Luxury Custom Homes in Awendaw, SC

AWENDAW — The S.C. Office of Resilience and Open Space Institute want to purchase and preserve a controversial piece of privately owned land on the border of the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge.

For years, Georgia-based Pulte Homes LLC has planned to build about 200 septic tank-dependent homes on land that pushes up against the refuge. The development on the so-called White Tract is opposed by conservation groups, who worry that the subdivision would pollute Cape Romain.

The Open Space Institute aims to purchase about 206 acres, encompassing the entire tract, with an estimated $17 million in funding from the Resilience Office. The land would be held for “an interim period” by the Open Space Institute and would eventually be transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for inclusion in the refuge, per an agenda item.

The Post and Courier’s Rising Waters Lab focuses on impacts of climate change and related policies and practices. It is supported by donations and grants to the nonprofit Public Service and Investigative Fund, whose contributors are subject to the same coverage we apply to everyone else. For more information and to make a donation, go to postandcourierfund.com. To sign up for our newsletter, click here.

Charleston County’s finance committee will consider the proposal on Aug. 20. The deal would require a letter of support from the county, as it would involve exempting a taxable property. The county gathered about $1,000 in taxes for the land in 2025, according to the agenda item.

The Open Space Institute declined to comment on the acquisition, as it is a "developing project," per a spokesperson for the nonprofit. Pulte did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Office of Resilience wrote that the agency was “seeking local support for this conservation project prior to seeking legislative approval, which is required before expending state funds.”

“Because the project is in its early stages, transaction details remain between the Open Space Institute and the seller,” the statement continued. The Resilience Office does not buy land, but it offers grant funding and coordination for land conservation by state and nonprofit partners, per that statement.

Conservationists have long wanted to fold the White Tract into Cape Romain, as the area falls within its congressionally approved acquisition boundary. That means the feds have already highlighted the land for possible inclusion in the refuge.

The septic-dependent White Tract project has been opposed by conservation groups for years. In late 2025, the S.C. Supreme Court reinstated a pause on construction as a legal challenge to the subdivision continued through the courts. A lower court judge had previously allowed construction to go ahead, even as the project was being contested.

When septic tanks fail, they can leak wastewater into local waterbodies, polluting rivers, creeks and wetlands across the Lowcountry. Those failures are expected to increase in frequency and geographic range as rising sea levels push up groundwater across the coast.

Despite the risk, regulators in South Carolina continue to rely on a lax permitting system for septic systems, which have proliferated in coastal areas, The Post and Courier has reported. In areas without a centralized municipal sewage system, no other options for waste disposal exist.

Like many areas across coastal South Carolina, Awendaw has seen a significant population boom in recent years. Citing ongoing construction projects, leaders in the area predict that the town's population will roughly double over the next few years. To control further growth, the town has had a moratorium on new subdivisions in place for more than two years, the paper has reported.