We have a long history of being a CAN DO community. Here a few examples:

For centuries, our Gullah community has protected our Island’s land, water and trees while also providing for their families and creating real community.

Then 70 years ago, the modern era of development began, and those developer families showed us and the world how Hilton Head Island creatively does beautiful, livable, sustainable communities.

And in the 1980s, we formed a town government to protect our island from excessive development. And in recent decades, our CAN DO community voted repeatedly to set aside land that needed to be preserved, and we boldly funded regular beach renourishment. And in the 1990s, we built the Cross Island – a CAN DO move to resolve our traffic crisis.

All those great initiatives are evidence that we as a community, and even as a limited-service government, know when to step up and do the right thing with bold, creative, environmentally sensitive solutions to a crisis.

Now we are in a community crisis that makes those previous crises pale in comparison – how will we keep our reliable, available, sustainable, essential workforce here? The threats are formidable: the commutes are untenable, and there are thousands of new well-paying jobs springing up off-island every year. Here’s just one example of many:

The Hyundai automobile plant has just opened west of Savannah. In the next six years, they will be employing 8,000 workers, along with another 7,000 workers in nearby support jobs. That adds up to more workers than come across our failing bridges every day. And the Hyundai plant average wages will be substantially higher than we pay our employees on HHI. And the commute from Hardeeville to that plant is shorter than the commute to our Island. You know where many of those employees will choose to go.

So how are we doing on creating solutions to these existential problems?  So far, we have a bridge that can’t get full funding, and a small handful of new housing possibilities. Pretty soon, our residents might start to think we are a CAN’T DO community, instead of the CAN DO community we have always been. I believe we can turn that around and do the right things for the vibrant future of our island – but it can’t wait any longer. The necessary solutions require political courage, action on multiple fronts, bold intelligent plans, meaningful budget allocations, and urgent decisions. Let’s start now.