Judge blocks larger home permits for tiny community of slave descendants pending appeal

Associated Press

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A judge is blocking a Georgia county from approving larger homes in a tiny community of Black slave descendants as they ask the state’s highest court to reinstate a canceled referendum on the rezoning of their island enclave. The Hogg Hummock community on Sapelo Island is one of the South’s last intact Gullah-Geechee communities. Residents are fighting new zoning rules McIntosh County adopted that doubled the size of homes allowed. Senior Judge Gary McCorvey in September canceled a special election that residents organized in hopes of repealing the ordinance. The judge Monday ordered the county to put the updated zoning rules on hold while residents appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court.