The long-awaited referendum on zoning changes for Sapelo Island’s Hogg Hummock community is over, and the ordinance passed in 2023 is repealed. The zoning change would’ve increased the allowed structure sizes to 3,000 square feet.
Tuesday’s vote saw a 19% voter turnout, with voters choosing “yes” by a more than 5-to-1 margin in unofficial and incomplete results.
Josiah “Jazz” Watts, one of the main organizers of Tuesday’s referendum, went to the McIntosh County Board of Elections Tuesday to hear the unofficial results as they were made public.
“The Gullah Geechee community on Sapelo has spoken,” said Watts, a multigenerational Sapelo descendant and community member who also serves as a Justice Strategist for One Hundred Miles. “But I think the people that are here in this county have resoundingly, clearly, produced a mandate for the McIntosh County Board of Commissioners that they are mandated to protect, preserve the culture, the community, the people, the heritage of Hogg Hummock.”
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It took more than two years of organizing and litigation to get to Tuesday’s vote. 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 for Tuesday’s vote.
Watts said he’s grateful to and proud of his county.
“Sometimes people tend to forget that there are real people that have to constantly wage and fight these battles,” he told The Current GA. “I feel like the voters, the county, the people are clearly saying ‘enough’. They’re saying ‘enough’.”
He noted that two commissioners are new to the board since the 2023 vote, making it easier for the board to change direction.
“The entire county is sending a message to them, and we need them to hear it, and we need them to act accordingly,” Watts said.
It may be clear by the end of the week if county officials are in step with voters. The county commission on Tuesday announced a special called meeting for 10 a.m. Thursday at Darien City Hall, 106 Washington St. in Darien, to consider the adoption of a moratorium “pertaining to certain activities on Sapelo Island.”
Watts said a temporary moratorium on permits and construction on the island would be a positive step.
“That means that they at least recognize that there should be nothing going on until we resolve this,” he said.
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