Cultural Protection Overlay Zoning District In Saint Helena Island, South Carolina
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Session:Student Session: March 14, 8:45am
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Cultural Protection Overlay Zoning District In Saint Helena Island, South Carolina
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Session:Student Session: March 14, 8:45am |
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Abstract:This paper examines significant historical, cultural, and socio-political factors that shaped the Cultural Protection Overlay Zoning District in St. Helena Island.. St. Helena Island, South Carolina is home to the largest concentration of Gullah/Geechee people remaining in the United States. The historical context loosely frames the community ecology. A specific threat enabled the community to rally around a definable issue. The coalitions that supported the CPO Zoning District were instrumental to its passage. The importance of process of planning is equally, if not more important than the plans themselves The CPO Zoning District is rooted in the intersection two important movements: 1) the changing mainstream planning and political thought While being tested, the true strength or weakness of the CPO Zoning District is yet to be known.
INTRODUCTIONIn April 1999, the Beaufort County Council moved to protect the unique African American culture of St. Helena Island by adopting the Cultural Protection Overlay Zoning District (CPO) as a part of its new Zoning and Development Standards Ordinance. The CPO Zoning District was adopted in the context of the Beaufort County Planning Department’s implementation of 1997 Comprehensive Development Plan developed by a national planning consultant group, Land Ethics, Inc. Entitled "Get a Grip on Our Future", the plan represented the political vision of the Beaufort County Council to achieve balance between growth, preservation, and social equity. Overlaying rural and rural/residential zoning, the intent of the CPO Zoning District is to provide additional protection on St. Helena Island by creating disincentives for gated communities, golf courses, and resorts.
CPO Zoning District seeks to answer several questions: What is the significant history of this place? What is the culture on St. Helena Island? And what are the resources that need to be protected? It was shaped by many factors. Most importantly, the imminent threats to loss of cultural resources, as found on Hilton Head Island, faced St. Helena Island. Entitled destructionment by Gullah historian Marquetta Goodwine, as the process embodies the ruin of a culture through the loss of natural environment, the loss of land, the loss of history, the loss of voice, the loss of community, and ultimately the dispersion of a people. (Goodwine, 1998, p.164). This paper explores the CPO Zoning District of St. Helena Island in three sections. First, we will explore key historical planning actions and their impact on the island and its people. Next, this paper explores threats to the Gullah culture. Finally, the planning history surrounding the CPO Zoning District is discussed. I will deconstruct the plans and planning decisions themselves to explore the community organizations, international, state and local planning agencies and the dynamics of their interaction. THE ISLAND AND ITS PEOPLEOriginally named Sainta Elena by the Spanish explorer Pedro de Quexos in 1525, St. Helena Island, South Carolina is one pearl in the string of Sea Islands halfway between Charleston and Savannah, in Beaufort County, South Carolina. Geographically, St. Helena Island is one of largest island measuring approximately fifteen miles long and four miles wide. Its natural harbor and habitable land encouraged exploration by the Spanish, French and English. The Warto and Yamasee Indian tribes remained in the area now known as Beaufort County and Charleston, until 1715 when the remaining Indian peoples were driven across the Savannah to San Augustin, today known as Saint Augustine. (Johnson, 1930, p.3-6). St. Helena Island was isolated from the mainland by tidal creeks, and the Atlantic Ocean until 1927 when the first bridge was constructed to link the island to the city of Beaufort. The term Gullah refers to the culture of the Sea Islands, while Geechee refers to the creolized language. The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition estimates that there are approximately half a million people of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, living both within its islands and throughout the world. Some locate its origin in the Gola people from Sierra Leone and Liberia today, while others trace it to the old Ngola region of today's Angola (Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, 2000). Gullahs descend from West Africans brought to South Carolina and Georgia to work as slaves on cash crop plantations of rice, sea cotton and indigo. Chattel slavery in American began in South Carolina with its settlement in 1670. Planned by planters from Barbados, the Low Country was selected as a site with inexpensive land suitable for the lucrative business of rice production. Englishmen with little familiarity with rice cultivation; Africans with the requisite technical skills in were specifically imported for labor. By the 1690s, the production of labor-intensive crops ensured the colony's dependence on African labor (Johnson, p. 14). Cultural ResourcesThe resources of the Gullah/Geechee nation are interconnected with the culture of the language and social traditions, the concept of African communalism and self-reliance, and the environment and the land that sustain a way of life. These Africans brought to the South Carolina Low Country developed a unique culture that closely resembles their original continent. African provenance traditions are clearly replicated within the island culture including architecture, basket making, food preparation, net making, quilting, carving and the duplication of work implements such as the wooden mortar and pestle widely used in the 18th century to "clean" rice and baskets used to sift rice. Language is one identified factor the collective cohesiveness of the Gullah culture. It is distinct from any other African American group