It is over: Pine Island golf course killed by council. Options for next steps surface

Beaufort County will not remove Pine Island from St. Helena’s Cultural Protection Overlay, killing the plan for the 18-hole golf course and resort on the 500 acre plantation.

An overflowing county council chamber, once again filled to the brim with people donning stickers and holding signs in support of keeping the Pine Island Plantation in the CPO, was filled with applause as the council shot down the request to be removed from the overlay.

Though, unlike previous meetings, the crowd wasn’t solely in opposition to Tropeano’s plan. At least 45 supporters of his golf club attended the meeting, he said. Two of them spoke in favor of the plan during an extended public comment session.

The CPO aims to to protect Gullah culture and residents from being displaced by resorts and gated communities. Developer Elivo Tropeano, who purchased the plantation for $18 million, looked to create the Pine Island Golf Club – a “minimalist” golf club which would have seen 400 of the 500 acres remain green space, according to Tropeano’s Pine Island Plan.

The final vote was 8-2 in favor of keeping the property in the CPO. Failing on first reading means the request is dead – it won’t have a second or third reading.

Council members said that in allowing Tropeano to circumvent the CPO, it would create a slippery slope where the next person interested in doing the same would have a strong argument to do so.

“If we change the mapping of the CPO to allow for that to happen, what will stop that from happening again?” asked Councilperson York Glover. “Once this happens, it opens the door for this to happen again and again and again.”

Those who voted in favor of removing the property from the CPO were Councilperson Logan Cunningham and Councilperson Paula Brown.

“I hope that our citizens are prepared for the increase in taxes because we will need the revenue for all those roads,” said Cunningham. “I hope that our taxpayers are ready to use our public funding dollars for the legal battles that we’re going to be put into over and over and over again.”

Vice-chair Larry McElynn, who chaired the meeting in Chairman Passiment’s absence, closed discussion still hopeful that the community and Tropeano could find common ground in the future.

“The developer still owns the property and is free to continue whatever he wishes to do in regard to reaching out to the community,” he said.

Now What?

Tropeano fought an uphill battle against steep opposition, who came meeting after meeting to voice their opposition to a golf club on Pine Island. Monday night’s decision means Tropeano will not reach the summit of that hill.

“For six months, all we did was talk about me and my property when we were supposed to be talking about an ordinance and instead of traditional due process, we arrive at an exhausted Council and rightfully so,” Tropeano told the Island Packet / Beaufort Gazette. “It’s unfortunate what happened this evening. At the end of the day these things are meaningful, so I hope the discussion doesn’t stop here. It certainly won’t stop here with us.”

Tropeano now has three options:

• He can sue the county, making arguments for why the CPO, before being strengthened, allowed for three six-hole golf courses and that the county purposefully avoided doing anything with Tropeano’s code request until they could strengthen the CPO and deny the request.
• Alternatively, Tropeano can build his “plan B,” up to a 166-home, 90-dock private community on Pine Island Plantation.
• Sell the land to either the county or another developer

As for what avenue will be taken, Tropeano said, “Unclear on our next steps.”

“If a development that reduces density by 60% and in an already rural area, reduces docks by 90%, over seven and a half miles of shoreline, and preserves over 85% of the property as open space and green space forever doesn’t meet the balance that Beaufort county is trying to achieve in it’s harmony between the natural and built environment, I’m not sure what does,” Tropeano said.

This story was originally published June 27, 2023 at 10:38 AM.