Judge orders a stop to referendum in Georgia slave descendants' zoning battle

A judge on Wednesday ordered a halt to a special election initiated by residents of the one of the South’s last remaining Gullah-Geechee communities of Black slave descendants, who were looking to voters to undo zoning changes that residents say threaten their island homes.

Senior Judge Gary McCorvey’s ruling to stop the referendum came after hundreds had already voted early in coastal McIntosh County and less than a week before polls countywide were to open on the official election day Tuesday.

The judge sided with McIntosh County’s elected commissioners seeking to cancel the election, ruling that Georgia’s constitution doesn’t allow citizens to challenge zoning ordinances by referendum. He dismissed arguments by attorneys for island residents that county officials had no legal standing to sue.

“McIntosh County has the duty to avoid wasting public funds and must be afforded some remedy to challenge the decision to hold an election ordered erroneously,” McCorvey's ruling said.

Residents of the tiny Hogg Hummock community on isolated Sapelo Island, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) south of Savannah, said they were blindsided a year ago when county officials approved zoning changes that weakened restrictions on development used for decades to protect the enclave their enslaved ancestors founded after the Civil War.

Residents and their supporters spent months collecting more than 1,800 petition signatures to force the referendum, which a Probate Court judge approved after verifying the petition in July.

Jazz Watts, a Hogg Hummock homeowner and an organizer of the petition drive, accused county officials of disenfranchising their own constituents.

“It’s not only unfair, it’s unjust," Watts said. "We’re talking about people’s right to be a part of not only the electoral process, but a right to be a part of how they’re governed.”

Ken Jarrard, an attorney for McIntosh County commissioners, said they were pleased with the ruling. County officials had estimated that opening polls on Tuesday alone would cost at least $20,000 — money they argued would be wasted if the election was held and later declared invalid in court.

“McIntosh County’s chief priority is to be a good steward of taxpayer funds,” Jarrard said in a statement. “A primary reason this case was brought was to ensure the County does not spend funds improperly.”

Kate Pontello Karwacki, chairperson of the McIntosh County Board of Commissioners, declined to comment further.

The zoning changes adopted last year doubled the size of homes allowed in Hogg Hummock, also known as Hog Hammock. Residents fear larger homes will lead to increased property taxes and pressure some to sell land held by their families for generations.

Roughly 30 to 50 Black residents live in Hogg Hummock, a community of dirt roads and modest homes founded by former slaves from the cotton plantation of Thomas Spalding.

Small communities descended from enslaved island populations in the South — known as Gullah, or Geechee in Georgia — are scattered along the coast from North Carolina to Florida, Scholars say their separation from the mainland caused residents of these communities to retain much of their African heritage, from their unique dialect to skills and crafts such as cast-net fishing and weaving baskets.

While the Hogg Hummock residents are likely to appeal, it's unknown whether a higher court could intervene before Tuesday's planned election day.

Hogg Hummock residents also have a separate lawsuit pending that accuses county officials of race discrimination and violating their due process rights when the zoning changes were adopted.

“This is not over,” Watts said. “We’re not deterred and we’re not discouraged. We know this is about our community, our culture and our history.”

A rarely used provision of Georgia’s constitution empowers voters to force special elections to challenge “local acts or ordinances, resolutions, or regulations” of local governments if they can get a petition signed by 10% to 25%, depending on population, of a city or county’s voters.

The commissioners' lawsuit argued that power doesn’t apply to zoning. Jarrard said zoning powers are spelled out in a different section of Georgia’s constitution, and Georgia law defines specific procedures for repealing zoning ordinances that don’t include special elections.

Attorneys for the Hogg Hummock residents and Probate Court Judge Harold Webster urged McCorvey to dismiss the county’s lawsuit, arguing commissioners had no legal standing to challenge a special election that Webster was authorized to order.

McCorvey said in his ruling that Webster had failed to “properly address the `validity’ of the petition.”

Moore said in an email Wednesday that Webster had followed Georgia's constitution and the state Supreme Court's guidance. She said Webster had not decided whether to appeal.

Both sides argued their position was supported by a Georgia Supreme Court decision last year that upheld another county’s 2022 referendum that blocked officials’ plans to build a launchpad for commercial rockets.