Hilton Head Island planning commission initiates Holiday Homes overlay after residents cite oversized houses

The Town of Hilton Head Island Planning Commission voted unanimously to initiate a text amendment to the Land Management Ordinance to create a revised Holiday Homes protective overlay, after residents told the commission existing safeguards have failed to prevent construction of ‘detrimentally oversized’ houses in the Holiday Homes neighborhood.

Rick Lawson, a Holiday Homes resident, told the commission the current protective overlay is “slightly contradictory when compared to the Holiday Homes covenants of 1957” and said residents, with help from town staff, drafted a clearer overlay that they hope the town will adopt quickly. He urged the commission to move the amendment through the process “promptly with flying colors.”

A public commenter also cited recent permitting and construction at 3537 and 39 Oleander Street as examples of the ordinance’s shortcomings, and said the town removed a covenant question from the building permit application and chose not to enforce private covenants after a Board of Zoning Appeals reversal that followed an executive session with the town…