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JUNE 8–14, 2023
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Commission deals setbacks to Pine Island developer
Developer Elvio Tropeano speaks during a Beaufort County Planning Commission meeting in Beaufort, S.C., Monday, June 5, 2023. Tropeano’s request to remove the 502-acre Pine Island Plantation from the St. Helena Island Cultural Protection Overlay was denied by the commission. Tony Kukulich/The Post and Courier
By Tony Kukulich The Post and Courier BEAUFORT — After a marathon WANT MORE? meeting that ran nearly five hours, From Beaufort to Bluffton and the Beaufort County Planning Hilton Head, The Post and Courier Commission handed developer covers news impacting your Elvio Tropeano a pair of setbacks community. Subscribe for more Monday, June 5, in his effort to local coverage at postandcourier. com/IslandNews. build a golf resort on the St. Helena Island property known as Pine Island Plantation. Tropeano appeared before the Protection Overlay. The overlay is community-based commission to request that the 502-acre property be removed zoning ordinance that prohibits from the St. Helena Island Cultural golf courses, resorts and gated
communities within the overlay zone, which covers much of St. Helena Island and its surrounding islands. If the requested rezoning were to be approved, the underlying zoning would allow the Boston developer to build the golf resort he has pursued since at least November. The commission also heard an appeal from Tropeano’s legal team pertaining to an April decision
SEE SETBACKS PAGE A4
BROKEN TRUST
MIKE MCCOMBS
Beaufort can stop Lamprecht from doing this again
L
et’s face it. We could have been just like everyone else. The Island News got lucky. Back in the spring of 2020, Cindy “CJ” Lamprecht had been posting messages on a chalkboard in her front yard for only a few months. She had not yet started collecting donations of any sort for any charity. Though I had reservations about her, for no tangible reason, I halfheartedly suggested we feature The Beaufort Chalkboard in The Island News. “Wanna write something about the chalkboard lady,” I said … or something like that. Mindy Lucas, then our reporter, gave a less than enthusiastic response. “Eh … she writes sentences on a chalkboard. I’m not all that impressed,” she said … or something close to that. And if you know Mindy, in your imagination, you can hear the
SEE MCCOMBS PAGE A7
The chalkboard that was once erected in the front yard of Cindy Lamprecht’s home on Parris Island Gateway sits on the side of the home’s garage on Tuesday, June 6, 2023, after the woman known as the Beaufort Chalkboard Lady fled on Friday, June 2. Her husband, Tom Lamprecht, took down the sign that had become a symbol of hope and positivity to many in Beaufort on Saturday, June 3. Delayna Earley/The Island News
Beaufort Chalkboard’s run comes to end Cindy ‘CJ’ Lamprecht faces allegations from donors, nonprofits, state of SC
By Delayna Earley The subject of a and Mike McCombs cover story for BeauThe Island News fort Lifestyle MagaIn just more than three years in zine for the month Beaufort, Cindy “CJ” Lamprecht built of May, reaching the a castle out of feel-good stories and pinnacle of what charity generated by warm messages Cindy passes for royalty on a chalkboard in her front yard. On Lamprecht here, Lamprecht deFriday night, June 2, that castle came activated her Facecrashing to the ground. book pages for The Beaufort Chalk-
board and left home just two days into the month of June amid a web of allegations of lies, theft, and fraud. “She’s in the wind,” Tom Lamprecht, Cindy’s husband, said late Friday night. Lamprecht, known to the community as The Beaufort Chalkboard
SEE CHALK PAGE A6
NEWS
EDUCATION
SPORTS
INSIDE
DeSantis opens 2024 campaign trail with Bluffton stop.
Local high school seniors don their caps and gowns during graduations.
Local charity hopes to inspire Beaufort youth one set of golf clubs at a time.
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Lowcountry Life A2 News A2–7 Health A8–9 Voices A10 Faith A11 Education A12
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