Our lifestyle is at risk. Only the implementation of a forward-looking long-term plan will guarantee a prosperous future.

Eight months ago, 13 citizens took on the mission of defining key strategies for the future of our island. As a member of  this Mayor’s Vision Task Force, I’m not attempting here to be unbiased — nor to speak for the group as whole — but merely to give you my interpretation of the outcome:

First, I need to applaud Mayor Tom Peeples for making this happen. Second, I’d like to thank the 13 members of the Task Force for the enormous amount of work they put into this process. Special recognition needs to go to Terry Ennis, who volunteered his time and experience.

To the readers I’d like to say that this group represents a great cross-section of background and expertise. When we started this process, we had no preconceived notion what we would find or what the outcome might be. It initially seemed daunting to take on such a grand mission, but the disciplined approach led by David Ames allowed us to make important discoveries and formulate our conclusions.

Using an open-minded and holistic attitude allowed us to express our own thinking, back it up with data and go beyond the obvious. We looked forward using unconstrained long-term vision, defining how the world around is going to change. We looked into the past, specifically the development history of Hilton Head Island. We defined what makes us special, and what “quality of life” means in general and on our island. We compared how other communities have developed and implemented their own plans for the future. We defined our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and  threats. And we took all these aspects into consideration for our final outcomes.

What we didn’t do was believe that we as a group had all the answers. As a result, we put a lot of time into interacting with and surveying citizens, civic and business leaders and experts to gain a broader consensus of what could make sense — and what the community would be willing to support.

One thing we realized early is that we needed to define the core values for Hilton Head, a set of principles that would serve as a benchmark for measuring the ideas, initiatives and actions that the town and the community would take. We agreed that any future strategies needed to both strengthen what makes Hilton Head unique and make it more sustainable. Sustainability, in this instance, needed to include both the economics that afford us the lifestyle to which we have come accustomed as well as our interaction with the natural surroundings which we esteem to be our biggest asset. Another great source of strength is the intellectual base of the people that make Hilton Head special.

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One thing we did not expect to discover is the feeling that our community is at a real crossroads; recipes that have worked in the past no longer guarantee future success. It is time to rethink what has brought us to this point, and measures that need to be taken to keep and enhance it.

In more ways than one, our community is in decline and that is never a good thing. The fact that a single store is leaving The Mall At Shelter Cove doesn’t seem like much taken as a single event, but if you add up all the recent closures, suddenly you see something ailing our economy. Another loud signal is the rate of real estate foreclosures. It would be easy to simply blame the recession, and assume that once the economy recovers, everything will be fine once again. Doing that would oversimplify the matter and constitute a big mistake!

As a permanent resident, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that tourism accounts for 2/3 of our total economic output. But the number of annual visitors has been in decline for 13 years. There is a direct correlation between the number of visitors and our home values and quality of life. It became evident that almost all business, cultural and recreational activities offered on Hilton Head depend to some degree on visitor spending. Today’s guest is tomorrow’s neighbor.

Let me describe a picture: Assume that we lose the Heritage golf tournament, that we lose commercial flight service to the airport and that the Mall becomes empty. These are highly visible signals that would change the character of the island. Visitor decline would continue, and before long we would no longer be viewed as a premier place to visit, own a home, retire or start a business.

Owners of the aging infrastructure (hotels, villas, commercial buildings) would be faced with declining revenues, unable to save enough money to pay for renovations that would keep them competitive. The town would not be able to collect enough money to finance the next beach renourishment program. Selling a home — even at lower prices — would become increasingly difficult. Cultural institutions and not-for-profit entities would face increasing shortfalls. The list could go on and on, but the point is that decline affects all facets of our lives, and once it has reached a tipping point it is harder to gain back lost ground. This is obviously not a desirable scenario.

So what can be done to make Hilton Head Island a more sustainable, desirable community? In focusing on this question a few things became evident:

  • We should not assume that we are on the right path, and that as soon as the economy turns around everything will be fine.
  • Simply coming up with a few detached ideas isn’t enough. A comprehensive longterm plan needed to be established. We needed to be more proactive.
  • The community needed to recognize that we have a problem, but also an opportunity to work together towards a bigger goal that would benefit everyone.
  • We needed to establish a goal: Make Hilton Head the most desirable small town on the East Coast, relentlessly pursue this goal and settle for no compromises.
  • We needed to do a better job using our existing assets, protecting them for generations and responsibly renovating and enhancing our infrastructure.
  • We needed to leverage our core strengths and develop new ones.
  • We needed to agree on the need for rejuvenation and reinvention, which would in turn increase quality of life.
  • We needed to broaden the economic base by recognizing that our island is well-suited to support a quality-minded tourism industry, to serve as a very desirable destination for owning vacation property, to come as close as possible to a perfect retirement location and serve as a great place to headquarter a knowledge-based business.
  • We needed to recognize the effects that growth in Bluffton will have on our town, and how we can differentiate ourselves and productively co-exist.
  • We needed to realize that Hilton Head Island must be a unique place; we can’t be competitive on any level by simply being the same as other towns.

In short, these findings formed the  basis for our recommendations. A summary is provided in the following pages; the full report can be found on hiltonheadmonthly.com/vision-task-force.

In a perfect world we would see our island as we do today, but much, much better — more verdant, more accessible, more spiritual, more peaceful, more diverse, more interesting, more environmentally conscious, more in tune with its historic roots, more cultural, more united, more connected, more unique and more economically sustainable.

In short, it would clearly be the most desirable small beach community on the East Coast, and, for that matter, one of the best places to live, retire, work and visit in the world.

If these seem like empty words or lofty goals, let me assure you that in my opinion this is an obtainable goal, but it will take the considerable will of all the citizens. It will take vision and leadership on all levels: civic, business, cultural and political. We have a unique opportunity if we can muster the courage to unleash the potential that lies within the geographic boundaries of our island. We can make Hilton Head Island a better place, let’s start today by supporting the measures the Mayor’s Vision Task Force is recommending!

MAYOR’S TASK FORCE FOR THE ISLAND’S FUTURE (.pdf)

E-mail your thoughts to Marc at mfrey@freymedia.com; or comment at www.hiltonheadmonthly.com/blogs