Faces of progress. What lies in store for 2024? We asked the town and city managers of the Lowcountry for the big projects on the horizon.

STORY BY BARRY KAUFMAN + PHOTOGRAPHY BY LISA STAFF

Any future worth pursuing starts with a vision. It’s not enough to simply plan for better days or prepare for setbacks; you must have a clear goal in mind. But goals and visions are little more than daydreams without someone there to make things happen. Someone has to blaze that trail in the here and now, providing a pathway to the future that exists in that vision.

In the loftiest terms, this is the job of a town or city manager. They are the liaison between a local government’s ambition and its capabilities. When a plan seems out of reach, they are the ones who figure out a way to stretch that extra mile. They share in the vision set by their councils, mayors and citizens, but it is their determination and talent that get everyone there. 

As we celebrate a new year, we sat down with town and city managers from around the Lowcountry to get a glimpse of where we’re headed.

Marc Orlando

Hilton Head’s town manager expects a breakthrough year for the island in 2024.

Marc Orlando’s journey to the role of Hilton Head town manager wasn’t always a straight line. Starting out as an intern with the Town all the way back in 1997, he worked his way up to senior planner before the siren song of the private sector began to ring in his ears. At least for a while.

“I found myself just always wanting to do more. I’d focused on more entrepreneurial work – software start-up, finance, real estate development, asset management… then the economy turned,” he said. “It was at that time that I went and worked with the Town of Bluffton and found my calling. I also realized where I can make a really important difference.”

As deputy town manager and then town manager for Bluffton, he arrived at a time of immense change for the once one-square-mile town. Beyond the pressures of a booming population and the challenge that brings in keeping the May River clean, Bluffton also made it a point to expand its economic base. Orlando’s steadfast guidance delivered on all fronts, managing the growth, master-planning Old Town and advancing Buckwalter Commerce Park while establishing assets like the Don Ryan Center for Innovation and working with the private sector. For his efforts he was recognized by the state legislature for his visionary leadership in 2012.

In returning to Hilton Head as town manager, he’s brought that visionary leadership home.

“We’ve been really clear to put together a strategic plan that is aligned with our future, our comprehensive plan and our goals,” he said. “For me, I’m looking at 2024 as a breakthrough year.”

First on the agenda is workforce housing, perhaps the hottest of hot-button issues in the region. Through a public-private partnership, the Town will launch Northpoint, sustainable workforce housing on 12 acres between Jarvis Creek and the north end post office. 

Along with an overhaul of the Land Management Ordinance, which has been nearly a decade in the making, Orlando is targeting this year to establish a resilience plan. 

“We have several of those plans in place, but nothing collective, nothing comprehensive, where it’s policy and project-based,” he said. “We have a robust resilience program already in place, but the planning and implementation are piecemeal. Our resilience plan will examine the island’s ability to be resilient in times of real storm.”

This coming year also will see the kick-off to a massive project aimed at reinvesting in the island’s parks, whether that means expanding parking at Chaplin Park (thus ending the soccer players versus beachgoers feud that has been slowly simmering for years) or creating spaces for families. 

“It’s time for a renaissance of our public spaces, roads and beach facilities,” he said. “We’re working on a lot of those details to bring our parks to current-day, modern-day standard. And, of course, we have to tackle the William Hilton gateway bridge.”

One of the stickier situations involving the bridge stems from the communities that would be forever altered in order to ease traffic, something Orlando is very aware of. 

“There are residents and businesses on the side of that street coming onto and off of our island that have been there for generations. And this roadway will definitely impact their quality of life,” he said. “So the question becomes, what are those impacts? And how are we  — Beaufort County and the S.C. Department of Transportation — addressing those matters?”

Stephen Steese

Bluffton’s town manager is charting a course for a bright future.

It’s amazing how sometimes one encounter can change someone’s entire life. For Stephen Steese that fateful encounter came during his senior year at Clemson, where he was majoring in political science and history. Sitting down with Clemson’s then-city manager (and current Sun City resident) Rick Cotton opened his eyes to the possibilities in the public sector.

