State legislation requires the Ports Authority to close the 40-acre Port of Port Royal by the end of the year and while Port Royal has proposed a development plan for the site, the Ports Authority has not released or hinted at its plans.
Its been a sore subject in the small town where officials estimate the project will boost the tax base by at least $1 million a year. Because the Ports Authority is state-related, the town never has derived tax dollars from the maritime operation. Van Willis, the town manager, and others in Port Royal hope new leadership will bring the community into the Ports Authority's planning process.
And they hope that process picks up some speed.
"When the governor was involved at the very beginning of the process things happened," said Willis last week. "That was the very beginning, and from that point nothing has progressed."
Gov. Mark Sanford signed a bill in September 2004 allowing the Ports Authority to "determine the manner of the sale" of the port property, which must be completed by the end of this year, except for parcels under "long-term contract."
The Port of Port Royal closed based on agency, governor, town and legislative agreements that the losing venture wasn't worth salvaging. For years the port that moved bulk goods such as concrete had been losing money and town residents were eager to bleed some tax dollars from the waterfront acreage.
Immediately after the closure was made law, the town hired a developer to create an $80,000 master plan. The Ports Authority has done the same thing, and in February Wood and Partners of Hilton Head Island was awarded a $100,000 contract for a competing land plan. That plan since has ballooned to $196,000.In a Jan. 5 response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by The Beaufort Gazette, Ports Authority attorney Philip Lawrence wrote that the agency's plan for the port land has not been finished.
"The plan for the sale of Port Royal property has not been completed," the letter states. "As the document, still in preparation, is incidental to the proposed sale of property, it is exempt for disclosure under (state law)."
The draft plan made it to Sanford's desk before Christmas, according to the governor's office, and Ports Authority Chairman Harry Butler said Thursday it will be released "just as fast as we can get it done."
"We're now working to make a couple more changes the governor recommended, and as soon as we have that done, I'll be down to Port Royal to share it with the mayor," Butler said Thursday.
Butler said the Ports Authority's plan was on track and he was confident the agency would make the December deadline.
Under the town's redesign plan, the town grid would extend to the waterfront. But with a six leaseholders and two competing master plans, conflict is anticipated.
The Ports Authority holds extended leases with six businesses in Port Royal -- five of which are not related to port operations: Roof Doctor, Port Royal Seafood, Dockside Restaurant, Charter Communications and a dry-stack marina. Startrans, a truck shipping office, does some port business.
For years the town and the port had bickered over negative impacts such as heavy truck traffic, clouds of dust wafting from a cement importer and noise at all hours from idling or moving trucks.
Under the Ports Authority's bylaws, no officers may serve consecutive terms. Butler wouldn't speculate on who likely will follow in his footsteps for the next two-year term as chairman.
Willis and others in Port Royal said they plan to attend Tuesday's meeting to encourage putting Port Royal on the fast track.
"I think we've been ignored," said Joe Lee, a member of the town's port redevelopment committee who plans to attend Tuesday's meeting. "When we talk to the legislators and the governor's office they say they want to support the town, but no one has a copy of the (Ports Authority designed) master plan."
The board of directors' newest member, Colden R. Battey Jr., of the Beaufort law firm Harvey & Battey, said there's been a lot of speculation over the change in leadership, but he is still undecided on who should take the top spot.
"I certainly would like to see things move faster in Port Royal," Battey said Thursday. "That's one of the things I'm working for."The Ports Authority's position on a proposed cargo container terminal on the Savannah River has also been questioned by a Lowcountry government.
Jasper County officials are waiting for a verdict in the state Supreme Court lawsuit over who has the jurisdiction to build a $600 million cargo container terminal, the county or the Ports Authority.
"(Jasper County) has always wanted to work with the Ports Authority," said Jasper County Administrator Andrew Fulghum. "We welcome the opportunity to have meaningful exchange with the Ports Authority, and we haven't had that to date."
The state's highest court heard arguments in the September suit, and all parties are awaiting the decision.