Marina docks clear hurdle

Advocates of expanding the Charleston City Marina's docks farther into the Ashley River instead of removing tons of mud that has filled up the shallows got their wish Thursday.

Following an hours-long meeting in Columbia, the board of the state Department of Health and Environmental Control gave its support to the marina's bid to extend its docks about 140 feet outward, validating an earlier DHEC staff recommendation that the expansion be permitted.

"I think the board made the right decision," Robbie Freeman, managing partner of the City Marina Co., said after Thursday's hearing.

Opponents had tried to halt the project on environmental and eyesore grounds. Their next step is to challenge the board decision in the state's Administrative Law Court, a move that could become costly.

For almost a decade the marina's management had been pursing an expansion permit, partly to compensate for the loss of at least 40 slips because of silting near the shore.

That silt is starting to make many of the marina's spaces a muddy bog too shallow to continue using.

Those against extending the docks had argued that allowing the marina to move further west toward the Ashley River's main channel would move boat traffic too close to a mooring field on the river's opposite side, while also shrinking public access.

"Naturally deep water is going away," said David Williams, of Ashley River Properties LLC, one of two people who spoke against the project Thursday. He advocated more study.

Williams, whose group includes the competing Ripley Light Marina across the river from the city marina, agreed that the economics of attracting boats to slips is a tough reality in Charleston. But he said a bigger issue in the debate is the DHEC board allowing a marina to claim more of a public resource.

"This is a major change in Charleston," Williams said.

While much of Thursday's discussion centered on the possibility of dredging the area and removing silt, it was not a part of the request the marina had made. Estimates are that resorting to dredging could run into the millions of dollars.

The marina is owned by the city of Charleston, which has leased it to the Beach Co.

Another reason the state endorsed the project is that officials contend the main channel will remain 300 feet wide. And while the nearby Ashley River moorages also will be affected, they are expected to be reconfigured and expanded north and south, so that no space is actually lost, DHEC staff said.

Freeman said the cost of the marina expansion is expected to be at least $5 million, though work probably won't begin for several years.

Thursday's ruling likely means that all the other government permits and approval, including from the Army Corps of Engineers and the Coast Guard, will fall into place.

Bud Hay, a local man who opposed the expansion, said he feared what the growth of dock space will do to that part of the Charleston waterline, where one day all you might see is a "huge mass of boats and marinas," he said.