Leaders in real estate development descended on Hilton Head Island Thursday to discuss the legacy of Sea Pines Plantation creator Charles Fraser and the future of land use for the South Carolina Urban Land Institute’s annual statewide meeting at the Westin Resort.

The first of a two-day event attended by more than 200 members of the Institute featured panels of the Fraser lieutenants who helped launch the influential golf community, industry leaders and a former ambassador to the United Kingdom who credited Fraser with his own development along with the model of sustainable growth that would serve as a model the world over.

When Fraser, who died in a boating accident in 2002, started Sea Pines in 1957 on a then-sparsely populated Hilton Head, he established wide swaths of open spaces with land covenants and other legal devices that were previously used for discriminatory ends, creating a community with a master plan of the highest quality design and maintenance, said Philip Lader, the former ambassador who worked in development with Fraser for 10 years.

“He demonstrated how it could be a legal template for environmentally and aesthetically sensitive real estate development, for value creation,” he said. “A generation before Steve Jobs, Charles held design sacred.”

Fraser’s brain trust from his early days praised his vision and creativity, but they also argued for developers to go beyond amenities that lack the pull they once had.

Jim Chaffin, now chairman of Chaffin Light Associates, said developers got out of the community business and into the commodity business, using golf courses to sell real estate.

“I don’t think the market today really cares… Read More

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