How two new developments threaten the Lowcountry’s quality — and way — of life | Opinion

Rarely is the road to hell so obvious.

I just hope members of the Ridgeland Town Council and Beaufort County Council recognize it. They better. They have the chance to reverse course in the near future.

If each of them were to vote “no” on development plans in their area, they will honor and hopefully preserve the South Carolina Lowcountry’s environment, traditions and quality of life.

Up first, the Ridgeland Town Council is considering a proposal by investors headed by Robert Graves of Bluffton to annex 1,500 acres of environmentally-sensitive rural landscape along Euhaw Creek for 2,000 new homes and 250,000 square feet of commercial space.

A potential first town council vote on the annexation and a special development permit is set for 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 18, at the Ridgeland Town Hall.

Next, the Beaufort County Council is considering a plan to develop Pine Island off the northern shore of rural St. Helena Island, a plan that would disregard community wishes to preserve the traditional land uses and culture of the Gullah on St. Helena codified in 1999. A first vote could come at a hearing at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 22, at the Burton Wells Recreation Center.

In both cases, council approval would echo through the ages, altering life in the Lowcountry for generations to come. Unless you like the clogged streets of big cities like Atlanta, it’s not a good way to preserve quality of life. Both proposals promote the wrong thing in the wrong place.

On St. Helena, the proposed gated community with golf course would run afoul of a Cultural Protection Overlay zoning amendment that prohibits the development of resorts, gated communities and golf courses on most of St. Helena.

That overlay district is being challenged in court.

York Glover, who represents St. Helena on the County Council, said the stakes were clear when the council voted 5-4 on Aug. 20 to enter legal negotiations with the developers of Pine Island, investors who are represented locally by Elvio Tropeano.

“How do you permit this to happen today and stop it from happening tomorrow?” asked Glover, who opposed the negotiations. “You can’t.”

He said the council’s approval would lead to the loss or development of Gullah-owned land across St. Helena Island, changes that community has long said it does not want.

“One of the things that is real is that if you lose the land, you lose the culture,” Glover said.

Another certainty is that the Gullah heritage of the sea islands is getting squeezed out by newcomers, and that with developers, enough is never enough.

Actually, the Lowcountry way of life for people of all heritages is being erased, quickly.

In Jasper County, the effects of Ridgeland’s annexation would be predictably dire. South Carolina Highway 462 cannot handle that development boom. There is no plan to deal with it.

It’s typical. Just look at Argent Road near Sun City Hilton Head to see what it would look like.

You’d forever lose rural settings, like Cooler’s Store, which sits on a two-lane road shaded by oak trees, near the burial place of Thomas Heyward, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his former home, where George Washington slept in 1791.

The Ridgeland town administration recommended against the annexation after a third-party feasibility study showed in 2024 that the town could not afford the public safety services it would require, and would not even have the borrowing capacity to handle it.

The study also showed “significant positive long-term fiscal benefits” to the town.

But any benefits would only come with sharply increased density, which destroys the land and ravages the quality of life in this rural area.

The tract, called Tickton Hall, is more than five miles from the heart of Ridgeland. Annexation opponents see many threats to the area’s natural bounty that is a Lowcountry birthright: No public water and sewer service, insufficient safeguards related to wastewater and stormwater disposal, and scores of new docks and bulkheads on Euhaw Creek.

You can’t just overlay Atlanta on our sensitive shores and live happily ever after.

Of all people, the members of the Ridgeland Town Council and Beaufort County Council should know that. They need to hit the brakes.

David Lauderdale may be reached at lauderdalecolumn@gmail.com.

This story was originally published September 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM.