Hilton Head, Beaufort County officials clash on St. James Baptist Church relocation

Beaufort County and the town of Hilton Head Island are at loggerheads over the relocation of the island’s historic St. James Church, with county officials indicating they’re prepared to move the project forward without an agreement with Hilton Head.

The St. James Church is one of the oldest cultural institutions on Hilton Head Island. The congregation was established in the 1880s by Gullah Geechee freedmen who founded Mitchelville after the Civil War, decades before the bridge to the mainland, gated communities, or Charles Fraser’s developments. It remains a place of worship for many native islanders to this day.

Now, it sits within the runway protection zone of the nearby Hilton Head airport, an area that extends beyond the airport’s landing strip that the FAA says “serves to enhance the protection of people and property on the ground,” in case of a plane crash on takeoff or landing. The church became included in the zone after a 2018 runway expansion and future airport growth plans.

The zone also contains the historic Old Cherry Hill School. Since the school is on the National Register of Historic Places, the entire structure will be relocated, whereas the church will receive a completely new building.

In late 2018, the congregation ultimately consented to relocating the church after some initial resistance. The relocation was needed due to FAA guidelines, which indicate places of assembly, like churches and schools, are not permitted inside runway protection zones.

County, congregation and town leaders began collaborating at that time to find a new home for the church, and hash out terms for the relocation all parties could agree to. Negotiations between Beaufort County and the town of Hilton Head have broken down since.

“(The town) made a request to allow them to hire a consultant to evolve the plan without the county being involved,” Beaufort County Administrator Eric Greenway told The Island Packet Thursday. “I met with our county council chairman and vice chairman, and players on the county council that are familiar with the process, and we determined that could not occur.”

The airport land is county-owned, and the county is responsible for submitting a plan to the FAA for the church’s relocation. If the FAA accepts the submission, the agency will reimburse municipalities up to 90% of the project’s cost.

The project is another clash between town and county officials on efforts the county officially has authority over, but that impact the town directly. During the years of negotiation and planning that led up to Beaufort County and Hilton Head finally reaching an agreement on the U.S. 278 project last year, many island residents said they felt county government was attempting to “bully” the town and impose its will.

County leaders, apparently, aren’t looking to draw out the church project in the same way.

“Please accept this as confirmation that Beaufort County will be moving forward with the St. James Church Relocation project on our own and will deal directly with the church officials to attempt to develop a plan that is suitable to everyone and that can receive FAA reimbursement,” Greenway wrote in a May 4 email to Hilton Head Deputy Town Manager Josh Gruber.

He added that the county had concluded “no agreement will be needed” with the town to advance the project. Greenway said the county will establish a working group to cooperate with church leaders and create a plan to submit to the FAA.

Town officials involved with the project, including Gruber and Assistant Community Development Coordinator Zenos Morris, could not be reached for comment.

The county will hold a public meeting at the St. James Church at 3 p.m. on May 31 to give community members more details, Greenway said.

Herbert Ford, chairman of the church’s board of trustees and a congregation member, told The Island Packet he and other native islanders worked with the town to identify a consulting group that could help with the entirety of the project, from help with the construction, to contacting engineers, to submitting the project to the FAA.

Currently, Ford said, the expected relocation site is near the mid-island Union Cemetery. The town’s mid-island initiative includes proposals to move the church into the area near the abandoned Planter’s Row Golf Course, which the town is considering converting into a 103-acre park.

Ford said the town had been willing to arrange a land swap with the church. The town would receive the area where the church is now for a five acre parcel near the Union Cemetery, and the previous church site would then be transferred to the county to comply with FAA guidelines.

Relocation of the church is currently listed as the No. 13 priority for the town in its future planning.

“As long as (the previous church location) remained green space, the town was willing to make those accommodations,” Ford said. “The town is certainly behind us, I can’t say anything negative about the town, they have bent over backwards as far as they can to make this work. For some reason, Mr. Greenway is throwing up unnecessary obstacles, and we can’t do it without him, because it’s a county project.”