Man Head Marina
Permit Revoked for Commercial Marina near St. Simons Island
Brunswick, Georgia
In a rare move, an administrative law judge has overturned a permit for the
Man Head Marina, citing concerns about contaminated wastewater and other
environmental impacts from the proposed commercial facility on a small
island on the Mackay River. Conservation groups who challenged the permit
heralded the decision as an important signal to the state Coastal Marshlands
Protection Committee that it must review more thoroughly the environmental
consequences of building proposals for the coastšs upland areas, which are
under increasing development pressure as the region continues to grow.
"To allow a development like this would be a travesty of the Coastal
Marshlands Protection Act," said Derb Carter, a senior attorney with the
Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) which filed the permit appeal on
behalf of five environmental organizations. "The judge recognized the
problems with this proposal, which the committee failed to see."
Administrative Law Judge Jessie Altman issued her decision August 16.
Last August, the committee granted a permit to Man Head Marina, Inc., to
build a marina on a 1-acre upland area on the western bank of the
Intracoastal Waterway adjacent to the Torras Causeway, which connects
Brunswick and St. Simons Island. The permit authorized 109 wet slips, a
785-foot transient fueling dock, an 11,000-square foot dry dock and boat
maintenance yard, a storm drainage system that would discharge directly into
the marsh, a store and office building, a septic system, and a 42-space
paved parking lot. The facility would have covered the entire island,
leaving no buffer between the development and the marsh.
In addition, the permit included a lease for 10.5 acres of publicly owned
marshlands adjacent the island. Because of the lease, the Act requires the
developer to show that he has sufficient land to properly service the
proposed marina. "Man Head Marina Inc. does not have enough land to build
this project without posing serious threats to publicly owned waters,"
Carter said. "Clearly, the size and scope of this project would have
overwhelmed the small island and marsh habitat."
SELC appealed the permit in September on behalf of five groups - the Center
for a Sustainable Coast, the Sierra Club, the Altamaha Riverkeeper, the
Glynn Environmental Coalition, and Residents United for Planning and Action.
They argued that the developer lacked an adequate plan to handle sewage from
boats and from the facility itself, posing a potentially serious threat to
water quality in the marsh. They also showed that the developer did not
have an adequate plan for dealing with traffic to and from the marina.
During the three-day hearing before Judge Altman in April, the Georgia
Department of Transportation testified that modifying the Torras Causeway to
provide safe access to the marina would entail filling between 1,800 and
2,400 square feet of marshlands.
Carter said the judge's decision to revoke the permit on these two issues
sets a key precedent to discourage the committee from allowing developers to
"segment" their projects - in other words, getting a permit without
divulging the full scope of potential impacts, and so preventing the
committee from reviewing the environmental consequences of the entire
project. "They knew that access and sewage disposal were going to be
problematic, so they failed to offer any adequate solutions, and the
committee let them get away with it," Carter said.
The Man Head Marina case is part of a broader effort by SELC and other
groups to strengthen the enforcement of Georgiašs Coastal Marshlands
Protection Act by the committee. SELC is representing several of the groups
[including the Center for a Sustainable Coast] in challenging the Emerald
Pointe project near Savannah. In that case, the committee issued a permit
for construction of three bridges linking three privately owned marsh
hammocks. The groups argued that the committee should have considered
impacts to the marsh from the residential development that would result.
That case is pending in Fulton County Superior Court.
(This summary provided by SELC as public information.)
Note: As we go to press, the state has filed a challenge to the ruling on
the Man Head permit.
About the Southern Environmental Law Center
Founded in 1986, SELC is the only non-profit, regional organization
dedicated solely to protecting the South's environment and outstanding
natural areas. SELC's conservation projects include native forests,
wetlands, the coast, clean air, rivers and streams, wildlife habitat, rural
landscapes and livable communities. SELC works through legal advocacy and
policy reform in partnership with more than 100 other groups in Alabama,
Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
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