18sustainingtraditional.pdf

A

Carolina

Planning

interview

with

representativesof the

Sea

Islands

Preservation

Project,

St.

Helena

Island,

South

Carolina,

March

1994.

Nina

Morais, Joseph

McDomick,

and Sarah

Bobrow

heSeaIslandsoffthe coastof SouthCarolina

and Georgiaarebeingovertakenbyrapid,poorly

planned development.

One

casualty is the islands' fragile environment. Anotheris the islands' unique

African-American culture. Sprawling suburbs and

exclusiveresort"plantations"arequickly displacing the islands' vulnerable black communities. For Sea

Islandblacks

[known

as the

Gu

Ilah],

whose

distinctive

language, music, cuisine, andcrafts

make

them

the

most

AfricanofallAfrican-Americans,theprocessof

developmenthasrightlybeen called 'cultural

geno-cide'.

"PreservationeffortsontheSeaIslandscanbestbe

understoodinlightoftheregion'suniquehistory.Just after the Civil War, St. Helena and several other islandsin SouthCarolinawerethe only place in the

South

where

large

numbers

offormer slaves

were

abletopurchase land.

To

formerslaves, land

meant

justcompensationforcenturiesofunpaidlabor.Italso

Nina Morais is theProject Director _oftlieSeaIslands Preservation Project. She formerly workedas an

orga-nizer in minoritycommunities forthe

NAACP

Legal De-fense Fund.Ms.Morais hasa law degreefromYale

Univer-sity

and

amastersdegreeinhistoryfrom Harvard

Univer-sity. Joseph

McDomick

istheProgram Director forthe Project.

He

hasworkedforPennCentersince1964,

spe-cializing in black landretention.

He

is also a Beaufort CountyMagistrate. Mr.

McDomick

receiveda B.S.from

Southern University in agricultural education. Sarah

Bobrow

istheEconomicDevelopment Coordinatorforthe Project. Sheisaformereconomic developmentplanner, community' organizer, fundraiser, and lender for

indig-enous communities producinggoods that add value to

natural resources. Ms.

Bobrow

receivedher masters de-greeincommunityandregionalplanningfromthe

Univer-sit)'_of

New

Mexico.

meant

some measure

of

economic

independence,and

therefore

some

measure

ofgenuine freedom. Black

landownership, withitsechoesofjusticeandfreedom,

soonspreadthroughouttheSeaIslands. Forthenext century, isolatedfromthemainland, islandresidents

wove

Africanand

American

influencesintoacolorful,

distinctivelanguageandculture.

"Over

the last several decades, however. Sea

Islandcommunities have beenstruggling to survive.

A

number

ofislands are

now

exclusive resorts, others are

becoming

suburbs, and all are subject to the

cancerous growth ofmulti-lane

highways

and

com-mercial strips. This developmenthas takena severe

tollonthe islands'fragileecology: nearlyhalfof South

Carolina'sshellfish bedsare

now

closeddueto pol-luted runoff In addition, native islanders are often forcedtosellfamily land againsttheirwill.

They

are alsoincreasinglyunabletopursuetraditional

occupa-tions, likeoysteringorbasket-weaving,thatdepend on

clean water and ready access tonatural resources.

"Developersarguethat,inexchange,the islanders

now

have

more economic

opportunities. For

most

peoplethisissimplynottrue.

Between

1980and1990, for everyjobtaken by an African-

American

on the

South Carolina coast, five to six

new

jobs

went

to whites. In1990,the

income

of African

Americans

on

islandsaffectedbyresortdevelopment

was

stillabout

onethird thatofwhites.It isperfectly clear thatthose

who

pay the steepest price for development have

virtuallynothingtogain."'

In lightofthe above,the SeaIslandsPreservation Project

was

initiatedin 1992tosustainthe traditional

SeaIslandcommunities.

The

following interview with Project staff

was

conducted by Carolina Planning

Carolina Planning:

What

istheSeaIslands Pres-ervation Project?

Nina

Morals:

The

Projectisacollaboration

among

threeorganizations:the

Penn

Center,theSouth

Caro-linaCoastalConservation League, andthe

Neighbor-hood

Legal Assistance Program.

