17-04-2025
Developer submits revised plan to build golf course on St. Helena Island
Nearly two years after Beaufort County, South Carolina, officials rejected a controversial plan to build a golf course and gated community on St. Helena Island, the property owner is taking another shot at getting his project approved.
Why it matters: The island, which is near Georgia's border, is home to significant Gullah Geechee and civil rights history.
It is home to the Penn Center, which in the 1860s became the first school in the South established for formerly enslaved Black people.
During the 1960s, the campus served as a planning center for Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis and other members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Driving the news: Developer Elvio Tropeano of Pine Island Property Holdings LLC submitted an application to planning officials to build 49 homes and an 18-hole golf course this month.
Tropeano wants the county to remove the cultural protection overlay from the island that prohibits certain new developments, like golf courses and gated communities.
What they're saying: Tropeano did not respond to Axios' requests for comment, but in the application he notes the proposal will have a "higher ratio of open space compared to any development in the county."
According to the application, the developer said the project will protect more than 7 miles of shoreline.
Tropeano, who sued the county after his original request was rejected, states in the application the current zoning designation would allow him to build 149 homes, much higher than what he's proposing.
"My property will be developed with an outcome where everyone wins, or 'by right' development requiring no public input at all," he told The Island News in September 2024.
The other side: David Mitchell, Atlanta Preservation Center executive director and board chair of the Penn Center, told Axios the new project would still be prohibited under the cultural protection overlay.
"In the event that the worst case scenario occurred, what it does is further dismantle the value of an identity of the [Gullah Geechee] people and it lays bare that want overwhelms anything," he said.
Context: The Gullah Geechee people are descendants of Africans who were enslaved on plantations along the Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida coasts.
The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission notes that the isolated nature of the plantations created a unique identity visible in its language, food, music and arts.
Threat level: Over the last few decades, developers have encroached onto Gullah Geechee land, constructing large vacation homes and other projects that attract wealthier people to the coast.
Yes, but: Gullah Geechee residents are fighting to protect their heritage.
On Georgia's Sapelo Island, residents in the Hogg Hummock community are fighting a rezoning proposal that would allow larger houses to be built on the island.
On Hilton Head Island, 94-year-old Josephine Wright was sued by a developer after she refused to sell her property to accommodate their plans. Wright died last year, and the developer reached a settlement with her family.
What's next: The application has to be considered by the Beaufort County Planning Commission, which would recommend it for approval or denial.
