Latest news with #Tropeano
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
St. Helena Island land protection upheld by Beaufort County planning commission
ST. HELENA ISLAND, S.C. (WSAV) — Will the Pine Island development benefit the future of St. Helena Island, or is it something that will destroy the culture and natural beauty? Citizens on both sides made sure their voices were heard before it fell into the hands of the county's planning commission. One St. Helena Island native turned to the folks attending Beaufort County's planning commission meeting to make sure her point was heard. 'Do you know what the word preserve means? It means leave it alone!' Emotions were high in the room for many island natives and surrounding community members. It was a pretty even divide for and against the developers' new plans for 49 homes with a golf course. The original proposal called for 145 homes. 'You allow one golf course,' said one citizen in opposition to the development. 'Everybody's going to come with the same package, and you got to give it to everybody. And then Saint Helena will look exactly like every other island that's absolutely disappeared from the Gullah culture.' Developer, Elvio Tropeano, said the new model fits into the islanders' wants and needs, and the counties standards for smart growth. He asked that the property be removed from the cultural protection overlay, which has protected the land from resort development, golf courses, and gated communities since 1999. 'Pine Island was never owned by Gullah Geechee for over 160 years. It was owned by a family that we all knew was not Gullah Geechee,' said one citizen who backed up Tropeano's move toward removing the property from the CPO. But another citizen argued that Tropeano is no exception to the overlay. 'One guy comes along and wants to say, it doesn't apply to me. I'm going to come in here and take these 500 acres and I'll do what I please with it.' Tropeano explained that the new proposal for the development was changed to benefit the residents and natives of St. Helena. It was something he said came from talking and working with the people living on the island. He said one of the goals of the development would be to give jobs and economic wealth to folks on the island. 'The CPO has become a cultural straitjacket. It freezes our people in place economically, while outsiders write grant reports about preserving the soul of St. Helena, as if culture exists without people,' said one citizen backing Tropeano's development. But another citizen said you can't put a price tag on the St. Helena Island culture. 'No one has said tonight the value of our lives because it's priceless. There's no number you can place on that. There's nothing that you can give us to sell us again, like our ancestors were once sold. But the wisdom that emits from that land came to our people in the 1990s.' The planning commission voted unanimously against the project. One board member said they know this is not the end of the developers' push to bring in the 49 homes with the golf course, but at this time couldn't support it because it goes against the CPO. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSAV-TV.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Developer's gated community plan tests old land protections
ST. HELENA ISLAND, S.C. (WSAV) — No golf courses, gated communities or resort developments. That's the deal that was made decades ago, protecting St. Helena Island. One developer has been looking to flip the script through a property of Dalamo Road. 'We don't believe that just because you can bring in $18 million, that you get to make new rules from rules that have been made 25-27 years ago,' Executive Director of the Penn Center Robert Adams, Ph.D., said. The plan for the Pine Island Development is a private gated community with a golf course. Adams, along with other members of the St. Helena community, think that goes against the Cultural Protection Overlay (CPO) set in 1999. Adams believes it also goes against the counties current goal of smart growth. 'We have to sort of manage our development and our growth here. We are overwhelmed with growth at the moment. Our infrastructure is overwhelmed,' said Adams. But developer, Elvio Tropeano claimed Pine Island wouldn't interfere with the counties goal. It's been shaped in a manner that aligns with all of the goals of Beaufort County with responsible growth, with minimizing infrastructure stresses, with increasing tax basis while not creating additional tax stress,' Tropeano said. Adams believes a golf resort will push St. Helena natives away from the grounds they have long protected. But Tropeano believes the development would provide them with a resource. 'It'll be the single largest employer on St. Helena Island. It'll be the single largest investment on Saint Helena Island ever. It'll be the development with the largest amounts of open space in all of Beaufort County,' said Tropeano. Tropeano has submitted a map amendment request to remove the property from the protected district. He will have to take that proposal in front of the county's planning commission. That meeting is scheduled for May 5. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Axios
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Axios
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.
