Pine Island is located on St. Helena Island, within the Cultural Protection Overlay zoning district established in 1999 to conserve and protect the unique cultural, historic, and environmental character of St. Helena Island. A developer purchased the property in 2021 with the intention of developing it into a golf resort, which is explicitly not allowed under the CPO restrictions. The developer has appealed to the Beaufort County Council multiple times to exempt Pine Island from the CPO and has been denied each time. This project proposal is before the Council again.
Background
Pine Island is one of the last large, mostly undeveloped tracts on St. Helena Island, surrounded by the Morgan River, Village Creek, and Eddings Creek in the St. Helena Sound. This property has been the focus of intense conflict between the interests of local zoning, conservation, cultural protection, community development, and real estate development over the last four years. That is because Pine Island is situated within the St. Helena Island Cultural Protection Overlay district — an area of Beaufort County that features additional zoning restrictions designed to protect the cultural heritage and assets of the Gullah Geechee community, which has deep roots on the island. The CPO explicitly prohibits the development of golf courses, gated communities, and resorts, and restrictions on waterways and culturally significant locations on St. Helena Island. This CPO has been in place since 1999 and has been upheld by Beaufort County leadership on multiple occasions.
In 2021, a group called Pine Island Property Holdings, LLC entered into an option contract to purchase Pine Island with the express intent of “construction of golf course and related lodging” – an intention that was explicitly forbidden under the CPO. Almost immediately, the legal team associated with this LLC began working to exclude this property from the restrictions imposed by the CPO. The intention was clear from the start – to buy the property to build a golf course resort, and figure out a workaround for the CPO restrictions afterwards.
Versions of this proposal have been presented to the County’s planning commission, natural resources committee, and full Council on multiple occasions, and it has been defeated each time. The most recent version was presented and unanimously rejected by the Beaufort County Planning Commission in May 2025. Supporters of the development are framing this most recent version as a ‘downzoning’ from the allowable residential density, and they are including incentives to gain community support, but building the gated golf resort would still fundamentally require carving the property out of the CPO.
In the May 2025 staff report from Beaufort County’s Planning Department, this plan was reviewed in relation to the nine criteria that zoning map amendments are required to meet. It failed to meet all nine criteria. Despite a unanimous vote by the Planning Commission recommending denial of the zoning map amendment, the Beaufort County Council voted by a slim majority to retain outside legal counsel and enter into negotiations with Pine Island developers over the proposed golf resort plans. Rather than going through the standard procedure of the Planning Commission and the Natural Resources Committee, which would hear the rezoning proposal and decide on recommendations, the rezoning proposal and the development agreement will be considered by the full Council on September 22nd.
Pine Island Proposal
The most recent version of the proposal for the Pine Island project includes removing five parcels of the Pine Island property from the CPO to allow for the construction of a golf course with associated amenities, and ‘no more than 49 homes’ as part of a high-end golf community/ resort development. The proposal also includes investing in projects for the benefit of the community, but it’s important to note that this would fundamentally require removing the property from the CPO.
PRSF Stance
In 1999, Beaufort County took a strong stand for land planning that recognized the value of the community’s cultural heritage and the fragile nature of sea island ecology when it adopted the Cultural Protection Overlay for St. Helena Island. Leadership in the county has revisited this designation on multiple occasions and has chosen to defend and even strengthen it each time. Zoning is one of the few tools communities have in their toolbox to determine their own futures. It’s the legal rulebook created and maintained to reflect how a community sees its own values carried out, and how it wants to grow.
Pine Island Property Holdings LLC is trying to exempt its projects from those zoning restrictions, fundamentally undermining the protections put in place for an island whose cultural history is inextricably tied to the land and water. Technically, they are trying to negotiate carving Pine Island out of the CPO restrictions, but practically, we know it opens the gateway for development on St. Helena Island.
The mission of the Port Royal Sound Foundation is to conserve the Port Royal Sound for the environmental, cultural, and economic well-being of our area. The St. Helena Sound is not in the Port Royal Sound, but IS a model for watershed-scale land protection. Conservation relies on consistent and reliable government processes and policies that reflect the community’s values. The Cultural Protection Overlay district for St. Helena Island reflects the community’s priorities and values, the environmental sensitivity of our region, and respect for the complex and rich history of the Gullah Geechee Nation.
The CPO has been codified and reinforced as foundational to other plans guiding the future of Beaufort County, including the 2040 Comprehensive Plan, the GreenPrint Plan, and the Long-Term Resilience Strategy, which PRSF heralds as a roadmap for building a sustainable future for the region.
PRSF is engaging in these planning efforts, and we encourage our supporters and partners to do the same. We implore Beaufort County leadership to protect and maintain the CPO as it was intended.
What You Can Do
- Contact your Beaufort County Council Member and encourage them to uphold the integrity of zoning tools that help conserve our fragile Lowcountry ecosystem by NOT granting exceptions or carve-outs to the Cultural Protection Overlay District for St. Helena Island, starting with the proposal for Pine Island. CLICK HERE FOR AN EMAIL YOU CAN MODIFY AND SEND. Or, you can find your Beaufort County Council member’s contact information here.
- Attend the Beaufort County Council meeting on Monday, September 22 at 6pm to show support for the CPO and voice your concerns and opposition to the proposal to exempt the Pine Island proposed development from its restrictions. The meeting is scheduled to take place at the Burton Wells Recreation Center, 1 Middleton Recreation Drive, Beaufort, SC 29906
- Sign one or both of the petitions encouraging the protection of the CPO for St. Helena Island.