Sea Pines residents need ‘yes’ vote

We are among many Sea Pines residents who have been receiving correspondence from a group that strongly opposes the proposed referendum on the Sea Pines Resort. We strongly disagree with their suggestion that the planned improvements to the Harbour Town area and the Tennis Academy/Lawton Stables will do anything other than make dramatic improvements in the structures involved and the surrounding areas.

But even accepting their many other concerns, voting “no” on the referendum simply will not achieve the additional concessions they seek from the resort. On the other hand, if the referendum is defeated, the residents of Sea Pines will be denied substantial financial and environmental benefits that are not likely to be available again in the foreseeable future.

Residents of Sea Pines need to consider that after a defeat of the referendum, the resort will not come back to the table, but will instead simply find alternatives to the desired hotel expansion, and Sea Pines residents will be left with none of the financial benefits negotiated by the Association of Sea Pines Plantation Property Owners board.

Even worse, the resort could also decide to dedicate the hundreds of millions of dollars that were planned for upgrading its Sea Pines properties to the more hospitable locations in the Goodwin family portfolio..

We hope that those who are urging residents to vote “no” will see that “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” comes at a very high cost to our community as a whole.

This story was originally published July 30, 2017 at 10:03 AM with the headline "Sea Pines residents need ‘yes’ vote."