JOHNS ISLAND -- The long-running fight over a development planned near Angel Oak Park on Johns Island is moving into the federal arena, with the developer seeking a permit to fill several acres of wetland that were just recently put under federal jurisdiction.
On one side of the issue is Robert DeMoura of CC&T Real Estate, whose plan to build several hundred apartments and three commercial buildings by the intersection of Maybank Highway and Bohicket Road is supported by the city of Charleston and Sea Island Comprehensive Health Care, which has a financial interest.
The Angel Oak, a live oak on Johns Island, is 65 feet high and 25.5 feet around.
On the other side are activist Samantha Siegel of savetheangeloak.org, some of the nearby property owners and the Coastal Conservation League, which initially supported the development but more recently has worked with Siegel. The League also is attempting to buy a portion of the land from the developer.
The project has been through years of state and local review, and the issue now is whether the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should allow 3.4 acres of wetland to be filled on the 42-acre site.
In December, at the urging of development opponents, the Corps reversed two prior rulings and declared that water from the wetland regularly flows into a navigable waterway - Church Creek - in a decision that put that wetland under federal jurisdiction through the Clean Water Act.
DeMoura said the Corps visited the site during a time of record-setting rainfall, but did not challenge the wetland ruling, and instead sought the now-required federal permit.
The key to getting a wetland permit is showing that there's no better option.
"Really, the heart of our process is an alternatives analysis, and looking at practicability," said Travis Hughes, chief of special projects, in the Corps' Regulatory Division.
In this case, DeMoura's company has proposed buying wetland mitigation credits to make up for filling the 3.4 acres. The Coastal Conservation League wants him to redesign the development to avoid the wetland and instead use some high ground closer to Angel Oak Park that had been set aside for conservation.
"It seems like a pretty easy solution to me, having him switch some of the open space area for the wetland," said Katie Zimmerman of the Coastal Conservation League.
E-Mail
Print
The Sun News Terms & Conditions and Commenting Policies can be reviewed here.