in the United States. The language of the Gullah/Geechee people is a creolized language spoken first in the slave camps as a form of universal communication. Once thought to be poor English, it is now known this dialect is rooted in the many languages of Africa. Sierra Leone is the country from which over 45% of the Gullah people descended (Pollitzer, 1999, p32) and the site of the port through which even more were enslaved. Even today, the common language in Sierra Leone, Kiro, closely resembles Geechee. In addition to the language, many attribute the ability of the Gullah/Geechee people to develop and maintain a unique culture to the geographical isolation of the Sea Islands, the disease susceptibility differential between slaves and whites, the large numbers of direct African imports, and high concentration of slaves. Although the subtropics climate was superior for the crops, the impact on the inhabitants the Sea Islands was dramatically different. " Malaria in the mosquito–ridden Low County that killed off whites allowed the blacks to survive. Over the years they built up immunity to other infectious diseases as well, but succumbed to the unfamiliar ailments of whites" (Pollitzer, p.85). Subsequently, whites spent most of the year in town, leaving black slave drivers responsible for the production and the everyday assignments of the plantation. The Low Country plantations formed what has been called the "Black Border"(Gonzales, 1922). With ratio estimates ranging up to five slaves to one white, many Gullah never interacted with whites. Due to the high demand for labor, large families were encouraged to increase procreation of progeny for additional labor at no external cost. However, the progeny of slaves was supplemented by a steady stream of labor legally imported directly from specific regions of Africa between 1670 and 1808 (Pollitzer, p.6). As illustrated in African American communities throughout the United States, individual responsibility to and for the community is incorporated into the structure of the society. "It was a policy of community first, over family, and certainly over the Master" (God’s Gonna Trouble The Water, 1994). Among the more discrete forms of cohesive social interaction were religious organizations and cooperatives. As the concepts of Christianity were forced upon the Africans, churches and small religious dwellings, called Praise Houses, became the allowable places for community congregation. The community, as an extended family of kin, governed the social interactions of the islanders in arbitration, birth, child rearing, religion and death (Jones Jackson, p.22). However, the final tribunal for self-governance was the Praise House, one of the few allowable places for organized community congregation during slavery. In the Sea Islands communal economic action took the form of cooperatives. Cooperatives were formed to pool finances and resources for economic activities. Key examples of the success of cooperatives are the direct tax land sale, farming, and credit unions (Adejola, 1989, p.1). Even during slavery, self–sufficiency was embedded in the culture. Similar to the West African coast, the environment of the barrier island is a network of working waterways and tidal creeks that supported a traditionally African and Low country way of life. Certain degrees of freedom were afforded for fishing, crabbing and hunting to supplement the diet and create income for the Gullah. Agricultural cultivation of family plots outside the slave quarters provided needed vegetables such as tomatoes, okra and greens. Game was hunted on adjacent Hunting Island, which had traditionally been a game reserve since the English habitation of the Sea Islands. However, St. Helena Island was forever changed with the intrusion of the Civil War. During the early stages, in November 1861, the Union forces unexpectedly took control of the islands. Whites fled the Sea Islands, and abandoned their slaves, valuables and crops. The Port Royal Experiment was a plan devised by the U.S. Treasury Department to salvage the crops and promote self-sufficiency among slaves. A letter from John Murray Forbes states, "Pierce has begun one of the noblest experiments which modern civilization has undertaken by inaugurating a system of free (d) labor combined with instruction for the freed slave upon their native soil" (Rose, 1978, p. 141). The Experiment was a test case in large-scale radical economic and social reconstruction (Rose, 1978). Among the promotion of self-sufficiency was an implicit assumption that land tenure was necessary. The Direct Tax Sale of 1863 enabled the Gullah to obtain the majority of their land on St. Helena Island through fee-simple title. In 1861, an act of Congress levied a direct tax on every state for the purpose of the war. However in the original act, no provision was made for insurrection state that did not pay the tax. In 1862, President Lincoln outlined a plan to sell the land under federal jurisdiction to pay for the direct tax on South Carolina with a special provision for land ownership of slave households. Sold by auction, 347 purchases were made by the Gullah people of St. Helena Island, the majority of whom bought in plots of ten acres (Bleser, p.7). In 1866, a second large block of land became available with the sale of the Edward Philbrick landholding (Bleser, p.13). The legal claim to St. Helena by the Gullah of St. Helena Island was made in the litigious period following the Civil War, when former landowners came to stake their claim. The case of Detreville v. Smalls (1878), which reached the Supreme Court, was the precedent for Gullah ownership. (Rose, p.397). Today, much of St. Helena’s land is held as "heir’s title" where there is no formal transfer of title from one family member to another. Reflective of the communalism illustrated in social and economic interactions, land is considered legally as the property of a community of family members or a family settlement. Embodied in social interaction; property is not valued strictly in the traditional economic sense; rather it is cultural asset which embodies economic, social and physical considerations. As richly stated in this paraphrased quote from the 1865 edition of Our Nation I, a Gullah man states, "What is the use to give us our freedom if we can’t stay where we were raised, and own our houses where we were born, and our little pieces of ground?" (Abbott, p.52). Similar in ways to the Native Indian concept of land, the community has certain rights to all land, regardless of the titled property owner. With over 70% of St. Helena’s land is categorized at agricultural and forestry uses. (Land Ethics. Inc., p.208), agriculture remains a source of sustenance, economic opportunity and heritage. The agribusiness yields $12-15 million dollar industry. Most notably, it provides a large tomato crop that supplies the national gap between Florida tomatoes, and those produced further north on the East Coast. Environmentally, St. Helena Sound is the largest shellfish area in the county one of the most productive biotic communities in the world, and is home to commercial shrimping and crabbing enterprises. 