Penn

Center

was

founded during the Civil

War

asthe firstschool for freedblacksandcarrieswith ita historyofpride, self reliance, and selfdetermination. Itsmission has

al-ways

beentohelptheblack

community

controlits

own

destiny.ThisProjectcontinuesinthatspirit.In

many

ways

we

arerecapturingthehistoryof130 yearsand

we

areluckytohave

Penn

Centerasa foundationon

whichtobuild.

The

South Carolina CoastalConservation League

(SCCCL)

isthesecondpartnerinthiscollaboration.It is a rapidly growing, relatively

new

environmental

advocacy group

which

is addressing

many

environ-mentalissuesonthe coast,fromwater qualitytoforest

management.

SCCCL

has decidedto focuson land useplanningbecausethey believethatthe singlemost

serious threattotheenvironmentonthe coastispoorly

planned sprawled development. Sprawl affects the

qualityoftheairand wateraswellas the affordability

ofhousing.

The

third partner is the

Neighborhood

Legal Assistance

Program which

assists and super-vises the Project on legal matters.

The

firststepinthe Project

was

to startaschool, the

Penn SchoolforPreservation,tofamiliarize

commu-nityactivistsand keylocal

government

officialswith environmentaland

community

economic development

principles,andtoteach leadershipskills.Twenty-five

ofthe40participantsare local

community

leaders,ten are

community

leaders from other communities in

South CarolinaandGeorgia,andfivearelocalplanning staffandcouncil

members.

One-thirdofthe

curricu-lum is devoted to land use planning and

we

are

exploringa

number

oftools, such asextremely low

density zoning, cluster zoning, and sewer service boundaries.One-thirdofthecurriculumisdevotedto

community economic

development,geared towards

culturaland environmentalpreservationandonethird

ofthecurriculumisleadershipskill-building.Although

many

ofthepeopleonthe island aredeeplyconcerned

aboutpreservation,they

may

lack certainskills,such aspublicspeakingandnegotiation, thatenablethemto

beeffectivepoliticalactors.

The

schoofs twelve-day program is taught on

weekends

overthe course offive months.

The

pro-gram

has taken offand the participants areeagerto

come

backto theschool.

Each

studentis working in

one ofeight

homework

groups.

Most

ofthe eight

groupsareinvestigating sustainabledevelopment

strat-egies.Forexample,if St.Helena'sIslandistosurvive as aruralplace,agriculture

must

be easier forsmall farmers.

One

group is tackling that issue and has

chosentofocusonthe restoration ofan oldcannery andthe restorationofabuildinguptheroadfromthe

Penn Center which

we

hope will be used for fresh

local produce and for local preserved foods.

The

opening ofacannery and market

would

alsoincrease the viabilityof smallfarmsandfishingbusinesseson

the Island.

Another

homework

groupisworking onzoning.St.

HelenaIsland'szoningwillbe revisedthisyearunder

state law.

The

zoning group has been

working

to outline the toolstheywantused.

The two

goalsofthe

zoninggrouparetopreservetheruralcharacterofthe Island andto preservethe characterofthe

commer-cialarea

known

as the"Corner

Community".

We

are beginningto

work

on what wi1 1bealong-termeffort to

restore

many

ofthe buildingsinthat

community

and

transformitintoacenterforsustainabledevelopment. Eachbuildingwillcontainsomethingthatincreases the capacityofthe

community

members

to

make

a living while preservingthe cultureand environment.

The

second program area is Legal Education and

Assistance. This area

was

established to respond to theproblem that

many

nativelandownersare losing

their landbecausetheydo notunderstandtheir legal rights.

My

colleague, Joe

McDomick,

works

with nativelandownersindividuallyandgives

workshops

on strategies for retaining their land. In 1993, for

example,he held 550counseling sessions with local

people,assistinga significantsegment ofSt.Helena's populationof5,400.

The

third program area is Sustainable

Economic

Development.

Sarah

Bobrow:

We

are in theplanning stagesof

establishing a

community

development corporation

(CDC)

that will seed otherefforts.

NM:

We

are planningto restore the cannery and

startanagriculturalcooperative.Also, following

mod-els

now

inplace acrossthe country,

we

hopetoopen

a folk art center where people will be trained in

vanishing sea island crafts.

