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From 17 March 04 Charleston City Paper:
Morris Island
Historical island threatened with a development of McMansions
By Ada Montague
Morris Island, one of the Civil War Preservation Trust’s top 10 most endangered sites, has a cleared path going right through it. But this bush-hogged path, its developer insists, is not a road at all, but a necessary ground survey.
Either way, some preservationists, tourists, and locals are not happy.
“Someone with a mighty big set of loppers came through here,” says Blake Hallman of the Battleground Preservation Trust. “With brush that dense it must have taken them at least a day or two to get across the island. Most likely they had some kind of a bulldozer.”
Last Tuesday, Hallman gave a slide presentation at a Trident Technical College night class on Charleston’s history about the still-unapproved development proposal for Morris Island. He traded his usual blue jeans and fleece jacket for a khaki suit and took the podium to fight for a place he thinks is so special and where he proposed to his wife. The students in the audience, mostly local men and women in their 50s, respond to his argument with worried questions and anger.
“So, is the Trust optimistic?” asks one attendee.
“Absolutely, as soon as people know about this issue they rally behind the Trust,” Hallman assures.
The mayors of James Island and Folly Beach, whose constituents neighbor the private Morris Island, are two cases in point. They changed their minds when they learned that the development was not inevitable, as they had previously believed.
To date, the developer, Harry Huffman, has only purchased the option to develop Morris Island from owner Yaschik Enterprises. He is playing the odds that he can convince the county that they should allow the historically and ecologically significant barrier island to house 20 upscale homes.
“The overall concept for the island is to preserve it as it would have been in the 1890s,” says Huffman. While Huffman is in touch with the Army Corps of Engineers, Ft. Sumter National Monument, the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource management (OCRM), the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and the county planning commission, he has not yet discussed the issue with the Battleground Preservation Trust. “We would like very much to meet with our opposition but have not yet been extended an invitation,” he adds.
As for the Trust, Blake Hallman says, “We have nothing against the developer, but the number of homes he wants to put on the island is grossly inappropriate.”
The 125-acre island erodes into the ocean at a rate of 19 feet per year. It is currently zoned as a resource management area, which allows for the possible construction of one house per every 25 acres. The developer would like to see 20, multimillion-dollar homes erected on 65 acres, which is down from his original plan of 60 mansions.
Megan Tercbus of the Coastal Conservation League (CCL) says, “The Conservation League supports the current densities and sees the developer’s attempt to build up the island at 10 times the current allowable density as severely undesirable.”
Morris Island is becoming a bit of a developer’s sword in the stone. While several have tried, none has been able to make the famous island into a millionaire’s paradise.
Since the Civil War, there have been five attempts on its sought-after location, this latest one lasting over a year now. Each effort has ended in failure and all were due to two critical hang-ups — the island’s historical significance and its high rate of erosion.
The banks of Morris Island were made famous by the raid of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. “Though eroded from its Civil War days, Morris Island continues to be a symbol. During the 1863 campaign it was the site of a lengthy standoff that pitted North against South, black against white, navy and army in a struggle that resulted in blood of thousands of men seeping into the sand,” writes Stephen Wise in his 1994 book Gate of Hell.
“Today the remains of Morris Island stand as a memorial to the brave men who fought and died there. The ocean waves still roll upon a whitened beach and in the words of Clara Barton: ‘Sing an eternal requiem to the toll-worn gallant dead who sleep beside,’” Wise concludes.
The famous battle of the 54th Regiment was later recaptured in the 1989 movie Glory. “Because of the movie,” says Michael Alan of the National Park Service at Fort Sumter, “and the way it portrayed the African American experience in the Civil War, Morris Island resonates with people on a profound level, regardless of their background. We are lucky to live in an area that provides and holds dear such an experience.”
Not only was Morris Island the site of an important Civil War battle, it is also part of Ft. Sumter’s panorama. Some believe it will detract from the experience of the monument to look out over the Charleston Harbor and see fat cats tooling about in golf carts where there was once significant bloodshed.
Alan argues, “We want to be able to continue to tell the history of Ft. Sumter and incorporate the surrounding area as accurately as possible into what we share.”
In his defense, Huffman says that a memorial will be erected where the battle took place. “We will, of course, memorialize what you would have seen if you were looking at the site in 1863,” he says.
There are other stakes, though.
A graveyard and other important archeological artifacts are believed to be on the island. Huffman is currently undertaking an archeological survey, one of the dozen or so steps he will have to take before getting his development proposal to the County Planning Commission for approval of a rezoned island.
The island’s erosion rate is also a problem. “Morris Island is classified as a transgressive barrier island, moving landward as a series of washover fans and generally lacking dune ridges,” writes C.C. Nichols in An Examination of Shoreline, Barrier Ridge Area, and Cultural Change on Morris Island, South Carolina, using GIS and Remote Sensing.
