12/05/2025
Posting out of courtesy for Julie Lawson our Island neighbor in Holiday Homes. Her message is as follows:
Hi everyone! Julie Lawson, of Holiday Homes (upper part of Folly Field. To start off, sorry for the long post. Many of you know about how we've been battling the town to save our older, single family neighborhood, Holiday Homes. Our neighborhood was developed back in the 50s by the Hilton Head Company, mainly for their workers. My husband and I have been on HH almost 50 years, in Holiday Homes. 35 years. We have been fighting the town to make changes to our overlay, and to our protective covenants.
Our focus centers around an intended goal of preserving the unique & quaint characteristics of a beachside family-friendly neighborhood. A majority of concerned homeowner/residents in the Holiday Homes Neighborhood met and discussed these challenges and eventually initiated and signed a petition in support of discussions with the Town representative(s) in an effort to make changes necessary to the District Overlay that would strengthen the purpose of the Overlay to protect the character of the neighborhood by establishing clearer guidelines on future development in the neighborhood.
Results: Over the past 3+ months, a group of representative neighbors has met with Town representative(s) and have agreed on changes and updates to the Overlay that are in agreement with the Protective Covenants. While still ensuring private property rights and allowing for future development of all of Holiday Homes, these changes and updates will protect all homeowners from the detrimental effects of future overdevelopment that would adversely affect the character of the neighborhood. The Town has put those changes into a drafted Overlay
Some of the changes they did finally agreed to:
Specific wording in the “Applicability and Purpose” section of the Overlay that strengthens the intent to maintain the quiet, residential, historic and quant character of the neighborhood
Limiting the size of a new or renovated home to 2 1/2 stories.
Limiting the size or renovation of a new or renovated home to 3200 square feet.
Limiting the height of a new or renovated home to 30 feet.
This revised overlay will be presented in the Community Development and Public Service District committee on Dec 15th, 10 a.m -12, in the Town Chambers. Tamara Becker, our town rep, suggested that we try to get as many people in attendance to show up, even if you don't live in the neighborhood, to let the committee see Islanders support of preserving small neighborhoods and against overdevelopment (many in our neighborhood have jobs and can't attend a meeting during work hours). Many of us experienced the town meetings with the STRs, it was flooded with realtors. We would like to do the same with folks who live here and care about the overdevelopment of the island, not special interest groups. If it passes through the committee, it will then have to pass the town council, and we all know how hard this will be. But, we will not give up! If you would like to speak during this meeting and let your feelings be known about preserving HH neighborhoods, you can sign up on the town's website. Also, we are encouraging people to write an email ahead of time to the members of the CDPS committee (which Tamara heads) in support of this;
Steve Di Simone -Ward 3 - CDPSC
[email protected]
Tamara Becker - Ward 4 - CDPSC Chair
[email protected]
Steve Alfred - Ward 5 - CDPSC
[email protected]
Town Reps:
Marc Orlando - Town Manager
[email protected]
Shawn Leininger - Deputy Town Manager
[email protected]
Once again, sorry for the long post. If you would like more info, the proposed overlay, etc, please let me know!
