McIntosh adopts zoning for Sapelo’s Gullah Geechee neighborhood

DARIEN — After almost three years of contentious debate, including litigation that cost county taxpayers over $500,000, the Gullah Geechee enclave of Hogg Hummock again has zoning aimed at keeping houses on the island at a traditional, modest size.

The McIntosh County Commission on Thursday voted 3-1, with Chris Jarriel opposing, to approve an ordinance limiting house size on Sapelo Island to 1,550 square feet “under roof” with an additional 400-square-foot porch and a 32-foot height limit.  

The commissioners voted after a public hearing at which no one spoke in favor of the ordinance but nine people opposed it, some heatedly. The objections raised included continued worries that loopholes in the wording would allow larger homes, a failure to spell out historic preservation requirements and even a dispute over the spelling of the community’s name.

Commissioners hesitated at first to make any motion. A failed motion from Jarriel to deny the ordinance was followed by a motion by Roger Lotson to accept it. Henderson Hope seconded it.

 “If you want a reasonable, enforceable code ordinance, this is it,” Hope said.

The new zoning relies on measurements that can be taken without entering the home, an approach taken to assist enforcement. Zoning in place prior to September, 2023, limited house size to 1,400 square feet “heated and cooled.” But that phrasing made the rules difficult to enforce post-construction. 

“When a building inspector showed up to a property to see whether or not that building that’s obvious from the outside is larger than 1,400 (square feet), unless they had a court order to come in, the owner would say, ‘Stop right there! You are not coming into my building’,” Lotson said at Thursday’s meeting. “And so there are many homes over there that were built or added to after that 1,400 rule was put in place.”

The effort to close that loophole went sideways in a series of tumultuous public meetings that resulted in the approval of much larger houses out of character for Hogg Hummock, a neighborhood listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The enclave is the last intact community on Georgia’s Sea Islands of Gullah Geechee people, descendants of West Africans enslaved along the coast.

The September, 2023, ordinance allowed 3,000 square feet of living space in homes up to 37 feet tall, engendering a wave of opposition. 

Longtime residents feared the resulting gentrification and the higher taxes that accompanied it would drive them out of their ancestral homes in favor of wealthy developers. Gullah Geechee descendants and supporters forced the county to hold a referendum on the issue. The county aborted the first attempt at a referendum midvote. But the Georgia Supreme Court eventually upheld the citizens’ right to vote on the matter. In January, 85% of voters chose to overturn the controversial zoning. 

The referendum results left Hogg Hummock with no zoning, which remained the status until Thursday’s vote. New building has been paused on the island, first through a judge’s order and more recently through the county commission, whose moratorium is scheduled to expire Aug. 10. County officials have said they were reluctant to extend the moratorium fearing lawsuits from landowners wanting to build. Despite this concern, the Building and Zoning Director Bryan Boone said at Thursday’s meeting that the county had received no building permit applications for Sapelo.

McIntosh resident Maggie Van Cantfort, coastkeeper with the Altamaha Riverkeeper, was among several commenters Thursday who pleaded with the board to delay its decision.

“I would like the county to not rush this, and to I would like to see a more genuine effort from the county to actually work with the Sapelo descendants and Hogg Hummock residents to achieve zoning that protects and respects the Hogg Hummock and Gullah Geechee … community,” she said.

Lotson defended the commission, noting it’s held multiple listening sessions and hearings in over the six months since the referendum.

“We’ve been patiently listening, taking in what people have said, and have been tweaking, modifying, tearing up, starting all over, and that’s where we are today, because we have been taking our time,” he said.

Josiah “Jazz” Watts, a Gullah Geechee descendant who lives in Hogg Hummock urged consultation with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the State Historic Preservation Office National Trust, and the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation.

“All these entities and state agencies and federal agencies can really help when we’re talking about creating the policies and guidelines and things of that nature for this district, because we are the only historic district that’s within the (unincorporated) county,” he said.

County officials hold that the county’s Historic Preservation Commission will work in parallel with the zoning ordinance to preserve the historic character of the district.

Several Gullah Geechee descendants and supporters requested that the ordinance spelling of Hogg Hummock reflect the community’s preference.

“I’m telling the board, the name of our community is Hogg, H-o-g-g, my grandfather’s last name, Hummock, h-u-m-m-o-c-k,” said Reginald Hall. “And they refuse to even respect that.”

County Attorney Ad Poppell agreed the county’s alternate spelling “Hog Hammock” could be considered a typo and told The Current after the meeting the name change in the ordinance would be addressed at the county commission’s next meeting on Aug. 11.

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