71.1 percent of the County’s beaches are found within St. Helena Township. The economic and environmental value is well noted. (Land Ethics, Inc., p.107). Yet since the Port Royal Experiment, there has been covert and sustained threat to Gullah culture. In 1862 Beaufort Representative of the American Missionary Society, W.J. Richardson, stated, "The great work is to unlearn them from the vices, habits, and association of their former lives" (Rose, 217). The stripping of Gullah culture has been institutionalized through primarily the educational system and subsequently, through the world of business. Treated as ignorant because of the way they spoke, Gullah was considered to be lowest level of African American society. Because of this, many children divorced themselves from their language, culture, and home place (Gullah Gechee Sea Island Coalition, 2000). Now, an overt threat is at hand. For the past thirty years, Beaufort County has experienced unparalleled growth with the development of seaside resorts that serve affluent non-islanders. This type of development is often referred to as the new plantations (Economist, 1993). Hilton Head Island, also in Beaufort County, is the real world worst-case scenario of what could happen to St. Helena Island were it not for some mechanisms of intervention. Timber Magnet Joseph B. Fraser held land in Hilton Head until the significant planning decision was made to link the island to the mainland by vehicular bridge in 1950. "As ‘developers’ moved in with trucks to fell trees and dig lagoons, they also moved into the Gullah community with a great deal of fast talk and untruths" (Goodwine, p. 168). Some landowners sold to developers, such as Fraser for economic profit, while, sometimes unknowingly, sacrificing the cultural benefits. "For us, the land is an extension of ourselves. Without the land which we have nurtured and which has fed us, we have lost all that makes us who we are. As one of our ancestors, Uncle Smart X stated, ‘We born here; we parents' graves here; we donne oder country; dis yere our home. De Nort' folks hab home, antee? What a pity dat dey don't love der home like we love we home, for den dey would nebber come here for buy all way from we.’" (Goodwine, p. 170). The greatest threat of the new plantations is its impact the on Gullah/Geechee community and culture as a whole. With restrictive gated access, these new plantations effectively shut out the Gullah/Geechee people away from sacred grounds of family gravesites and traditional sources of supplies for self-sustaining industries such as basket weaving. Further undermining the Gullah community, developers sold sand mining rights to create lagoons, which caused shifts in the soils affecting the stability of old structures, and drowning deaths of children who fell in the vacuous 15-20 foot holes left behind (Goodwine, p.171). Environmentally, the expansive golf greens and proliferation of septic tanks contributed to non-point source pollution that contaminated fertile biotic communities, threatening the economic existence of many Gullah. Forty percent of South Carolina's coastal shellfish beds are now closed due to pollution from runoff from new roads, parking lots, golf courses, and lawns (Land Ethics Inc., p. 351). Economically, the need for substantial money to retain family land was unattainable through the traditional ways of existence. Due to rapid and dense development, economic value of property exploded by 100, 200 and 300 percent in short time periods. At the same time, the jobs brought to the island were primarily low-paying service sector positions that did not create a livable wage to pay the high taxes. Many were forced to leave home in an attempt to find work in order to keep their family land. As Hilton Head approaches build-out today, the Gullah/Geechee people have been marginalized to a corner of the island. All of the islands of the Low country are facing the similar situation. In St. Helena Island Township, three gated golf course plantations were developed on Dawtaw Island, Harbor Island and Fripp Island through Planned Unit Development Zoning. The threat was a "clear and present danger" of the loss of a culture. The specific threat of destructionment enabled the community to rally around a definable issue. The opportunity however was not only to ward off the eminent danger, but to also elevate the Gullah culture and their way of life as legitimate. The Actors that were key in the development of the Cultural Protection Overlay (CPO) District at the community level include the Penn School for Preservation Project, the Corners Community Association, the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, and the St. Helena Citizen’s Advisory Council. The combined action of these groups achieved leadership development, increased cultural awareness, and the creation of voice for the Gullah/Geechee community on St. Helena Island. Community OrganizationEmery Campbell, the Executive Director of the Penn Center for Preservation simply stated, "If you save people’s culture, their history and their lifestyle, then you save people"(Family Across the Sea, 1994). With historical roots in social change, northern abolitionists founded the Penn School in 1862 as the first school for slaves in the country to support their education as capacity development for freedom. The Penn School, on the