kitchen countertopsNear Sullivan's Island, SC

SULLIVAN’S ISLAND — A newly formed development group plans to invest more than $30 million to acquire and renovate a 90-year-old, vacant private oceanfront club on this seaside enclave.

But elected officials want more details before signing off on allowing a commercial project in a residential area.

Sullivan’s Island Bathing Co. is asking the town to allow a members-only social venture called the Ocean Club at 1735 Atlantic Ave. as a conditional use in an area zoned for single-family homes.

Shep Davis, the development firm’s managing partner, pointed out last week that the property operated as a private club for close to a century without being open to island residents.

Under this latest proposal, they’ll have that option for the first time — at a cost of a $60,000 sign-up fee and an estimated $500 in monthly dues.

The property had been known for decades as the Sand Dunes Club. It was a private beachside retreat for employees of the former South Carolina Electric & Gas Co., which Dominion Energy acquired in early 2019 after the V.C. Summer nuclear plant debacle 18 months earlier.

The Richmond, Va.-based utility closed the property at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, and it never reopened, according to attorney Brian Hellman, a Sullivan’s resident who is representing the development group.

Built in 1933 for $14,000, the then 5,400-square-foot structure was called Jasper Hall, an officer’s club for military personnel stationed at nearby Fort Moultrie. SCE&G acquired it in the 1950s and expanded it over the years to just under 10,000 square feet.

Davis said the property has not been properly kept up for several years and is in disrepair.

One neighbor recently complained of the uncovered pool starting to smell and becoming a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Hellman and Davis said the pool is being maintained.

$30 million-plus

Davis estimated it will take an investment of “in excess of $30 million” for his group to buy the property, overhaul the building and amenities and place a stormwater retention pond underground. Retrofitting the pool alone, he said could cost half a million dollars.

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Improvement plans include offering separate pools for families and adults, upgrading the existing building and landscaping the parking area. The developers also would add a fitness center, dining terrace and gazebo along with a new entry area off a beach access path.

“We can preserve the building and re-create the club for its historical use,” Davis said.

Hellman said the current proposal comes after gathering input during several meetings with residents and town leaders over the past few months.

He said the private-membership venue will provide a place for homeowners to eat and exercise without having to drive off the island or jockey for tables with tourists at the restaurants in the town’s small business district.

“It will be a gathering place to socialize that won’t compete with beachgoers,” Hellman said. “Dining will not be open to the general public and will reduce the need for residents to leave the island.”

The 3.5-acre club site is owned by a company affiliated with Charleston real estate investor John Derbyshire, the former owner of the chain of Money Man Pawn shops. The firm paid Dominion $16.2 million for the property in 2022, according to Charleston County land records.

A large house is being built for Derbyshire, who plans to remain a partner in the project, on part of the property next to the club, according to Hellman.

Members matters

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The developer said the goal is that the Ocean Club will be open to all Sullivan’s residents who want to join. Davis estimated the venture will need at least 400 members to get the project off the ground.

The proposed Ocean Club would give priority to individuals and families who primarily reside on the island, said Jim Wanless, one of the partners. Off-island residents could join, too.

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The proposed parking rules to allow a social club in a residential area require at least one parking space for every 10 memberships whose primary or secondary residences are within 2½ miles. Sixty percent of those spaces must be designated for golf carts and low-speed vehicles.

For members living outside the 2½-mile range, which is basically anyone who doesn’t live on Sullivan’s, one vehicle parking space would be required for every five memberships.

The rules also would require one bicycle space — through a rack or corral — for every 20 memberships.

“For whatever the number will be of those living off the island, they most certainly would come by car,” Davis said. “On-island residents would have much less need for parking” since they’d have the option to come by golf cart, bike or foot.

Tentative plans call for 50 car parking spaces, at least an equal number of golf cart spaces and “adequate” bicycle parking spaces, Hellman said.

Though the membership will be open to all island residents, the developers don’t expect everyone to join. They also have not set a cap on membership.

“We are trying to come up with the right number of members for the club without excluding property owners,” Davis said.

Talking to the town

During a public workshop last week, where a standing-room-only crowd spilled into the hallway, the developers addressed a list of written questions from elected officials, including the benefit to the town if the club is allowed.

Davis said, under the current zoning, the property could be sold for residential development that would allow three to five homes that could be taxed at the 4 percent rate if they are primary residences. If the club use is allowed, the developers will pay the 6 percent commercial property tax as well as licensing and permit fees.

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The developers also said they won’t allow corporate memberships or agreements with hotels to provide dining or other services. In addition, no reciprocal-use deals with other private clubs are planned.

