COLUMBIA--A Senate panel has rejected the appointment of State Ports Authority board member Mark Kent after he voiced opposition to the agency's plans to sell valuable waterfront land on Daniel Island.

Lawmakers asked Gov. Mark Sanford to withdraw his nomination of the Greenville textile executive, who has served in an interim position on the ports board since September.

Members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives said Kent's views on port expansion conflict with those of the Legislature and the Sanford administration.

Sen. Larry Grooms, a Bonneau Republican on the Transportation Committee, said Kent told lawmakers in his confirmation hearings Wednesday that he thought the SPA would be "shortsighted" to sell off Daniel Island property that someday could be necessary to expand the crowded Port of Charleston.

Kent did not return phone messages left Thursday at his Green-ville office and home.

The Legislature passed a law two years ago prohibiting port expansion on Daniel Island and ordering the ports authority to sell more than 1,300 acres it owned there.

The property had been set aside for development of a mega-port, but opposition from residents of the burgeoning island community swayed lawmakers to shift the project to the former Navy Base in North Charleston.

The SPA has not yet moved to sell the Daniel Island land, now considered some of the most valuable commercial property in the Southeast.

House Majority Leader Jim Merrill said Thursday in a letter to Sanford that Kent's view on expansion, "from solely an economic interest, is worrisome."

Merrill was joined by Grooms, Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell and Sen. Chip Campsen in asking Sanford to remove Kent from the SPA.

Sanford spokesman Will Folks said Thursday the governor had not received the letter, but he would seriously consider it.

The Senate Transportation Committee voted 6-6 Wednesday to reject Kent's nomination, which requires a majority vote to be upheld. His appointment will come up for review before the Senate committee again in two weeks unless Sanford withdraws his nomination.

The Senate's rare move to reject a governor's appointee to the SPA board surprised many people in the port community.

SPA member John Hassell, who also is president of the Maritime Association of the Port of Charleston, said Thursday he's never heard Kent be anything but fully committed to moving forward with port expansion in North Charleston.

Regarding the future of the SPA's property on Daniel Island, Hassell said, "I view it as an appreciating asset that the SPA will dispose of. The longer we have it, the more valuable it gets. But there's never been any discussion about not selling it. I believe that's our intent as a body."

SPA officials said they plan to sell the property and use the proceeds to finance future port development. Expansion at the former Navy Base is expected to cost at least $600 million.

While noting that the authority is not involved in appointment confirmations, SPA chief Bernard S. Groseclose said Kent "has been a very good board member."

Kent is chairman of Kent Manufacturing Co. in Greenville. He also has served for eight years as a board member for the state Department of Health and Environmental Control and is a past president of the South Carolina Manufacturing Alliance.

His appointment to the SPA board came after a bout of controversy over another Sanford appointee, textile executive Richard Dillard Jr.

Dillard, director of public affairs for textile maker Milliken and Co., resigned from the SPA in July amid criticism that he wouldn't be a dedicated booster for the Port of Charleston, which benefits from the kind of foreign textile imports that have hurt Milliken and other domestic manufacturers.

Kent said at the time of his appointment that he hoped to accept the ports position as "a state representative, not as a representative of my industry."

Grooms said Kent was asked several times during Wednesday's hearing to reconsider his position on Daniel Island, but he did not.

Merrill, the Daniel Island Republican, said Kent's stance on the island's potential for the port was tantamount to telling "the Legislature and the Lowcountry to take a flying leap."