The vote on Tuesday marked a win for Hogg Hummock landowners on Sapelo Island, a remote coastal Georgia community that Black residents say relies on local rules to prevent property-tax increases that make ownership unaffordable. The referendum overturned a 2023 decision by McIntosh County commissioners that had expanded the maximum home size allowed in Hogg Hummock, a change island residents said weakened long-standing protections.
Uncauthorized residents of Hogg Hummock had pushed for the referendum after gathering more than 2,300 petition signatures and challenging the commissioners’ 2023 move in court, which led to a special election. Unofficial returns late Tuesday showed about 85% of voters who cast ballots voted for the referendum, according to Doll Gale, the county elections supervisor.
Jazz Watts, a Hogg Hummock descendant and landowner who helped organize the referendum, described the vote as a direct message to county officials. “I believe Sapelo is important to these folks and they’re sending a message to McIntosh County and saying, `Stop doing this,’” Watts said. “It makes a significant statement that I hope the Board of Commissioners and the entire county pays attention to.”
County commissioners said that if voters repealed their zoning changes, they would consider Hogg Hummock to be without any limits on development, rather than returning to building restrictions that had helped keep property taxes low for decades. They also indicated that they could pursue a new zoning law for Hogg Hummock even after the referendum.
Attorney Dana Braun, who represents Hogg Hummock landowners, accused county officials of arguing in bad faith to undermine the referendum. Braun said county officials were “pushing this ludicrous argument” in an effort to defeat the vote.
Beyond zoning, island residents and county officials remain at odds over property-tax assessments. County assessors have been weighing a proposal to recalculate the taxable value of Hogg Hummock properties for the first time since 2012, according to the Associated Press. Blair McLinn, the chief appraiser, predicted that landowners could see sharp increases, with values per half-acre possibly jumping from an average of $27,500 to $145,000, and he said the county plans to meet with residents to hear their concerns. In a phone interview, McLinn said steep increases appear unavoidable and that “To leave it alone is not going to be an option, as far as revaluation goes,” even as recent sales of half-acre lots reportedly reached up to $210,000.
Sapelo Island lies about 60 miles (95 kilometers) south of Savannah and remains largely undeveloped, with most of its roughly 30 square miles (78 square kilometers) owned by the state of Georgia. With no roads connecting the island to the mainland, the island’s isolation has helped sustain Gullah-Geechee culture, a line of communities that stretches along the Southeast coast and traces its roots to freed slaves after the Civil War.
Hogg Hummock, also known as Hog Hammock, is a small area of less than a square mile where about 30 to 50 Black residents still live, according to the AP report. Maurice Bailey, an island native who runs a program to boost farming in the community, said residents worked to preserve both their land and their way of life and warned that without it, future generations would lose their connection. “People worked hard to get this land on Sapelo and they worked hard to preserve who they are,” Bailey said. “Without this land, all of our descendants lose their connection.”
The history of the current conflict goes back at least to sharp property tax increases in 2012, when Black landowners on the island protested and county officials rolled back their tax bills. Island residents later sued McIntosh County, accusing it of taxing them while providing minimal services, and a settlement in 2022 froze island property assessments through last year. Residents said they were blindsided in 2023 when commissioners moved to weaken a special zoning ordinance enacted three decades earlier to keep Hogg Hummock landowners from facing unaffordable tax increases—an ordinance that commissioners had described as expanding the maximum home size in order to allow more space for families.