This time, the county may own the port.
The state's highest court on Monday blocked plans by the private developer, Stevedoring Services of America, to build, own and operate the port on 1,776 acres that Jasper County sought to condemn. The court ruled the action would be unconstitutional because a private developer owning and operating the port would not be a sufficient public use to justify condemning land.
Still, the five-member court's unanimous opinion, written by Justice James Moore, said, "We express no opinion regarding (the) county's ability to accomplish the project in a different manner."
Moss, the so-called architect of the port agreement, said the county will do just that.
"The second time around, this will work," he said.
Jake Coakley, regional vice president of Seattle-based Stevedoring, said Tuesday his company is not ready to give up either.
"We still want to move forward," he said. "We've had these road blocks before, but we still think it's a great project. It brings economic growth to the area, and it brings the capacity of handling containers that is sorely needed in both South Carolina and Georgia."
The court's main objection, Moore wrote, is that the project was private. One of the county's arguments was that using the land on the Savannah River to develop jobs in an impoverished area is a valid public use.
It wasn't the first time the Supreme Court had ruled on such a case. In a strikingly similar 1978 precedent, Karesh v. City Council of the City of Charleston, the city condemned land for a 500-car parking garage as part of what is now Charleston Place. The court ruled in Karesh that the city could not condemn the land because the parking garage would be leased to and benefit the developer, Holywell Corp.
But the following year, the city responded to the Supreme Court's rejection by restructuring the project and becoming owner and operator of the garage. In the subsequent case, Goldberg v. City Council of the City of Charleston, the Supreme Court ruled the city's garage could be built because the project now qualified as a public use.
Moss said the county will follow Charleston's lead and make the port "more public."
"We'll own the port," Moss said of one of the likely scenarios. The county "owns the land, owns the dock, owns the port."
In Monday's ruling, the court said the property would not be used for a public use, but added, "We emphasize it is the lease arrangement in the context of a condemnation that defeats its validity."
The county was to lease the land to Stevedoring for 99 years at $1 a year.
Moss responded to that point by saying, "They said our lease was faulty. They didn't say our memorandum of understanding was faulty. They didn't say that using (Stevedoring's) money was faulty."
The county could own the port even if the project is financed by the developer, Moss said. Jasper County plans to rework the lease, resubmit it and condemn the land again, he said.
"It seems like we still have the possibility of getting the port," said Jasper County Council Chairman George Hood. "The court did not completely close the door."