New homes built on Sapelo Island under a newly adopted zoning ordinance won’t be roomy enough for your average vacation rental or second-home weekend retreat.
The law also leaves too much space for abuse, residents say.
The McIntosh County Commission, the governing body for the secluded barrier island along the Georgia coast, approved zoning Thursday night that limits homes to a single story with 1,550 square feet under a low-pitch roof. But because Sapelo is on the ocean and at risk of storm surge flooding, the ordinance allows for residences to be built off the ground, to a maximum height of 32 feet.
That flexibility could result in what residents fear opens the door to two-story dwellings. The living space would be elevated on pillars with parking and storage underneath — a common design along the coast. But once the residence passes building inspection, the homeowner could enclose the underneath space, creating a ground-level story.
Height concerns have been at the forefront of the zoning debate since a January citizen-led referendum repealed a 2023 ordinance. Opponents said that earlier ordinance, which allowed home sizes to more than double to 3,000 square feet, threatened to turn the island into Georgia’s next coastal development hot spot.
Sapelo Island’s lone residential community is known as Hogg Hummock. The unincorporated area is largely home to descendants of enslaved West Africans known as Gullah Geechee who were brought to work the island’s plantations in the early 1800s.
Credit: Justin Taylor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Justin Taylor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
About 40 Gullah Geechee still live on the island year-round in modest dwellings, such as cottages and single-wide trailers.
Two days after the Jan. 21 referendum passed with 85% of the vote, a majority of McIntosh’s five-member commission vowed to follow the lead of Sapelo’s Gullah Geechee residents in crafting new zoning rules. Two weeks later, a group of residents calling themselves the Hogg Hummock Community Ordinance Draft Coalition submitted an ordinance proposal.
That plan called for limiting structures to a 1,400-square-foot footprint and a single story not to exceed 18 feet in height. Interior steps would be prohibited.
Credit: Justin Taylor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Justin Taylor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
McIntosh’s planning and zoning staffers loosely followed that template in crafting a new ordinance. But they altered the language, using “under roof” rather than “footprint.” The initial proposal unveiled in June called for 1,800 square feet and a 37-foot height limit. The commission rejected that version, leading to the revised ordinance adopted Thursday, which cut the square footage and lowered the roof cap but allows for unroofed 400-square-foot porches.
The county says it needs to account for flood risk. A single-story home with a low-pitched roof would measure between 15 feet and 18 feet in height, and a strong storm, such as 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, can produce a 12-foot surge. The strongest hurricanes can generate storm surge greater than 18 feet.
The adopted ordinance’s 32-foot limit brings elevation levels more in line with what is found elsewhere along the Georgia coast. For example, on Tybee Island, building codes call for residences to be built as much as 14 feet off the ground.
The last Category 3 storm to make landfall along Georgia’s coast came in 1893. In recent times, 2016’s Hurricane Matthew caused a 5.1 foot storm surge. Matthew was a Category 1 storm that passed 20 miles offshore.
McIntosh’s Bryan Boone, the county’s building and zoning administrator, said just shy of 30 feet was the minimum given the flood risk. An additional 2-foot buffer allows for the homeowner who prefers more of a flood safety cushion and for any minor construction mistakes.
Enforcing the new ordinance is not as challenging as critics charge, Boone said. Homes can be visually inspected for compliance from the outside, and enclosing the ground level area for living space after the home is constructed and approved for occupancy would draw a reverse work order. Refusal would result in a summons to McIntosh Magistrate Court.
McIntosh’s Boone said no ordinance is perfectly conceived but that this one is elegant and enforceable.
“In that instance, it’s an easily addressed concern,” Boone said. “We’ll be able to see it, and if it happens, everyone will know about it and we’ll hear about it.”
Such assurances do not mollify the residents’ concerns. Nine attendees at Thursday’s commission meeting spoke in opposition of the new ordinance, including a handful of Gullah Geechee residents.
They voiced disappointment with the process behind the zoning, especially given the 3-year fight they successfully mounted to overturn the last ordinance. That involved gathering thousands of signatures and a legal challenge settled by the Georgia Supreme Court.
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