhance our quality of life. In January, the Town Council and Town staff convened for a two-day strategic planning session to set the agenda for Town government in the months ahead,” said Mayor Alan Perry. “We emerged with a wide range of strategies around which we are building concrete action plans. I’m excited to have this document as our blueprint for the next two fiscal years and look forward to working with our community to implement these strategies.”

“This Strategic Action Plan prioritizes our top initiatives and charts our course forward. We have an enthusiastic team already doing innovative work, based upon this Plan, to transform our community and deliver exceptional public service for our residents through day-to-day operations and evolving opportunities,” Orlando said.

In all, the Plan contains 54 strategies, each of which has a defined work plan that lays out the steps necessary to achieve these goals. Progress toward completion of each strategy will be measured and reported monthly on the Strategic Action Plan dashboard.

The top 15 strategies identified within the Plan include: 

1. Establishing a Growth Management Strategy to proactively protect the Island’s rich natural resources through appropriate design, regulation, and capital investment practices. 
    
2. Implementing the Workforce Housing Framework: Finding Home, which outlines the Town’s commitment to preserve and expand workforce housing options on Hilton Head Island through the adoption of four foundational pillars – community, planning, management, and revenue. 
    
3. Adopting major corridors and street enhancement policies to improve safety, beautification, and consistency in landscaping, aesthetics, pathways, intersections, roadways, transit, and wayfinding. 
    
4. Developing the William Hilton Parkway Gateway Corridor Plan.
    
5. Commencing operations of the Gullah Geechee Historic Neighborhoods Community Development Corporation to stabilize, protect, and promote historic and culturally sensitive communities on Hilton Head Island. 
    
6. Identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of Hilton Head Island resiliency and establishing an Island resiliency plan to protect the Island’s infrastructure and developed areas against future storms and potential sea level rise. 
    
7. Implementing the Capital Improvement Program, the Town’s five-year program for planning capital improvement needs identified in the comprehensive plan and other adopted Town plans. 
    
8. Updating the Town’s Land Acquisition Manual to better align with existing practices, processes, and policies regarding land purchases. 
    
9. Conducting a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis of Hilton Head Island Solid Waste and Recycling. 
    
10. Implementing the Destination Marketing Organization marketing plan and measuring performance. 
     
11. Assessing alternative revenue sources and funding opportunities to support the long-term financial stability of the Town.
     
12. Implementing the short-term rental assessment and program to better understand, plan, and manage short-term rentals within the Town. 
     
13. Completing the implementation of the Gullah Geechee Task Force Work Plan.
     
14. Facilitating relocation of the historic St. James Baptist Church to mitigate impacts generated by airport operations and corresponding safety concerns.
     
15. Implementing beach park enhancements to maintain the Town’s 12-plus miles of pristine beaches and ensure the public experiences a safe and consistently memorable day during their beach visits. 

The remaining 39 strategies identified within the Plan include a variety of initiatives to further support and advance the Town’s core values.

Next Steps

The complete Strategic Action Plan is available here. The public can also follow monthly updates through the Strategic Action Plan Dashboard. In August, the Town Council will host a public workshop to review the status and implementation of its adopted strategies.

For more information about the Town of Hilton Head Island, visit hiltonheadislandsc.gov. Follow us on social to keep up with the latest news: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.