With ‘Little Blue’ gone, will one of the last cabins on Hunting Island be next?
Hunting Island’s iconic “Little Blue” cottage — one of the few remaining in the state park following Hurricane Matthew — was torn down last month.
Now the owners of another island cabin are fighting the state to avoid a similar fate.
Russell Patterson, an attorney and a co-owner of the cabin, is part of a group suing the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.
The agency, which oversees the island, has determined the owners’ long-term lease with the state is no longer valid and that the cabin must be removed due to erosion and damage caused by the hurricane.
“We just want to continue to use the cabin for the last four years” of the 25-year lease — set to expire in October of 2021, Patterson said earlier this week.
In a December letter to one of the owners of the cabin — which sits on a parcel described in court documents as “lot 354” or “28 Cabin Lane”— State Park Service director Phil Gaines wrote that the “lease has been terminated since lot 354 no longer exists.”
Patterson questioned that logic.
“I stood on lot 354, and I didn’t fall into the center of the Earth,” he said, “so I think the lot is still there.”
Gaines’ letter, which was included in court documents, said the lot has been “consumed by the Atlantic Ocean” and the “house that was sitting on the lot is now considered to be sitting on the beach” and must be removed.
Patterson said he wants the state to allow him to move some sand and create new dunes around the home to keep it from falling victim to the erosion that resulted in “Little Blue” being surrounded on all sides by the sea.
“We know we have an obligation not to let that thing get out in the ocean like ‘Little Blue,’ ” he said. “We fully intend to meet those obligations.”
As part of the lease termination, the state has not issued the cabin owners a permit to move any sand to protect the structure.
In a January email to Patterson, Gaines explained that “certain requirements must be met to maintain the lease.”
Those included maintaining high ground and “the placement of a septic tank,” the email, also included in court documents, said.
“The chronic erosion at Hunting Island has taken its toll on the entire island, but especially on the south end where the lot in question has been lost to erosion and high tides,” Gaines wrote.
I really don’t know why (the state is) taking this approach.
Attorney and cabin co-owner Russell Patterson
The state “stands by its termination of the lease” because the cabin “has been deemed uninhabitable by virtue of water damage, no running water, no electricity, and a exposed septic tank,” the email said.
Patterson disagrees with that assessment.
“We had some exterior damage,” he said, “but as far as the cabin is concerned, it’s structurally sound.”
Court documents filed by the cabin’s owners argue that they could meet the requirements of the lease with some minor repairs such as installing a generator and solar panels, replacing the septic tank, and reconstructing a path to connect the lot a nearby roadway.
But Gaines’ email to Patterson says that “SCPRT does not feel the re-establishment of the road is sustainable, safe, nor practical.”
Patterson said the owners “have always gotten along well” with SCPRT officials. He said he doesn’t “really know why they are taking this approach.”
“At some point a judge will have to decide whether our lease is valid,” he said.
While South Carolina is asking the owners to remove their cabin, the state is planning construction of its own.
Recommendations for Hunting Island’s redevelopment were presented earlier this year to state lawmakers and include new cabins, fewer parking spots, a shuttle service and 50 picnic sites.
Lucas High: 843-706-8128, @IPBG_Lucas
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This story was originally published March 3, 2017 at 1:06 PM with the headline "With ‘Little Blue’ gone, will one of the last cabins on Hunting Island be next?."