09/30/25
Ga. Supreme Court upholds citizens’ right to vote to repeal Sapelo zoning
A yard sign in front of the Graball Country Store in Hogg Hummock encourages McIntosh voters to vote yes and repeal rezoning on Sapelo Island.
In a unanimous decision issued Tuesday, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the right of McIntosh County residents to vote directly to repeal a controversial zoning decision that would allow larger houses in a traditional Gullah-Geechee enclave on Sapelo Island.
The zoning ordinance that
county commissioners approved in September 2023 would allow the construction of houses of up to 3,000 square feet in the modest, 434-acre Hogg Hummock neighborhood. Long-time residents, many of them descendants of people enslaved on Georgia’s sea islands, feared the resulting gentrification and higher property taxes would drive them out of their ancestral homes and usher in wealthy developers. The county supported the larger homes to expand its tax base.
Early voting was already underway last year ahead of the scheduled Oct. 1 referendum when a Superior Court judge granted the county’s request to shut down the special election.
In Tuesday’s opinion, authored by Justice John J. Ellington, the court concluded that the lower court erred in finding that the zoning ordinance was not subject to the referendum procedure of the Home Rule Provision of the Georgia Constitution. That referendum procedure allows citizens to force a direct vote on an issue if they collect a sufficient number of signatures from registered voters in the county.
A McIntosh County petition drive had succeeded in collecting signatures, modeling its efforts on nearby Camden County’s referendum that in 2022 nixed a planned commercial spaceport that many saw as a boondoggle. The Camden referendum was also challenged by its county, though in that case after the vote was complete, and that referendum was also ultimately upheld by the Georgia Supreme Court.
In Tuesday’s opinion, the Supreme Court also upheld the decision to
prevent the enforcement of the new Hogg Hummock zoning while the referendum was being litigated. A Superior Court-ordered injunction from November has held new buildings in Hogg Hammock to the old standard of 1,400 square feet.
Attorney Dana Braun, who represented the named plaintiffs in the case — Sapelo residents Barbara Bailey, Christopher Bailey, and Stanley Walker — sees Tuesday’s decision as a win for good government.
“Citizens that are concerned about an ordinance or an action of a county commission that affects them have a right of redress of this referendum process, which is not easy, but it’s there for concerned citizens to attempt to address,” Braun said.