News Release

Strategic Action Plan Update: Managing Growth

October 13, 2025

The Town of Hilton Head Island is committed to protecting the Island’s natural beauty, cultural heritage, and community character. By carefully shaping how and where development occurs, we ensure that Hilton Head Island remains a place where residents, businesses, and visitors can enjoy a high quality of life.

With the adoption of the Strategic Action Plan Fiscal Years 2026–2028, Town Council has reaffirmed its commitment to thoughtfully managing growth as the community’s top priority. The plan reflects residents’ vision for preserving the island’s unique character, protecting the natural environment, and ensuring future development enhances the quality of life and sense of place that make our community special. We encourage you to learn more about the Town’s new Strategic Action Plan: https://hiltonheadislandsc.gov/strategicplan/

The following information highlights the significant progress made to date and underscores how the Town is enabling long-term and balanced solutions to this multi-faceted issue of managing growth.

Land Acquisition

Since 2023, the Town has acquired 14 properties and is finalizing the acquisition of an additional six properties. In total, these properties will encompass 71 acres.  These investments, totaling $44,648,275, support conservation, growth management, public access, strategic redevelopment, and potential workforce housing. More than 33% of that purchase price, or $14,781,000, was funded through grants from the Beaufort County Green Space Program (BCGSP). The BCGSP’s purpose is to protect land from new or redevelopment and return it to its natural state. The acquired properties were entitled to have 424 dwelling units and 106 hotel rooms or time-share units and accounted for 37,000 square feet of restaurant and office space.

Looking back to the time of the Town’s incorporation demonstrates the ongoing and lasting desire to ensure alignment with the core values of the Island now. The land acquisition program began in 1988 with its initial purchase of the Coligny Parking Lot property and continues today. Over time, the Town funded these purchases through a variety of sources including the Real Estate Transfer Fee, BCGSP, Tax Increment Financing, State and Local Accommodations Taxes, Beach Preservation Fee, Community Development Block Grants, Land Exchange Agreements, Donations, Issued Bonds, Capital Improvement Program Funds, Stormwater Utility Fund, revenue from land sales, and the General Fund.

As a result of its long-standing land acquisition program, the Town has:

• Purchased 1,350 acres of land within 167 parcels.
• Precluded 4.88 million square feet of commercial development.
• Precluded 1,956 hotel rooms.
• Precluded 5,033 residential and time-share units.
• Precluded 45,457 afternoon peak-hour driving trips.

Stakeholders are encouraged to review the Town-owned Land Map. Please note that within the Town-owned property dashboard and map, land entries are based on parcel numbers and individual property acquisitions may consist of numerous parcels.

Land Management Ordinance (LMO) and Municipal Code

The Town is currently rewriting the Land Management Ordinance (LMO) to better align it with growth management goals and objectives of the Island today, namely, to reflect evolving community needs, respond to changing development patterns, and incorporate best practices in modern land use regulation.

Given the complexity of the LMO, transparency and broad stakeholder participation are essential. In support of this effort, at their meeting on Sept. 16, Town Council voted to establish a LMO Task Force. This group will be appointed by Town Council and consist of a cross section of stakeholders including residents, industry experts, elected officials, community leaders, and community general managers. The task force will make recommendations to Town staff, the Planning Commission, and Town Council, ensuring that ordinance revisions strike a balance across community character, economic vitality, and environmental stewardship.

In the meantime, it’s important to note that various LMO and municipal code amendments adopted to date and during the past 18 months already position the Town to better regulate growth and enforce the rules governing it. Since 2023, the Town has taken the following actions:

• Limited ability to obtain variances to certain requirements. Eliminated the ability to obtain a variance to use, density or height regulations for properties.
• Permitted outdoor bike storage. Allowed outdoor screened bike storage in the Light Commercial and Community Commercial zoning districts and provided more specificity related to screening to support pedestrian mobility and compatibility with surrounding properties.
• Clarified manufacturing use standards. Provided clarification in the manufacturing use definition as it relates to the size of a brewery, supporting small business opportunities.
• Amended traffic reporting. Replaced using annual June traffic counts with annual July traffic counts for Traffic Impact Analysis Plan Standards, ensuring the peak travel season was used for traffic analyses.
• Amended Transportation Impact Analysis requirements. Modified thresholds for when a traffic impact analysis is required, ensured the plan examines roads, paths, and public transit, and provided for more comprehensive analysis and mitigation of impacts at all impacted intersections.
• Amended sign standards for changeable copy. Amended the definition of changeable copy to allow signs to be changed electronically with limitations on frequency and timing, i.e. gas station pricing signage.
• Amended height calculation. Amended the measurement for height calculation to account for flood risk for homes and businesses.
• Amended the subdivision amendment process. Required a public hearing at the Planning Commission for major subdivision amendments.
• Amended the Forest Beach Overlay District. Established the Forest Beach Floor Area Ratio to address single-family mass and scale in the Forest Beach Neighborhood Character Overlay District. The overlay seeks to protect the single-family residential character of the area and regulates development and redevelopment to prevent overcrowding and maintain the community’s residential character.
• Established construction site management standards. Created new on-site regulations and standards to enhance accountability and reduce off-site impacts during active construction. For example, construction activities must follow existing noise limits and approved operating hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., excluding Sundays, New Year’s, Thanksgiving, and Christmas days. All sites must comply with stormwater discharge permits to prevent pollution, a trash and debris disposal plan with a schedule for clean-up, and restrictions on oversized vehicles to approved streets only.
• Amended tree protection standards. Increased preservation of trees, enhanced planting requirements with larger tree diameters and heights, and eliminated exceptions to specimen tree preservation.
• Amended common open space requirements. Enhanced definition and requirements for common open space in subdivisions to ensure shared areas remain functional, well-integrated and accessible.
• Amended to require public review of major subdivisions & development plan reviews. Added public hearing requirements to promote transparency and community input with the Planning Commission.

These actions were taken while the LMO re-write process is underway. An initial draft of the revised LMO is expected on or before December 31, 2025, and its delivery will start a public review and feedback process early in 2026.

In addition, the Town also recently took the following actions related to the Municipal Code:

• Amended noise regulations to align with Planned Developments. Developed new standards to only allow commercial construction and landscaping work from 7 a.m. – 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday excluding Sundays, New Year’s, Thanksgiving, and Christmas days further aligning the Town’s regulations with those enforced within the planned unit developments (PUDs).
• Amended beach parking regulations and implemented a new beach parking program. Implemented a beach parking management program to ensure accountability and accessibility to the public beach parks.
• Amended to establish regulations for the removal of abandoned boats. Established regulations for processing and removing abandoned boats from local waterways. Eleven boats have been removed to date.
• Amended to provide for the issuance of administrative citations. To enhance enforcement of certain Town regulations, the Town created an administrative citation process for parking and short-term rental enforcement.