Exclusive: Pine Island developer speaks about his plan. His fight for a golf club isn’t over

What happened in May, to loud cheers from supporters, should have driven the final nail in the coffin to any future discussions involving golf or gates on St. Helena Island. The Beaufort County Council passed an even tougher and more specific statute adding teeth to 1999’s cultural protection overlay zone (CPO) and signaled the end of the road for a planned 18-hole golf course on Pine Island Plantation.

But developer Elvio Tropeano, who has been a voice crying in the wilderness at public meetings dominated by opponents of his ambitious vision, told the Beaufort Gazette and Island Packet last week that he’s not done yet. This is his first on-the-record interview on his ideas and motives behind the plans.

In November, the developer applied to remove the property from the CPO restrictions but agreed to withdraw the request while the county staff pursued text changes that would allow non-conforming uses under certain situations. Instead, the County Council, urged by residents and conservation interests, voted last month to clarify and strengthen the CPO, making it even more clear that golf courses were banned.

In the coming weeks and months, Tropeano will be again applying to have his 503-acre property rezoned outside of the CPO so that his plans for Pine Island Golf Club and up to 65 homes can continue.

Tropeano says the “minimalist” golf course he has in mind for the extremely sandy site, in combination with conservation easements, would, in fact, be the economic engine that would allow a development with reduced housing density. At the same time, he adds, it would generate revenue for philanthropic efforts and conserve the entire peninsula, which has been privately owned for more than 150 years.

“We want to be a part of the solution,” Tropeano said. “And we’re now looked at as part of the problem.”

Great sand and views

Since prior discussions of the CPO have only been indirectly related to Tropeano’s plans, he’s only spoken at council during the allotted public comment sessions and has largely avoided talking to the media.

So, who is Tropeano and what is his plan for the land?

Tropeano, one of five siblings raised in a tight-knit family from Boston, studied at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where he also was safety on the football team. He moved to New York to pursue a career working in private and public financial markets.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he moved to Charleston, and that’s when he learned that the Pine Island property was for sale. “I came down here one time, then I packed a bag and never left,” said Tropeano.

The Pine Island property’s great views of the sand and water make it one of the best potential golf course sites in the southeast, he says.

“This is just a very unique scenario where a very large, very developable piece of land was for sale and was for sale for 15 years, Tropeano said. “And so if it was really important to people, somebody should have bought it.”

After finalizing the purchase of the land for $18 million earlier this year, Tropeano said his phone was ringing off the hook with people wanting to develop it.

Critics of the project have attacked the golf course, saying it’s not allowed in the CPO, which has been in place since 1999. Its aim is to protect Gullah culture and residents from being displaced by resorts and gated communities. A common cry used during the debate has been: We don’t want to become another Hilton Head Island.

“We must advocate against a special exception to the rules that would set a dangerous precedent with ripple effects across the entirety of St. Helena Island,” the Coastal Conservation League said via email Wednesday that urged residents to attend the Planning Commission meeting Monday, when commissioners will hear Tropeano’s latest request.

His plan

Tropeano has a different view. With a golf club, 80% of the property (400 of the 500-acres) would be conserved including cultural and historic areas. Houses would be clustered. A minimalist golf course would be created.

A percentage of the lot sales and future membership dues would be placed in a foundation that would be tapped for economic and educational initiatives including scholarships.

“It all clicked for me that the golf course literally could be utilized as an engine to power cultural protection,” Tropeano said. “To power the very things that people want and need to protect, which is their family and loved ones and also to help educate them. And [I’m] not saying that people are not educated, but to help advance education in a manner that a lot of golf courses around do.”

The plan for the site was put together in conjunction with Hart Howerton, who had a hand in designing parts of Palmetto Bluff, in Bluffton, with a team of environmental, archaeological and history experts working to create a conservation development with a light footprint on the land, Tropeano says. Tom Doak, a golf course architect with several courses ranked among the top 100 in the world, was consulted.

