Kiawah Island council schedules mediation in Cape Beach Club zoning dispute; authorizes small negotiation team

Kiawah Island’s town council said it will participate in a mediated settlement next week to try to resolve multiple zoning disputes tied to The Cape/Cape Beach Club and related site plans, and the council authorized a small negotiation team to attend the talks.

Mayor Bridal opened the special meeting by noting the agenda item as “a discussion of mediation regarding zoning matters” and said the town has been in discussions with the applicant and that mediation will begin next Wednesday. He told residents the mediation is nonbinding and that any settlement would be returned to the council for public review before taking effect.

The meeting’s public-comment period featured repeated appeals for a mediated solution from homeowners and association leaders. “We respectfully urge the council to consider granting a conditional certificate of occupancy,” said Warren Lash, president of the Key Kasique Homeowners Association, asking the council to allow the club to open while parties address outstanding issues.

Several Cape residents pressed the council over parking and permitting. “I understand there’s dispute about 88 parking spaces,” said resident David Grama, asking the council to specify what actions would resolve the dispute. Architect and Cape resident Joseph Boggs told the council The Cape has “148 spaces on-site” and urged valet or on-site management as a temporary solution so the restaurant and club could operate while off-site parking is built, arguing that denying occupancy punishes residents who already invested in units.

Other speakers argued the town should honor prior approvals and avoid changing rules after construction. “If the town changes its mind later…that is a property rights ownership issue,” said Blake D’Arche, who warned that shifting approvals undermines trust in permitting.

Council members and the mayor described recent process steps: the developer filed two lawsuits earlier in the week (one naming the town), and this week the applicant also filed a formal variance request. Mayor Bridal said town attorneys had been directed to reach out to the applicant and their counsel to explore a mediator acceptable to all parties; those outreach efforts led to a scheduled mediation session.

After receiving legal advice in executive session under South Carolina Code 34-4-70 concerning pending litigation, the council returned to open session and voted to authorize a negotiation team — the mayor, the mayor pro tem and the town planner — to attend next week’s negotiations. The motion was moved and seconded and several council members recorded aye votes.

Mayor Bridal emphasized that the mediation is not court-ordered statutory prelitigation mediation but a negotiated, nonbinding process intended to narrow disputes and produce a path forward. He said technical issues such as how to calculate required parking (what spaces count in the calculation) remain under discussion between the applicant and planning staff.

What happens next: mediation begins next week, and any agreement reached there would be brought back to the town council for a public vote or further action. The council recorded no formal policy decisions at the meeting itself; it authorized the negotiation team and will continue public follow-up as needed.