National Register of Historic Landmarks, has served as an organizing community center for many significant movements. From 1963-1967, The Southern Leadership Conference used the center because of its rare policy allowing biracial meetings without government interference to develop civil rights strategies employed during the Civil Rights Movement. The Peace Corps has used the school since the 1970s as a training ground for new recruits for fishing villages. In 1992, the Penn School launched the Sea Islands Preservation Project in collaboration with the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League and the Neighborhood Legal Assistance Program. The Preservation Project was a distinct kind of leadership development program. "By creating a shared vision, and developing strategies to influence power structures and policymakers, the entire community organized itself around the theme of inclusive, sustainable community development." (Porter, 1995). The project fostered citizen involvement in the political process, taught political leaders how to be more accessible to citizens, and guided citizens to operate within formal decision-making arenas. The Preservation Project prepared members to take their issues before the County Council or to participate actively in other forums and meetings, to verbalize what their community wanted. Through collaboration, participants came to see their collective power that together they could and would envision and enact a new future for St. Helena Island. This belief in the power of the collective is an externalization of a central concept of Gullah culture, as the old Gullah proverb says, an empty sack cannot stand alone. In 1993 during an intensive six-month session, a coalition of allies--including environmentalists, historical and cultural preservationists, and concerned citizens--joined forces to examine sustainability. Penn Center directors and staff members assisted in data analysis, presentation and community organizing tasks. Penn's consultants functioned more as facilitators in a process of discovery than as teachers with the right answers worked toward the fulfillment of their goal to create a master plan for St. Helena Island. It included three reports: 1) an economic feasibility study for the development of the Corner Community, the "traditional commercial heart of St. Helena Island"; 2) a set of regulations to preserve the character of this area and revitalize its economy; and 3) land-use goals for the whole island. While unsuccessful in attaining funding of the Master Plan, Penn School for Preservation members were able to secure $425,000 to renovate and landscape the area to serve as the Public Market District. Their 1995 study, Residential Development of St. Helena Island: An Analysis of the Options, put forth key concepts that laid the foundation of the Cultural Protection Overlay (CPO) District Zoning of St. Helena Island: 1) protect the Island's agricultural lands and open spaces, and 2) reduce housing densities on the rural residential lands. Specific and powerful tools were explored to achieve the goals of down zoning, purchasing development rights, and sliding-scale zoning. The Penn School for Preservation equipped the community leaders with the language to describe what they were seeing--- one that had been solely the possession of planners, designers, and politicians (Porter, 1995). Out of the process, organizations were formed and issues studied. A CDC was formed to move the agenda of the St. Helena Master Plan forward. With the help of graduates of the Penn School, the Seas Island Preservation Project researched and analyzed many issues relating to land-use planning and zoning in preparation for the zoning revision required by the state every five years. It has also explored other options to zoning revision such as purchase of "development rights" and conservation easements. It has sought partnerships with national non-profits to help research and fund these efforts. Studies on property tax and agricultural-use tax issues are also part of the continuing Sea Islands Preservation Project (. While the Penn School for Preservation focused specifically on issues close to its original mission of capacity development, one of the most poignant criticisms of the land use report was that culture issues was not being addressed. An article appearing in Mother Earth magazine elucidated the ignorance and denial of the Gullah culture. In December of 1995, a South Carolinian government agency cancelled its plan to construct a bridge from the mainland to Sandy Island to enable logging of the island’s long leaf pine forests, because it threatened the red-cockaded woodpecker. Not mentioned by the agency were the impacts of a new plantation resort which proposed to house 20,0000 people on the 4 by 7 mile island the 130 member Gullah community has lived on for over a two centuries (Lerner, p. 16). "It is not the wildlife of the islands that are most endangered, says Emery Campbell. "We (Gullah/Geechee) have become the new endangered species."(Jones-Jackson, p. vii). Indeed, the task was arduous. It is akin to environmental justice activist who can not argue that the location of a fifth toxic dump will increase the risk of cancer because it is an unsubstantiated argument that will lose in court. Until the experts prove a direct correlative relationship, it cannot be a legal ground. As the experts in their own culture, the Gullah had been charged to provide substantiated evidence of culture, if it was to a legitimate defense in the context of law and legality. One strategy predominately utilized to preserve the culture was to remove the isolation and mystery that had for so long protected them. "Mainstreaming is a way to create a lifeline, however we must remember the source of that lifeline." (God’s Gonna Trouble The Water, 1994). The Gullah/Geechee culture, whose primary mechanism against cultural denigration had been isolation, has recently entered the world stage. As research of "this unique group of Negroes on the South Carolinian coast" proliferated, beginning in Reconstruction, concrete linkages between Africa and the Gullah cultures were slow to develop, due in part to inherit biases of a Euro-centric perspective. However in 1989, during an emotional