“My goal with my career was to do something where I could have an impact on the local community,” he said. His meeting with Cotton showed him the way to get there. It just took longer than expected. “I took what might be considered the long route to get here. I started out in planning and procurement then went back and got my master’s 10-years later and have worked my way up.”

He proved worth the wait, with successful tenures as a city manager in Woodruff, South Carolina, city administrator in Easley, South Carolina, and city manager for Roxboro, North Carolina. A member of the International City County Management Association and the South Carolina City County Management Association, he jumped at the chance to come to Bluffton when the position of town manager opened up.

 “I was excited about the growth taking place. One of the things I enjoy is getting projects done, and with what was going on — the number of capital projects, keeping up with growth — I knew there were a lot of things I was going to get to work on and complete,” he said. “I really enjoy being able to see that direct impact.”

He jumped in with both feet, carrying forward projects that included affordable housing projects built through public-private partnerships, the transformation of the New Riverside barn into a public space and restoration of the historic Squire Pope Carriage House. 

It was this last project that let him establish great partnerships throughout the region, including an agreement with SCAD that brought students in to help turn the abandoned home into a welcome center and historical site. 

“You haven’t arrived in Bluffton until you get to the May River,” he said. “The plan is to get them there, then show them all the places they can learn about in the community.”

With those projects under his belt, Steese is ready to tackle the next slate of projects. Among improvements and enhancements he’s eyeing for 2024 are improvements to the New River Linear Trail, construction of a splash pad at Oscar Frazier Park and expansion of the town’s economic development efforts.

“We just passed an ordinance to spur development within the town. We have gaps in the west side where all this growth has taken place,” he said. 

A new agreement at Buckwalter Commons will allow for the expansion of the Don Ryan Center, while giving new businesses in Bluffton a much-needed boost. “It’s going to be a landing pad for businesses starting out, with flexible office space,” he said. “Land and space have gotten so expensive, it’s one of the big struggles a business faces. If we can help them during start-up, we can give them a better chance for long-term success.”

He also points to further development on the affordable housing front, with one town-owned property just waiting on permits, one beginning design, and partnerships for a Regional Housing Trust to support initiatives throughout the region.

Van Willis

Port Royal’s town manager says big things are coming to the waterfront.

With so much growth surrounding it, the tiny coastal town of Port Royal has too often been considered the little sibling to Beaufort’s sprawling footprint. Despite this perception of the town as an accessory to a larger town, it has proven itself as a town of careful and considered design, billed as one of “America’s leaders in small-town New Urbanism.”

And for the last 22 years, Van Willis has been there guiding that development with the seasoned hand of someone who has seen local government from nearly every angle.

“I never expected to be here this long, but it was an opportunity for me to grow with the town,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of changes from then to now.”

Growing up in Charleston, Willis found his passion for the public sector during a day spent shadowing Mayor Joe Riley for student government. “I had an opportunity to get an inside look and found it fascinating and enlightening,” he said. Still, it wasn’t until an internship during graduate school at a “catch-all” department in Charleston County government that he truly gained an appreciation for what public service entailed. “I worked on the legal side, but we also did business licenses, environmental work; we did everything. I saw all of Charleston County from tip to toe.”

Following that internship, he applied for a position as an administrator for Seabrook Island solely for the interview experience. “They hired me, and that was a little terrifying because I had no experience,” he said. “Luckily, I worked for some incredibly fascinating people there. That was probably one of the more important experiences of my life. The array of experience was overwhelming but enlightening.”

That experience served him well when he finally arrived in Port Royal, which had only then reached some measure of a cease-fire in the annexation wars between it and Beaufort. A three-way chess match that saw both towns drawing and redrawing borders against the county, the wars had nonetheless resulted in a productive regional plan that allowed Port Royal to begin steady growth.

“We never really had explosive growth, but it has been incremental enough to necessitate adding additional staff,” said Willis. And while the end of the wars saw better relations between Beaufort and Port Royal, it’s long been clear which town gets the glory. “We were the poor stepsister in Beaufort County. People give me a hard time, saying I have a chip on my shoulder that Port Royal doesn’t get the recognition. We love our sister city, but sometimes we’d love to get the recognition we’re supposed to.”