The

center

would

also serve asa market forthe crafts. Other such centers

employ

approximately700people.Theseareour long-termgoals.Inthenextyear,

we

hopetodeterminethe staffand financingstructureneeded to start

some

of

people inentrepreneurialskills.

We

are also

investi-gating acquiring and/or renovating several of the buildings inthe Corners

Community.

Once

we

have

the structureinplace,

we

willbeableto start

some

of

the specificbusiness projects.

SB:

The

CDC

will alsohaveamicro-loan fundfor

start-upbusinesses.

The

loans

would

be usedto help peoplecreate thekind ofbusinessesthatcan be used

inthe outletsbeingopened.Forexample, concerning

the food processing facility, people

would

use loan funds to purchase equipment upfront and

when

the

equipment

was

sold,theloan

would

be paid back.

The

loanfund

would

betargetedatvalue-added businesses

—to add value tothe resources here,agriculture and

crafts.

Once

the food processing facility is up and

running,

we

hope

tohavea licensedkitchentobe used cooperativelyforbottlingjarring,andcanning seafoods suchas

smoked

oysters,

smoked

clams, andseafood sauce.

The

possibilitiesare endless.

NM:

Once

you

havean

economy

thatdepends on

the natural resourcebase, it is

much

easier to

make

politicalargumentsforprotectingthatbase.

Through

the

Penn

School forPreservation,

we

areattempting

to envision a future for St. Helena which has a

somewhat

different

economy

thantheseaislands that

have been overtaken by suburban or resort develop-ment.

Our

politicalargumentsforchangingthezoning

topreservethe agriculturalcharacterwillbe

strength-ened

ifwehaveaviableeconomybased

onsmallscale farming. Thisisonepiecetothe puzzle.

The

fourth

program

area is Policy

Reform

and

Coalition Building. Policy reformincludeseverything else

we

do.Currently,

we

arereevaluatingthezoning on St. HelenaIsland and nearby Lady's Island.

One

issue

we

are

working

onisthestate'sagriculturaluse

exemption.

A

bill isbeforethestatelegislaturewhich

would

dramatically restrict the agricultural use

ex-emption

which

offers alowertaxrateforpeople using their land for agricultural purposes.

The

exemption

allows people

who

want

to farm their land or

grow

timbertodoso without being taxedatthemarketvalue fortheirproperty,whichcan bever>'highifyouliveon

an island such as Hilton Head. This allows small farmerstoremainontheirlandalthough theyarecash poor.

Most

stateshaveanagriculturaluseexemption:

however. South Carolina is attempting to exclude

smalllandownersfromtheexemption.

They would

be taxedforthemarketvalueoftheirpropertyifthebill

passes. Althoughthepurposeofthebillistosavethe

state

money,

passage

would

havedevastating

conse-quencesforsmall farmers. Therefore,

we

aretalking with state legislators and

we

are giving

them

basic information so they understand the bill

would

not

accomplishitsintended purpose,andit

would

make

it

impossiblefor

some

smallfarmerstoremain ontheir land.

CP

What

typeof zoningare

you

advocating*^

NM:

At

thispoint,

we

havea listoftoolsand 40

people

who

are excited about seeing this transpire.

There is a long and arduous political process of

buildingalliesthat

we

areaboutto

embark

on,and,for usto settleonaveryspecific plan

would

be counter-productive.

We

needto

make

compromises

with the people

who

haveinterestsoverlapping with ourown.

The

count}'willreview ourvisioninthefall.Until then,

we

willbeidentifyingalliesandnegotiatingto

deter-mine what

we

canget.Currently,

most

ofthe Islandis

zoned

two

unitsperacre.This typeof zoningiscalled a "residentialagriculturaldistrict"'.

However,

thereis

nothingagricultural aboutthist^peofzoning. Itis a

welcome mat

forsuburban development.

As

currently zoned,the Islandcould hold90.000 people.

The

cur-rentpopulationisapproximately5,000 people.

Along

the South Carolina Coast, there is no agricultural preservation district or open space cluster zoning.

