Sapelo Island to stay ‘Geechee’: McIntosh Commission to bend on zoning law
DARIEN ― Sapelo Island housing will continue to be a mix of cottages, single-wide trailers and other modest dwellings, the McIntosh County Commission indicated Thursday.
A majority of the five-member commission vowed during a special-called meeting to follow the lead of Sapelo’s Gullah Geechee residents in crafting new zoning rules for their historic Hogg Hummock community.
The pledge came two days after McIntosh voters overwhelmingly repealed a 2023 zoning change that would have opened the quiet, sparsely populated island to large homes. Many residents feared that would transform Sapelo into the Georgia coast’s next seaside vacation hot spot.
The Gullah Geechee are descendants of enslaved West Africans brought to the barrier island to work plantations in the 1800s. More than two dozen still live on Sapelo.
Commissioners Roger Lotson, Henderson Hope and Christopher Jarriel said they would support new zoning rules that would mimic or closely resemble the stricter ordinance that had regulated home sizes on the island. Hope and Jarriel have been elected to the board since the 2023 change; Lotson opposed the revision at the time it was passed.
“Three people on this board are ready to put this to bed,” Hope said. “Let’s stop the bleeding.”
The commissioners urged county government staff to meet with Sapelo residents soon to begin the process of writing the new zoning rules. The elected leaders passed a 30-day moratorium on building permits to block any new development on the island in the meantime. The moratorium was enacted amid differing interpretations over what the island’s zoning rules are now that the referendum repealed the 2023 zoning change.
The Tuesday referendum passed easily, with 85% of those who cast ballots voting to overturn the 2023 revision, which more than doubled the buildable square footage of residences and allowed for a second story. Sapelo’s Gullah Geechee collected more than 2,300 petition signatures to trigger the referendum and fought a legal challenge all the way to the state Supreme Court to force the vote.
Even with the special election outcome, many Sapelo residents were wary about how county leaders would react. In the weeks leading up to the referendum vote, commissioners had heard a zoning proposal that would have increased allowable home sizes by at least 400 square feet — and possibly as many as 2,200, depending on the legal interpretation. The commission was to vote on that ordinance draft on the day before the referendum, but public backlash led to its shelving.
What Sapelo residents heard from commissioners Thursday quieted their fears.
“The commission has taken the referendum as a mandate,” said Josiah “Jazz” Watts, a Gullah Geechee descendant. “A broad coalition of McIntosh residents said Hogg Hummock is a place that should be protected, that Sapelo and Hogg Hummock are one of the last true treasures we have on our coast.”
As for the new ordinance, the task is to clean up ambiguous language that contributed to the push for the 2023 zoning change. That effort started in response to some property owners building residences with 1,400 square feet of heated and cooled space — the ordinance limit — but adding large porches and other attached areas under the same roof. In several instances, once a building inspector approved the home, owners would then enclose those spaces to create a larger house.
The 2023 revision addressed that issue by redefining the square footage limits as “under roof” in place of heated and cooled space. But it also bumped the limit to 3,000 square feet, drawing outcry.
Lotson said one workaround this time is to abandon the under roof/heated and cooled language and instead define square footage within a square footage footprint. For example, the zoning could limit homes to 1,400 square feet within a 1,400-square-foot footprint.
“Once we hear what the Sapelo residents want — and they’re not a monolith; they don’t all agree — we’ll get something done,” Lotson said. “They need to communicate to us.”
About the Author
Adam Van Brimmer is a journalist who covers politics and Coastal Georgia news for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