Just as some of California’s wealthy build cliff homes only to later watch them slide into the Pacific , the development of Morris Island is a gamble only the superrich could choose to afford.
“The possibility of development on Morris Island is deemed detrimental to the fragile coastal environment. Disturbing the coastline in any way here would likely result in increased erosion rates thus escalating the need for protective structures (such as seawalls and groins) and beach renourishment to maintain modern shorelines,” writes Nichols.
The island is also one of the few untouched barrier islands that offered shore birds a pristine nesting habitat. A bush-hogged path alone could have important impacts on nesting and feeding, says.
“I am a firm believer in property rights. But this gentleman is not a proper owner — he’s a gambler. He wants to have the island re-zoned before anyone is aware of the issue. This property means something to us,” says Hallman.
The natural struggles of erosion and time that threaten the island’s very existence are mimicked by the human efforts to preserve and develop the land. In the end, though, the ocean, will have the final say.
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From 17 March City Paper - Letters to the Editor:
For History’s Sake, Glenn
I wish to address an issue which has heretofore been ignored by the media.
Specifically, the thing I find most curious in all this is that Sen. Glenn McConnell (R-Chas.) who’s “stock-in-trade” is the period of the American Civil War — as evidenced by his very successful business selling Confederate memorabilia — has not weighed-in against this reckless and culturally insensitive development project.
I think the public needs to know where he stands on this issue. I’ve heard some folks in the preservation community opine that unless its “Hunley,” Sen. McConnell doesn’t care. I hope that’s not the case. It would certainly be inconsistent with his previous laudable stances on preservation of historically significant places and things in the Lowcountry. After all, the Hunley has given up her dead. They’ll be buried w/full military honors on April 17, 2004 in Charleston.
Morris Island has not given up her dead nor will she ever. The sands of the island contain the mortal remains of hundreds of patriots, from North and South, black and white. It would be a travesty if their remains were mingled with sewage flushed from multi-million dollar luxury homes. It would appear that the sanctity of these men’s final resting place is somehow deemed not as important as the handful of Confederate sailors who died on the Hunley for which tremendous resources have already been marshaled — including expenditure of unknown amounts of public dollars. All fallen American soldiers should be respected equally.
I for one would be very appreciative if you would investigate this aspect of the Morris Island debate to see where Sen. McConnell stands.
Keith B. Bartsch
Montgomery, Ala.
Morris Island
Historical island threatened with a development of McMansions
By Ada Montague
Morris Island, one of the Civil War Preservation Trust’s top 10 most endangered sites, has a cleared path going right through it. But this bush-hogged path, its developer insists, is not a road at all, but a necessary ground survey.
Either way, some preservationists, tourists, and locals are not happy.
“Someone with a mighty big set of loppers came through here,” says Blake Hallman of the Battleground Preservation Trust. “With brush that dense it must have taken them at least a day or two to get across the island. Most likely they had some kind of a bulldozer.”
Last Tuesday, Hallman gave a slide presentation at a Trident Technical College night class on Charleston’s history about the still-unapproved development proposal for Morris Island. He traded his usual blue jeans and fleece jacket for a khaki suit and took the podium to fight for a place he thinks is so special and where he proposed to his wife. The students in the audience, mostly local men and women in their 50s, respond to his argument with worried questions and anger.
“So, is the Trust optimistic?” asks one attendee.
“Absolutely, as soon as people know about this issue they rally behind the Trust,” Hallman assures.
The mayors of James Island and Folly Beach, whose constituents neighbor the private Morris Island, are two cases in point. They changed their minds when they learned that the development was not inevitable, as they had previously believed.
To date, the developer, Harry Huffman, has only purchased the option to develop Morris Island from owner Yaschik Enterprises. He is playing the odds that he can convince the county that they should allow the historically and ecologically significant barrier island to house 20 upscale homes.
“The overall concept for the island is to preserve it as it would have been in the 1890s,” says Huffman. While Huffman is in touch with the Army Corps of Engineers, Ft. Sumter National Monument, the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource management (OCRM), the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and the county planning commission, he has not yet discussed the issue with the Battleground Preservation Trust. “We would like very much to meet with our opposition but have not yet been extended an invitation,” he adds.
As for the Trust, Blake Hallman says, “We have nothing against the developer, but the number of homes he wants to put on the island is grossly inappropriate.”
The 125-acre island erodes into the ocean at a rate of 19 feet per year. It is currently zoned as a resource management area, which allows for the possible construction of one house per every 25 acres. The developer would like to see 20, multimillion-dollar homes erected on 65 acres, which is down from his original plan of 60 mansions.
Megan Tercbus of the Coastal Conservation League (CCL) says, “The Conservation League supports the current densities and sees the developer’s attempt to build up the island at 10 times the current allowable density as severely undesirable.”
