Personal Injury Attorney in Kiawah, SC

After almost two decades of legal wrangling over development plans, the state of South Carolina now has an offer on the table to ensure that Captain Sams Spit, the southernmost mile of Kiawah Island and one of South Carolina’s few pristine beaches accessible by car, is owned by all of us, as it should be. It’s important for state and local leaders and conservation players to cooperate and seize this moment to forever protect this remarkable place.

As The Post and Courier’s Toby Cox recently reported, Kiawah Partners, which owns the spit and has been trying to develop it without success, has offered to sell the property and the adjacent Beachwalker Park to the state for $40 million.

We do not underestimate the challenge in pulling off this purchase, not only because of the sizable price tag but also because any such sale should involve a lot of partners, as it would benefit not only the state but also Charleston County and the towns of Kiawah and Seabrook and all who value conservation and protecting wildlife habitat. Ideally, all those governments as well as private philanthropy would contribute toward the purchase price so no one entity bears too big a burden. Indeed, it would be inappropriate for the state to cover the entire cost of a purchase.

But the difficulty of putting together a consortium of purchasers should not provide an excuse for our leaders to reject the offer.

The owners long have argued that by enforcing its 1988 Beachfront Management Act, the state has rendered their property undevelopable and, under U.S. Supreme Court precedent from a 1992 S.C. case challenging that law, owes them compensation. That ignores the fact that the town of Kiawah Island has made substantial concessions to the partners, which own additional property in the town; some would argue these concessions, which have included zoning and land development changes to benefit the partners, effectively constitute compensation for the spit and would mean the state has not in fact taken the property without compensation.

That’s one of many reasons a court victory by the owners is no sure thing. What is a sure thing is that without a deal, the legal fighting will continue to waste state resources and our time. A deal would put an end to the costly legal wrangling, which benefits no one.

What would benefit everyone is for government leaders and the conservation community to engage in meaningful negotiations that put everything on the scale in search of a deal, recognizing that any such agreement is unlikely to satisfy either side.

One of the biggest challenges could be determining who ultimately would own and regulate the property. The Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission still has 51 years left on its 99-year lease for Beachwalker Park, and it’s possible a discussion about that could become contentious in its own right, as government seeks to strike the right balance between public accessibility, which can involve boardwalks, restrooms and other structures, and protecting the landscape, which would involve leaving the land in as natural a state as possible.

The southern end of Kiawah is one of our state's few remaining pristine, publicly accessible sandy beaches (the others being Hunting Island and Huntington Beach state parks), and it should be in public hands. The environmental community has done important work in fighting misguided efforts to develop the spit, but it's time to take a new approach. We need more, not less, access to our limited beaches.

It will take leadership to bring all players to the table to secure the long-term future of Kiawah Island's southern end, but we should expect no less.

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Residents on Kiawah Island are keeping a close eye on presented plans to fix an issue they say they had to point out in the first place. The issue is not enough parking for a development currently being built called “The Cape.”

The developers recently submitted a site development revision for “Cape Point parking and emergency access,” but it’s intended to address only part of the parking deficiency, as they have yet to submit revised plans for the rest of the parking issues. This follows the town and planning director telling them they must do so, only after residents discovered the original plans were approved with a significant lack of parking.

Residents fear the lack of transparency of the plans will continue.

“We’re worried as a community that the planning director will overlook once again, so the community has gotten involved, and we are watching very closely,” Kiawah property owner and land development lawyer Tim Hazel said.

The community feels like they aren’t involved enough in what gets approved and says decisions are made behind closed doors by the planning director alone, and not with the commission as a whole.

Town of Kiawah Planning Director John Taylor Jr. explained the approval process is straightforward.

“Developers will submit plans to the town, we will review those plans and issue comments and work back and forth until the developer addresses the comments and once that is addressed, we will be able to issue approval,” Taylor said.

Hazel said he’s never experienced the doors being open for developers but closed to the community.

“There’s a general sense that the mayor and council want nothing to do with discussions as to community input, the developer isn’t doing a very good job of including the community’s input on these plans so it’s very frustrating,” Hazel said.

Taylor said they have heard from the community throughout this process and have received “tons of emails.”

“The town has responded and listened in,” he said. “We’ve brought in a third-party engineer to review Beachwalker projects which I thought was a positive and a request by the planning staff to do that just to give the community comfortability in our review standards and processes.”

It was told that the town council may be considering changes to the development review process at their next meeting.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Multiple four-story condominium complexes could be coming to Kiawah Island and residents there want the proposed plans to change.

They have concerns about the potential project on Upper and Lower, or Ocean Pines, Beachwalker Drive and say development on the island should not be rushed.

“The impacts are far-reaching for everyone on Kiawah Island, Johns Island, and people wanting to go to the public beach,” Kiawah resident Lance Spencer said. “The infrastructure costs that the city is going to have to bear and that taxpayers are going to have to bear are significant.”

