islandpacket.com - The Island Packet Online

Search Everything in the Lowcountry and the Coastal Empire.

State Ports Authority sues to stop Jasper plan

Add Comment

BEAUFORT -- Two weeks after the state Supreme Court ruled that Jasper County can build a $600 million container port on the Savannah River, the S.C. State Ports Authority again has asked the high court to step in to stop the county's condemnation of the 1,800-acre site.

The Ports Authority and Jasper County have been in a legal shootout since January 2005, when the county reached a development agreement with a private port builder and filed to condemn the land.

Jasper County and the Ports Authority each have condemnation actions against the 1,800 acres owned by the Georgia Department of Transportation in the Court of Common Pleas, but how the two condemnations in the same court for the same land will shake out is unknown. Tuesday's Supreme Court filing by the Ports Authority aims to decide the matter.

The Supreme Court ruled this month that Jasper has the right to build a port on the Savannah River, disputing the Ports Authority's claim that it has the sole ability to own and operate ports in the state. The court, however, also said the Ports Authority's eminent domain powers supersede the county's.

The State Ports Authority filed to condemn the land last week and included a $9.3 million check -- $800,000 more than Jasper's $8.5 million offer made to Georgia in January 2005.

Also Tuesday, Jasper filed a motion in the Court of Common Pleas to intervene in the Ports Authority's condemnation attempt. County attorneys say Jasper should have been named a party to the land in the Ports Authority's condemnation, because the county filed for condemnation first and has an elaborate development plan.

With two condemnations for the same land in the same court, the State Ports Authority's injunction aims to stop Jasper's competing land grab.

"Without an injunction, both the (Ports Authority) and the county will continue with rival, although not equivalent, condemnations of the same site," said Bill Stern, chairman of the Ports Authority's board of directors in an agency press release Tuesday. "The current situation presents a need for relief, and we hope the court will consider our request."

Both parties have claimed this month's high court ruling a victory, and Jasper County officials plan to push ahead.

"We have a plan and financing to make this project a reality while providing wide public benefits," said Jasper County Council Chairman George Hood in a Tuesday press release. "We don't intend to let (the Ports Authority) stop our progress or to just sit on the land until they eventually come up with a plan of their own."