Beaufort County Council holds meeting on proposed zoning changes on St. Helena Island

BEAUFORT COUNTY, S.C. (WTOC) - In Beaufort County – county council is currently discussing future development on Saint Helena Island.

It’s one of several items on the agenda for Monday night’s meeting, which changed its location to the Burton Wells Recreation Center to accommodate the amount of people who showed up.

This meeting has been going on for over five hours, with no decision yet.

When this all started, the gym was packed with people, but now hundreds have left as public input continues.

This is all because of discussion over a zoning change that could alter Saint Helena Island.

The island is almost exclusively zoned as a “Cultural Protected Overlay”, which aims to protect the Gullah Geechee culture and land.

Those who oppose the zoning change say new zoning would remove cultural protections and cause irreversible change to the land.

One of the 65 citizens who signed up to speak said it’s about maintaining honor and history.

WTOC also spoke with another group, who believe they’ve worked with developer Elvio Tropeano to turn this project into a positive for the island and community.

Tropeano’s lawyer spoke earlier, saying that their mission tonight wasn’t about advertising, it was about informing.

“Where we see ourselves tonight is an opportunity to educate,” said Kevin Dukes, Tropeano’s lawyer. “Most of the people behind me have only seen the document for about three days, maybe less. They probably haven’t seen the whole thing. I understand it’s late, it’s long but I’m gonna try to do my best to go as quickly as possible and as thoroughly as possible to explain details of what’s actually included.”

WTOC will have details for this plan as well as interviews from both sides of this issue coming after the verdict.

That will likely happen in the morning hours.