As Port Royal officials defend a need to keep preliminary details of the redevelopment of the town's port from residents until next week, legal experts aren't ruling out the possibility that the secrecy violates state law.

On Wednesday, The Gazette sent written requests for the redevelopment's guiding documents, a zoning plan for the property and a development agreement between the S.C. State Ports Authority and the town, to both the town and the Ports Authority, citing the S.C. Freedom of Information Act.

Town officials have said they want to keep the documents and discussions about them from the public until the plans are solidified to encourage the productive negotiation and revision of them. Mayor Sam Murray said he thinks keeping the negotiations quiet prevents preliminary information about the plans that may not end up in the final draft from causing an undue stir.

"It's better to have something halfway concrete than to give them something the Ports Authority has drafted," Murray said. "(Town residents) will have plenty of opportunity to see it as soon as we have something to give them."

State legislation passed in 2004 requires the Ports Authority to sell the 57 acre property by the end of this year. The town and Ports Authority are in the process of planning the zoning and development of the property before it is sold to one or more private developers.

Jay Bender, a Columbia-based attorney who represents the S.C. Press Association, said the documents are public record.

"The law doesn't say it becomes a public record only when you approve it," Bender said. "It's when it's in the possession of a public body."

State law does exempt some documents from disclosure, including proposed contracts and real estate transactions. Bill Rogers, S.C. Press Association executive director, said the situation is "in a grayish area," but the documents possibly could be withheld legally citing that exemption.

Bender emphasized that discussion of the documents between the town and Ports Authority, regardless of whether the documents are publicly available, must legally be open to the public. The two groups met behind closed doors for about an hour Monday and will meet again next week.

Town officials previously said the zoning plan for the property will be released Monday at the Beaufort-Port Royal Joint Municipal Planning Commission's meeting, once the town and Ports Authority have worked out more of its details. Redevelopment Commission members received the documents today.

Murray said town officials haven't asked lawyers whether the secrecy is legal, but Philip Fairbanks, the chairman of the town's Redevelopment Commission, which met with the Ports Authority privately Monday, is a lawyer and should be familiar with the law.

Joel Sawyer, a spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford, said Sanford is aware of the progress of the redevelopment plan and of the closed meetings but could not comment on their legality.

"The governor has called for public involvement throughout this process and we continue to believe the process should be public in nature," Sawyer said.