Dear Town of Kiawah Island,
Following last week's letter, we received a few questions regarding the development of Parcel 13A, also known as The Cape.
As previously mentioned, The Town has two independent legal opinions stating that East West Partners has not violated any standards related to the development of The Cape. However, I would like to use this eblast to provide additional context.
This issue is primarily about how lot coverage is measured. The calculations themselves are not in question but rather the definition of "highland" in the ARB standards. ARB has exclusive jurisdiction to interpret the definition as used in the ARB standards, known as the "Designing With Nature" guidelines. The ARB has interpreted "highland" to mean all areas above mean high water. Under this interpretation, the development is within ARB's 33% lot standard. The Town has accepted ARB's interpretation and understands that this interpretation has been consistently used with previous beachfront projects. This interpretation of "highland" is reasonable and commonly used. South Carolina's Attorney General has ruled that "highlands" means the area above mean high water. In the Town's Municipal Code, Section 17-101 defines "highland" to mean "the land above mean high-water mark (upland)." Similarly, the Town's 2013 Development Agreement with Kiawah Resort Associates, LP, includes references to acreage "above mean high water."
Some citizens have claimed the definition of "highland" is the land above the OCRM Baseline. While this is a standard applied in some contexts, nothing in the ARB standards or the Town's land use ordinances adopts the OCRM Baseline as a definition of "highland" or relies on the OCRM Baseline in density calculations. Both ARB and the Town have standards connected to the OCRM Critical Line, but the OCRM Critical Line is a boundary for marsh front property, not beachfront property. The OCRM Critical Line is simply not the same thing as the OCRM Baseline, which applies to beachfront property. Similarly, definitions of "critical areas" are generally related to state law issues and the protection of dunes. It is not a term used in the Town's land use ordinances or in ARB's guidelines related to development density, which is the issue at hand.
To ensure transparency, the Town of Kiawah Island has published a development resource page on the Town's website. This page includes Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's), which will be updated ongoing, and links to the official development agreements for easy reference.
As always, I urge you to seek accurate and whole information, and to email stillerson@kiawahisland.org with any feedback or questions that are not addressed above or in the online resources.
Sincerely,
