Private property rights matter, and Point Hope is no exception
There has been a lot of misinformation circulating around Point Hope, and it's causing real confusion in the community.
The Daniel Island News has graciously offered me a space here to explain my position as the city councilman for District 1, which includes the Point Hope development and most of the Cainhoy Peninsula within the city.
As I was quoted last week, the zoning rights attached to this land were granted by Berkeley County in 1987, and when the city annexed this land, a condition of that annexation was that those zoning rights would be maintained.
Under state law, reducing the number of permitted units in this planned unit development would constitute an unlawful taking of private property, which is a legal standard that courts have upheld consistently. The city would face litigation, and the precedent is not on our side. We would spend large amounts of taxpayer dollars on lawyers, and we would ultimately lose in court. This is not a political position; it is a legal constraint. No government entity, the city included, can simply stop development or downzone this property without triggering a taking claim. If a politician tells you otherwise, they are not being truthful.
I do have some additional context worth sharing. When this plan was originally negotiated, the Coastal Conservation League was at the table and helped shape it.Conservation measures that are part of the plan today, including a buffer along Cainhoy Road protecting the Francis Marion National Forest, came directly from CCL's involvement. CCL's position has since changed. But the conservation commitments that came out of that original agreement are real: 650 acres placed into a permanent nature sanctuary, half of the total property protected, and a final unit count expected around 12,000, well below the 18,000 the zoning permits. For comparison, less than 30% was conserved on Daniel Island.
My position is that private property rights matter, and in this case, the developer is operating within them. The same property rights, enshrined in state and federal law, protect your property from overzealous governments seizing it to do something else with it.
That does not mean I am indifferent to the pressures growth creates. The Cainhoy Peninsula is a desirable place to live, and that desirability drives demand we cannot wish away. It isn't just Clements Ferry Road that's a problem. I talk to my fellow council members on Johns Island, James Island, and in West Ashley. Their constituents have very similar complaints, which could be summed up as: "Too much development, too little infrastructure." As an engineer, I understand the problem, and I want to help fix it.
The way to do that is to demand that our state and federal governments meet their obligations to fund the infrastructure this region needs. That is where the failure has been and that is where accountability belongs. For far too long, the state and federal governments have turned a blind eye to the infrastructure needs of the Lowcountry. As long as I-526 remains in its current state, we are all going to be stuck in traffic. The state's answer so far, Senate Bill 831, is a “fix” in as much as those recent concrete patches on I-526 are “repairs.” Structural reform without dedicated new funding doesn't build roads or any other infrastructure, and I'll be writing more about that soon.