Homeowners said they aren’t against development, but it needs to be done responsibly and they say what’s been proposed is far from it.

“We’re not naïve, we know the developers have the right to develop, but we just want them to develop more responsibly, meaning less density,” Homeowners Association representative for Kiawah Island Lynda Leffler said. “These two areas that they are trying to develop are the most dense on Kiawah Island.”

Their concerns include an uptick in traffic, stormwater management, and that the complexes won’t fit in with the surrounding communities.

“The additional building and construction that the partners and developers want to do is all just for profit with no consideration to the environment and the sensitivity of the environment to what is best for this community,” Kiawah Island property owner James Caltabiano said. “No consideration, it’s all just for profit.”

The complexes would be in a similar fashion to “The Cape” being built now on the island.

“It’s a monstrosity on the beach next to the county park that people come from all over to enjoy,” Caltabiano said. “Now they have The Cape to look at, and it’s terrible.”

Residents say the process to get this development approved has felt rushed and left little time for community feedback.

“The partners have a development agreement which expires December 4th of this year, so certainly they are trying to get everything approved before then, because in that development agreement they can put four stories on these buildings,” Leffler said. “We know they can do that, we just object to that and we wish they would tone it down to two stories.”

They said a two-story building would fit in with surrounding communities as well as address their other concerns.

“It would have a more positive impact on the environment,” Kiawah Island Cottage Association Board Member Cynthia Hadley said. “The stormwater retention is a huge issue in the sense that we experience more and more flooding as the ocean levels rise and the king tides come in. So, a smaller development is definitely what we’d like to see.”

To view the full proposed plans, click here and scroll down.

Copyright 2023 WCSC. All rights reserved.

One of South Carolina’s most enchanting locales, Johns Island boasts miles of shoreline with gorgeous coastal architecture. Only 20 miles from historic Charleston, the Kiawah River area is the region’s sole “agrihood” community, offering everything from a 100-acre working farm and goat dairy to active beehives and nature trails. Today, we’re touring the interior of one of the area’s custom homes, filled with luxe-modern details.

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Built by Charleston-based JacksonBuilt Custom Homes with interiors by Motif, this three-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath home was designed to reflect the area’s natural elements, such as driftwood, feather grass, and water. Moving to Kiawah to escape the Pennsylvania winters, the homeowners have created a retreat highlighting vaulted ceilings and a tranquil aesthetic.

“The front part of the home is the main living space with a beautiful, vaulted ceiling, plaster fireplace, and iron ‘turnbuckles,’ which add to the design goal of making this part of the house feel like the original homestead,” says Kimberly Jackson of JacksonBuilt Custom Homes.

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Though the home sits on an irregularly shaped corner lot, the 2,950-square-foot abode blends in seamlessly with its surroundings. The exterior wows with its coastal farmhouse feel. A stunning live oak tree in the front yard offers a prominent natural feature for the homeowners and the surrounding community. The home is so beautiful, in fact, that it received a “Best in American Living Award” from the National Association of Home Builders! “The home is very natural and organic to the community’s 20 miles of shoreline, acres of maritime forest, and working farms. The large live oak tree in the front is the star of the landscape,” says Kimberly.

Working with architect Collin Cope to accomplish the design and aesthetic, the home offers materials and furniture that complement the outdoors.

All images courtesy of Keen Eye Marketing.

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Check out more inspiration from home interiors across the South!

The majority of South Carolina's ranked courses are spread throughout the cities and resort destinations along the Atlantic Ocean seaboard. That makes sense as this region—the southern half in the original Lowcountry around Charleston, Kiawah Island and Hilton Head, and north into the communities around Myrtle Beach—has some of the most distinctive ecosystems in the U.S., characterized by the constant mingling of land and wetlands and marshes, occasional ocean exposures and haunting forests of moss-draped live oaks. Elsewhere, Greenville Country Club in the central part of the state places both its courses in this year's ranking, and the brilliant Palmetto and the exclusive Tom Fazio-designed Sage Valley lead the way near Aiken, across the Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia. And Quixote Club, a new Kris Spense/Jack Nicklaus II design outside of Columbia debuts at no. 19.

The prediction here is that this list will be upended in the coming years. South Carolina is currently a hotbed of new development with at least six courses under construction or in planning. The Tree Farm and Old Barnwell, just outside of Aiken, will open to member play in late 2023 or early 2024. New courses are also on the board for the Columbus area, near Charleston, and at Kiawah Island and outside Hilton Head. Stay tuned.

We urge you to click through to each individual course page for bonus photography, drone footage and reviews from our course panelists. Plus, you can now leave your own ratings on the courses you’ve played … to make your case why your favorite should be ranked higher.

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Explore Golf Digest's recently relaunched Places to Play community, where you can add star ratings and reviews for all the courses you play. We've collected tens of thousands of reviews from our course-ranking panelists to deliver a premium experience, which includes experts' opinions, bonus course photography and videos, plus much more. Check it out here!