Theseare the tools thathave been used successfully

inothercommunities,forexample,ruralcommunities

in

Maryland

andVirginiathatdonot

want

to

become

suburbs of Washington, D.C.

However,

these

com-munitiesarepredominantlywhite,well-educated

com-munitiesthathaveavailedthemselvesofthesetools.

What

is interestinghere is

we

have peoplewith little

formal education, buttheyunderstandthe issue per-fectly well and they

know

what

they

want

for their community'.

We

think

we

will have successhere.

SB:

Along

with zoning, there are other tools to

preservetheland,forexample,landtrusts.

We

expect thatalandtrustonSt.Helena

would buy

aneasement onthe land.Itispossibletostipulateintheeasement

the type offarmingthat can be done on the land to

ensure that the land is being farmed sustainably.

Whether

such a stipulation

would

be used

would

be decidedbythe residentsovertime.

NM:

We

willbe looking intoavariet\'ofpurchase

strategies. Thesetypeofstrategies

would

ultimately requiregovernmentfunding.

We

willbe workingwith the count\' on these issues

when

we

go through the

ParticipantsinthePennSchoolfor Preservation get excitedaboutzoning: Credit: JohnBarton.

Rev. Ervin Greene, Mr.BarryAugustin,Ms.SaraWilson.

Islandcould

become

a national

model

fora sustainable

community.

Joseph

McDomick:

We

have a lot ofpeople in

the

Penn

School for Preservation that have only a

vagueideaabout

whatzoning

is.Inclass,studentstake apieceofproperty, considerit,and decide

how

they

would

like toseeitzoned.

The

studentsactuallyplan out the useofa piece ofproperty.

They

have never

done

thatbefore.

NM:

Many

Island residentshavea strong gutsense thatthey lovetheir

community

andtheywanttoseeit preserved, but they

may

not be fully equipped to

achievetheirgoal.

Once

you

startlearningtheterms

and

you

startlearning

what

othercommunities have done to preserve themselves, you can go into, for

example,your countycouncilandrequestthatspecific actionsbe takenandexplain

what

othercommunities

aredoing.

What

the School isall aboutis

making

its

students

more

effective political actors.

They

have never lacked for enthusiasm orclarity of whatthey wanted.

What

theyhavelackedis

some

ofthe termi-nology, and an awareness of

how

to achieve their goals. That is

what

we

givethe students.

SB:

The

projects the students have selected have

played into that because they are starting to

dream

about

what

they

want

to create,andthataddstotheir

wantingtoensurethatitisgoingtobe abletohappen.

Atthelastsessionoftheschool

we

aregoingtodecide

whichprojects

we

willstartwith,andthefirstwillbe the

CDC.

Peoplearebehindtheirideasandthey

want

to see

them

carried through. That adds an extra

impetustoalltheplanning.

CP:

How

is the Project funded?

NM:

We

are currently funded by a dozen private foundations. But

now

that

we

are

moving

into

eco-nomic

development,

we

hope

toreceivefundingfrom

government

sources, and possibly from corporate sponsors.

SB:

We

are applying for funding under one of

Clinton's

new

initiatives,theEnterprise

Communities

and

Empowerment

Zones

Program. If

awarded

an Enterprise

Community

designation,

we

would

receive threemilliondollars.

The

ideabehindthe

Program

isto

putin place

community-based

planning;the basis of theapplicationisa strategicplanthatisto

come

from

thecommunity.Inaddition,sustainabledevelopmentis

oneofthekeyprinciplesoftheinitiative.ltisexciting

thatthegovernmentisadvocatingthistypeofplanning

andthiskindofprocess.Itwill getpeople

who

don't

docommunity-basedplanningtothinkaboutit.

We

are asmall area sothat will hurtourchancesbut

we

will

emphasizethefactthat

we

areattemptingtoestablish a

model

here that can be replicated on other sea

islands.In addition,

we

will beapplyingforfunding

moneytorenovatethebuildingthatwillbe used forthe agriculturalco-opand marketingoutlet,which

was

the

firstAfrican-Americanagriculturalco-opinthestate.

CP:

What

isunique abouttheGullahcultureyouare trying to preserve?

