It isn't hard to understand why the chairman the S.C. State Ports Authority board gave a copy of a proposed design for property in Port Royal to the governor. After all, Mark Sanford is the state's chief executive. But it is increasingly difficult to understand why the Ports Authority wants to keep Port Royal residents and officials in the dark.

The Ports Authority manages 40 acres of property for the state along Battery Creek in Port Royal. Gov. Sanford suggested 2 1/2 years ago that the financially marginal port be closed and the property sold. The Ports Authority must shutdown operations by the end of 2006.

Since then, negotiations have been under way -- in separate venues, of course -- about the development of the property.

Port Royal residents have a pretty clear idea what the town wants. Leaders and residents invested time and money to conceive ideas for a port redevelopment plan -- even before the governor signed the legislation to close the facility in 2004.

While Ports Authority officials have offered varying times for release of the plans -- October, November, now December or later -- Gov. Sanford recently returned the Ports Authority's plan questioning the balance of green space to development.

More than six weeks ago, Glen Kilgore, a Beaufort County representative on the Ports Authority, said that the plans will share facets of the town's vision, which features a mix of commercial and residential development and green space and waterway vista views. "It's going to be more similar than different," Kilgore told a reporter. "We did take a lot from Port Royal's process."

So if similarities exist, and the authority took some elements from Port Royal, why the secrecy? Don't the people of Port Royal deserve to be a partner in this discussion? Does it have to be a take-it-or-leave-it proposition?

While it is a state-owned property and the divestiture must benefit all South Carolinians, Port Royal residents have the most to gain or lose because of the development. The town should have a greater degree of knowledge of the potential plan for development of this property.