Beaufort County presses ahead with St. Helena golf course ban. ‘This has become a war’

Changes to strengthen a Cultural Protection Overlay (CPO) that protects Beaufort County’s St. Helena Island and native Gullah residents and culture from golf courses and gated communities are moving forward.

But developer Elvio Tropeano of Pine Island Property Holdings LLC, whose proposing an 18-hole Pine Island Golf Club that would be affected by the changes, says if he isn’t allowed to build a golf course on his property he’s ready to proceed with a much larger residential housing project, which would result in larger impacts.

Tropeano’s plan surfaced during a Beaufort County Council meeting Monday night.

The new housing plan was on Wednesday’s agenda of the Planning and Zoning Department’s Staff Review Team.

Council members voted 8-2 approving a motion to OK strengthening the CPO. It was the council’s second reading of the ordinance. A third vote is required for final approval. The County Council voted 10-1 to adopt the CPO language changes on a first reading earlier this month, with Commissioner Logan Cunningham of Bluffton the sole “no” vote.

Jessie White of the Coastal Conservation League, which has helped to organize opposition to the golf course plan and support for the CPO upgrade, called the options being presented to the county — allow a low-impact golf course or a larger housing project with more impacts will be built — a “false choice.”

“That’s one of the oldest plays in the developer’s playbook that we see all the time,” White said. “It’s not an either/or situation.”

Tropeano and his team say they are just trying to provide the facts because there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what kind of development is allowed on the 450-acre property, which is located near the water’s edge in an area called St. Helenaville off of Dulamo Road and includes 77-acre Pine Island.

Even if a golf course is not allowed in the CPO, they note, the base zoning for the area allows residential housing — up to 166 single family homes and 75 to 100 docks. The property will be developed, they say, either with their preferred golf resort project, which they say would be a “lighter-touch” and include more land conservation, or a higher impact housing development.

Just because a certain number of lots are allowed under the zoning, the Coastal Conservation League’s White said, it does not automatically mean that the maximum number will be permitted by local, state and federal authorities.

“There are absolutely ways to affect the outcome of a development even if they have certain zoning ‘by right, as they say,” White said.

Tropeano also is suggesting that his property, which has been in private ownership since the 1800s and used as a recreational retreat, might not fall under the CPO guidelines. He’s cited several reasons. One is that the property was subdivided in 1958 and subdivided properties or land planned for development were not included in the overlay. Tropeano recently purchased the Pine Island property for $18 million.

“I’m not trying to rewrite history here, but rather put things in context for everybody, to allow for compromise,” Tropeano said.

About a year and a half ago, Tropeano, of Pine Island Property Holdings LLC began working laying the groundwork for an 18-hole golf resort with 65 houses.

He originally sought an exception to the CPO rules allowing him to build a golf course and 65 homes.

Recently, on pineislandplan.com, Pine Island Holdings has published maps that depict the impacts of a golf course with 65 houses compared to a housing development with 166 houses.

Beaufort historian and retired Prof. Larry Rowland of the University of South Carolina is quoted on the web site.

“The owner’s plan is to uncover, preserve and enhance the remarkable history of this property,” Rowland says.

But Beaufort County is on the verge of strengthening the CPO rules to ensure golf courses and gated communities are not constructed. Hundreds of St. Island residents have rallied in support of move, calling the pricey resorts and gated communities threats to St. Helena, the region’s epicenter of Gullah Geechee culture.

“Please, please I implore you, I beg you, to please consider the people, what they have done so far and stop delaying this,” St. Helena resident Inez Miller said.

Miller, adding that she was willing to get on her knees and beg, also warned council members to remember who put them in office.

Effort to delay second vote defeated

In light of the new housing proposal, and the impacts, some council members sought Monday to delay the second vote, arguing that the provisions banning golf courses could, in the end, result in Tropeano scrapping his original plans for a high-end golf course and moving forward with a bigger housing development.

“This has become a war,” Councilman Larry McElynn said. “There’s no doubt about it.”

McElynn supports strengthening the CPO but proposed a motion to delay the vote because he said he was troubled by the additional traffic and visual blight that 166 homes and 100 private docks would bring, “and it should trouble you too.”

“I don’t want to win this battle,” McElynn said, “and lose the war.”

McElynn suggested delaying a second reading until May 22 to allow for more study in hopes of reaching a compromise.

But Councilman York Glover urged the council to push ahead with the CPO changes, saying members were not voting on the Pine Island project but rather the CPO in general.

“It’s a community position that they’re wanting for their district on St. Helena,” Glover said of the CPO. “It has nothing to do with outside people coming in. It has nothing to do with money. It is their culture they are trying to protect.”

The vote on McElynn’s motion to delay the vote was 5-5, with the tie resulting in its defeat.

South of the Broad River council members McElynn, Logan Cunningham, Mark Lawson, Paula Brown and Joe Passiment voted in favor of delaying the second reading of the CPO changes. Glover, Alice Howard, Gerald Dawson, David Bartholomew and Anna Marie Tabernik voted against the delay. All of the representatives who voted against a delay, except Tabernik of Okatie, live north of the Broad, where the development is proposed. Councilman Tom Reitz was not at the meeting.

Council members then approved the motion to strengthen the CPO, with the ”no” votes came from Cunningham and Brown, who said she didn’t think she had heard from enough St. Helena residents.

“All I’m asking for is fairness,” Brown said.

She also urged Tropiano and Queen Quet, chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, to meet.

When Brown said that St. Helena residents were not thinking about future generations in light of the possible construction of a large housing development, residents strongly objected prompting Chairman Passiment to slam his gavel.

“Mr. Chairman,” said Glover, referring to Brown, “she’s asking for it.”

“OK, I’ll shut up,” Brown said.

Since 1999, the CPO has been in place on St. Helena Island. It’s aim is to protect Gullah culture and residents from from being displaced by resorts and gated communities.

The current CPO restricts development of golf courses, which it defines as “regulation [18 holes] and par three golf courses having nine or more holes.”

In January, county administrators recommended changes in the CPO that would have allowed exceptions to the golf course and gated community ban if the overall plans would improve the district. They said the CPO, as written, had loopholes and legal problems that could make the county susceptible to lawsuits.

But members of Beaufort County Planning Commission rejected the staff’s proposed exceptions, saying the CPO had worked for more than 20 years. And a week later, the Community Services and Land Use Committee referred the issue to a committee to review the CPO. The committee included residents of Pine Island.

In the meantime, Pine Island Golf Club proposed three golf courses on three different parcels — each one with six holes.

Golf is still banned under the proposed changes, but the language provides a more definitive definition of a golf course: “An area of land with improvements to the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It typically consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and/or a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a cup. Golf course accessory uses may include a clubhouse, restrooms, driving range, and shelters.”

If the CPO changes are finalized in a third vote, Tropeano’s plan for the three six hole golf courses on three lots “could not go forward,” Chuck Atkinson, an assistant county administrator.

“It would remove allowing golf courses within the overlay,” Atkinson said.