About six years ago, Ben Brown drove around Big Canoe for the first time. He was working for an oceanfront property owners association on Hilton Head Island at the time. He noticed the patched roads, and he recognized them. In an interview with Smoke Signals, he said the patching reminded him of "what we were experiencing at Palmetto Dunes."
Today that same planner runs day-to-day operations at the Big Canoe POA. His background matters more than most new-hire profiles let on. The largest open items on Big Canoe's capital list are mostly out of sight: what runs under the roads, a dam spillway at Lake Petit, and a historic bridge near Lake Sconti. Brown has spent much of his career on exactly that kind of work.
A Planner Who Came Up Through Palmetto Dunes
Brown started as general manager on Sept. 8, 2026. He overlapped briefly with Scott Auer before Auer retired. Board President Terry Stewart announced Auer's coming retirement at the October 30, 2025 board meeting, which started a search that ran most of this year. The POA's hiring announcement says The Chason Group ran the national search. Board Vice President Jim Conneely chaired the search committee, and he pointed to Brown's "rare combination of municipal government, community association and resort amenity experience."
His résumé includes:
- Senior Planner for Development Review and Zoning with the Town of Hilton Head Island, and later Principal Planner for the Town of Bluffton, South Carolina
- Vice President of Facilities and Development for Hilton Head Health
- Director of Planning and Property Operations for the Palmetto Dunes Property Owners Association
- Assistant Town Manager for the Town of Hilton Head Island, the job he held when Big Canoe hired him
The Palmetto Dunes years are the ones that line up most closely with Big Canoe. Brown spent a little more than eight years there. He began by planning and carrying out capital projects and later took on operations and community management. He also holds the Certified Manager of Community Associations designation. He has served on residential community boards on Hilton Head, including as board president and as a member of an Architectural Review Board. So he has also sat on the volunteer side of a community association.
What Hurricane Matthew Taught Him About Roads
Brown traces his thinking on infrastructure back to one storm. Hurricane Matthew hit Hilton Head in 2016, and he told Smoke Signals the island "lost a phenomenal number of trees." Clearing the roads afterward turned into a chance to rebuild differently. At Palmetto Dunes, the rebuild included:
- Rethinking road layouts
- Separating roads from leisure paths
- Improving stormwater management
- Planting trees with an eye to the canopy people would enjoy 30 or 50 years later
He described the lesson he took from that experience as a matter of sequence.
"You want to make sure the infrastructure underneath a road is properly addressed before you rebuild or resurface that road. You need to look at the whole picture rather than one project at a time."
For an owner on a mountain road, the order matters. Fresh asphalt over a culvert or drainage line that later needs replacing means cutting into new pavement. Big Canoe has already been doing this kind of work. Its November 2025 capital planning put road paving and culvert repairs on the 2026 list as medium-priority items.
Why a 50-Year-Old Community Felt Familiar
Brown's first look at Big Canoe came through a connection with Greenwood Communities and Resorts. Bob Crouch told him how wonderful the community was, and the two compared notes on older residential communities that are "dealing with aging infrastructure." On their first weekend visit, he and his wife, Suzanne, decided the place felt "a little like Sea Pines 40 years ago."
He also sees a difference that matters to him. Much of Hilton Head, he said, "has become very much a resort." Big Canoe is "a residential community with exceptional amenities." The POA describes the job he took as long-range planning and day-to-day operations for an 8,000-acre community that is 54 years old.
When Smoke Signals asked about Big Canoe's biggest opportunity, Brown talked about communities passing 50 years old and reaching buildout. In that stage, the work is protecting the infrastructure and amenities that drew people in and keeping them current for the next generation. He tied it directly to homeowners:
"When you invest in infrastructure, property owners often invest in their own properties as well."
He said the infrastructure investment Big Canoe has made over the past six years is one of the things that drew him to the job.
The Projects Already on His Desk
Brown arrived with several projects already moving. The table shows each one as the POA board last described it, according to Smoke Signals' board recaps from 2026.
| Project | Last reported status | Smoke Signals recap |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 road improvement plan | Approved. Covers resurfacing, patching, shoulder reconstruction, striping and reflectors on road segments picked through engineering review | April 2026 board meeting recap |
| Lake Petit Dam spillway replacement | Still in permitting. No construction date set | June 25, 2026 |
| Lake Sconti historic bridge | Damaged bridge stabilized. Larger bridge project described as likely in 2027 | March 26, 2026 |
| Marina stairs and drainage | Stairs replaced and drainage corrected to address erosion and winter icing | March 26, 2026 |
According to the April 2026 board recap, Director of Operations Lydell Mack described road maintenance as one of the largest and most consistent uses of capital funds.
The Lake Petit spillway has the most steps ahead of it. The March 2026 board recap said the project had received the first of five required permits. It depended on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permitting, and a FEMA hazard-mitigation grant application was pending. The same recap said the project was financially planned without a special assessment. It also said lowering the lake about five feet was possible but not certain. At the April meeting Q&A, Auer said the project had been delayed while permits were pending and that costs had risen with updated bids and conditions. He said funding would come from reserves or grants, "with no borrowing or special assessments planned."
In May, the board said the project "remains in the permitting phase." It said Lake Petit would not be lowered that summer and that marina operations would continue as normal. By the June 25 meeting, the approvals still pending came from five agencies:
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission
- Georgia EPD
- Pickens County
- Georgia State Dams
Through May, the money spent on the dam had gone to engineering, not construction.
A spillway that needs permits from five agencies, a bridge project expected around 2027, and a yearly paving program all draw on the same capital budget. Brown's "whole picture" principle is about deciding which comes first.
His First Months, Mostly on Foot
Brown told Smoke Signals that his first 30-plus days were for "listening, learning and building relationships" before he made any recommendations. He wants decisions made "today and over the next three to five years" to hold up "over the next 20, 30, 40 or 50 years." He and Suzanne moved into a rental home on Sept. 1 and plan to rent for at least the first year while they sell their Hilton Head house and decide where in Big Canoe to settle.
He grew up around his family's nursery and landscape business in rural Wisconsin. Here he walks or hikes almost every evening, and his goal is to walk all of Big Canoe's trails. He had not seen a bear yet when Smoke Signals talked with him. He and Suzanne also plan to explore the nearby towns and wineries.
For updates on roads, the spillway and other infrastructure, the POA has asked residents to follow its official Facebook page and to keep their email contact information current for board updates.
If you're wondering how a project near your street, like a paving segment or the Petit spillway, might come up when you sell or buy, I'm glad to talk it through. I've lived here about 20 years and follow these projects closely. Steve Yambor is always happy to share what he knows, without any pressure.