In a town hailed as “cool, coastal and far from ordinary,” where homes are snapped up after mere days on the market, it’s clear big things are on the horizon. Or, strictly speaking, on the waterfront.

“Obviously the big thing we have coming up is redevelopment of the port,” said Willis. The Port of Port Royal’s property is 53 acres of developable highland (325 acres total including the marsh). Plans call for  hundreds of new housing units along with 150,000 square feet of retail space plus, a hotel and marina. “We’re nearing issuance of a permit for the marina, which will be huge… Between the public spaces, the Promenade and The Bluff neighborhood, it’s going to be one of the premier residential sections.”

This is a particular point of pride for Willis, as one of his first actions as town manager was to urge then-Gov. Mark Sanford to help redeploy the underutilized port. “And now, so many years later, we’re working with Safe Harbor, and we know the redevelopment of that property will absolutely transform Port Royal.”

Another big development coming up concerns Naval Hospital Beaufort, which occupies 120 acres on deep water. Once serving the medical needs of Marines stationed on Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island and Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, the hospital has since reduced its beds, as medical services moved onto the bases. “We have been asked to participate in a regional effort to contemplate its reuse,” Willis said. He hopes the entire region can work together to find a use for that land which could help move the Lowcountry forward. And speaking of moving…

“What we’re really focused on is improving our infrastructure,” said Willis. “Resurfacing the downtown roads, upgrades to Parris Avenue, burying utilities, and we’re very involved in Reimagining Ribaut.”

Scott Marshall

Beaufort’s city manager continues a lifetime of service.

For 23 years Scott Marshall served in the U.S. Air Force, first as an enlisted man, then as an officer. That alone would have been service enough, but that was merely prologue to the service that Marshall has shown to towns on both sides of the Broad River. His journey in local government started when he retired from the Air Force in 2009.

“I didn’t do it very well,” he said of his attempt at retirement. Moving to the Lowcountry from Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, he saw too many opportunities to continue his service. “My first job down here was as the executive director of the Beaufort County Board of Elections & Voter Registration. Then in 2013 (former county administrator) Gary Kubic asked a couple of times if I would be the director of Beaufort County Parks & Leisure Services. I finally broke down and took the job.”

But then fortune brought Marshall to Bluffton, where a position for a deputy town manager would truly begin his next chapter. 

“I was able to work with Marc Orlando for five-and-a-half years. I learned a lot from him, and he was very supportive,” said Marshall. “Watching him, seeing that sense of vision, the way he organized staff and worked with council, was very helpful. That prepared me for this job more than anything else.”

What it prepared him for was the role of city manager for Beaufort, a job he began in January 2023. “Beaufort is my home,” he said. “I’ve lived here longer than anywhere else in my adult life, and it’s truly the best-case scenario when you can apply things you’ve learned over the course of your career to help your own community.”

Of course, as anyone will tell you, Beaufort and Bluffton are very different animals. “I will say if I compare the two, this job is more difficult. I don’t mean that in a bad way, it’s just more complex,” he said. “Population and budget-wise, we’re smaller than Bluffton. But we have a much larger historic district and a lot of special requirements when making decisions in regards to development… But both have a great council. Every council member in Bluffton had a heart for Bluffton, and I can say the same thing for Beaufort.”

That support and his experience are helping him tackle some of the complex issues that will face Beaufort in the coming year. 

“We have transportation issues we need to address, but we have strong partners in the county, the Department of Transportation and our state legislative delegation,” he said. “Being able to keep up with transportation needs in relation to growth is an expensive proposition.”

He points to traffic mitigation efforts on Boundary Street, the Reimagining Ribaut Road project and the Lady’s Island corridor as some that will get most of his attention in the coming years.

Beyond traffic, his more immediate goals are to increase transparency in town operations, and empowering citizens to get involved. He cited the City’s recent acquisition of technology capabilities such as the new SeeClickFix program. “It’s a program we implemented in Bluffton so that when you see a traffic light out, a signpost down, or anything like that, you take out your phone, open the app, and send the problem right to the city,” he said. “The person who reports the problem gets immediate feedback and is also notified when the problem is resolved.”