Group believes golf course would be better for St. Helena than huge housing development
By Mike McCombs
The Island News
A group calling itself the Community Coalition Action Network of St. Helena held a media conference Friday, Sept. 22 at Barefoot Farms, and spoke out in support of negotiating some sort of deal with developer Elvio Tropeano, who wants to build a golf course resort on 502 acres on St. Helena Island.
“They don’t speak for us,” retired St. Helena Island U.S. Postmaster Roy R. Brown said of the coalition of people opposed to the development of Pine Island.
Spearheaded by Brown and Theresa White, CEO of the Pan-African Family Empowerment and Land Preservation Network, the group characterized the information put out by the groups fighting the Pine Island development as misleading.
“We’re here to combat the misinformation you’ve received,” Brown said. “And we feel that the CPO, though well-intended, has gone too far.”
By now, the story is familiar to most in Beaufort County.
Tropeano purchased a 502-acre property on St. Helena Island consisting of the areas known as Pine Island and St. Helenaville.
His intent was to build an environmentally conscious golf resort – around 60 homes on the property surrounding an 18-hole golf course (or three six-hole courses).
Many in the St. Helena Island community, including the Gullah-Geechee nation, as well as several environmental groups and people from elsewhere in Beaufort County, banded together and fought against the project. If there were any loopholes in the Cultural Protection Overlay (CPO), the unique zoning rule meant to protect Gullah-Geechee culture on St. Helena, those were closed when County Council voted earlier this year to strengthen the CPO, eliminating any ambiguity that might have allowed a golf course or gated community.
Tropeano, has filed a lawsuit against Beaufort County.
Meanwhile, even if the golf course is stopped, Tropeano can still move on and develop Pine Island as it’s already zoned, allowing him to build, in theory, up to 166 houses with 166 septic tanks and more than 100 individual docks, bringing more people and environmental impact to the Dulamo area of St. Helena Island.
White argues that no Gullah people are being displaced and their culture, in fact, isn’t being harmed in any way by this potential development, unlike the potential development with 166 houses. She also claims that residents are being lied to about what a development with a golf course will do to property values and property taxes in contrast to what a 166-home development would do.
Brown and White favor negotiating with Tropeano in an effort to implement the plan with the least negative impact while also creating community investment.
Arnold Brown, a member of the Board of Directors of Penn Center and a St. Helena Island landowner, attended the news conference.
He said this group was late to the table, and its effort was like someone showing up to a football game after it’s already over and complaining about somebody being out of bounds.
“It’s not a legal argument,” Arnold Brown said of their presentation. “A lot of it just isn’t true. And some of it doesn’t even make sense.”
Arnold Brown said Tropeano knew what the zoning was on the Pine Island property when he bought it, so he has no sympathy for him.
As for the potential of a 166-house development with 166 docks and 166 septic tanks, Arnold Brown said he has reason to believe that’s not going to be possible.
“We will cross that bridge when we get to it,” he said.
Willie Turral, one of the handful of people there representing the Community Coalition, said he’s less concerned about what the decision of the community is and more concerned that everyone has a voice.
“This conversation could have been brokered two years ago when the developer first came in had we had the kind of leadership on St. Helena that thought it was appropriate to be transparent and have open conversations with the community,” Turral said.
He said if the community wants to go in a different direction, that’s fine. But to do that, you have to include the whole community and give a voice to everyone that’s affected. And he said that hasn’t actually happened and that’s what this is about.
Turral said the real tragedy would be to actually have a developer that wants to invest in the community and to turn him away.
“If the golf course never happens, that’s OK,” Turral said. “But we need to treat people with respect and keep an open mind and make sure the whole community has a platform.”
Mike McCombs is the Editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIslandNews@gmail.com.
