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Two challengers will try to end Hilton Head Mayor Tom Peeples' 15-year-hold on the town's top post in this fall's election.
Tom Crews, an architect who has served Hilton Head on various town boards and led the recent Comprehensive Plan update, is filing to run; as is Dave Myers, a 20-year Hilton Head resident who runs an island-based laser manufacturing company.
With seven months to go before election day, this is shaping up to be the most political action Town Hall has seen in nearly a decade; most recent council races have been unchallenged or very low-key.
Both challengers are political newcomers, but both said the changing economic climate of the island spurred them to action.
Crews said his campaign will argue the need for changing leadership as the island copes with its maturity, including focusing on redevelopment and renewing the vision of Hilton Head’s founders. He said his background as a planner and architect makes him the ideal candidate to guide Hilton Head through its pivotal next few years.
“The biggest reason I’m going to make this political effort is I believe I truly have something to bring to the table that's different than we've been doing in the past,” he said.
In addition to chairing the Comprehensive Plan committee as a member of the town’s Planning Commission, which he has served on since 2006, Crews has been involved with town affairs for more than 20 years, including as a member of the Design Review Board, the Bridge to the Beach Steering Committee, a town Energy Conservation Committee and the Public Arts Committee. He runs his own firm, Tom Crews Architects, Inc., and he’s also served as a consulting architect to many of the island’s gated communities, including Shipyard and Port Royal plantations.
Myers, who was born in Toledo, Ohio, moved to the island to take over his family business, Kigre Inc. The main focus of his campaign will be finding new ways to support small businesses, which Myers said have felt the pinch of both the economy and restrictive town development rules.
"At this point there appears to be a mass exodus of businesses moving anywhere but the island, mostly Bluffton," Myers said. "The island is somewhat restrictive in terms of how you can operate your business. ... It has a tendency to be somewhat expensive for a small businesses trying to make it."
Myers said he has seen these kinds of problems firsthand with his Marshland Road-based company, but didn't want to elaborate on it due to ongoing litigation with the town. Updating the town's restrictive rules doesn't mean selling out its values, he said.
"I feel it’s extremely important to keep the natural beauty of the island," he said. "I love this island and I know there's a lot of people on this island who don't wish to have a whole lot of change."
Peeples, who has won four mayoral elections, is by far the town’s longest-serving mayor, and the longest tenured member of the council. In the last election in 2005, when he went up against former Chaplin-area Property Owners Association president Jim Campbell, Peeples won about 75 percent of the vote.
But this will the first time since 2001 that Peeples has faced a challenger with significant name recognition and a long history of involvement in town affairs.
Peeples announced his intention to run again at the last State of the Community speech hosted by the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce in the fall. Peeples said he wasn't surprised to be facing two challengers this year.
"I think it's a positive thing to have folks running for office," he said. "Regardless of who wins at the end of the day, you end up with some fresh new ideas, and that's what the political process is all about."
Peeples said he will continue to campaign on his record and develop more detailed campaign points as the election nears.
"What I've tried to spend the last 15 years doing as mayor is to be a consensus builder," he said. "Obviously you don't always get everyone to be happy. But I think on balance I've been fairly successful in pulling together consensus on the island."
Crews said he likes what Peeples has accomplished as mayor, but that the identity and economic challenges the island is now coping with require a new leader with a different perspective. Crews would also focus on the unique development guidelines that dictate the size and nature of the island’s buildings.
“It’s not so much that it’s too strict is that it's out of sync to the job at hand,” he said. “Generally it was successful for what it was designed to do 25 years ago. It is not very successful in today's environment.”
Crews would look to create public-private partnerships to guide the future of the island. As an example, he said if the Mall at Shelter Cove ends up getting redeveloped, the town should work with developers to take better advantage of its location.
“The mall site was unusual to me when you had incredible frontage along the Broad Creek,” he said. “They virtually turned their back on it.”
Crews also said he wants to improve the tone of the debate over the county-owned Hilton Head Island Airport, something he said has spiraled into distrust due to poor communication between the town and county. He’s proposing a new task force — separate from the current ongoing master plan process — that would analyze the airport’s benefit solely from a town perspective. Runway expansion is worth considering, he said.
“I think that there's some real strong economic reasons that we should all come to consensus that should support that,” he said. “I don't want to say should or shouldn't until there's some facts and information before us.”
Myers said he's also paying attention to the airport issue, but the issue seems evenly divided among residents who want a longer runway and those who don't.
"No matter what decision is made there, there's going to be some upset residents," he said. Myers has also been reviewing the town's budget in anticipation of the election.
Election day is Nov. 2. The deadline to file is Sept. 1.