and poignant homecoming journey, delegates from the Gullah/Geechee people were welcomed in Sierra Leone as long lost brothers and sisters. The event breathed new life into the quest for legitimacy for Gullah culture. The event affirmed to the Gullah themselves, and to the world that their culture was real--- a sister to that of Africa. Gullah people, who had been taught to put away their language and traditional ways to become ‘American’ by the Penn School and other educators, began to reclaim their heritage. The Gullah culture was redirected from a devalued American perspective, to the empowered perspective of Africa. In 1997, Marquetta Goodwine founded the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition to: 1) promote and participate in the preservation of Gullah and Geechee history, heritage, culture, and language, 2) work toward Sea Island land re-acquisition and maintenance, and 3) celebrate Gullah and Geechee cultures through artistic and educational means electronically and via "grassroots scholarship" (Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, 2000). Marquetta Goodwine, and her organization, have been crucial links in the development of the CPO. The Coalition was founded to bring together the actions of the many individuals and smaller organizations that were interested in cultural preservation. ``That made no sense,'' Ms. Goodwine said. ``I thought, `we can help each other. It's no good for people to go and do something when somebody's coming right behind us and doing the same thing.''(Dewig, 1999). From two Gullah families of St. Helena, Polowana and Dataw Islands in South Carolina, she lives on St. Helena Island on land acquired by her family in 1863. Author, folklorist, performer and Gullah historian, Ms. Goodwine completed her higher education at Fordham and Columbia Universities after leaving the Sea Islands. In 1986, she began taking visitors on the excursions throughout the Gullah lands in Beaufort County. Her tours heightened interest in the Gullah community, being featured in magazines such as Essence and the NY Amsterdam Times (Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, 2000). One of the many children sent out in the world, she felt the need to go home. In a recent interview with National Public Radio correspondent Vertamae Grosvenor, entitled the Changing Face of America, she said," I am needed here more now…because I can live in two worlds…as sort of a segue person" (Grosvenor, 2000). Today, the coalition consists of about 100 dues-paying members and about 1,000 supporters throughout the world, Ms. Goodwine said. The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition is a prolific user of the Internet as a virtual community for coalescence, education, communication and mobilization around the issues of the Gullah/Geechee people. The use of technology as a means for communication has been an effective tool in creating a cohesive external voice for the Gullah people connecting with the mainstream culture. Traditionally, the culture of mainstream American and the Gullah people has been kept separately, as discussed above. Maintaining dual cultures, also know as code switching, is a strategy that is still employed through language distinguishing outside (Standard English) from community (Geechee). (Jones-Jackson, 1987, p. 133). Technology, and specifically the internet serves to create a coalition with Gullah/Geechee people of the Diaspora, as well as others interested in the support of the Gullah. By providing linkages, literally and figuratively, the points where Gullah/Geechee culture connects to mainstream America is clearly defined. In September of 1997, another voice of the Gullah/Geechee people spoke, as Jabari Moteski initiated the Gullah Sentinel biweekly. Since that time, 2,500 copies of the paper are distributed throughout Beaufort County and the surrounding Low country bi-weekly. THE FORMAL PLANNING AGENDAWhile the leadership development, cultural knowledge and voice coalesced to create awareness from within the Gullah/Geechee people, the discourse of ethics and equity has pervaded the public realm providing fertile ground for the development of the CPO Zoning District. Internationally, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) have strengthened power enabled by legislation concerning the global costs of environmental degradation. During the 1980s, devolution of responsibilities from the federal to the state and local level often drastically reduced the level of federal intervention in substantive issues such as minority communities. Coupled with devolution are the social issues of self-determination for minority communities. The International Human Rights Association for American Minorities (IHRAAM), an International NGO in consultative status with the United Nations, has advocated for Gullah/Geechee People with the United Nations since 1994. In formal consultation since 1998, with the Gullah Geechee Sea Island Coalition, and the Carlie Towne Foundation IHRAAM seeks to assist in the preservation of cultural heritage sites and minority rights of the African American Gullah-Geechee peoples (IHRAAM, 2000). Beaufort County is the second wealthiest county in the State of South Carolina. However the rapid uncoordinated growth may destroy the industry and the quality of life it seeks to promote. "Cities, small towns, and urbanizing counties are wrestling mightily with the blessing and the curse of metropolitan growth. What forms of urban growth best meet the needs and desires of local citizens and businesses? What patterns of development enhance the public treasury, make best use of local fiscal resources, and most efficiently serve the provision of such public services as sewer and water, parks, public safety, and transportation? How will growth affect the natural environment, as well as a sense of community, of "place"? How will the way communities are growing affect the urban centers of their regions? And how, for heaven's sake, could we influence a change in direction, even if we wanted to? These are not easy questions to answer" (Epstein, 1997). The 1994 gubernatorial election is South Carolina focused on issues of planned growth. As the State of South Carolina enacted The Comprehensive Plan Enabling Act of 1994 (Chapter 29). It mandated the development of a comprehensive plan for Beaufort County, as well as all other counties in the state by 1999, to ensure that the future development in the County will be conducted in a rational fashion. (Land Ethics, 1997). Further contributing to the state of urgency, Beaufort County Council placed a moratorium on development in 1994 until the Comprehensive Plan was completed, submitted and approved. As the public policy document that forms the legal basis for any future land use ordinances, the importance of the Comprehensive Plan cannot be stressed. Beaufort County chose to hire a professional planning consultant team with national expertise in all functional areas. The consultant was charged by the County Council to develop a comprehensive planning process that focused protection, conservation and community participation. (Land Ethics, Inc., p. 141). While the state-enabling legislature did not specifically define the methods for community participation beyond a citizen’s advisory council, the County Council was clear on its intent. Elizabeth Brabec, leader planner of the consultant team said, "the County Council should be commended in terms of its fortitude and focus listening to everyone." In addition to the formation of a Quality Growth Committee that served in an advisory capacity, over 6,000 citizens and landowners participated. The public participation process, which consisted of a written survey, regional workshops, a slide survey, and two planning area workshops, was heavily publicized in three local papers and the media consistently throughout the planning process. Brabec credits the media involvement with enabling interaction with a broader group than just the most vocal 1%. In addition, special interest meetings were held with groups such as the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, and landowners. The communication and political involvement strategies learned through the Preservation Project enabled St. Helena Islanders to contribute substantially to the 1997 County's Comprehensive Plan. The Gullah/Geechee Community was one of the most vocal groups, with more participation than any other group in the county, during the public participation process. Not only were they in attendance, they were ready and could get involved in the process immediately. Brabec noted, the Gullah/Geechee Community came with answers, knowledge of the issues, and an articulate voice to present and discuss recommendations. The 1994 State Enabling Legislation speaks to the issue of plan implementation through the land use regulation tools of zoning, land development standards, landscape ordinance and maps of public improvements such as streets, facilities, and utility right of ways. The zoning ordinance Beaufort County had developed incrementally until 1995 and reflected a slow growth scenario. It was clearly inadequate to provide the guidance needed in its fast growth environment In addition, it did not support for the Gullah family compounds that populated St. Helena Island and other islands. There were no development standards in place. Presented with the much-needed opportunity to plan for development, the Beaufort County Planning Department and Land Ethics, the planning consultant, focused its attention to additional protection and conservation strategies such as floating zones, aesthetic ordinances and design review. The Zoning Development Standards Ordinance developed by county planners already allowed subdivisions to be permitted on St. Helena, creating an opportunity for development patterns parallel to Hilton Head Island. In addition, the provision for to one home per 5 acres threatened the family compounds that most Gullah people live in. The Gullahs subdivide 10 acres among ten people or more. The culture could not survive if the customs of the people could not be practices. Gated areas, golf courses, and franchises are direct problems to the preservation of culture in any area. The CPO Zoning District was proposed for St. Helena Island as the strategy for additional long-term protection. It was a social production. Residents of St. Helena recognized the potential for further cultural degradation reading the proposed zoning ordinance. Thus, the upset citizens immediately formed a citizens advisory group to make others aware, to speak out against this, and to develop a plan to impact the language of the final law. The St. Helena Citizens Advisory group lead the charge to mobilize residents and other concerned parties of getting people to work with the Planning Department develop appropriate wording for the The Cultural Protection Overlay District and the Family Compound Section of the Beaufort County Zoning and Development Standards Ordinance. The County Council and the County Planning Department was under heavy political pressure from the large landowners, defined as owning 300 acres, who were lobbying against the comprehensive plan and specifically its recommendations throughout the whole planning process. The restrictiveness of the plan, which had drawn applause from environmental groups across the Southeast, earned disparaging epithets from local landowners and Beaufort City officials. Cultural Protection Overlay District and the Family Compound Sections were heavily debated in County Council meetings because there was a great deal of opposition by "developers" to both of these components. The political skills of the Penn School for Preservation leaders came into play as St. Helena Citizens used their voice before the Beaufort County Council. The ability to create coalition around the issue of cultural protection was critical. The Gullah/Geechee community, the large retirement community, and environmental interests coalesced in opposition to the interests of the large landowners around the issue of quality of life and growth management. Penn School for Preservation worked to convince large farmers that their land could actually become more valuable if not densely developed. Brabec credits success to the political will of the County Council to complete and adopt the comprehensive plan with strict growth management focus, and the Gullah/Geechee community’s willingness to " stand up and fight" for the issues surrounding cultural protection. A powerful