Board Update #73
by
Jerry McQuaid

If you missed the Forum Club Meeting this morning, I'll briefly summarize what took place.  Recall that the subject was the proposed student housing and, specifically, how the Sun City Hilton head Community could make its view known to the appropriate governmental units who are part of the development approval process.

First of all, Al Reuben, as moderator, presented an outstanding summary of what has gone on so far.  I won't try to reiterate this because we have dealt with the history of this issue in previous Board Updates.  Suffice it to say that D. R. Horton Co. has, so far, been unsuccessful in securing the necessary change in zoning required for them to move directly ahead in building student housing on property in close proximity to Sun City Hilton Head.

The heart of the agenda today was a presentation by Margaret Griffin and Peter Lamb, both members of the Beaufort County Council.  They presented the various processes that are followed by developers who wish to undertake a project in Beaufort County.  It's a tortured process and it involves many steps and many county committees and other groups.  Here is what we learned:

1.  If the zoning is already compatible with what the developer wants to do, there are relatively few opportunities for the public to be heard.  There are some, but not many.  However, that is not the case for the student housing project.  Current zoning is not compatible with what they want to do.

2.  If the current zoning does not support the proposed development, there are many more steps in the process and he delineated them for us.  Peter Lamb's point was that the residents of Sun City need to show up, stand up and speak up at every step in the review process.  It is extremely important that the residents get prepared to say what is satisfactory to them as well as what is not.  He said that a statement from the Board of Directors of the Community Association would be valuable, but, again, cautioned that it would carry more weight if we could state what we want.

3.  He pointed out the role of Development Agreements and the fact that a Planned Unit Development was, in fact, really another form of zoning classification, which specifically listed what kind of development was forbidden.

What did we learn?  I believe that there will be student housing built.  Our job is to see that we get the maximum degree of protection to our lifestyle as possible.  That means that we have to get organized.  We have to get our Government and Business Affairs Committee properly staffed and up and running.  The Board of Directors has to take a leadership role in helping the community reach consensus on just what is acceptable to us because simply opposing the project won't be effective with the county leadership.  We have to decide what is and is not acceptable.  Most importantly, we learned that we have power.  That means when we ask the residents to drive to Beaufort and fill up a hearing room, you have to be ready to go.  We, the resident board members, provide the leadership and you, the residents, provide the muscle.  Together, we can see that we don't get bulldozed into something we can't live with.

Thanks to the Forum Club for providing the venue for this critical meeting.  Thanks to our County representatives for helping us to understand the process.  Thanks to the residents of Willowbrook and Palmetto Place for showing up, standing up and speaking up in the early going.  Thanks for Al Reuben for some very visible leadership.

Stay tuned, we're going to need you.

Jerry