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Planning Commission forwards five-year CIP to Town Council, urges clearer scoring and flags Spanish Wells corridor
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Summary
The commission unanimously voted to forward the town's five-year Capital Improvement Program (CIP) to Town Council with a notation highlighting Spanish Wells corridor concerns and called on staff to connect projects to scoring criteria and KPIs to help prioritize roughly 80 candidate projects.
The Town of Hilton Head Island Planning Commission voted unanimously to forward the town's five-year Capital Improvement Program (CIP) to Town Council with an added notation calling attention to the Spanish Wells corridor and related quarter-area projects.
Don De Adam, the town's public projects director, presented a one-year snapshot drawn from the 5-year rolling plan and highlighted near-term items including beach renourishment and follow-up sand-fencing, Islander's Beach Park (construction-ready in the coming year), pathway projects on Jonesville Road and Lagoon Road, South Forest Beach Drive Pathway moving to construction, several roadway priorities (including Northpointe USPS site improvements and Sea Pine Circle), corridor projects such as Gumtree, Squire/Pope and Spanish Wells, multiple park projects (Barker Field complete; Patterson Family Park and Taylor Family Park moving forward), and investments in pump stations and stormwater infrastructure.
"We have a 5 year rolling plan, and then what you're going to see today in the packet is just a snapshot of the one year," De Adam told the commission, noting that project timing depends on available funds and staff capacity. He also said the town has coordinated with SCDOT on corridor work and that a separate SCDOT bridge project is expected to align in the 2031 timeframe.
Several commissioners pushed staff for clearer prioritization criteria. One commissioner said the roughly 80 items on the list make it difficult to evaluate importance without a visible scoring methodology tied to safety, funding or regulatory drivers. De Adam responded that KPIs and scoring criteria are still being developed and said staff would start to connect those criteria to project scopes as the program matures.
Commissioner Cortez raised a detailed safety and congestion concern about item #53 (the Spanish Wells / 278 / Old Wild Horse intersection), calling it "the worst intersection on the island" and urging short-term enforcement and signage as well as longer-term design changes to add turning capacity. De Adam acknowledged the corridor is a priority and said a council workshop scheduled for the 28th will present concepts and further detail.
Commissioner Whaley moved to forward the CIP to the appropriate Town Council groups with a notation about the Spanish Wells and quarter-area concerns; the motion was seconded (the chair later identified the second as Commissioner Hewlett) and passed unanimously.
The commission asked staff to provide clearer linkage between each priority and the commission's KPIs or scoring criteria in subsequent materials and to include cost estimates and funding sources where available before council consideration.