The plan was achieved using the Beaufort County 2020 Greenprint Plan, 2040 Comprehensive Plan, the conservation toolkit and by having more than 40 community meetings in St. Helena, according to documents provided to the Island Packet / Beaufort Gazette.

Even within the existing CPO guidelines for the land, Tropeano is allowed to build 166 homes and 90 deep water docks on the plantation.

But that’s not what he says he wants to do. Instead, he says the golf course would be 60% less dense and have 90% fewer docks than what’s allowed. But, he’s quick to remind people that the denser housing option is completely allowed.

In his preferred plan, 66 houses are restricted to Pine Island itself. The rest of his acreage would be used for the 18-hole golf course.

Opponents of the plan would prefer to see nothing built on the land, but Tropeano says that’s not the reality of the situation. He says his backup plan isn’t a threat, but it is something he’d do to protect his investment.

“I don’t want people to confuse compassion with stupidity,” Tropeano added. ”Because do I want to develop more of the same? Or do I think the area deserves it? No. But have I made an investment that I need to consider? Yeah.”

His plan for the community

Tropeano says his long-term goal is to help create a sustainable future for St. Helena community and to create something everyone can be proud of. From the beginning, he said he always wanted a “significant philanthropic component” to the Pine Island Golf Club.

As one example, he cited contributing golf course-generated revenues to an effort to revitalize the four-corners intersection at Sea Island Parkway and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive that could include improvements to MLK Jr. Memorial Park and revitalizing a vacant hotel and restaurant.

“But, philanthropy doesn’t come out of nowhere, it requires an engine,” he said.

According to documents provided to the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette, a minimum of $250,000 per year would be donated directly to the St. Helena Community from the Pine Island Golf Club.

Why now?

Tropeano frequently mentioned the phrase “informed choice” which has been often used in regard to his Pine Island Plan.

“Informed choice requires the appropriate information,” he said.

Now that his code amendments for Pine Island Plantation are heading towards Beaufort County’s Planning Commission, Tropeano plans to combat the campaigns against his golf club by providing people with the “appropriate information.”

“Game respects game, they’re good at what they do,” Tropeano said of organizations that have campaigned against the project. “I just think it’s a little misguided.”

“Unfortunately, these organizations are designed to hold people up for time,” he said. “And they think that they can hold me up in time, which equals money which equals I leave. But, that’s not the case.”

Can he find common ground?

Tropeano seems confident that he can find common ground moving forward with the project.

“I don’t know of any votes that go 9-2 but then they tell 172 people in the room to go and sit down with the very person that they’re arguing against,” Tropeano said. “The aperture for compromise was certainly palpable.”

He’s referring to the last vote on the CPO, where councilperson Tom Reitz urged the community members to meet with Tropeano regardless of the outcome.

Councilperson Logan Cunningham said removing Pine Island from the CPO is definitely something he would consider, depending on what sort of compromise the council can come up with. Cunningham also emphasized that 50 homes are much better than 166 homes.

Cunningham, who was one of the two council members who voted against strengthening the CPO, says he wasn’t against the CPO per se, but more so against what it was being used to do.

“It was the fact that the CPO was supposed to be about the entire area, but we did nothing but talk about Pine Island and this didn’t come up until Pine Island,” he said. “So until people wanted to be open and honest and say it’s about Pine Island, there was no reason even to have those conversations and push it through county council as fast as we did.”

On the other hand, councilperson York Glover, whose district includes of much of St. Helena including Pine Island, drew a line in the sand saying he would not support any sort of compromise. Glover worries that by letting Pine Island out of the CPO, it sets a precedent that future developers can use to argue that they too should be let out of the CPO.

“I’m saying that I gotta stand with the community and I hope council will stand with the community,” he said.

Glover refuted Tropeano’s argument that a golf club would create economic development for the area.

“The only thing that golf course, resort areas do for a community is bringing in jobs that are service oriented,” Glover said. “And my community is basically saying we’re looking for jobs, more than just service oriented.”