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Despite more than 15 years of conservation efforts to preserve Captain Sams Spit and five rulings from the S.C. Supreme Court that confirmed the spit’s importance as both a natural and public resource, the sandy piece of land still isn’t safe from development.

This time, it’s a potential loophole in a decadelong agreement between the town of Kiawah Island and the developer that brings Sams Spit once again under legal scrutiny.

The 2013 Amended and Restated Development Agreement between the town of Kiawah Island and developer Kiawah Resort Associates expired on Dec. 4, 2023. According to the town, the developer did not fulfill two obligations outlined in the contract. The developer disagrees.

The town, Kiawah Island Community Association, the Coastal Conservation League and the S.C. Environmental Law Project say the agreement requires the developer to:

These actions would protect the spit from development efforts.

Kiawah Resort Associates maintains that all requirements have been met and that these two obligations were contingent on development, which did not occur.

“When all the terms of this section are considered together ... the conclusion is inescapable that the entire provision contemplated that the development was to occur before the limited transfer to (the community association), yet that development was made impossible by the courts,” developer representative Jordan Phillips wrote in a letter to the community association.

The town of Kiawah Island issued a demand letter to the developer on Jan. 8, requesting the two obligations in question be fulfilled and reminding the developer that the town can prevent the sale of the spit to a third party. Town officials asked for a response from the developer by Jan. 15. None had been provided by press time, according to Erin Pomrenke, spokesperson for the town of Kiawah Island.

Amy Armstrong, executive director and general counsel at the S.C. Environmental Law Project, has been involved in cases involving Captain Sams Spit since 2008, representing the Conservation League. She said that while the developer isn’t legally required to respond to the demand letter, it would be in their best interest to do so.

“The developer needs to respond because the town is basically threatening a lawsuit against the developer for breach of (the) development agreement,” she said.

Representatives from the town and community association declined to comment at this time. The developer did not respond to requests for comment.

Rising Waters

Conservation v. money

It’s not unusual for conservation efforts like preserving Captain Sams Spit to take decades, Armstrong said. And the reason isn’t a mystery.

“It’s about money,” she said.

Captain Sams Spit is a teardrop-shaped piece of land on the southern tip of Kiawah Island located between the Kiawah River and Atlantic Ocean. It’s one of only three undeveloped, publicly accessible barrier island beaches in the state, and one of the last wild places on the South Carolina coast.

And it’s valuable.

“When there’s a development project like Captain Sams Spit, it would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars to developers,” Armstrong said. “They’re not going to go away easily when they’ve got so much hanging out on the line.”

Armstrong added there’s a lot on the line for the public, too.

“Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever,” she said.

Coastal Conservation League program director Riley Egger emphasized the point.

“Captain Sams Spit is extremely valuable for the people of South Carolina and conservation,” Egger said. “We need to see it permanently protected and permanently conserved.”

From 2008 to 2022, developers attempted to secure permits needed to build 50 luxury homes on Captain Sams Spit and infrastructure such as roads, utility lines and walls to protect the area from flooding and erosion — the spit is constantly transformed by wind and tides and is vulnerable to storms.

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Residents on Kiawah Island are keeping a close eye on presented plans to fix an issue they say they had to point out in the first place. The issue is not enough parking for a development currently being built called “The Cape.”

The developers recently submitted a site development revision for “Cape Point parking and emergency access,” but it’s intended to address only part of the parking deficiency, as they have yet to submit revised plans for the rest of the parking issues. This follows the town and planning director telling them they must do so, only after residents discovered the original plans were approved with a significant lack of parking.

Residents fear the lack of transparency of the plans will continue.

“We’re worried as a community that the planning director will overlook once again, so the community has gotten involved, and we are watching very closely,” Kiawah property owner and land development lawyer Tim Hazel said.

The community feels like they aren’t involved enough in what gets approved and says decisions are made behind closed doors by the planning director alone, and not with the commission as a whole.

Town of Kiawah Planning Director John Taylor Jr. explained the approval process is straightforward.

“Developers will submit plans to the town, we will review those plans and issue comments and work back and forth until the developer addresses the comments and once that is addressed, we will be able to issue approval,” Taylor said.

Hazel said he’s never experienced the doors being open for developers but closed to the community.

“There’s a general sense that the mayor and council want nothing to do with discussions as to community input, the developer isn’t doing a very good job of including the community’s input on these plans so it’s very frustrating,” Hazel said.

