The difference in a single day could be a deciding factor in the Watson Hill legal dispute between North Charleston and Summerville.

Within a day of each other last summer, both municipalities moved to annex bundles of property in the historic plantation district in Dorchester County: Summerville to block access to the 6,647-acre Watson Hill tract across Highway 61, and North Charleston to move its boundaries across the Ashley River and incorporate the tract along with others into the city.

The result was a volley of lawsuits, and a circuit court judge must now decide which municipality has the first legal claim to the largely undeveloped area.

Today, North Charleston officials will ask Judge James Williams Jr. to decide one issue in the ongoing case - whether Summerville followed the law that requires municipalities to give citizens 30 days notice about a public hearing for annexation.

Summerville published an announcement of its hearing in The Post and Courier on April 28 and held the public hearing for annexation on May 27. That's 29 calendar days later, but 30 if the day of publication is counted. North Charleston published its notice of annexation on April 29 and held its annexation meeting on May 31.

"The question is, under the law, how do you count the dates?" North Charleston Deputy City Attorney Derk Van Raalte said.

Neither city attorney will discuss his arguments, but the two men see the significance of the judge's decision differently.

"Even if we didn't do exactly 30 days, it doesn't make any difference anyhow. Everybody had notice," Summerville attorney Jack Scoville Jr. said. "They knew about the hearing."

The judge might issue a written ruling in the case, attorneys said, but whatever the decision, the case won't be finished. The two sides have several other issues to argue before the judge, and additional hearings have not been scheduled.

At the heart of the debate is which governing body should be able to legislate services for the Watson Hill development, currently under the jurisdiction of Dorchester County. Developers originally had plans for up to 4,500 houses, condominiums and hotel rooms across the street from historic Middleton Place.

The plan sparked a national outcry from those concerned about losing the rural ambience around the historic plantations that help define Charleston, as well as from those worried about putting too much traffic on two-lane Highway 61, a state scenic highway.

North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey has said he would allow developers to build about 4,050 homes if the land is annexed into the city.

In its arguments, North Charleston contends that it started its annexation petition before Summerville and that Summerville began its annexation effort only to block North Charleston from expanding across the river. North Charleston also claims Summerville did not receive its annexation petition before announcing its public hearing, and that the petition was inaccurate in its description of the property.

Summerville has denied North Charleston's claims.

So far the property remains in limbo. Watson Hill investor and managing partner Richard Lam gave the Dorchester County Planning Commission a revised plan in June that calls for about 1,000 dwellings, with a mixture of town houses, condominiums and single-family homes, including residences that would be priced at more than $750,000 each.

Developers also hope to build a five-star hotel with as many as 200 rooms. But the council committee has put further discussion of the project on hold pending the outcome of the annexation battle.

Reach Nadine Parks at 745-5863 or nparks@postandcourier.com.