Judge asked to block slave descendants’ effort to force a vote on zoning of their Georgia community
SAVANNAH, Ga. — A Georgia county has asked a judge to block a referendum requested by residents of one of the last remaining Gullah-Geechee communities in the South, which is descended from slaves. The residents are fighting zoning changes because they fear they will be forced to sell their homes on the island.
Commissioners in the coastal city of McIntosh County voted in September to roll back protections that have limited development for decades in the tiny Sapelo Island enclave of Hogg Hummock. About 30 to 50 black residents still live in modest homes along dirt roads in the community, which was founded by former slaves who had worked on Thomas Spalding’s plantation.
Residents and their supporters filed a petition with a local probate court judge on July 9, requesting a referendum to put the zoning changes before the county’s voters.
McIntosh County attorneys filed a legal filing Monday asking a Superior Court judge to intervene and invalidate the referendum effort. While the Georgia Constitution gives citizens the power to repeal certain county government actions via referendum, the attorneys argue that that power does not extend to zoning ordinances.
“The requested referendum election … would be illegal and the results would be null and void,” said the document filed by Ken Jarrard, an attorney representing McIntosh County.
Jarrard asked a judge to expedite a hearing before the proposed referendum could proceed. The law gives Probate Court Judge Harold Webster 60 days to verify the petition signatures and decide whether to call a special election. Petition organizers are hoping for a vote this fall.
Black residents and landowners of Hogg Hummock, also known as Hog Hammock, are among the descendants of the enslaved island people of the south, who became known as Gullah, or Geechee in Georgia.
Distributed along the southeast coast from North Carolina to Florida, Gullah-Geechee communities have endured since the Civil War. Scholars say their separation from the mainland allowed these slave descendants to retain much of their African heritage, from their unique dialect to skills and crafts like cast-net fishing and basket weaving.
Residents of Sapelo Island, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) south of Savannah, say they could be forced to sell land their families have owned for generations if zoning changes that would double the allowable home size in Hogg Hummock remain in place and lead to higher property taxes.
They are challenging the new zoning ordinance in court and are also seeking a referendum. Petition organizers say they have collected more than 2,300 signatures, surpassing the required threshold of 20% of McIntosh County registered voters.
Last year, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld a 2022 referendum in nearby Camden County that opponents used to veto commissioners’ plans to build a commercial rocket launch pad.
However, McIntosh County attorneys say Georgia’s referendum provision does not apply to zoning.
They say that’s because the Georgia Constitution says referendum results are invalid if they conflict with other constitutional provisions or state law. Georgia gives counties and cities sole authority over zoning, they say, and state law specifies the process for adopting and repealing zoning ordinances.
Jarrard made the same arguments in a letter last week to the probate judge who considered the referendum request. But the state Supreme Court’s ruling last year found that the Georgia Constitution does not authorize a county board or anyone else to challenge a referendum in probate court.
Dana Braun, an attorney for the referendum organizers, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. In a response letter to the magistrate judge Friday, Braun argued that a referendum challenging the zoning of Hogg Hummock would be legal. He wrote that McIntosh County attorneys’ argument to challenge it “misinterprets the Georgia Constitution.”