Sapelo Island residents challenge new zoning with lawsuits

Less than a month after the McIntosh County Commission approved new zoning for the Gullah-Geechee enclave of Hogg Hummock on Sapelo Island, two lawsuits are seeking to invalidate it.

Both complaints were filed on Sept. 4 by residents of Sapelo Island, one by a single island resident and the other by three residents, plus a newly formed non-profit and and a St. Simons-based corporation.

Previous lawsuits related to zoning cost the small, rural county more than half a million dollars in legal fees by last December.

The August 2026 zoning limits house size on Sapelo Island to 1,550 square feet “under roof” with an additional 400-square-foot porch and a 32-foot height limit in what county officials said was an attempt to conform to tradition while also allowing inspections by drone camera. It replaced controversial 2023 zoning that allowed much larger houses and created a fear of gentrification on the island, prompting lawsuits and ultimately a referendum in which voters rejected the zoning by a more than 5-1 margin.

Hogg Hummock is one of the last intact island-based settlements of the Gullah Geechee, descendants of Africans who were enslaved on the rice, indigo and cotton plantations on the southern Atlantic coast. The neighborhood is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

None of the named plaintiffs in the recently filed lawsuits are Gullah Geechee descendants.

‘Procedurally defective’

Andy Desmond filed his complaint in McIntosh Superior Court against McIntosh County requesting a jury trial because the amendments were “rushed through a procedurally defective and purposefully secretive process” in which the county “repeatedly violated the Georgia Open Records Act” and “bypassed key provisions of the Georgia Zoning Procedures Law.”

Read Andy Desmond’s 82-page complaint here.

Desmond, who sometimes describes himself as “the white guy against Saint Simonization of Sapelo,” has lived on the island fulltime since 2022. In an emailed response to The Current, he said he hopes to accomplish two goals with his lawsuit in which he is representing himself:

“Require McIntosh County officials to begin performing their public duties transparently and in full compliance with the Georgia Open Records and Georgia Open Meetings Acts.”

“County officials must thoroughly read and fully comply with all zoning process laws and ordinances.  After McIntosh County begins operating as it should within a democratic republic—with true citizen engagement and meaningful input —the process of creating viable zoning for Hogg Hummock should start anew.”

Hodges et. al. suit

A second complaint was filed the same day in McIntosh Superior Court by Sapelo Community Preservation Association; William Hodges; Grannyflat, LLC; Steven Bradley and Cassandra Bradley.

In the filing, Sapelo Community Preservation Association is described as a “Georgia nonprofit corporation organized for purposes that include the preservation and protection of the historic Hog Hammock community on Sapelo Island and the interests of property owners and residents affected by governmental land-use decisions concerning that community.”

Records at the Georgia Secretary of State’s office indicate the nonprofit was incorporated on Aug. 31, 2026, four days before the suit was filed. Its registered agent is D. Jay Thaw, Jr., the attorney also representing the plaintiffs in the suit.

Thaw did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the filing Friday.

County records indicate William Hodges and the Bradleys own property in Hogg Hummock. The complaint identifies Hodges as a resident of Sapelo and calls the Bradleys “permanent residents” of the island. Hodges is the managing member of Grannyflat, an LLC based in St. Simons that owns property in Hogg Hummock.

Reached by phone, Hodges declined to discuss the complaint with The Current GA.

Hodges, an engineer, was involved with the 2023 Hogg Hummock zoning, which allowed houses up to 3,000 square feet. On July 14, 2023 he sent McIntosh County Manager Patrick Zoucks and County Attorney Ad Poppell a “first draft of the ordinance we discussed for Sapelo Island.” He later told The Current he volunteered his services to the county and reviewed and edited documents but didn’t create them.

Read William Hodges’ 39-page complaint here.

The Hodges et al. complaint “challenges the validity and enforceability” of the zoning ordinance. It contends that the county enacted the new zoning too soon after the referendum because the state constitution mandates a 12-month waiting period before it could alter the referendum result.

County officials have held all along that the referendum revoked the 2023 zoning but left no zoning in place of it.

The Hodge lawsuit also objects to the way the new zoning would “subject property owners within Hog Hammock to review by the McIntosh County Historic Preservation Commission (“HPC”) and incorporates, references, relies upon, or operates in conjunction with a document denominated the “Hog Hammock Design Guidelines.”

The Hodges complaint argues the guidelines can’t be employed to limit the use of private property and that the guidelines contradict the zoning in key areas.

“Among other things, the Guidelines provide that new residential buildings ‘should not exceed 1,000 square feet,’ that residential buildings should be one to one-and-one-half stories, that roof pitch should be at least 6:12, and that structures ‘should never be raised higher than 3 feet from the ground,'” the complaint states. “Whereas (the new zoning) permits dwellings of up to 1,550 square feet and a building height of up to 32 feet, imposes a maximum roof pitch of 6:12, and the flood-elevation requirements applicable to much of Hog Hammock make a three-foot pier height physically unattainable.”