The projected hours of operation are 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday for interior services, with the earliest morning hours set aside for fitness activities. The club would be open until midnight on Friday and Saturday. Outdoor activities would be allowed 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day except until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Some island residents see the idea as another amenity for Sullivan’s while others are concerned about increased traffic and noise a club would bring to a residential area.

In letters to the town, supporters pointed to the property’s long history as a site for dining, fitness, sports, recreation and cultural, educational and social events. They said those uses should continue to be allowed.

Others said they’re against the rezoning to allow a restaurant or for it to become a for-profit entity.

Town Council is expected to discuss the issue further and take public input during its meeting Aug. 15. Mayor Patrick O’Neil cautioned the developers not to expect a quick decision.

“This council proceeds pretty deliberately,” he said.

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SULLIVAN’S ISLAND — Town Council can control most all aspects of tree-cutting in its beachfront maritime forest because it can’t be bound by decisions made by previous councils in the matter, a judge has ruled.

The basic principle of Circuit Judge Jennifer McCoy’s ruling is a town council cannot enter into an agreement that will bind a successive council into doing or not doing certain things.

The decision, filed Jan. 30 in state court in Charleston, comes after a former Sullivan’s Island council reached a settlement in 2020 that mandated more thinning of the maritime forest than the town had contemplated.

SC Climate and Environment News

That settlement resolved a decadelong lawsuit — stemming back to 2010 — from a group of homeowners next to the forest who wanted to see more management of the land from the town.

The forest gradually grew on land that is accreting where the island meets the Atlantic Ocean. The effect has created a thicket between the large beach houses and the sandy beach, which blocked views of the ocean while also creating swampy and forested territory.

Any future councils would have been bound to that previous agreement.

The court decision changed that.

“As mayor, I’m very pleased that the judge agreed with our contention that that settlement agreement was not consistent with South Carolina law and that it should be voided,” said Mayor Patrick O’Neil.

Since the settlement was agreed upon, Sullivan’s Island residents elected a new council with a majority that was more favorably disposed to the maritime forest, O’Neil said.

“We’ve heard a lot from many residents — not all, but many residents — who fervently disagreed with that agreement,” O’Neil said. “That urged us to do something.”

The council brought forth a declaratory judgment that the prior settlement agreement was unenforceable and therefore void.

The court agreed with that position.

William Wilkins, a Greenville-based attorney with the firm Nexsen Pruett who represented the town, said he appreciated the prompt attention Judge McCoy gave to the matter.

SC Climate and Environment News

“She correctly applied the relevant principles of law, including the law that a town council may not enter into agreements that will bind a successive town council under the facts of this case,” Wilkins said.

Development is prohibited on the land at the center of the complaint. The town can permit or do certain amounts of cutting on the maritime forest when deemed appropriate or beneficial.

Landowners can apply for permits to cut three species of bushes or trees in front of their property, between it and the beach.

Guidelines are in place for how low the trees and bushes may be trimmed.

Issues dividing residents in the matter included those who wanted a better view of the water or were concerned about the wild animals living in the forest, such as coyotes, and those who preferred allowing the natural state to continue.

Every nightfall, a rotating light pulsates around Sullivan’s Island twice every 30 seconds. The luminous source is the Charleston Light, also referred to as the Sullivan’s Island Lighthouse, which has stood watch over the cozy beach town for more than six decades.

When the pillar of light was first lit on June 15, 1962, it was recorded as the last major lighthouse in the United States built by the federal government. It was also the second brightest lighthouse in the Western Hemisphere, according to Fort Moultrie National Historical Park guide Shelby McAllister.

The Charleston Light was erected to replace the defunct Morris Island Light, which was rebuilt in the 1870s after being destroyed in the Civil War. The lighthouse was at risk of being destroyed again by erosion and was later decommissioned.

Standing at 162.5 feet tall, approaching vessels in the Charleston Harbor could see the flash of the Charleston Light’s 28-million candlepower beam from more than 50 miles offshore. Five years after its construction, its wattage was reduced to 1.2-million candlepower, but it is still visible more than 25 miles away.

Its bright light wasn’t the only thing that caught people’s eyes. Many residents felt the original red and white color scheme was an eyesore. As the sun bleached the red to orange, it was decided that a paint job was in order. Black and white was the popular choice, so the Charleston Light received a makeover.

Sixty-one years later, the mid-century monolithic structure serves as more of a nautical landmark than a navigational aid, but its maritime history is not lost at sea. It was a fixture of the U.S. Coast Guard Historic District that includes buildings dating back to 1894.

