Group seeks community support in fighting Pine Island development
By Mike McCombs
The Island News
A community rally is being held at 6 p.m., Thursday, March 30 at St. Helena Elementary to “protect St. Helena.”
The purpose of the two-hour rally, promoted by a group billing itself as Protect St. Helena, is to rally the community’s support for the “soul of the Sea Islands” by opposing any rollback of the CPO – the Cultural Protection Overlay, the community-driven zoning laws written in 1999 which protect St. Helena from over-development – and fight a proposed gated community and golf course on Pine Island and St. Helenaville.
According to Jessie White, South Coast Office Director for the Coastal Conservation League (CCL), Protect St. Helena and the meeting aren’t a product of one particular group, rather a meeting of the minds of more than 30 groups and individuals including the CCL, Queen Quet of the Gullah Geechee Nation, and numerous others.
“It’s a broad and diverse group of stakeholders,” White said.
According to White, Marie Gibbs of Penn Center will run the event. Local clergy Jack Ladson and Elijah Washington will be in attendance, as will County Councilmen York Glover and David Bartholomew.
In all, organizers have about 10 speakers lined up between community leaders, local pastors and local and state representatives.
Grant McClure, Project Director for the South Coast Office of the CCL is hoping State Senator Chip Campsen will be able to attend.
“It’s on his calendar, we’ll see,” said McClure, who expects 200 to 300 people to attend. “I would be happy to get some participation from some people from the statehouse. We invited Sen. Tom Davis, We invited the governor. I also reached out to Rep. Nancy Mace.
“But what we’re hoping for more than that is for the community to show up.”
White said the real goal of the event isn’t to excite people Thursday night, but to prepare them for a couple weeks from now.
“The point and the goal of it is to spread awareness of what’s going on on St. Helena Island, the potential harmful development of Pine Island and the attempts to undermine the Cultural Protection Overlay,” White said. “But it’s also to encourage the community to turn out April 10, when the (Beaufort County) Land Use Committee meets and receives recommendations from the Cultural Protection Overlay committee.”
White said a successful rally, “looks like people reaching out to their County Council people expressing their concerns, writing letters to the editor expressing their concerns, and making plans to show up to the Land Use meeting on April 10 to express their concerns.
Since the last Land Use Committee meeting, the CPO committee was to take up the Administration-proposed text amendment to the CPO, look at the CPO and make recommendations to strengthen the CPO.
White said it’s possible topics from that April 10 meeting could be on the agenda for the County Council later that evening.
“Our approach is to prepare as though that will occur,” she said.
Mike McCombs is the Editor of The Island News and can be reached at TheIlandNews@gmail.com.
