As McIntosh votes on zoning, Sapelo’s future is unclear

At lunchtime on Wednesday, Connie Johnson drove to the McIntosh County Board of Elections office in Darien where the longtime local resident cast her “yes” vote in the ongoing referendum to repeal a 2023 Sapelo Island zoning amendment.

“I voted because this is something important to me,” Johnson said. “The Gullah Geechee community is something I’d like to see stay.”

As of Jan. 9, approximately 618 residents have cast ballots in early voting ahead of the Jan. 20 special election that is moving forward after a long court battle between county officials and advocates for the last Gullah Geechee community on a Georgia barrier island. 

Johnson believes, as do other supporters of the Hogg Hummock enclave, that a 2023 zoning decision to double to 3,000 square feet the allowable house size on the island would force out the descendants of enslaved West Africans who have lived on Sapelo for generations in favor of wealthy newcomers.

The referendum asks “Shall the Action of the Board of Commissioners of McIntosh County, Georgia, amending the McIntosh County Code of Ordinances Appendix C Sec. 219 HH Hog Hammock District of the McIntosh County Ordinance be repealed?”

Josiah “Jazz” Watts, one of the main organizers of the referendum, contends the vote is about more than zoning, especially after the community’s years of legal battles with local officials.

“It’s about the treatment and governance of Gullah Geechee people and communities throughout the state of Georgia,” said Watts, a multigenerational Sapelo descendant and community member who also serves as a Justice Strategist for One Hundred Miles. “It’s a referendum on policy, it’s a referendum on governance, it’s a referendum on protecting our Gullah Geechee community, and a referendum on how all the people of McIntosh want to see their local government function.”

After the county passed Hogg Hummock zoning changes, the “Keep Sapelo Geechee” coalition collected enough signatures to force a referendum, a little-used avenue of redress for voters outlined in the Georgia Constitution. In summer 2024, a probate judge approved the referendum and originally scheduled it for Oct. 1, 2024.

Early voting was already underway in September, 2024 —, and more than 800 ballots cast — when a Superior Court judge granted the county’s request to shut down the special election. When that decision was appealed, the Georgia Supreme Court in September 2025 sided with the residents, putting the referendum back on the calendar.

Those votes in the aborted referendum were sealed by a judge and will not be tallied as part of the 2026 referendum, said McIntosh County Elections Supervisor Elenore “Doll” Gale. Those McIntosh residents who voted before must vote again for their opinion to count. 

A temporary injunction won by Sapelo advocates has stalled the new zoning since November, 2024.

Debate over ‘yes’ vote result

Even with voting underway, the path forward for Sapelo residents is not straightforward.

Earlier this month, County Attorney Ad Poppell raised concerns that if the “yes” vote prevails, there will be no zoning on the island and no limit on house size.

“The January 20 Referendum will decide whether the current limitation of 3,000 square feet of residential structure under roof remains, or there is no zoning limitations on the square footage, at all,” he wrote in a Jan. 2 memo to Chief Appraiser Blair McLinn, urging the Board of Assessors to postpone reassessments until after the referendum.

He cited Section 1-4(a) of the McIntosh County Code: “The repeal of an ordinance shall not revive any ordinances in force before or at the time the ordinance repealed took effect.”

“Therefore,” Poppell wrote, “if the referendum passes, and the 3,000 square feet limitation is repealed, there would be no limitation.”

Savannah-based attorney Dana Braun rejects that interpretation.

“The Supreme Court didn’t buy this argument that there’s no restrictions whatsoever, and anything could be built up there,” said Braun, who represented Sapelo plaintiffs in their successful challenge to the cancellation of the referendum before the Georgia Supreme Court. “That is just incorrect.

“McIntosh county ordinances say something to the effect that only those uses as authorized are to be permitted. And so if there’s no zoning in an area, then there are no uses that are authorized, and nothing can be done. If the 1,400 (square foot limit) is not deemed as being re-enacted, then it’s incumbent upon the county commission to enact an ordinance that is in accordance with the will of the people as expressed in the referendum.”

Both sides agree that a “no” vote would return the zoning in Hogg Hummock’s nearly 400 lots to the 3000-square-foot limit established in September 2023.

Ongoing litigation

Separate from the referendum fight, Sapelo residents have another legal battle pending.

Shortly after the 2023 Sapelo rezoning passed, residents sued the county claiming the measure was unjust and discriminatory. Represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore LLP, they alleged violations of their constitutional rights to due process and equal protection as well as violations of Georgia’s Open Meeting Law.

That ongoing litigation, Bailey, et. al. v. McIntosh County, was paused to allow mediation. The parties held two days of private talks on Dec. 8 and 9, and followed up by phone for several weeks after, but failed to reach a settlement, they wrote in a joint status report filed Jan. 8.

They expect to file a follow-up joint status report by Feb. 7 to Sr. Judge F. Gates Peed in McIntosh County Superior Court detailing the outcome of the referendum and proposing next steps for this case.

If the referendum passes, at least some of her plaintiffs’ claims would no longer exist, said Senior Attorney Miriam Gutman of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The zoning allowing larger houses would be repealed and if that happened, any claims about violations of the Open Meetings Act would be nullified.

“There’s no money damages,” said Gutman, explaining the result of a successful Open Meetings Act challenge. “There’s no kind of order that you have to do better next time. The law just allows that what happened at that meeting is basically nullified.”

The residents’ due process and equal protection claims could still be viable post-referendum, Gutman said. “And so we’ll have to see what exactly happens in the referendum about that,” she said.

Attorney Ken Jarrard, who represents the county, declined comment. County Manager Shawn Jordan did not respond to a request for comment. 

Commissioner Roger Lotson, who represents Sapelo, said he’ll be advocating first for a moratorium on building in Hogg Hummock. Then he’ll try to hash out new zoning with his fellow commissioners, several of whom are new to the board since 2023. He’s not satisfied with the old zoning of 1,400 square feet of heated and cooled because it was difficult to enforce. But he didn’t vote for the 3,000 foot limit, either.

Watts said the county officials can put things right after a yes vote.

“Should the referendum pass and the law be repealed, as I strongly believe it will be, the McIntosh County Commission can put in place the moratorium they previously had on their Special Called meeting agenda and work with our community to put in place an ordinance that protects the Gullah Geechee heritage, community, and culture of Sapelo,” he said. “Something that is precious to all of us not only in McIntosh County and the state of Georgia, but this country, and worldwide.