political advocate for St. Helena Island was Councilman William McBride. Mr. McBride is the Chairman for the Community Services and Public Safety Committee; and he is Vice Chairman of the Finance Committee. He is a member of the Grants and Minority Affairs and the Human Resources and Services Committees. He serves as the Parliamentarian for County. The CPO Zoning District was designed to protect the native people and not to allow loopholes for the developers who wanted to be able to subdivide every piece of an acre possible. In order to maximize their profit on sales. Recognizing the great potential for legal challenge, Land Ethics recommended that in the comprehensive plan the traditional cultural landscape be evaluated of the define the legal/legitimate basis for community protection. Marquetta Goodwine’s historical expertise enabled the Gullah/Geechee Sea Islands Coalition to take an active role bringing forth living and historical facts that documented a concrete and unique Gullah culture. CONCLUSIONThe intended and unintended outcomes of these cumulative planned policies and actions create the context for the CPO Zoning District. The success of the CPO Zoning District is rooted in the intersection of changing mainstream planning and political thought and the preparation of a community to be actively involved in the process to affect change. The CPO Zoning District reinforces that "local governments and citizens do have the ability to set development standards and to protect important, recognized and recognizable, cultural and historic resources." (Epstein, 1997). The Gullah/Geechee people have learned the mechanisms that could move forward its mission. The ability to work successfully within the political economic environment to affect change through planning was a hallmark of the community interaction. The Preservation Project strengthened, if not developed, the effectivenss of the residents of St. Helena in the planning process for the CPO Zoning District. This rise of defined culture and collective action engendered the capacity to coalesce, communicate, and mobilize. It is clear that in Beaufort County the community planning process informed the plan.
FUTURE IMPLICATIONSAs in any process that produces such innovative change, it has exacted tolls on many actors. The Penn School for Preservation has not had another Community Leadership program since 1993. After the adoption of the CPO Zoning District, the county’s planning department experienced a large exodus. Comprehensive planning is inherently difficult in a community where intense political struggles plague the planning process and coupled understaffing creates a staff that is overtaxed. But the Gullah/ Geechee people will continue to fight for self-determination. There are many that now carry the torch for the Gullah Nation. In an effort to ensure Gullah cultural survival and development, Marquetta Goodwine was named the Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation in June 2000, through a direct democratic petition signature process. The petition quite eloquently states the concise mission of the Gullah culture, as excerpted below: "Aware that we have a universally recognized human right to maintain our distinct and historic culture, as protected under Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and international treaty which has been ratified by the Unites States government. Conscious of the fact that the U.S. Constitution and a politico-legal structure have failed to provide any institutional-legal recognition of our existence or formal structure through which we might, as a national minority, seek to regulate our own affairs and reach decisions among ourselves in matters of particular concern to the Gullah-Geechee peoples, as is our right according to the 1992 Declaration on the Rights of National Minorities, and the Hague Recommendation thereto by UN Special Rapporteur Asbjorn Eide, which serve to interpret and elaborate on Article 27 of the ICCPR" Emery Campbell stated on an NPR segment, " The Gullah people are just now planning their land and the town government is really working hard to restrict all of the growth on the backs of the Gullah people." In the Beaufort County planning department, the Comprehensive Plan is guiding them to do just that. Since the CPO legislation county planners, such as community development planner Stanley Williams, continue to work with the St. Helena Advisory group to strengthen the protection of the Gullah Culture. The relative strength of the CPO Zoning District is yet to be known. Plans are currently underway to strengthening the wording of the ordinance to include language that ensures public access to the water, retards the environmental degradation, and stops the involuntary loss of land ownership due to development impacts on the tax base. Residential options, which exist in place of Planned Unit Developments, are being reviewed in light of their possible endangerment to the CPO. Currently the residential options allow mixed-use developments and commercial uses on residential property over 200 acres. Just this year, after lobbying from the community, Congressman James Clyburne (6th District, South Carolina) put forth legislation that passed to form a special one-year resource study of the Low country Gullah Culture through the Department of the Interiors. Legal action is already in underway challenging the CPO and the growth management zoning policies of the county. The most serious problem, however are the weak annexation laws in South Carolina have enabled municipalities with less restrictive land regulations to annex land at an alarming rate. Marquetta Goodwine is aware of the challenge as she writes in her column for the Gullah Sentinel. "With these things being disallowed, it allows St. Helena that much more time to hold on to its rural nature and the heritage that has grown from the soil amidst the oak trees there. However, the most important "cultural resources" on this and other Sea Islands are the people. Without the REAL Gullahs and Geechees, there is no heritage and culture. Thus, although this zoning ordinance which is a precedent amongst districting standards is "sumtin' tuh shout 'bout!," the battle ain't over!!!!(Gullah-Geechee Sea Island Coalition, 2000).
