The Maritime Forest

In 2020, Town Council negotiated a settlement to an ongoing lawsuit that will require the removal of significant portions of trees and vegetation in the Town’s Accreted Land. What is your view of the settlement in relation to the guiding principle in the Town’s 2019 Comprehensive Plan to maintain and preserve the natural environment for the benefit of islanders and wildlife?

At the very time significant progress was being made in a negotiated settlement of the Maritime Forest lawsuit for areas of cutting and the selection of vegetation and trees, our Council held a hasty closed executive session. Without allowing consultation and input from island residents, they voted 4-3 to remove our community’s assets and impair our community’s safety.

Regardless of whether you support that decision or not, we should all be angry at Council members who ran for election saying one thing (or trying to say nothing at all) and voting another in a session closed to public scrutiny and comment.

In the Comprehensive Plan, resiliency, sea level rise and stormwater drainage were identified as key issues to be addressed. How would you prioritize and fund resiliency efforts to mitigate the unique set of threats to Sullivan Island’s infrastructure, including: storm surge from sea and marsh; sea level rise; stormwater runoff from heavy rain and flooding events?

It’s easy to lose perspective of how far we’ve come so quickly. We’ve invested heavily in upgrades to our wastewater treatment to protect our surrounding marshes and serve homeowners. We’ve replaced aging pipes and infrastructure to insure fire protection and service in emergencies. We’ve added significant improvements to building codes and ordinances. None of this has been cheap; all are funded by low-interest bonds and matching grants. The vegetation and trees in the accreted land are valuable and a free resource in mitigating storm surge and rain events. All have enhanced the resiliency and livability of Sullivan’s Island.

Our island continues to be a place where people want to own property, raise their children and enjoy its quality of life. We can never draw a line and say, “we’re done.” We need to continue to show leadership to our other coastal communities with sound planning and decisions. It all contributes to the safety and value of our homes and the opportunity to thrive on a small island by the sea.