With a rocky start, new Pine Island group announces support for island’s development.
A group of approximately eight people calling themselves “The Community Coalition of St. Helena Island” held a press conference at Barefoot Farms Friday morning to lend support to the development of the Pine Island property. The group’s leader and retired St. Helena Island Postmaster Roy Brown used his opening remarks to support the development, including controversial plans for a now tabled golf course.
Funding, membership, leadership and current tax-exempt status of the Community Coalition of St. Helena Islands remain a mystery. The organization’s website lists various links to contact county council members, four photos and some text calling supporters to action.
Pine Island has made headlines multiple times this year after owner Elvio Tropeano came forward last year with his plan to develop 503 acres with a 18-hole golf club and resort and high-end housing. However, St. Helena’s cultural protection overlay does not allow for golf courses on the island. Tropeano faced a series of losses as the county strengthened the CPO, continuing to deny Tropeano his request allow the golf course build.
Roy Brown addressed the conflict between the owner of the property and the county. “Mr. Elvio, has bent over backwards to serve this community and I think all of us sometimes need an uplift,” Brown said.
The event took an unexpected turn
During Roy Brown’s remarks, Arnold Brown, of the Penn Center and a vocal critic of Tropeano’s golf course development, walked up and stood behind the podium, shoulder-to-shoulder with the perplexed Community Coalition members. Taped to his shirt and held in his hand were the green “support the CPO” stickers. The CPO is the zoning designation preventing the development.
Tade Oyeilumi, the former manager of the Penn Center’s welcome center and current member of the pro-development coalition, found Arnold Brown’s gesture disrespectful. “We didn’t disturb their press conference,” she said. “That’s not fair for him to get in the picture and to disturb ours.”
Arnold Brown later told the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette that he had been asked to speak at the event by Roy Brown, a request he said he turned down. “Now if I wanted to be disruptive, I could have spoken at their press conference,” he said. “I was there to communicate that we are still opposed to that development plan.”
Roy Brown refuted the idea of inviting Arnold Brown to speak. Roy Brown says he only asked if Arnold Brown was a speaker when he approached the podium. He was not asked to speak at the event and this was the first time the men had met each other, Roy Brown added.
During the Q&A session that followed Roy Brown’s opening remarks, a concern was raised by Beaufort County Planning Commission member, Cecily McMillan. She had brought a flier used by the coalition to promote Friday’s press conference and pointed out that it carried the Beaufort County logo. “How is it that your organization feels it’s okay to appropriate a county logo?” McMillan asked. She also added that after speaking with one of the county’s attorneys, she confirmed it was an illegal use of the logo. Organizers responded that it was a “simple mistake’ that had been corrected. “We are a community organization we are not a professional organization,” said Oyeilumi. “Therefore we will make mistakes along the way. And that’s one of our mistakes.”
The press packets at the event included fliers updated without the Beaufort County logo.
This story was originally published September 22, 2023 at 12:56 PM.
