community

Georgia's Supreme Court has unanimously overturned a lower court ruling that had blocked a referendum on zoning changes affecting Hogg Hummock, a historic Gullah-Geechee community on Sapelo Island founded by freed slaves. In 2021, McIntosh County officials had revised a zoning ordinance that doubled allowable home sizes in the community, prompting residents to gather over 2,300 signatures for a referendum to repeal the changes. The high court rejected county commissioners' arguments that zoning decisions couldn't be challenged through referendum, ruling that Georgia's Constitution does allow county residents to vote on repealing such ordinances. Residents feared the zoning changes would lead to unaffordable tax increases that would threaten the preservation of one of the South's last remaining Gullah-Geechee communities.