NM:

The

Gullah are

among

the

most

spiritual

people in the world; they

make among

the

most

beautifulmusicintheworld;andtheirvaluesof family

and

community

are

most

probablylikenoneotheryou

will findinthiscountry.Theirrelationtothe natural

world is differentthan

modem

America's.

We

have

much

to learn from them. It is worth working to

preserve.

As

a personalmatter,Ithink it is vitaltopreserve cultures

which

are differentfrom mainstream

Ameri-canculturebecause

most

ofusarefairlysimilartoone

another.I

would

saythe

same

thingforNative

Ameri-cancultures,Quakers,

Amish

people,andothersmall societies that have survived in America. These are great giftsto us in the late twentieth century; if

we

eliminate

them

as cultures,

we

willhavenothingleftas a contrastto ourselves.

JM:

The

language, the people, the food are what

makes

the areaunique. This is probably the closest connectionyouaregoingtofind

anywhere

in

America

to Africa. People here have tried to maintain their

African heritage: close-knit families, older people seeingaftertheyoungerkids, traditionalfoodsyoufind

in Africa, and

most

ofalltheir language,the rolling

soundsthat

most

folksdon't understand. Peoplesay "that'sbadEnglish."

CP:

Are you aware

ofsimilareffortsinsustainable

development?

NM:

There are very

few

other projects in the

countrythat

we

have foundthat are doing anything

remotely like this.

One

of

them

is the Conservation Fund's project in Tyrell County, North Carolina. It

bearsastrongresemblanceto thisproject.Anotheris

locatedontheeasternshoreofVirginiaandtheNature Conservancyisinvolved withit.AnotherisinWillapa Bay,Washington,pioneeredbyan organizationcalled Ecotrust.

Right

now

we

are

dream

ing.

The

onlything

we

have up andrunningistheschool.

The

best partison

Sunday

mornings,

when

community

members come

in and

leaddevotionalservicesbeforetheregularclassesto

getpeopleinthespirit,readingscripture,praying,and

singing spirituals. It gets people excited. If

you

are

goingto

dream

thisbig,

you

havetohavealotoffaith.

What

powerstheschoolisnotonly a senseof purpose and clarityabout

where

we

wart

togo,butfaiththat

we

are goingto get there together.

CP:

How

did

you

get started?

NM:

As

you

canimagine,this isnotthefirsttime excitingthings have happened at

Penn

Center.

The

Civil

War

was

oneperiodoftime

when

theeyesofthe nation

were

on this Island, as

were

the 1960"s.

JM:

Duringthe 1960's, people

were

looking for

leadership, especially at the local level; they were

saying"you have always beenoutthereleading us." So,

we

started running a

community

development

training program.

We

brought in people from eight

statesandtaught

them

here forseven

weeks

through intensiveclassroom-typetraining.

Then

we

went

back

with

them

to their localcommunitiesforseven

weeks

tohelp

them

organize.Also, Rev.Dr. MartinLuther King,Jr.andhisgroup

would

come

hereeachyearand

holdtheirtrainingandplanningsessions.

The

midwife

traininginstitutealsohelditsannual

workshops

here.

NM:

The

reasonthe

Penn

SchoolforPreservation

isworkingisbecauseitissittingontopof130 yearsof

extraordinaryhistory,andpeople intheschool

know

that history. People here believe they are going to

make

history,andifthey believeit,theywill,theyhave

before.

JM:Duringthe

1960's peoplewereprotesting,and

organizing and picketing. People wanted to be

in-volved.

The

only

way

theycould

make

people listen

was

togooutandpicketthewelfareoffice,picketthe PigglyWiggly,picket thedepartmentstores.

We

tried tohelppeopletounderstandthattheyhavea rightto

beinvolved.

We

continuetodothat.But

we

aredoing

itfrom a differentperspective:planningandzoning.

Thisisveryimportant.

Back

then

we

didn'tthinkabout

thosekind ofthings. But

now

it isa

new

eraand

we

have changed our strategy.

We

know

we

are losing

land;

we've

beentalkingaboutthatfor20plusyears.

We

needto trytopreserveit,retainit.But

how

do

we

make

it

work?

Thisis

what

peopleare talkingaboutat

theschool.CP

Note