Editor’s note: This article has been updated with more details about the ruling and comments from a Gullah Geechee leader and McIntosh County commissioner.
The Georgia Supreme Court has sided with Gullah Geechee residents on Sapelo Island, ruling Tuesday a citizens’ referendum aimed at restricting development can move forward.
The justices rejected a lower-court ruling that halted voting in coastal Georgia’s McIntosh County last October.
The referendum seeks to repeal a county zoning ordinance allowing homes to more than double in size on Sapelo Island. The sparsely populated coastal barrier island is the longtime home of descendants of enslaved West Africans who worked Sapelo’s plantations before emancipation and the Civil War.
The decision marks the second time the state’s high court has ruled in favor of Georgia residents attempting to overturn a local government decision under the state constitution’s Home Rule provision.
The other came in 2022 and involved a real estate transaction tied to a proposed spaceport in Camden County. In that case, the vote to repeal that decision had already been completed. The rocket launch facility project on coastal Georgia has been abandoned since the ruling.
Tuesday’s Sapelo ruling clears the way for the resumption of the zoning ordinance referendum. The Sapelo residents behind the referendum, Gullah Geechee homeowners in the Hogg Hummock community, have vowed to restart the effort.
The timing for a referendum renewal is unclear, and the Gullah Geechee are hopeful Tuesday’s ruling might convince the McIntosh Commission to take action without a public vote.
Jazz Watts, a Sapelo descendant and Gullah Geechee community leader, noted the justices were unanimous in their decision and that “the time is always right to do what’s right.” He also pointed out that two of the commissioners who voted to change the zoning two years ago are no longer in office and two new leaders have been elected in their place.
“We need our local officials and commissions to work to protect our community, to listen to our community, to work alongside of us and not do things like try to rezone us,” Watts said. “People come to Sapelo and Hogg Hummock from all over to visit it and they aren’t coming to see 3,000-square-foot houses. They want to experience the Gullah Geechee traditions and the community and see and meet people. I would hope this decision serves as a signal to them.”
The legal dispute dates to a 2023 zoning change allowing for the construction of 3,000-square-foot residences on the island, up from 1,400 square feet. Gullah Geechee residents say the earlier size restrictions limited the number of luxury homes and vacation getaways found elsewhere along Georgia’s coast, such as Tybee Island and St. Simons Island.
Sapelo residents secured enough signed petitions to put the referendum on the ballot in 2024. The McIntosh County Commission filed suit to stop voting, arguing zoning decisions are not subject to the part of the state constitution that allows for referendums. A Superior Court judge sided with the county last October, prompting residents’ appeal to Georgia’s high court.
The state Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Sapelo matter in April. The hearing revisited whether the Home Rule Provision applies to local government zoning powers, which are detailed in a separate section of the state constitution.
Several of the justices probed those legal arguments at the hearing, most notably Justices Andrew Pinson, Charles Bethel, Carla Wong McMillian and Chief Justice Nels Peterson. They challenged positions on the “ambiguous” language of the Home Rule Provision — whether the law contradicts itself or whether zoning is a “weaker power” than other legislative actions.
The high court addressed this question in Tuesday’s 33-page decision. The ruling, written by Justice John Ellington, found that the placement of zoning power in a separate paragraph from the Home Rule Provision in the state constitution does not exempt zoning ordinances from the Home Rule Provision.
Zoning matters adopted as ordinances fall under the Home Rule Provision of the state constitution allowing for referendums, and the Superior Court “erred” in halting the referendum last year. At the same time, it affirmed the lower court’s decision to halt the county’s zoning ordinance pending the outcome of the appeal.
McIntosh County Commission Chair Kate Pontello Karwacki expressed disappointment with the decision but vowed to “respect the ruling of the Georgia Supreme Court.”
One of Georgia’s 14 barrier islands, Sapelo is near the halfway point of the state’s coastline, about an hour’s drive south of Savannah.
The state of Georgia owns 97% of the 16,500-acre island and manages its land as an estuarine reserve and marine institute. Georgia also operates the Reynolds Mansion, a plantation manor house, as a state park.
Private landholders own 434 acres of Sapelo in and around Hogg Hummock. The Gullah Geechee neighborhood is centered in the interior of the island, but several privately owned properties have water views.
Enslaved people from West Africa were first brought to work Sapelo’s plantations in the early 1800s. The largest crop was sugar cane, and at its height, approximately 385 laborers worked the fields.
After the Civil War, many of the freed Black slaves remained on Sapelo and established settlements. They became known as Gullah Geechee and survived through farming, timbering and oystering. Tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds bought much of Sapelo in 1934 and consolidated the Gullah Geechee settlements into one community at Hogg Hummock.
The Gullah Geechee population has slowly dwindled in the decades since, as descendants moved off the island. Today, fewer than 40 live full time on Sapelo and less than half the property in Hogg Hummock is owned by Gullah Geechee. Those who still live on Sapelo occupy modest dwellings, such as cottages and mobile homes.
Last October, seven visitors were killed during the island’s annual heritage festival when a gangway collapsed at a state-owned and operated ferry dock.
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