Taylor said they have heard from the community throughout this process and have received “tons of emails.”

“The town has responded and listened in,” he said. “We’ve brought in a third-party engineer to review Beachwalker projects which I thought was a positive and a request by the planning staff to do that just to give the community comfortability in our review standards and processes.”

It was told that the town council may be considering changes to the development review process at their next meeting.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCIV) — A controversial development on Kiawah Island is treading water.

Developers of Island Park Place Medical Village said the project will be a mixed-use facility, including medical, health and wellness, that will save people from making long trips to the doctor.

Residents and town officials are working to change the proposal or stop it. Meanwhile, supporters believe it would be a one-stop shop for those not wanting to leave the area for medical care. Still, opponents continue to believe the project is too big and commercial.

"It will destroy wetlands," Louise Bennet said. "It will destroy trees."

Read more: "James Island's Dills Bluff development plan meets resistance: From woodland to townhomes?"

These are only a few of the reasons Bennett is against the project planned just across the way from her business on Betsy Kerrison Parkway.

"It also destroys what's left of Johns Island that is peaceful and rural," Bennett said.

While developers tout the project as a one-stop medical shop, some think the 160,000-square-foot building falls short of that goal. Others said the medical care isn't needed as MUSC and Trident are planning for their projects nearby.

"Only about 60,000 square feet, 40 percent or so, is intended to be devoted to medical-related uses," said Bradley Belt, a member of Kiawah's town council. "The rest is residential, other retail restaurants... There's no requirement that it is actually devoted to medical-related facilities."

Opposition rises against controversial Kiawah Island Park Medical Village (WCIV).

Read more: "Daniel Island townhome development defers second time due to grand oak tree concerns."

Bennett claims there are more viable areas to have a complex, including the central part of the island, where Trident Hospital will be.

An attempt by developers to rezone the area from low-density residential was denied by the Charleston County Planning Commission. That has developers looking to possibly scale back the project.

Meanwhile, an ad in support of the project has appeared on Facebook, seeming to suggest Charleston County Councilman Joe Boykin is in favor of the development. Boykin said he is adamantly opposed to it.

"I am aware that social media ads that utilized my image and words from a past speech were posted on Facebook in an apparent attempt to portray my support for a proposed Medical Health and Wellness Village on lower Betsy Kerrison Boulevard," Boykin said. "It is apparent to me that this was additionally an attempt to influence my constituents to ask me to 'keep my word,' as if I supported this project when the developer knew full well I was adamantly opposed to it.

"Angry constituents contacted me because they believed I supported this project only to learn just the opposite was true. I completely concur with the recommendation of the Charleston County Zoning and Planning staff, the decision of The Charleston County Planning Commission, and the opinions of the majority of the Charleston County voters who shared their views that this Planned Development should be denied."

Read more: "Could more development be coming to Johns Island after the New Year?"

Belt is holding a town hall on Thursday, Jan. 11, to discuss "key issues" impacting Johns Island and the Sea Islands community.

To the news, the development group provided the following statement to News 4.

“Our team has agreed to defer the PWC and first reading until we conduct an additional meeting with members of the community before the next scheduled PWC at Charleston County.”

The letters concerning the development can be read below.

The developer behind the first golf course to be built in the Charleston area in more than two decades is seeking two new permits for the 348-acre layout and the supporting infrastructure the Johns Island site will require.

Kiawah Resort Associates LP filed the requests for the Orange Hill tract it owns between Bohicket and River roads with the state on Dec. 22, triggering a public comment period that ends Jan. 1.

The 18-hole course was announced in mid-2022. It will be within a 933-acre tract that also will include 120 homes.

The investor is South Street Partners, the master developer of the residential area of nearby Kiawah Island for the past decade.

“What we’re doing is several different permitting processes concurrently,” said Ray Pantlik, vice president of development for the company, which has offices locally and in Charlotte.

The firm already has received a permit for a 2,000-foot deep-water well for irrigation and other purposes.

In addition to the two new requests filed with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, South Street is seeking federal and state approvals to fill about a half-acre of wetlands to accommodate the main entryway off River Road.

At the same time, it is working to revise and update an existing development plan for the property that was approved in 2005 and allows a golf course. It will require public hearings and a series of votes by Charleston County Council.

“That hasn’t been officially filed yet,” Pantlik said this week.

One of the newly filed DHEC applications is to allow pump stations for the well, a 2.5-million-gallon water tank, a maintenance building and parking to be constructed on a 3.8-acre site near Bohicket Road.

