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P.O. Box 2642 | Darien, GA 31305 | Tel 912-437-8164 | FAX 912-437-8765 | |
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P.O. Box 2642 | Darien, GA 31305 | Tel 912-437-8164 | FAX 912-437-8765 | |
| Home | About Us | River News | Wildlife | Advocacy | Education | Events & Meetings | Resources | Links | Newsletters | ||
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Judge Sends Mega Dock Permit Back to CourtA Superior Court Judge has sent a permit for a nearly 1,400 foot dock back to the Administrative Law Judge who originally approved the permit. The decision by Superior Court Judge Constance C. Russell reverses a lower court ruling approving a Coastal Marshland Protection Committee’s (CMPC) permit for a 1,394 foot dock in the Tranquility Development on the S. Newport River in McIntosh County, Georgia.The Altamaha Riverkeeper (ARK) appealed the long dock permit in December 2007 after the CMPC reversed its earlier decision to deny the dock. The CMPC’s reversal occurred when the applicant submitted new plans to construct the dock as an experimental monorail system as opposed to a traditional dock. The applicant said the new system would reduce marsh shading. The permit included a special condition mandating a study of the dock’s impacts on the marsh, but not until *after* the dock was built. ARK contends the CMPC issued the dock permit without the critical data needed to evaluate a dock almost four football fields in length in public marshlands. “The Marsh Act does not allow the CMPC to permit science projects” says Kurt Ebersbach, ARK’s attorney with Stack and Associates. “The CMPC cannot simply punt on its core function, which is to determine whether a proposal is contrary to the public interest, based upon data supplied by the applicant before the permitting decision is made.” The CMPC and the applicant had succeeded in convincing Administrative Law Judge Stephanie Howells that ARK was not entitled to question or appeal the CMPC’s judgment. ARK could prevail only by showing that the dock, once built, would in fact cause unreasonable impacts to the marsh. To win the administrative challenge, ARK would have been required to furnish the very sort of studies that the applicant declined to provide and the CMPC did not require before issuing the permit. Judge Russell’s decision reverses this decision and returns ARK’s appeal to Judge Howell to determine whether the CMPC’s issuance of the permit was an abuse of discretion. Deborah Sheppard, Executive Director for Altamaha Riverkeeeper says, “Mega-dock proposals are increasing on the Georgia coast as developers seek to increase the market value of marsh front property by providing access to distant deepwater. This decision comes at a critical time, as the CMPC/DNR Board considers new rules to expedite and streamline the dock permitting process. ARK and many citizens object to the proposed new rules because they shorten the time for public review and evaluation. Shortening evaluation time will only compound errors such as the ones made with this permit.” |
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