When the Coast Guard automated the lighthouse in 1975, it no longer needed a keeper. In 2008, the Coast Guard relinquished ownership to the National Park Service.

THE MAN BEHIND THE LIGHT

Architect Jack Graham’s creation was not only the last of its kind, but it was also one of a kind. His vision for the lighthouse lit up in his mind when he was a 25-year-old graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Architecture and a serviceman in the Coast Guard.

In Graham’s last month of active duty, a supervisor gave him a final assignment of designing a lighthouse. The Coast Guard was displeased with the previous drawings that made it resemble a World War I battleship signal tower. By the time Graham was finished, it looked like an air traffic control tower.

Unlike typical circular lighthouses, Graham’s design was triangular with steel girders for the framework and aluminum alloy for siding. He credited his modernist approach and design to his college professor Louis Kahn, an influential modern architect in the post-World War II era known for his monumental and brutalist style.

In September 1989, Graham’s work would be put to the test when Hurricane Hugo lashed the island as a Category 5. The lighthouse’s design was intended to withstand winds up to 125 miles per hour. Hugo brought winds of 160 miles per hour, and the lighthouse never faltered.

In 2009, on Graham’s 75th birthday, he was able to view his creation from the top as he rode in the elevator for the first time. He wasn’t aware that his design was used for the lighthouse until three years after it was built, when he was flipping through a boating magazine.

The lighthouse became eligible to be listed on the National Register as part of the structures in the Coast Guard Historic District in 2012. That same year marked the structure’s 50th anniversary, during which Graham was recognized for the first time with an official ceremony and a historical marker on site.

Before Graham’s passing in June 2022, his wife Martha, who lives in Maryland, wrote “The Charleston Light and The Adventures of Scoops the Seagull.” The children’s book is about the lighthouse, which her beloved husband nicknamed “Sulli.”

Graham’s story lives on in the annals of history and is rekindled every time the sun sinks down past the horizon on Sullivan’s Island. That’s when the lighthouse and Graham’s legacy truly come to life.

Today, the lighthouse stands as one of the most technologically advanced for its time. It is the only lighthouse in America that has both an elevator and air conditioning, according to McAllister.

Due to ongoing problems with the elevator, there are no plans to open the lighthouse to the public. Of the 15 historic lighthouses in the state, none are currently open to the public due mainly to structural issues, she noted.

“This is history that is slowly disappearing, but not many people realize that,” McAllister added.

The National Park Service celebrates National Lighthouse Day every August by opening the Sullivan’s Island Lighthouse grounds to the public. The last time the lighthouse was open for tours was 2018.

By Zach Giroux

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SULLIVAN’S ISLAND — A $30-million-plus private social hub being proposed for South Carolina’s wealthiest ZIP code is probably not going to advance very quickly.

Sullivan’s Island’s Town Council didn’t give the Ocean Club on Atlantic Avenue a warm reception during its meeting Aug. 15. Elected officials indicated they wanted to wait to consider the big-ticket redevelopment project at what was known for decades as the Sand Dunes Club.

They said they hope to gather more information on the developer’s background, study traffic impacts and learn more about the financial and other implications to neighboring homes and the town.

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They also noted the club doesn’t have to be private, and alternate proposals should be considered that all residents could benefit from — not just those who can afford the estimated $60,000 membership fee and $6,000 in annual dues under the current plan.

“I don’t think we have enough information to make an intelligent decision,” said Councilwoman Jody Latham. “We don’t want to make the wrong decision either way.”

Mayor Patrick O’Neil called it “a giant decision” that will affect residents and Sullivan’s for generations to come.

Their comments came after more than two dozen residents spoke for and against the club concept.

The majority were in favor of the idea as a community gathering place while property owners who were against the plan said they viewed it as a commercial operation in a residential district. The opposition also questioned if officials would set a precedent by approving a conditional use for the property.

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The town also received about five dozen letters related to the proposed Ocean Club, with 32 in support and 27 opposed.

Shep Davis, managing partner of the Sullivan’s Island Bathing Co., is leading the effort to create the club. He asked Town Council to advance the proposal to a public hearing before the Planning Commission in September.

Brian Hellman, an attorney representing the developer, said that’s not going to happen since council members indicated they wanted more information.

The property first served as club for military personnel stationed at nearby Fort Moultrie starting in the 1930s. It later became a private beachside retreat for employees of the former South Carolina Electric & Gas Co.