Morris Island is becoming a bit of a developer’s sword in the stone. While several have tried, none has been able to make the famous island into a millionaire’s paradise.
Since the Civil War, there have been five attempts on its sought-after location, this latest one lasting over a year now. Each effort has ended in failure and all were due to two critical hang-ups — the island’s historical significance and its high rate of erosion.
The banks of Morris Island were made famous by the raid of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. “Though eroded from its Civil War days, Morris Island continues to be a symbol. During the 1863 campaign it was the site of a lengthy standoff that pitted North against South, black against white, navy and army in a struggle that resulted in blood of thousands of men seeping into the sand,” writes Stephen Wise in his 1994 book Gate of Hell.
“Today the remains of Morris Island stand as a memorial to the brave men who fought and died there. The ocean waves still roll upon a whitened beach and in the words of Clara Barton: ‘Sing an eternal requiem to the toll-worn gallant dead who sleep beside,’” Wise concludes.
The famous battle of the 54th Regiment was later recaptured in the 1989 movie Glory. “Because of the movie,” says Michael Alan of the National Park Service at Fort Sumter, “and the way it portrayed the African American experience in the Civil War, Morris Island resonates with people on a profound level, regardless of their background. We are lucky to live in an area that provides and holds dear such an experience.”
Not only was Morris Island the site of an important Civil War battle, it is also part of Ft. Sumter’s panorama. Some believe it will detract from the experience of the monument to look out over the Charleston Harbor and see fat cats tooling about in golf carts where there was once significant bloodshed.
Alan argues, “We want to be able to continue to tell the history of Ft. Sumter and incorporate the surrounding area as accurately as possible into what we share.”
In his defense, Huffman says that a memorial will be erected where the battle took place. “We will, of course, memorialize what you would have seen if you were looking at the site in 1863,” he says.
There are other stakes, though.
A graveyard and other important archeological artifacts are believed to be on the island. Huffman is currently undertaking an archeological survey, one of the dozen or so steps he will have to take before getting his development proposal to the County Planning Commission for approval of a rezoned island.
The island’s erosion rate is also a problem. “Morris Island is classified as a transgressive barrier island, moving landward as a series of washover fans and generally lacking dune ridges,” writes C.C. Nichols in An Examination of Shoreline, Barrier Ridge Area, and Cultural Change on Morris Island, South Carolina, using GIS and Remote Sensing.
Just as some of California’s wealthy build cliff homes only to later watch them slide into the Pacific , the development of Morris Island is a gamble only the superrich could choose to afford.
“The possibility of development on Morris Island is deemed detrimental to the fragile coastal environment. Disturbing the coastline in any way here would likely result in increased erosion rates thus escalating the need for protective structures (such as seawalls and groins) and beach renourishment to maintain modern shorelines,” writes Nichols.
The island is also one of the few untouched barrier islands that offered shore birds a pristine nesting habitat. A bush-hogged path alone could have important impacts on nesting and feeding, says.
“I am a firm believer in property rights. But this gentleman is not a proper owner — he’s a gambler. He wants to have the island re-zoned before anyone is aware of the issue. This property means something to us,” says Hallman.
The natural struggles of erosion and time that threaten the island’s very existence are mimicked by the human efforts to preserve and develop the land. In the end, though, the ocean, will have the final say.
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From 17 March City Paper - Letters to the Editor:
For History’s Sake, Glenn
I wish to address an issue which has heretofore been ignored by the media.
Specifically, the thing I find most curious in all this is that Sen. Glenn McConnell (R-Chas.) who’s “stock-in-trade” is the period of the American Civil War — as evidenced by his very successful business selling Confederate memorabilia — has not weighed-in against this reckless and culturally insensitive development project.
I think the public needs to know where he stands on this issue. I’ve heard some folks in the preservation community opine that unless its “Hunley,” Sen. McConnell doesn’t care. I hope that’s not the case. It would certainly be inconsistent with his previous laudable stances on preservation of historically significant places and things in the Lowcountry. After all, the Hunley has given up her dead. They’ll be buried w/full military honors on April 17, 2004 in Charleston.
Morris Island has not given up her dead nor will she ever. The sands of the island contain the mortal remains of hundreds of patriots, from North and South, black and white. It would be a travesty if their remains were mingled with sewage flushed from multi-million dollar luxury homes. It would appear that the sanctity of these men’s final resting place is somehow deemed not as important as the handful of Confederate sailors who died on the Hunley for which tremendous resources have already been marshaled — including expenditure of unknown amounts of public dollars. All fallen American soldiers should be respected equally.
I for one would be very appreciative if you would investigate this aspect of the Morris Island debate to see where Sen. McConnell stands.
Keith B. Bartsch
Montgomery, Ala.
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