St. Helena Island is home to Beaufort County’s largest concentration of Gullah/Geechee people and landowners. The Cultural Protection Overlay (CPO) zoning protects this community from displacement and incompatible development by restricting gated communities, resorts, and golf courses. On many Sea Islands up and down the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, including nearby Hilton Head Island, these developments have harmed Gullah/Geechee land ownership, culture, and community.
It started on Hilton Head in 1956 with the private gated golf resort community of Sea Pines; today there are over 24 golf courses on the island.
The National Park Service highlights how golf resort communities can impact Gullah/Geechee culture in the Low Country Gullah Culture Special Resource Study and Final Environmental Impact Statement, which led to the federal designation of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.
In November 2021, Beaufort County adopted the Envision Beaufort County 2040 Comprehensive Plan. The plan identifies threats to the Gullah/Geechee community and the rural way of life on St. Helena including rapid coastal development, and high-end developments on the water that block access to traditional fishing and hunting grounds and increase property taxes. The plan makes clear the dangers of incompatible development on St. Helena.
The primary threat to the long-term viability of Beaufort County’s
Envision Beaufort County 2040 Comprehensive Plan
Gullah/Geechee communities is land development.
Former Administrator’s Text Amendments
Since 1999, golf courses, resorts, and gated communities have been prohibited by law within the CPO zoning district on St. Helena Island. In late 2022 and early 2023, the former Beaufort County administrator initiated a text amendment (see highlighted below) to the CPO that would have created exceptions, cut out the public, and allowed for behind the scenes negotiations. It could have exposed more than 5,613 acres of land to resort-style development and gentrification.
This text change threatened the heart and soul of the CPO and would have made it close to impossible to uphold the goals of maintaining the culture and traditional rural lifestyle of the island. However, the St. Helena community voiced their opposition to these destructive changes to the CPO and the proposed Pine Island golf resort loudly and clearly.
The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition as well as the Historic Penn Center gained thousands of signatures on their respective petitions. Governor Henry McMaster also shared his concerns along with local Senator Chip Campsen and Congresswoman Nancy Mace.
Reinforcing & Strengthening the CPO
On January 5, 2023, hundreds of community members showed up and spoke out against the former administrator’s text amendment to the CPO and the proposed golf resort at Pine Island. Following hours of testimony, the Beaufort County Planning Commission unanimously recommended denial.
At the January 9, 2023 meeting of the Beaufort County Community Services and Land Use Committee, the Committee referred the proposed text amendment to the CPO Committee and postponed taking the matter back up on April 10.
The CPO Committee, chaired by Queen Quet, met 4 times (January 17, January 31, February 21, and March 21). The committee’s recommendations simply furthered the goals and purposes of the existing CPO, clarifying and reinforcing its purpose and intent in prohibiting golf courses, gated communities and resort developments on St. Helena Island.
The CPO is legally defensible because it is specifically authorized by statute; was enacted in accordance with state law; sets forth a clear purpose; explains the basis for its limitations; is limited to a defined geographic area; and does not restrict all uses of properties within the District.
Check out the NPCA’s award-winning podcast!
The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA)’s podcast series “The Secret Life of Parks” featured the episode “Before the Gate” on the history, cultural legacy, living traditions and on-going challenges of St. Helena Island.
Listen to NPCA’s podcast episode “Before the Gate” here!
“Before the Gate” won a platinum award for a single educational podcast episode, the judges’ highest honor, at the MarCom competition honoring excellence in marketing and communication. It also won silver in the Travel Podcast category at the 33rd Annual North American Travel Journalists Association Awards Competition.
Original Photos by Miles Sanders