Dominion Energy, which bought SCE&G in 2019, closed the Sand Dunes Club at the onset of the pandemic in early 2020. It was never reopened.

The 3.5-acre site is now owned by a company affiliated with Charleston real estate investor John Derbyshire, the former owner of the Money Man Pawn shop chain. His firm paid Dominion Energy $16.2 million for the property last year.

The Sullivan’s Island Town Council and those who attended its Sept. 11 workshop heard all about the history of Jasper Hall and the Sand Dunes Club, while the company that wants to turn the historic property into a private club apparently has revised its proposal. And an outspoken member of the Council is still “extremely concerned about the precedence of granting a commercial zoning exemption in a residential district.”

Dr. Mike Walsh, referred to by Mayor Pat O’Neil as “our resident historian these days,” spoke in detail about the property on Atlantic Avenue, which made its first appearance on the island as a military beach recreation facility, burned to the ground six years later and was rebuilt and re-opened in 1933. Meanwhile, Sullivan’s Island Bathing Company will now be offering nonmembers of the proposed exclusive club the opportunity to use the pool on a limited basis.

“Most recently, we communicated the Ocean Club’s plan to offer a community membership to island residents, which offers use of the family pool and poolside food service two designated days a week between Memorial Day and Labor Day, excluding weekends and holidays,” Sullivan’s Island Bathing Club Manager Shep Davis said. “We look forward to sharing additional new details about the club and exciting amenities and programming via our newsletter.”

“Town Council has posed additional questions about the Ocean Club, and our team is diligently gathering this information to share with Council in the coming weeks,” he added.

Following the workshop, Bathing Club team members Brian Hellman and Jim Wanless said the community membership idea was part of the plan they originally presented to the town. They said membership would cost $500 per year and that they would be at the Council’s Sept. 19 meeting to address the questions posed by Council Member Scott Millimet. O’Neil said that as of Sept. 13, that item was not on the Council’s agenda.

Sullivan’s Island Bathing Company wants to spend $30 million to renovate the property and charge members $60,000 to join, plus $6,000 a year in dues.

Millimet called the proposed zoning change “a very bad precedent.”

“Let’s just say, hypothetically, they were granted a zoning exemption. In two years, they decided to sell the club. We don’t have any control over what goes in next because we already granted the exemption,” he said. “What is critical is the request to operate a for-profit business in an area currently zoned as residential. To me it opens a big old can of worms.”

Millimet said he wants to know how many similar properties the group has developed, how many they continue to have a financial interest in and how many of those properties have been repurposed or filed for bankruptcy.

Deputy Town Manager Joe Henderson explained that Davis’ group originally requested an amendment to the town’s zoning ordinance that would permit private clubs to operate in a residential district.

He said the Council is still deliberating whether to allow that proposal to move forward to the Planning Commission. He said the group submitted an application for a business license that would allow it to use the property as it was used by former owners South Carolina Gas & Electric and Dominion Energy. However, because the license had not been used for more than a year, town staff was unable to approve that plan. Davis’ group has appealed that decision to the Board of Zoning Appeals.

Walsh pointed out that his remarks “should not be taken as biased one way or the other.” He said Jasper Pavilion, included a diving board, slides, ropes and “various other paraphernalia appertaining to the enjoyment of surf-bathing.” There also was a 1,500-seat open air moving theater. The only remnant of the facility after it burned to the ground was a large stone fireplace.

In November 1932, the Army spent $9,000 to build an officers club at the same location that, in addition to the fireplace, included an elevated bungalow, a golf shop, a large assembly room, a coat room, ladies’ restrooms and a caretaker’s apartment. The first recorded use of the term Jasper Hall, he said, was in a July 27, 1933, newspaper article announcing a reception for a visiting Army unit.

Walsh’s research discovered a few photos of the inside of the building, including sort of a watch party for the 1944 Army/Navy football game.

In 1950, after the Army left Sullivan’s Island, the building was sold by the township of Sullivan’s Island to SCE&G for $27,500.

Walsh said his best estimate of the number of officers serving on Sullivan’s Island in 1944, and thus using the officers club, was fewer than 250. He also determined that the facility never had a full-service food operation. He pointed out that according to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, there apparently never were any DHEC inspections of the Sand Dunes Club.

“There would have been inspections by the Health Department if it had been a full service operation. This indicates there was no full-service restaurant permit,” Walsh said.

He also pointed out that in addition to wedding receptions, family reunions and church covered dinners, the Sand Dunes Club hosted the swearing in of the town of Sullivan’s Island’s first Council and first mayor – Wilfred Edward Lipman.