Planning commission delays Northpointe workforce-housing zoning change after extensive public comment

The Hilton Head Island Planning Commission on Monday postponed action on a zoning-map amendment and related Land Management Ordinance (LMO) text changes that would permit new construction of workforce housing in the Medical District for the Northpointe/Palmetto Headlands parcels owned by Novant Health.

Ben Brown, the town's director of strategic initiatives, told commissioners the proposal must be considered as a pair: staff recommended keeping the text amendment and the zoning-map amendment (ZMA) tied together and asked the commission to delay final action on the ZMA until the September meeting so the applicant can provide additional design standards and infrastructure details. "We have to amend the text and then we have to amend the map," Brown said, and described the staff-recommended density calibration for this site as "10 units per acre." He said the change would allow workforce housing construction on the roughly 12'.6 acres under review only if the accompanying ZMA is approved.

Developer representatives and partners presented the concept plan and affordability commitments. Keith Kostrowski of the development team described the intended program as workforce housing and said the team is proposing roughly 126 units on 12.6 acres and "we have made the commitment for 30 of those units to be at or below the 80% AMI level." Novant Health's Joel Taylor said the project is one private response to local staffing shortages, adding, "we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 vacancies today." CCDC's vice chair Dave Wetmore said the community nonprofit would manage the property and described a 99'year deed restriction model his group uses to preserve workforce units.

Residents from the adjacent Crooked Pond neighborhood and representatives from Hilton Head Plantation pressed the commission for more detail and stronger mitigation. Speakers cited building height, the "loom" effect of three'story structures, proximity of parking and pools to private yards, adequacy of a proposed 6'foot buffer/fence, potential flooding and stormwater impacts, and traffic at nearby intersections. "They're putting all 126 on 5 acres," Crooked Pond treasurer Suzanne McClure said, echoing residents' questions about how unit counts relate to developable acreage. Ron Zamuda, president of the Crooked Pond Association, urged keeping the parcels commercial rather than rezoning them to residential.

Commissioners pressed staff and applicants on wetlands delineation, developable acreage, drainage studies, parking counts and the specifics of local-worker preference and occupancy verification. After discussion the commission voted unanimously to postpone the ZMA and keep the public hearing open until the September meeting (the applicant and staff will supply additional materials in advance of that meeting).

What happens next: The applicant will provide more detailed site engineering (drainage, percolation tests), design elevations and buffer/landscape plans for the PD2 overlay; staff will prepare a formal recommendation for the September hearing. The public hearing remains open and the commission may take up the text amendment and ZMA together at the resumed hearing.