Lady’s Island continues to grow. Why some are questioning census declines on St. Helena
Strong population gains on Lady’s Island have continued over the past 10 years as the gateway to the Sea Islands east of Beaufort wrestles with growth and its impact on the land and transportation, the latest U.S. Census data show.
Meanwhile, the data show population shrank on St. Helena Island, driven by declines in the number of Black residents. Two officials dispute the accuracy of those figures.
The U.S. Census Bureau last week released 2020 data that shows population and demographic changes for every community in the country.
On Lady’s Island:
- The northernmost census tract on the island, which includes neighborhoods such as Marsh Hawk and Coosaw Point, grew by 22.8%, to 3,254 residents, the census data shows.
- South of Sea Island Parkway, growth was 7.5%, with the number of residents increasing to 8,756 residents.
- The southern end of the island, which includes Cat Island, grew by 14.8% to 2,082.
Just more than 14,000 residents now live in those three census tracts that make up the most of St. Lady’s Island, up from 12,572, an 11.7 increase.
Steady gains in population on Lady’s Island have a down side: traffic snarls and struggles to balance new housing development with protections for the island’s salt marshes, marsh islands and coastal waters.
The new census data comes as Beaufort County is developing a new comprehensive plan.
Growth on Lady’s Island — and how it affects traffic and development — has been a major theme in that process, said Robert Merchant, acting director of Beaufort County Planning and Zoning Department.
The county already has been trying to limit new subdivisions on the northern part of the island to limit population growth, Merchant said, and plans are in the works to upgrade the Lady’s Island transportation infrastructure, including the major intersection of Sea Island Parkway and Sams Point Road.
“They see the impacts of it every day when they are trying to commute to work,” Merchant said of Lady’s Island residents.
Many subdivisions have been filling out over the past decade, which probably accounts for most of the population growth on the island, Merchant said. Capacity for growth remains because of empty lots still waiting for homes, he added.
A 2018 joint study of Lady’s Island by the city of Beaufort and Beaufort County concluded new measures were needed to manage growth on the island. The study said then that the island was expected to grow to 18,000 to 22,000 by 2035. Under existing policies, the report said, that amount of growth would exceed the capacity of the island’s infrastructure.
Beaufort County Councilman York Glover said one of the challenges for the future is improving transportation on Lady’s Island because it affects traffic throughout the Sea Islands, particularly the bottleneck at Sea Island Parkway and Sams Point Road.
“If we have congestion there, it will have a major compound impact on the Sea Islands,” Glover said.
Beaufort County Councilman Paul Sommerville of Beaufort, whose district also includes portions of the Sea Islands, says developers bought cheap land many years ago and waited for the market to improve and then proceeded with planned unit developments.
“They were going to put enough density on Lady’s Island to sink it,” Sommerville said.
Next, there will be “constant pressure” to put up higher density housing developments on rural St. Helena Island to the east of Lady’s Island, Sommerville predicted.
“Just like there was pressure on Hilton Head at one time,” he said.
Is St. Helena Island losing residents?
The latest census data shows population decline in the three St. Helena Island census tracts, which surprised the county’s Merchant.
In the tract north of Sea Island Parkway, which includes Dataw Island and Coffin Point areas, the population shrank 8.1% to 3,551, with Black residents declining 34.9%, and the number of white (9.4%) and Hispanic residents (2.4%) increasing.
A second tract to the west, stretching from the Fort Freemont area in the south to Penn Center and beyond, shrank 9.6% to 3,046, with Black residents declining 21% while the white population grew by 19%.
In the third tract, population declined 7% to 1,425, with the white population growing 45%, and the number of Blacks declining by 15%.
Glover doesn’t trust the numbers. He believes Black residents were undercounted in the census because of COVID-19.
“As far as [the federal government is] concerned, they are not there,” said Glover, referring to Black residents. “But they are.”
Dawn Alston Paige, a community activist and president of Lowcountry Equitable Land and Resource Trust who also was a census worker, said she was “floored” when she saw the decline in numbers of Black residents. She said she is certain that many residents in rural unincorporated areas such as St. Helena Island were not counted. She cited a lack of postal service at home as one reason. Many people go to town to collect their mail, she said. Lack of internet connectivity at home and the pandemic were other reasons census forms were not returned, she said.
“I do think these numbers are suspect,” she said.
The group plans to push to get an accurate count, Alston Paige said.
Sea Islands farthest from the mainland, including Fripp and Harbor islands, grew 66% to 1,192 residents. That area includes some year-round homes but also seasonal housing.
Sommerville said it’s possible some of those seasonal residents have become full-time residents, which is driving the population increase.
“It’s become very popular,” he said.
This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 9:15 AM.
