Decades ago, the St. Helena community made clear that its vision for the island’s future was a place where generations of Gullah/Geechee families could continue to sustain their rich farming, hunting, and fishing culture. This vision does not include golf courses, gated communities, and resort developments, which threaten to inflate property taxes and interrupt the cultural way of life for this historic community.
At around 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 23, Beaufort County Council rejected a development agreement that would have greenlit an incompatible golf resort. The County Council’s 10-1 vote to oppose the golf resort plans further confirmed that these types of resort developments are not a part of the vision of St Helena’s identity. The developer then swiftly withdrew their application for a zoning map amendment to remove the land from the Cultural Protection Overlay.
“The Beaufort County Council’s decision safeguards St. Helena from a luxury gated golf resort development, precisely the type of development blocked by the CPO. This decision means that the community can continue to live and thrive in this special place,” said Faith Rivers James, Executive Director of the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League. “We thank the Beaufort County Council for ensuring that decades-old protections are not bypassed by a development agreement.”
The Conservation League has worked with the Penn Center and the St. Helena community since the 1990s, continuously supporting community-led efforts to conserve the land and protect the culture of this special place. We celebrate this victory while standing on the shoulders of giants like Emory Campbell and Dana Beach, who worked closely together in the 1990s to come up with a plan to safeguard St. Helena from rapid growth and hosted the Penn School for Preservation — a land use seminar for Sea Island residents and community members from across the County.
Golf courses, gated communities, and resort developments directly threaten the heritage of the people who live in this important sea island community, which is why these uses have been prohibited by the CPO since its inception in the 1990s. It is also why St. Helena has Beaufort County’s most notable concentration of Gullah/Geechee culture and land ownership today.
From the beginning, St. Helena Island’s community-led CPO has prohibited the development of golf courses, resorts, and gated communities because these uses are tied to rising property taxes, loss of history and culture, environmental degradation, and the displacement of Gullah/Geechee people. We thank Beaufort County for denying the Pine Island development agreement, which clearly ran afoul of these provisions.
Approving the Pine Island development agreement would have set a dangerous precedent with the potential to unravel the CPO altogether. Gov. Henry McMaster astutely pointed out that allowing for such a development at Pine Island on St. Helena could create a domino effect and signal “open season” to other developers. Thankfully, this future was averted by County Council’s 10-1 vote to deny the development agreement.
“This critical outcome, which stops a problematic development agreement in its tracks, is directly a result of the dedicated work and passion of the St. Helena community’s relentless advocacy over the past three years. It has been an honor to stand alongside and support so many island residents, community advocates, business leaders, as well as conservation groups in this effort,” said Jessie White, South Coast Office Director for the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League.
White said she is thankful for Beaufort County’s leadership, both elected officials and staff members, hearing the cries of their constituents and neighbors and ultimately making an informed decision that best serves the interest of both St. Helena Island and broader Beaufort County.
“They had the foresight to listen to the community’s vision in the past and have done it again here,” White said.
The grassroots coalition includes St. Helena landowners, Historic Penn Center, Coastal Conservation League, Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, Gullah/Geechee Fishing Association, Morning Glory Homestead Farm, Open Land Trust, and South Carolina Environmental Law Project.
Learn more at protectsthelena.com.
Media contact: Meg Mathis, Public Relations Director, megm@scccl.org