Atlanta

Georgia Supreme Court allows referendum for Sapelo Island in win for Gullah Geechee residents

By WSBTV.com News Staff
Hogg Hummock, Sapelo Island (McIntosh County) Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1996, the Hogg Hummock community on Sapelo Island faces a renewed threat to its historically significant design and cultural heritage. Home to one of the last remaining Gullah Geechee communities in the United States, Hogg Hummock was established by direct descendants of West Africans who were enslaved on the plantations of coastal Georgia. Following the Civil War, these formerly enslaved peoples settled on Sapelo Island and purchased over 400 acres of land. As with other Gullah Geechee communities, Hogg Hummock developed a distinct, interconnected culture of subsistence and cooperative living, due in part to the relative isolation from communities on the mainland. Now, like many areas in the Gullah Geechee corridor, Hogg Hummock faces persistent pressures that threaten the historic fabric of their community. As recognized by existing zoning regulations, Hogg Hummock has unique needs in regard to its historic resources, traditional patterns of development and threat from land speculators and housing forms. In spite of this language, recent rezoning will allow homes to be constructed that double the size of the current limits, which can contribute to land value increases that could further force the removal of the indigenous population. This change in policy was enacted with limited public input and directly conflicts with the intent of existing zoning regulations to reserve Hog Hummock for low intensity residential and cottage industry which are environmentally sound and will not contribute to land value increases. ( Brian Brown-Vanishing Georgia)
By WSBTV.com News Staff

ATLANTA — Georgia’s highest court handed the residents of Sapelo Island a legal victory, allowing a referendum to limit zoning changes on the island to head to a vote.

According to a judge’s order from the Georgia Supreme Court, the battle over rezoning on Sapelo Island is over.

In a unanimous decision, Georgia justices granted the residents of the historic district a chance to officially adopt the restrictions for developers they’d been fighting to get for years, through a vote on a referendum to amend county zoning rules for the historic area.

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Sapelo Island, in McIntosh County, is home to the descendants of slaves taken from West Africa.

Previously, a lower court ruling had stopped a referendum to consider repealing a revised zoning ordinance passed by McIntosh County officials two years ago. Sapelo Island residents opposed the zoning amendments that doubled the size of homes allowed in a tiny enclave called Hogg Hummock.

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Developers, and county officials, had sued to move forward, leading to the court battle.

According to the court decision, the referendum voted upon and passed by residents to block zoning changes on Sapelo Island will stand.

However, county officials moved to block the referendum, leading to a fight in court.

County officials who tried to argue in court that the referendum “improperly ‘alters the status quo’ by not allowing approval of building permit applications,” were told their argument was unable to prevail as they are basing their argument on items not included in their appeal, nor in the court record.

Additionally, as the county could not show proof of its allegations for the impacts of the referendum, the GSC said they must instead affirm a previous ruling allowing the zoning restriction.

The state justices affirmed the decision unanimously, allowing a vote on the referendum to move forward.

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