The other would authorize the work that will be required to build and shape the golf course.

As 2023 wrapped up for the hospitality industry, downtown Charleston’s biggest hotel nabbed one more recognition as it prepares to undergo a major overhaul.

The Charleston Place made Condé Nast Traveler’s worldwide “Gold List,” which identified 75 properties as getaway destinations for 2024. They were handpicked by the magazine’s editors.

The 434-room hotel and retail complex at King, Market, Meeting and Hasell streets is the only South Carolina lodging to make the cut and one of 13 in U.S. The international hotels Conde Nast singled out included The Ritz Paris and The Four Seasons Hotel Greshum Palace in Budapest.

According to the accompanying review, The Charleston Place had a “stately European elegance with a heap of Southern charm.” It gave high remarks to the dining and retail scene at the hotel, the lobby’s welcome atmosphere and accessibility to locals and added amenities like childcare and dog sitters on site.

Becky Hubbard, managing director of The Charleston Place, said being recognized by major travel media outlet helps keep the city on the map and that it’s indicative of the local industry’s success.

“When we’re creating these experiences, we’re always thinking about the kind of memories that people are going to take away once they leave,” Hubbard said. “Charleston’s hotels elevate tourism and travel as a whole.”

Last year, Conde Nast readers named Charleston as the most popular for the second year in a row. The streak follows a brief dethroning in 2021 after the city’s decade-long stay in the top spot. Rival publication Travel + Leisure ranked Charleston as the “Best City in the U.S” to visit for the 11th consecutive year.

The Charleston Place owner Beemok Hospitality Collection has a $150 million renovation starting this year. The locally based company owned by Ben Navarro and his family will kick off the overhaul with improvements to the exterior façade and the second-floor banquet spaces, according to management.

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. (WCBD)- The Kiawah Island Community Association (KICA) teamed up with biologists to conduct their annual alligator count last week.

Town biologists reported counting 146 alligators on July 18 and 143 alligators on July 19 across the island.

“We’ve been doing these surveys every year since 2003,” Kiawah Island wildlife biologist Jim Jordan said. “And we’ve seen some ups and downs like you would expect, but overall the population has remained stable.”

The route, which covers 48 ponds and approximately 153 acres of water, is surveyed twice in order to ensure the most accurate count possible.

“We actually, we reverse it the second night, so we start at the endpoint just to try to take out some potential variability,” Jordan said.

Biologists use the count to determine the estimated density of alligators on the island, which is reported as the number of reptiles per 100 acres of water. It also is used to help determine the population size on the island, which the town estimates is between 600 and 700 alligators.

“The best use of the data is to look at trends over time and you know, again, particularly with density, but also with kind of a breakdown of size classes,” Jordan said. “So we tend to kind of look at it over a long period of time, looking for any significant upward or downward trends.”

Data shows that alligator density on Kiawah Island has remained relatively stable over the past two decades despite some fluctuations in the count. In 2003, density was reported as 134, while this year it was reported as 249.

A number of factors can contribute to the slight fluctuation, according to Jordan, including how active the alligators are at night and whether or not they are visible in a given location.

“Alligator populations typically do, you know, remain stable once they get to what we call carrying capacity,” Jordan explained. “So when there are as many alligators out there as the habitat can support, the numbers tend to remain pretty stable.”

As the team moves along the route, they also keep track of the relative size of each alligator that is counted. If an exact size cannot be determined, the animals are categorized as “unknowns” either under or over six feet in length.

“As a rule, probably 70 to 75% of the alligators that we see on the survey and are able to put into a size class are under six feet,” Jordan explained. “So most of these alligators are very small juveniles and a lot of them probably won’t make it to adulthood and that’s pretty typical for an alligator population.”

Determining the relative size of the alligators is also useful in helping biologists to track shifts in population size and density on the island, according to Jordan.

“Typically, when we see a little bit of a spike in numbers, it probably has to do with just a year where reproduction was really good and so we’ve got a lot of smaller alligators out there,” he said.

As for large alligators, which are generally considered over eight feet in length, only five were counted during the two-day survey period.

But, whether large or small, there are a few key points people should keep in mind if they encounter an alligator while living or vacationing on the island.

The town encourages people to stay at least 60 feet away from alligators whenever possible, do not swim in a body of water other than the ocean, and keep pets away from water.

“Alligators are, you know, they’re a large predator and they need to be treated with respect,” Jordan said.