Efforts to Preserve Status of Daufuskie Island’s Heritage Corridor Overlay District Prevailed.
Dolphin Daufuskie Group, LLC and Dolphin Shared Management Services, LLC applied for a special use permit to establish a 5-acre sand mine on their property at 255 Haig Point Road. The property is zoned as D2 rural; but equally important, the property is within the Daufuskie Island’s Heritage Corridor Overlay District (HCO).1 Even though this zoning recognizes the HCO District as the island’s most notable concentration of Gullah culture, Beaufort County planning staff recommended that the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBOA) approve the special use permit for sand mining within the HCO District. The ZBOA denied the request for the special use permit for the sand mining project by a vote of five-to-one. Click the map below to navigate to the original HCO District project page.
Request for Mediation:
Dolphin Daufuskie Group LLC and Dolphin Shared Management Services, LLC (hereafter the Dolphin/Scott parties)filed a notice of appeal and a request for mediation relating to the Zoning Board’s decision September 24, 2020 decision to deny the requested special use permit. The purpose of mediation was to determine underlying interests and concerns, clear up misunderstandings and reduce hostilities, and to find areas of agreement, if any.
Mediation Process and Outcome:
Leslie Lenhardt, staff attorney for the SC Environmental Law Project took the lead in the mediation process on behalf of opponents to establishing the proposed sand mine project within Daufuskie Island’s HCO District. It was agreed that the neighbors of the sand mine could participate in the mediation process, with the understanding that the Dolphin/Scott entitles could object to the neighbors intervening in the appeal at a later time if the mediation did not resolve the appeal of the ZBOA’s decision to deny the special use permit.2 Participants in the mediation process included Leslie Lenhardt; Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah Nation; selected neighbors of the sand mind project, and two representatives of Community Preservation Zone Association (CPZA/DI).
Under the guidance of the designated mediator the Dolphin/Scott parties and the opponents of the sand mine project shared their positions. The proponents also offered perks or benefits for the Gullah community in exchange for waiving their opposition to the proposed sand mine. The most salient point made by the opponents of the sand mine project was that the planning staff was in error to recommend that ZBOA approve the special use permit. CPZA/DI pointed out that at the time the Dolphin/Scott parties applied for the special use permit, the Community Development/Zoning Codes regarding Daufuskie Island’s Heritage Culture Overlay District was already in effect. To ignore that fact because of its inconvenience to the Dolphin/Scott parties would defeat the purpose of establishing zoning codes in the first place. The final decision by the Dolphin/Scott parties was to call off the sand mine project in Daufuskie Island HCO District. CPZA/DI is hopeful that this decision is indeed final.
2 February 16-18, 2021 email thread between Leslie Lenhardt, Thomas C. Taylor, and neighbors of 255 Haig Point Road—neighbors of the sand mine neighbors.