Works Cited:Books:Bleser, Carol K. Rothrock. The Promised Land: the History of the South Carolina Land Commission 1869-1890, Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1969. Gonzales, Ambrose E., The Black Border. Columbia, South Carolina: The State Company, 1922. Goodwine, Marquetta L. ed., The Legacy of Ibo Landing: Gullah roots of African-American culture, Atlanta, Georgia: Clarity Press, 1998. Epstein, Lee R., "Land, growth, and the public interest: How are we shaping our communities' futures?" Public Management (US), July1997, 79: 7, 8. Johnson, Guion Griffis. A Social History of the Sea Islands with special reference St. Helena Island, South Carolina, Negro Universities Press: New York. 1930. Jones-Jackson, Patricia. When Roots Die. University of Georgia Press: Athens, Georgia, 1987. Pearson, Elizabeth Ware. Letters from Port Royal Written at the time of the civil war, W.B. Clarke Company: Boston. 1906. Pollitzer, William S. The Gullah People and their African Heritage, University of Georgia Press: Athens, Georgia. 1999. Rose, Willie Lee, Rehearsal for Reconstruction: the Port Royal Experiment. Bob Merrills Co: Indianapolis, Indiana 1964 Magazines and PapersLerner, Johnathan, " A bridge too far". Mother Jones, volume 21, issue 2, Mar/April 96. Mufwene, Salikoko S. "The ecology of Gullah's survival.", American Speech, Spring97, Vol. 72 Issue 1 Powers, Jr. Bernard E. A founding father and Gullah culture. By: National Parks, Nov/Dec98, Vol. 72 Issue 11/12, p26 The new plantations. Economist, 10/16/93, Vol. 329 Issue 7833, p33, 2/3p, Land Ethics, ""Get a Grip on Our Future"", Comprehensive Development Plan, Beaufort County: Beaufort, South Carolina, 1997. Penn School for Preservation," Proposed Code for the Corner Community : St. Helena Island, South Carolina. 1995 Penn School for Preservation, "Residential Development of St. Helena Island: An Analysis of the Options 1995. Zaretsky, Aaarn, " A Public District in the Corner Community of the Seas Islands." The Penn School for Preservation. 1995 Porter, Jeann L. "Building Diverse Communities: A case study of the Penn School for Preservation, Seas Islands, South Carolina." Charlottesville, Virginia: Pew Partnership for Civic Change: 1995.http://www.cpn.org/sections/topics/community/stories-studies/pew_diverse_com.html#training Gullah Geechee Sea Island Coaltion website . SPEECHS AND OTHER ORAL ADDRESSESGoodwine, Marquetta L. "YEDDY WE: Statement to the UN Commission on Human Rights from the Gullah/Geechee Community of the United States", April 1st, 1999. God’s Gonna Trouble the Water: Leaving Slavery Behind: Music and other Sources of Strength of the Gullah Culture, SCETV, 1994 The Family Across the Sea, SCETV, 1994. The Language You Cry In, California Newsreel, 1994. Vertamae Grosvenor, the Seas Islands Gullah people, The Changing Face of America, All Things Considered, National Public Radio September 30, 2000. Gioielli, Robert, "Groups look at land uses", the Beaufort Gazette, August 19, 2000 "Growth Annexation", the Beaufort Gazette, September 24, 2000.
Author and Copyright InformationCopyright 2001 by Author Alyssa Lee is a planner concerned with issues at the nexus of land development, land use, economic development and social equity. Her expertise centers on neighborhood planning in the Atlanta region. She holds undergraduate degrees in Sociology and Urban Studies from Northwestern University. She is currently a graduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the Department of City and Regional Planning under the advisement of Dr. David Sawicki. She can be contacted at 251 Tenth Street, #73 Atlanta, Georgia 30318 or electronically at gte382x@prism.gatech.edu. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||